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Wednesday
Nov202013

Celebrating International Transgender Day of Remembrance (With a List)

Today marks the annual commemoration event honoring those who've been killed in anti-trans crimes. You can find a list of events taking place from now through the weekend here if you're so inclined. Not all of the events are today some waiting for the weekend for better attendance numbers. Here in NYC the march starts in the Bronx and walks down to Harlem.

Since this is The Film Experience, and since identity politics are always shifting/evolving and since hate crimes don't care about the particulars of self-identification we thought we'd commemorate the day with a broad cloth. And with a list in chronological order..

27 Oscar and/or Globe Nominated Trans (or Cross Dressing*) Characters
*we realize these are different things
How many have you seen? Which are your favorite?

Marlene Dietrich in Morocco (1932)

 

Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot (1959)

 

Chris Sarandon in Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

 

Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria (1982) - GLOBE WINNER (also oscar nom)
Robert Preston in Victor/Victoria (1982) 

 


John Lithgow in The World According to Garp (1982)

 

Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie (1982) - GLOBE WINNER (also Oscar nom)

 

Linda Hunt in The Year of Living Dangerously (1983) - OSCAR WINNER 
(this is an unusual case... it's merely the case of a female actor playing a male character) 

 

Barbra Streisand in Yentl (1983) -GLOBE NOM ONLY 

 

William Hurt in Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985) - OSCAR WINNER

 

 

Ellen Barkin in Switch (1991) - GLOBE NOM ONLY

 

Jaye Davidson in The Crying Game (1992)

 

Robin Williams in Mrs Doubtfire (1993) -GLOBE WINNER (No Oscar Nom)

 

Terence Stamp in Priscilla Queen of the Desert (1994) - GLOBE NOM ONLY 
That Oscar snub still stings. He's so great as Bernadette... "F*** ABBA".  

 

Johnny Depp in Ed Wood (1994) - GLOBE NOM ONLY 

 

Patrick Swayze in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar (1995) -GLOBE NOM ONLY
John Leguizamo in  To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar (1995) - GLOBE NOM ONLY

 

Nathan Lane in The Birdcage (1996) - GLOBE NOM ONLY 

 

Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love (1998) - OSCAR & GLOBE WINNER

 

Hilary Swank in Boy's Don't Cry (1999) - OSCAR & GLOBE WINNER

 

John Cameron Mitchell in Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) - GLOBE NOM ONLY 

Felicity Huffman in Transamerica (2005) - GLOBE WINNER (also Oscar nom)

 

Cillian Murphy in Breakfast on Pluto (2005) - GLOBE NOM ONLY  

 

Cate Blanchett in I'm Not There (2007) - GLOBE WINNER (also Oscar nom)
(as with Linda Hunt a female playing a male character) 

 

John Travolta in Hairspray (2007) - GLOBE NOM ONLY 
(and the reverse - a man playing a woman's role) 

 

Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs (2011)
Janet McTeer in Albert Nobbs (2011)

 

and soon... maybe...

Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

I am shedding water-proof mascara tears that I can't include Anthony Perkins (Psycho) or Tilda Swinton (Orlando) on this list. 

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Reader Comments (24)

Jack Lemmon is my favorite from a field full of winners.

Easier to pick the ones I didn't like. (John Hurt and Nathan Lane--never bought either one in their roles.)

November 20, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterHenry

Whatever the category may be, if I'm able to pick Marlene Dietrich in Morocco, then that is my favourite in that category.

November 20, 2013 | Unregistered Commentergoran

I feel like I need to mention Philip Seymour Hoffman in Flawless. He didn't get a Golden Globe or an Oscar nomination, but he did get a SAG nod.

November 20, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterSad man

henry - john hurt?

November 20, 2013 | Registered CommenterNATHANIEL R

Major omission on the list: John Cameron Mitchell in Hedwig (Globe nominee).

November 20, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterReuben

Reuben -- how could i forget that one. TERRIBLE OF ME. APOLOGIES TO THE WHOLE UNIVERSE

November 21, 2013 | Registered CommenterNATHANIEL R

(I thought this was going to be Posterized. I miss Posterized. I liked Posterized.) I've seen 15 of them. Missing Hedwig, Albert Nobbs, I'm Not There, Living Dangerously, and (sadly) Morocco. Much as I loved The Benning in "American Beauty", Hilary deserved that Oscar for that performance. I don't think you're supposed to believe Nathan Lane is a woman, since everything is over the top in that film.

And Patrick Swayze was as beautiful as a woman as he was a man.

November 21, 2013 | Unregistered Commenterforever1267

Not nominated, but I love The Lady Chablis playing herself in Midnight in the garden od good and evil. So good.

November 21, 2013 | Unregistered Commentercal roth

Sorry, William Hurt. Hated him in Kiss....Spiderwoman.

But John Hurt did play Quentin Crisp...... (Bafta tv award)...which is sort of drag......

Jeff Bridges--I think he had a drag scene in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. (oscar nom)

November 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterHenry

But the absolute best was BDWong on stage in M Butterfly. (Tony)

You also forgot John Travolta (globe nom--Hairspray) and Ellen Barkin--(globe nom--Switch)

Antonia San Juan-Agrado in All About My Mother. No big awards or noms here, but one of the best perfs in the film.

November 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterHenry

One more---Paltrow was supposed to be a man playing a woman in Shakespeare in Love. At least the "play" scenes

And two important films with drag, cross dressing, trans themes:
Farewell my Concubine (oscar nom, globe win) and Ma Vie en Rose (globe win)

November 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterHenry

GAEL GARCIA BERNAL / BAD EDUCATION
MINA ORPHANAU / STRELLA

November 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterIván

I know she got no nominations, but excellence can't be ignored: Carmen Maura in Law of Desire

November 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterPeggy Sue

Henry - great additions. thanks!

November 21, 2013 | Registered CommenterNATHANIEL R

Like with Hunt/Blanchett, Travolta is simply a male playing a female character...

November 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKermit_The_Frog

I'll say two more things:

-Robert Preston was robbed with a capital R.

-Hilary's win is a happy memory (at least for me). Even today it seems an audacity. Were they under the influence of the whole new millennium madness?

November 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterPeggy Sue

I've seen all but 8 (Dallas Buyer's Club is included in the 8).

Morocco....sigh. How I love you.

November 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterDeborah Lipp

i haven't seen the movie, but i quite enjoy the Cillian Murphy's characterisation on "Breakfast in Pluto". So pretty.
"Priscilla" was my favorite movie growing up! Terence Stamp is fantastic in it, but Guy Pearce and Hugo Weaving do an amazing job as well.

November 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterClara

Peggy Sue -- UGH.dont even get me started on all the travesties of 1982! ;) just about the only thing i'm okay with is Meryl winning best actress. (i love Jessica Lange in Tootsie as well but it's a lead role or at least on the line. Terri Garr had a right to be miffed... which she was back when people didn't automatically expect category fraud.

Clara -- all three are so fierce in Priscilla -- remember when Australian comedies were so popular in the early 90s?. but i wasn't into Breakfast at Pluto.

November 21, 2013 | Registered CommenterNATHANIEL R

Terrence Stamp just owns in that role. Amazing understanding of the character while American films made afterward with the same subject matter made similar trans characters feel almost too on the fringes. People will immediately point to Ted Levine in Silence of the Lambs or Michael Caine in Dressed to Kill (I'll give DePalma credit for noting that this seemed like one particular case, highlighting trans representation by using footage from a Donaghue episode) but there was something a little uncomfortable to me still about Boy Don't Cry. The movie more than the performance.

Also, I've said this before, but holy crap was Dog Day Afternoon ahead of the curb in representation in that film. The true story is a little sad but kind of beautiful that Sonny used the movie rights to pay for his girlfriend's surgery.

Melvil Poupand in Laurence Anyways was great although in terms of awards recognition, that's overstating things since LA really should've gotten more awards attention than it did, honored Suzanne Clement but he is really, really great in it. It just so happen he was in the same film of an actress who had one of the best acting turns in the last 5-10 years.

Special shout-out to EVERYONE in Paris is Burning though Venus Xtravaganza's moments on screen are so painful to watch in repeated viewings after you find out what happened to her.

Nathaniel, Peggy Sue- I looked up the 1982 Oscars on Wikipedia. YIKES!!!!! Preston's category was so weak too. This is where the comedy-phobia rears its ugly head. Yes, Lange won but her part was pretty comedy-free and when she was in a comic situation it was somebody like Hoffman/Coleman/Gaynes at the center.

November 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterCMG

@calroth, MOST definitely! She brought life to one the very few Eastwood helmed pictures I like.

@Nathaniel R, some other great additions, since someone mentioned our saint Almodovar, Antonia San Juan as Agrado who had THE best lines in "All About My Mother" and a young Georges Du Fresne as Ludo in 1997's "Ma Vie En Rose".

November 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJoel V

I keep thinking of these:

Lynn Collins in Merchant of Venice. Beautiful film.

November 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterHenry

Henry: I do really enjoy William Hurt (Children of a Lesser God (I didn't get The Piano when I first saw it (it's not Man of Steel or W.R. Mysteries of the Organism or anything, but PLEASE don't pretend it's Citizen Kane level genius), almost entirely because I saw it as a transition from one loveless passionless relationship to another getting passed off, visually, as a swooningly romantic series of events, an impression not helped by Holly Hunter's character's mute status was taken as an excuse to write off any reasonable development of genuine romantic chemistry between the two characters, especially since Children of a Lesser God did a "normal person, speech impaired person romance" FAR better nearly a decade earlier) and A History of Violence in particular), but William Hurt is, roughly, analogous to Donald Sutherland in terms of his persona and he doesn't try to deviate from the development of his persona in Kiss of the Spider-Woman, even though THAT'S NOT WHAT THE CHARACTER IS WRITTEN AS.

November 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterVolvagia

volvagia - punctuation is your friend. that paragraph is entirely one sentence and makes no sense!

November 21, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterNathanielR
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