Jessica Chastain wins best actress Oscar for ' The Eyes of Tammy Faye'

Jessica Chastain won the Academy Award for best lead actress for her mascara-laden title role in "The Eyes of Tammy Faye"

Jessica Chastain won the Academy Award on Sunday for best lead actress for her mascara-laden title role as the on-air preaching partner and wife of Christian televangelist Jim Bakker in "The Eyes of Tammy Faye," chronicling the couple's rise and fall.

The Oscar triumph for Chastain, 45, virtually unrecognizable in heavy makeup as Tammy Faye Bakker, followed a Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance and capped the third Academy Award nomination of her career.

She was previously nominated for an Oscar for 2012 portrayal of a CIA analyst on the hunt of Osama Bin Laden in "Zero Dark Thirty"