With the Oscars right around the corner I thought it would be fun to put together an Academy Award list. Because there are so many Oscar lists out there I wanted to do a unique list in a hopefully fun and entertaining format. This bottom to top list (10 to 1 with a bonus of 0) will have the number representing the number of achievements and lists those achievements accordingly. So I guess you could say it’s a list within a list. All accomplishments on this list are prior to the results of the 82nd Academy Awards scheduled for March 7, 2010.
Achievement: Ten Oscar Winners that Have Appeared in 3 Oscar Winning Best Picture Films
1. Donald Crisp Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) , The Life of Emile Zola (1937) and How Green Was My Valley (1941)
2. Clark Gable, It Happened One Night (1934) , Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) and Gone With the Wind (1939)
3. John Gielgud Around the World in 80 Days (1956) , Chariots of Fire (1981) and Gandhi (1982)
4. Hugh Griffith, Ben-Hur (1959) , Tom Jones (1963) and Oliver! (1968)
5. Dustin Hoffman, Midnight Cowboy (1969) , Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and Rain Man (1988)
6. Diane Keaton The Godfather (1972) , The Godfather Part II (1974) and Annie Hall (1977)
7. Shirley MacLaine, Around the World in 80 Days (1956) , The Apartment (1960) and Terms of Endearment (1983)
8. Meryl Streep, The Deer Hunter (1978) , Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and Out of Africa (1985)
9. Morgan Freeman, Driving Miss Daisy (1989) , Unforgiven (1992) , Million Dollar Baby (2004)
10. Jack Nicholson, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) , Terms of Endearment (1983) , The Departed
Interesting Fact: In the film Million Dollar Baby Morgan Freeman was originally approached to play the lead role of Frankie Dunn. But even before Clint Eastwood took on the directing and starring role he decided to take the part of Eddie “Scrap-Iron” Dupris.
Achievement: Nine Actors to Win a Tony Award and an Oscar for the Same Role
1. José Ferrer in Cyrano de Bergerac (1947/1950)
2. Shirley Booth in Come Back, Little Sheba (1950/1953)
3. Yul Brynner in The King and I (1952/1956)
4. Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady (1957/1964)
5. Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker (1960/1962)
6. Paul Scofield in A Man for All Seasons (1962/1966)
7. Jack Albertson in The Subject Was Roses (1965/1968)
8. Joel Grey in Cabaret (1967/1973)
9. Lila Kedrova, and did it the other way around. She won an Oscar for Zorba the Greek, in 1964 and 20 years later won a Tony for the same role in Zorba in 1984.
Interesting Fact: In the film The King and I, three musical numbers were filmed and then deleted from the movie. They were: “My Lord and Master” (a ballad sung by Tuptim shortly after her arrival in the palace) – “Shall I Tell You What I Think of You?” (a soliloquy for Anna, in which she comically expresses her anger towards the King) – “I Have Dreamed” (another duet for Tuptim and Lun Tha) – It was felt that “My Lord and Master” and “I Have Dreamed” didn’t do much to advance the plot, and the number “Shall I Tell You What I Think of You?” would make Anna sound too whiny and nagging.
Achievement: Eight Times Actors Have Been Nominated Posthumously
1. Jeanne Eagels, The Letter (Nominated Best for Actress) 1928/9
2. James Dean, East of Eden (Nominated for Best Actor) 1955
3. James Dean, Giant (Nominated for Best Actor) 1956
4. Spencer Tracy, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (Nominated Best Actor) 1967
5. Peter Finch, Network (Won for Best Actor) 1976
6. Ralph Richardson, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan (Nominated for Supporting Actor) 1984
7. Massimo Troisi, Il Postino (Nominated for Best Actor) 1995
8. Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight (Won for Supporting Actor) 2008
Interesting Fact: In preparation for his role as The Joker, Heath Ledger hid away in a hotel room for about six weeks. Ledger delved deep into the psychology of the character. Ledger’s interpretation of The Joker’s appearance was primarily based off of the look of punk rocker Sid Vicious combined with the psychotic mannerisms of Malcolm McDowell’s character, Alex De Large, from A Clockwork Orange.
Achievement: Seven Oscar Nominations for a Non-Speaking Role
1. Jane Wyman, Johnny Belinda (Won for Best Actress) (1948)
2. Patty Duke, The Miracle Worker (Won for Best Supporting Actress) (1962)
3. John Mills, Ryan’s Daughter (Won for Best Supporting Actor) (1970)
4. Marlee Matlin, Children of A Lesser God (Won for Best Actress) (1986)
5. Holly Hunter The Piano (Won for Best Actress) (1993)
6. Samantha Morton, Sweet and Lowdown (Nominated for Best Supporting Actress) (1999)
7. Rinko Kikuchi, Babel (Nominated for Best Supporting Actress) (2006)
Interesting Fact: In the film The Miracle Worker, for the dining room scene, Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke wore padding beneath their clothes to prevent serious bruising during the intense physical skirmish. The nine-minute sequence required three cameras and took five days to film. You can watch the scene here.
Achievement: Six Winning Oscars for Performing in a Spoken Language Other Than English
1. Sophia Loren, Two Women (Italian) 1960
2. Robert DeNiro, The Godfather Part II (Italian) 1974
3. Roberto Benigni, Life Is Beautiful (Italian) 1997
4. Benicio del Toro, Traffic, (Spanish) 2000
5. Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose (French) 2007
6. Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Spanish) 2008
Interesting Fact: With Penelope Cruz winning an Oscar for her role as Maria Elena in the film Vicky Cristina Barcelona it continues a trend of young actresses winning Best Supporting Actress Oscars in Woody Allen films. Previous winners were Mira Sorvino in Mighty Aphrodite (1995) and Dianne Wiest in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Bullets Over Broadway (1994) .
Achievement: Five Actors Winning Back to Back Oscars
1. Luise Rainer: Best Actress for The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and Best Actress for The Good Earth (1937)
2. Spencer Tracy: Best Actor for Captains Courageous (1937) and Best Actor for Boys Town (1938)
3. Katharine Hepburn: Best Actress for Guess Who’s Coming for Dinner (1967) and Best Actress for A Lion in Winter (1968)
4. Jason Robards: Best Supporting Actor for All the President’s Men (1976) and Best Supporting Actor for Julia (1977)
5. Tom Hanks: Best Actor, Philadelphia (1993) and Best Actor for Forrest Gump (1994)
Interesting Fact: Not only is Luise Rainer (Pictured above) the first woman to win two Academy Awards and the first person to win them back to back she is also the oldest living Oscar winner. Rainer was born of Jewish parents in Dusseldorf, Germany and made three German movies. Because of the rise of the Nazis in her home country, she accepted a contract from M-G-M in 1935and departed with her parents to Hollywood. She now lives in London and on January 12, 2010 she celebrated her 100th birthday. You can watch a 100 year birthday tribute here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVCWkOh_KHY
Achievement: Four Woman Nominated for Best Director
I found this hard to believe because there have been so many talented woman directors over the years. No woman has won an Oscar for Best Director and only four have been nominated.
1. Lina Wertmuller for Seven Beauties (1976)
2. Jane Campion for The Piano (1993)
3. Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation (2003)
4. Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (2008)
Note: The Hurt Locker was first released theatrically in Italy in 2008. It was then released in the United States in 2009 and will be eligible for the upcoming Academy Awards. So Kathryn Bigelow could be the first woman to win an Oscar for Directing.
Interesting Fact: Lina Wertmüller’s films are highly reflective of her own political commitments, with the main characters either dedicated anarchists, communists, feminists (or all) .
Achievement: Three films winning for Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Writing
In the Biz this is known as “The Big Five” or the “Oscar Grand Slam”.
1. It Happened One Night (1934) Director: Frank Capra Actor: Clark Gable Actress: Claudette Colbert Writing Adaptation: Robert Riskin
2. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) Director: Miloš Forman Actor: Jack Nicholson Actress: Louise Fletcher Writing Adapted Screenplay: Laurence Hauben and Bo Goldman
3. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Director: Jonathan Demme, Actor: Anthony Hopkins Actress: Jodie Foster, Writing Adapted Screenplay: Ted Tally
Interesting Fact: Clark Gable gave his Oscar for It Happened One Night to a child who admired it, telling him it was the winning of the statue that had mattered, not owning it. The child returned the Oscar to the Gable family after Clark’s death in 1960.
Achievement: Two Directors that Directed Themselves to an Acting Oscar
1. Laurence Olivier, Director of and Best Actor for Hamlet (1948)
2. Roberto Benigni, Director of and Best Actor for Life Is Beautiful (1998)
Neither Olivier or Benigni were awarded the Oscar for Best Director
Interesting Fact: In the film Hamlet, Olivier played the voice of Hamlet’s father’s ghost himself by recording the dialog and playing it back at a reduced speed, giving it a macabre quality. You can hear the voice at 2 minutes and 49 second into this clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu46pOY0itc
Achievement: One Actor Winning 4 Oscars
Katharine Hepburn holds the current record for the most acting Academy Awards won by an individual. The movies are: Morning Glory (1933) Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) The Lion in Winter (1968) On Golden Pond (1981) All 4 Oscars are for best actress. You can see all four of her Oscars here.
Interesting Fact: Another one and only achievement is the only actor to win an Oscar for playing a real-life actor who has received an Oscar. Ironically it is Cate Blanchett for winning Best Supporting actress in the 2004 film The Aviator, in which she played Katharine Hepburn.
Achievement: Zero Science Fiction Films Winning Best Picture
Sci-fi movies have never been a big favorite for the Academy. District 9 and Avatar are both up for best Picture for this year’s academy awards and a win from one of the two would mark the first best picture Oscar for a science fiction film. There have only been a few nominated science-fiction films for best picture in the past, including A Clockwork Orange (1971) , Star Wars (1977) and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) .
Interesting Fact: There are several legends attributed to the “Oscar” nickname. Betty Davis claimed to have dubbed the statue with the name because its backside reminded her of Harmon Oscar Nelson, her husband. Another story claims the Academy’s first librarian, Margaret Herrick, named the award because it reminded her of her uncle Oscar. Columnist Sidney Skolsky lays claims to making a vaudeville reference when he coined the name in the press. The Academy began officially calling the award Oscar in 1939.
Very interesting. Goo list. The non-English roles impresses me most.
*good list.
I hope Avatar doesn’t win. James Cameron is annoying
A lot of research must have gone into this list, very well written. Very interesting!
Love the bit about clarke gables oscar what a gent
brilliant list!
wow, awesome. few films to add to the collection
Cool list! Cant wait for Oscar night to see whether Kathryn Bigelow can snatch the Oscar!
Yay! A Blogball list!(my fav list contributor)
Good list!
And just wanna say that I love Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady – such a good actor.
And who doesnt love Clark Gable’s movies, the man is a legend!!
I always have a hard time believing what little appreciation female directors have received until recent times. The same could be said about African American actors and actresses with perhaps the exception of Hattie McDaniel.
hugh ledger dwelt too much in joker’s personality that’s why something bad happened to him.
Very good list–Current and historical and of interest to most list readers–A list OSCCARETTE to Blogball.
I don’t like Avatar.
i love this list!!
VERE ARE YOUR PAPERS!
Haha. Hugh Ledger. Apparently delving too deeply into the Joker´s character made him change his name, too.
Not a big fan of Penelope Cruz´s Oscar for Vicky Cristina. She was much, much better in Volver. One man´s opinion.
Chingpower don’t be so “all knowing”, there were countless causes attributed to ledger’s death. furthermore i certainly don’t remember the joker ever taking drugs (seems more a scarecrow thing to do..) in the comic books or the dark night.
Fantastic list though, gave a lot of insight into the oscars.
Despite the bad publicity the awards receives on blogs following the big night i for one think the academy has a tricky job in keeping everyone happy. Fantastic that a list has been shown of the proud moments of the awards rather than another list showing who has been robbed of awards in thr past. In the end it is just their opinions and if for whatever reason they don’t like a film so be it. I will suggest that Avatar will miss out on the oscar if the Academy follows its traditional approach. Though before the current hosts were decided there was speculation that Sasha Baron Cohen would host it in the appearance of his mainstream characters.
Perhaps the Academy will change its ways?
Oh good I hope Avatar doesn’t win. I will be sooooo *****ed of if that heap of crap beats district 9!!!
Looked good, boring as *****, predictable as *****. Bad movie.
@hunter (2):
@muzli (14):
Good to see I’m not the only one. So many people like it, I just don’t get how that can be.
@hunter (2): You take that back. Cameron’s Terminator, Aliens & T2 are good movies.
I may be hated for saying this, but I found District 9 to be even more politically heavy-handed than Avatar, more obvious in what was happening with the plot, and without the ‘pretty to look at’ redeeming feature.
@flgh (21): I agree with you mostly, but Terminator was not a good film. T2 was excellent, and Alien definitely is better than Aliens.
… boring-est list …
epic list! just goes to show that avatar may have no hope at all
District 9 was awesome, Avatar was a piece of *****. It did feature cutting edge special effects but unfortunately, you can’t polish *****.
i loved avatar!
all i want from the academy this year is the oscar for christoph waltz (inglourious basterds) in the category best supporting actor. sorry to all heath ledger fans – i include myself among them as well – but waltz’s was the single best acting achievement in this century, chilling, creepy and charismatic as hell. interesting list, btw, congrats!
District 9 was bellow par for me. Avatar was absolutely horrid,I cannot believe it took 15 years to write it. they did not even try to have any sort of interesting storyline to capture the audience. they hoped people would just be distracted by all the special effects and forget that first and foremost films are supposed to tell a story and everything else (SFX) is for support. but by looking at the box office it seemed to have worked out for them, so expect more of the same in the sequels. my vote is for best picture is the hurt locker.
awesome list. well done. loved it.
brilliant, just brilliant. Blogball, you, dear sir, are one of a kind, as are your lists. Thanks heaps. Will go back and read again. D
Blogball, congratulations on a job well done! Most excellent list.
Great list, Blogball. Well written and thought out.
With all the hype around Avatar, it will surely win…which is a pity since it’s like Ferngully on steroids. Oh well.
I also hated Dark Knight. Ledger’s performance is the ONLY thing that was … interesting, shall we say … about that movie. Bale just killed it totally.
i like this list! well done. =)
maybe my name will be up there some day.
It’s great to see another list from Blogball, who never disappoints.
Great list, Blogball. I’m especially interested in the early years of the Oscars. Such class came out of Hollywood. Either that or they were more clever at covering up their indecencies.
GO AVATAR!!! That movie rocked and desereves to win. District 9 was boring and shouldnt win
I wish you could have added a category of people that have won everytime they were nominated. I think that there are a few of those.
Good list Blogball. I think Oouchan’s assessment of Avatar was spot on. As I mentioned in the forums, I saw the same exact movie back in 1990. It was called ‘Dances With Wolves’.
The Academy Awards come around every year and we get 10 lists about movies, the winter olympics come around every 4 years and we don’t get a single list about sports or anything to do with the olympics…
Hi, – OK, Alright – I’m off to see Avator in half an hour. I’ve heard so much (conflicting opinions) about this thing I have to go see it in 3D. Yeah, I’m under no illusion this will be anything other than a pure FX fest; but then we’ll see.
Interesting list Blogball. The fact remains that I must see some of these movies. Lets see now, Terms of Endearment – that sounds good, My Fair Lady (still! not seen), Ryans Daughter, and On Golden Pond. That’s enough to keep me going.
@damien_karras (40): Yeah, there are many movies based on the classic Pocahontas story. I’m still waiting for the Jewish musical version: Polkahuntas.
what an awesome list!!! I love the oscars, and love reading oscar facts… loved the count down too…. I bet Avatar will win this year!
Excellent list Blogball. Great job as usual.
For all you naysayers – John Carpenter is awesome. He directed The Thing and Escape from New York and Terminator. This means we cut him slack when he throws out the odd mushy romantic crap (Titanic) or if he recycles the odd plot device (Avatar). Besides I agree with Ziraphin – District 9 was at least as transparent as Avatar.
@DoubleT (28): I agree. I’ve been raving over Waltz’s performance since I saw the movie. The french dude at the beginning was pretty awesome too. And he didn’t have much dialogue with which to convince us.
Hurt Locker is a great movie, it deserves the nomination. I don’t think Roberto Benigni deserved an Oscar for his directing or his acting.
I just saw Flame and Citron, but I think it’s not recent enough to receive a nomination. Great movie, though.
@damien_karras (40):
Your comment reminded of an interview recently where a First Nations critic of the portrayal of First Nations people in film called Avatar “Dances with Wolves in Space.”
@mom424 (45): You are getting confused with John Carpenter and James Cameron. James Cameron directed Titanic, Terminator, and Avatar. John Carpenter directed The Thing and Escape from New York.
I also think that nominating 10 movies for best picture now is a stupid idea.
I love this list! Although I would also consider some of the non-speaking winners to be non-english speaking winners since American sign language is still a language…
@Jay Poe (47): Bwahaha – geez; get old, quit smoking, and all of the sudden senility kicks in. Seriously though, you provoked a light bulb moment – I have confused them for 20 years and only just now found out.
btw – John Carpenter over James Cameron.
and yes – 10 dilutes the prestige and honour of the award.
Oh wow, Blogball! I am extremely impressed by the amount of research that must have gone into writing this! Well done!
@mom424 (49):
Escape from New York is awwwwesooooome.
How many comedies have won Oscars?
2001
Clockwork Orange
Star Wars 4,5,6,
Terminator
Terminator 2
Alien
Matrix
tons of easily deserved best pictures that have sci fi, so they never won!
When will people realize how bad Avatar is?
@Ouchmaker (52):
Depends. Do you mean Best Picture Oscars? I know The Apartment, It Happened One Night, and Annie Hall won Best Picture in their respective years, but that’s only off the top of my head. I’m sure I’m forgetting some…
You’re the man, blogball.
I liked Avatar, but mainly for entertainment purposes. People get all hung up on the art and acting BS, why can’t you just sit back and have a good time watching a crazy visual movie like Avatar? And for science fiction movies, I wanted Jurasic Park to win best picture back in the day, but Schindler’s List…I guess you have to let that movie win.
Amazing list… Well researched! Mustve taken a long time!
@Freshies (57): i was quite *****ed (meaning angry, not drunk) when schindler’s list received all the oscars because that year there had been some particularly awesome films in contention, like in the name of the father, the piano, remains of the day; cmon, even the fugitive had been a far superior movie that year and short cuts didn’t even get nominated. i agree, jurassic park would be a far more deserving film to win than this overlengthy, overpathetic and way overcalculated sobfest. the whole red coat subplot made me furious with spielberg, it was the most obvious and obnoxious fishing for oscar if there ever was one: hey guys look it’s me steven spielberg, i made a picture about holocaust, if you don’t vote for me you’re a frickin’ nazi… ralph fiennes was brilliant, though!
Is Clockwork Orange science fiction?