Editing Faye Dunaway (section)

=== 1974–1981: Resurgence and acclaim ===
Director [[Roman Polanski]] offered Dunaway the lead role of Evelyn Mulwray in his mystery neo-noir ''[[Chinatown (1974 film)|Chinatown]]'' (1974). Although its producer, [[Robert Evans]], wanted Polanski to consider Jane Fonda for the role, arguing that Dunaway had a reputation for temperament, Polanski insisted on using Dunaway.{{sfnb|Polanski|1984|p=389}} She accepted the challenging and complex role of Mulwray, a shadowy ''femme fatale'' who knows more than she is willing to let Detective J.J. Gittes (played by [[Jack Nicholson]]) know. Dunaway got along well with Nicholson, describing him later as a "soul mate", but she clashed with Polanski, who had a reputation for being dictatorial and controlling on a set.<ref name="rollingstone-chinatown"/> "Roman was very much an autocrat, always forcing things. It ranged from the physical to the mental. He was very domineering and abrasive, and made it clear he wanted to manipulate the performance. That approach has never worked with me."{{sfnb|Dunaway|1995|p=257}}

Two weeks after the filming started, the two had a confrontation that became notorious. Polanski pulled one of Dunaway's hairs out of her head, without telling her, because it was catching the light.{{sfnb|Dunaway|1995|p=260}}{{sfnb|Polanski|1984|p=391}} Dunaway was offended, describing his act as "sadistic" and left the set furious. "It was not the hair, it was the incessant cruelty that I felt, the constant sarcasm, the never-ending need to humiliate me."{{sfnb|Dunaway|1995|p=260}} Years later, both shared their admiration for each other, with Polanski saying that their feud was not important – "It's the result that counts. And she was formidable," while Dunaway admitted that "it was way too much made out of it," added that she enjoyed working with Polanski, calling him "a great director,"<ref name="independent-battle"/> and stated, ''Chinatown'' was "possibly the best film I ever made."<ref name="bazaar-bagley"/>

Despite the complications on the set, the film was finished, released to glowing reviews, and ultimately became a classic. It made back its budget almost five times, and received 11 Academy Award nominations. Dunaway received a second Best Actress nomination, and also received a Golden Globe nomination and a BAFTA nomination. Upon the release of the film, producer Robert Evans was full of praise for Dunaway. "She has everything—beauty, talent, neurosis. She's one of the great strange ones. When the lights go out and that face comes out of the dark and she looks at you with those big mysterious eyes, I tell you, it's a very compelling thing. She has something we haven't seen on the screen for a long time. She has witchery. She's a ''femme fatale''."<ref name="people-darrach-1974"/>

[[File:Faye Dunaway on the set of Voyage of the Damned, 1975.jpg|thumb|Dunaway in ''[[Voyage of the Damned]]'' (1976)|311x311px]]

That same year, Dunaway appeared in a television adaptation of ''[[After the Fall (play)|After the Fall]]'' with [[Christopher Plummer]]. She played the lead role, which was for her "like a dream come true. As with Bonnie, I knew the territory well. Maggie (her character) was a completely wounded soul, a girl who had grown up on the wrong side of the tracks."{{sfnb|Dunaway|1995|p=268}} She next played [[Paul Newman]]'s fiancée, who is trapped in a burning skyscraper along with several hundred other people in the all-star disaster epic, ''[[The Towering Inferno]]'' (1974). The film became the highest-grossing film of the year, further cementing Dunaway as a top actress in Hollywood. Also in 1974, Dunaway married [[Peter Wolf]], the lead singer of the rock group [[The J. Geils Band]]. At this time, she felt "exhausted from the constant and intense pressures of the work," and at the last moment pulled out of ''[[The Wind and the Lion]]'' (1975), in which she was to costar with [[Sean Connery]], to concentrate on her married life.{{sfnb|Dunaway|1995|p=275}}

Her next feature was [[Sydney Pollack]]'s political thriller, ''[[Three Days of the Condor]]'' (1975). Her character was to be held hostage by a CIA analyst, played by [[Robert Redford]], and Dunaway was required to display fear that she might be raped, but she had difficulty not breaking into laughter during the shoot, as "the idea of being kidnapped and ravaged by Robert Redford was anything but frightening."{{sfnb|Dunaway|1995|p=281}} The film was a critical and commercial success, and Dunaway's performance, which was praised by the critics, earned her a fifth Golden Globe nomination. In his review of the film, Roger Ebert called her character "the very embodiment of pluck," and said that, "She has three lines of dialogue that brings the house down. They're obscene and funny and poignant all at once, and Dunaway delivers them just marvelously."<ref name="ebert-condor"/> Dunaway took a break from acting and spent almost a year turning down projects.{{sfnb|Dunaway|1995|p=284}} She passed on a role in [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s final film, the comic thriller ''[[Family Plot]]'', which she later lamented.{{sfnb|Dunaway|1995|p=372}} She returned to the screen in 1976 with the [[Holocaust]] drama ''[[Voyage of the Damned]]''. The story was inspired by true events concerning the fate of the {{ship|MS|St. Louis}} [[ocean liner]] carrying [[Jew]]ish refugees from Germany to [[Cuba]] in 1939.

That same year, Dunaway appeared in the [[Paddy Chayefsky]]-scripted satire ''[[Network (1976 film)|Network]]'' as the scheming TV executive Diana Christensen, a ruthless woman who will do anything for higher ratings. She loved the script and later said this was "the only film I ever did that you didn't touch the script because it was almost as if it were written in verse." She pursued the role over the objections of her husband, Peter Wolf, and her confidant, William Alfred, who regarded Christensen as too heartless and were concerned that people would confuse her with the character.{{sfnb|Dunaway|1995|p=294}} However, Dunaway believed it was "one of the most important female roles to come along in years" and went along with Chayevsky's conception and director [[Sidney Lumet]]'s warning that she would not be allowed to sneak in any weeping or softness, and that it would remain on the cutting room floor if she did.{{sfnb|Dunaway|1995|p=294}}

The film, a success in its own day, is frequently discussed today due to its almost prophetic take on the television industry. Dunaway's performance was lauded, with [[Vincent Canby]] of ''The New York Times'' saying that she "in particular, is successful in making touching and funny a woman of psychopathic ambition and lack of feeling."<ref name="nytimes-network"/> Dunaway's performance in ''Network'' earned her many awards. She was named Best Actress in the Kansas City Film Critics Awards, and she received her sixth [[Golden Globe]] nomination for ''Network'' and was awarded [[Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama|Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama]]. In early 1977, the [[Academy Awards]] nominated ''Network'' for ten awards, with Dunaway winning the [[Academy Award for Best Actress|Best Actress]] award.

{{Blockquote|quote=I will never forget the moment, and the feeling, when I heard my name. It was, without question, one of the most wonderful nights of my life. The Oscar represented the epitome of what I had struggled for and dreamt about since I was a child. The emotional rush of getting this accolade, the highest one this industry can award you, just hit me like a bomb. It was the symbol of everything I ever thought I wanted as an actress.{{sfnb|Dunaway|1995|p=316}}|source=Faye Dunaway}}

Also in 1976, Dunaway appeared as the lead in the made-for-television movie, ''[[The Disappearance of Aimee]]'', in which she co-starred with [[Bette Davis]]. Following her Oscar win, Dunaway took another break from acting to figure out her personal life.{{sfnb|Dunaway|1995|p=319}} As her marriage was falling apart, she began a relationship with English photographer [[Terry O'Neill (photographer)|Terry O'Neill]], who took one of his most famous pictures, ''The Morning After'', showing Dunaway poolside at the [[Beverly Hills Hotel]] with her Oscar the morning after the ceremony.<ref name="guardian-wiseman"/> In 1978, Dunaway returned to the screen in [[Irvin Kershner]]'s thriller ''[[Eyes of Laura Mars]]'', about a fashion photographer who sees visions of a killer murdering people. The film was a success at the box office, and Dunaway received positive reviews for her performance, with [[Janet Maslin]] writing for ''The New York Times'' that she was "perfect for her role."<ref name="nytimes-eyes"/> She played supporting roles in ''[[The Champ (1979 film)|The Champ]]'' (1979), as the film offered her the chance to play the role of a mother, "which was emotionally where I wanted to be in my life,"{{sfnb|Dunaway|1995|p=325}} and ''[[The First Deadly Sin]]'' (1980); she wanted to work with [[Frank Sinatra]].{{sfnb|Dunaway|1995|p=331}} In 1981, Dunaway played the title role in ''[[Evita Perón]]'', a television miniseries based on the life of the famed [[First Lady of Argentina]].

[[File:Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest, 1981.png|thumb|Dunaway received rave reviews for her portrayal as Joan Crawford in ''Mommie Dearest'', but later blamed the film for hurting her career.|right|232x232px]]
[[File:Joan Crawford in The Last of Mrs Cheyney trailer 2.jpg|thumb|When Dunaway walked on the set of ''Mommie Dearest'' for the first time as the character, some people who had worked with [[Joan Crawford]] (pictured here in 1937) told her, "it was like seeing Joan herself back from the dead."{{sfnb|Dunaway|1995|p=336}}|222x222px]]

That same year, Dunaway portrayed actress [[Joan Crawford]] in the adaptation of her daughter [[Christina Crawford|Christina]]'s controversial memoir, ''[[Mommie Dearest (film)|Mommie Dearest]]'', in which she had depicted her adoptive mother as an abusive tyrant who only adopted her four children to promote her acting career, making quite a stir as the first celebrity tell-all book. [[Anne Bancroft]] had been initially cast as Crawford, but Dunaway accepted the role after meeting producer [[Frank Yablans]] and director [[Frank Perry]], who both assured her that they wanted to tell the real story of Joan Crawford, and not just a tabloid version of her life. "Though Christina's book was obviously an exploitation book, the first one of its kind, my task was to portray a woman, a full woman who she was in all her facets, not just one. I tried to illuminate who this woman was. But it was more than just about being angry, it was about trying to examine and explore the forces that undermined her."{{sfnb|Dunaway|1995|p=337}} To play the role, Dunaway researched Crawford's films and met with many of her friends and co-workers, including director [[George Cukor]]. Filming proved difficult for her, as she was almost never out of character. "If your mind is on a woman who is dead and you're trying to find out who she was and do right by her, you do feel a presence. I felt it at home at night sometimes. It wasn't pleasant. I felt Joan was not at rest."<ref name="people-lester-1981"/> After the infamous "wire hangers" tantrum scene, Dunaway was so hoarse from screaming that she lost her voice. Frank Sinatra drove her to see a throat specialist and shared his own tips on how to preserve her voice.{{sfnb|Dunaway|1995|p=338}}

The film opened in 1981, and was a moderate commercial success despite negative reviews. Dunaway's uncanny performance earned her two Best Actress award nominations by the New York Film Critics Circle Awards and the National Society of Film Critics Awards, and was lauded by critics. [[Janet Maslin]], while dismissing the film as incoherent, wrote that Dunaway's performance was "a small miracle" and praised her energy and commitment to the role.<ref name="nytimes-mommie-maslin"/> The frequently harsh [[Pauline Kael]] raved about Dunaway's performance, stating that she had reached new heights as an actress and surmised that it would be difficult for Dunaway to top her performance as Crawford. [[Vincent Canby]] also praised Dunaway, writing that "''Mommie Dearest'' doesn't work very well, but the ferocious intensity of Faye Dunaway's impersonation does, as does the film's point of view, which succeeds in making Joan Crawford into a woman far more complicated, more self-aware and more profoundly disturbed than the mother remembered in Christina Crawford's book."<ref name="nytimes-mommie-canby">{{cite news |last=Canby |first=Vincent |author-link=Vincent Canby |title=Film View; 'Mommie'- A Guilt-Edged Caricature |newspaper=The New York Times |date=November 8, 1981 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/11/08/movies/film-view-mommie-a-guilt-edged-caricature.html |access-date=October 6, 2016 |archive-date=May 8, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160508093625/http://www.nytimes.com/1981/11/08/movies/film-view-mommie-a-guilt-edged-caricature.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Director Sidney Lumet stated that it was "a brilliant, an extraordinary performance. The courage of that evil that she brings to it, I think that's just major acting." Although the film became a cult classic as well as one of her most famous characters, Dunaway expressed her regrets for playing Crawford, as she felt "it was meant to be a window into a tortured soul. But it was made into camp."<ref name="guardian-brooks"/> She also blamed the film for hurting her career and almost never agreed to discuss it in interviews afterwards, typically saying that only God will ever know what passed between Joan and Christina.

{{Blockquote|quote=I know you have a life, and you act many roles. But after ''Mommie Dearest'', my own personality and the memory of all my other roles got lost along the way in the mind of the public and in the mind of many in Hollywood. It was a performance. That's all that it was. For better or worse, the roles we play become a part of our persona, and the actress and the woman are identified with that persona. People thought of me as being like her. And that was the unfortunate reality for me about this project.{{sfnb|Dunaway|1995|p=340}}|source=Faye Dunaway}}