Nine year-old Jacob Tremblay (Room), fourteen year-old Abraham Attah (Beasts of No Nation), and 21 year-old Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn) are the youngest actors who appear to be in the mix for possible Oscar nominations this year. But none of them will be breaking any records if they are as younger actors have been nominated in their categories. It's actually Jennifer Lawrence, an old lady at 25 (Kidding, but she sure does like playing older women) who is the one to watch for trivia's sake. She is likely to break a record that is currently held by another Jennifer.
Jennifer in Duel in the Sun (1946) / Jennifer in Joy (2015)
Should Lawrence be nominated for Joy (talk about the new trailer here), she will have amassed an incredible four acting nominations by the age of 25. I assumed that record was held by Elizabeth Taylor but the record is actually held by one of the more forgotten superstars of the 1940s, Jennifer Jones.
A HUGE TRIVIA LIST AFTER THE JUMP...
The dark haired beauty won the Oscar on her first try for The Song of Bernadette (1943) and remained a hot property for the next handful of years winning her fourth consecutive nomination by the age of 27 for Duel in the Sun (1946).
Jennifer's star diminished afterwards and only one more nomination came her way for Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955) but Oscar was deeply devoted at first. You might say that Oscar, just like the rest of us, has a broad range of romantic feelings: fleeting flirtations, brief intense crushes, long relationships that suddenly fade, and lifelong passions.
YOUNGEST TO EARN MULTIPLE NOMINATIONS
All Acting Categories Included
The Picture of Dorian Gray - nomination #2 for Angela Lansbury who was 20 years old!
QUICKEST TO 2: Angela Lansbury at 20 (ru: Sal Mineo, Jennifer Lawrence, and Kate Winslet at 22, Mickey Rooney at 23)
QUICKEST TO 3: Jennifer Lawrence at 23* (ru: Teresa Wright at 24, Natalie Wood at 25)
QUICKEST TO 4: Jennifer Jones at 27 (ru: Elizabeth Taylor at 28, Winslet at 29)
Little Children - nomination #5 for Kate Winslet. She wouldn't have to wait much longer
QUICKEST TO 5: Kate Winslet at 32 (ru: Marlon Brando and Bette Davis at 33, Streep & Taylor at 34)
QUICKEST TO 6: [tie] Bette Davis* & Kate Winslet at 34 (ru: Meryl Streep at 36, Deborah Kerr at 39)
Mr Skeffington - nomination #7 (or is it #8*) for Bette Davis
QUICKEST TO 7: Bette Davis at 36 (ru: Meryl Streep at 38, Jack Nicholson at 46)
QUICKEST TO 8: Meryl Streep at 39 (ru: Bette Davis at 44, Jack Nicholson at 48)
QUICKEST TO 9: Meryl Streep at 41 (ru: Jack Nicholson at 50, Bette Davis at 54)
The Bridges of Madison County - Nomination #10 for Streep
QUICKEST TO 10: Meryl Streep at 46 (ru: Jack Nicholson at 56, Katharine Hepburn at 60)
QUICKEST TO 11: Meryl Streep at 49 (ru: Katharine Hepburn and Jack Nicholson at 61)
QUICKEST TO 12: Meryl Streep at 50 (ru: Jack Nicholson at 66, Katharine Hepburn at 74)
QUICKEST TO 13: Meryl Streep at 53 (ru: not applicable)
QUICKEST TO 14: Meryl Streep at 57 (ru: not applicable)
QUICKEST TO 15: Meryl Streep at 59 (ru: not applicable)
QUICKEST TO 16: Meryl Streep at 60 (ru: not applicable)
QUICKEST TO 17: Meryl Streep at 62 (ru: not applicable)
QUICKEST TO 18: Meryl Streep at 64 (ru: not applicable)
QUICKEST TO 19: Meryl Streep at 65 (ru: not applicable)
Norma Shearer riding to Oscar on her first... or is it second nomination for The Divorcée (1930). LOVE HER in this movie. * The Norma & Bette Anomalies
Oscar's first handful of years are filled with inconsistent stats and rulings so things get a lot messier if you count things in different ways. For example, The First Lady of MGM Norma Shearer was nominated twice in Best Actress at the 3rd Oscars (Their Own Desire, and winning for The Divorcée) and if you count that as two instead of a conjoined nomination than she ties Streep a couple of times for "fastest to" records, earning her last nomination at the age of 36 (Marie Antoinette) but was that her fifth or six nomination? Depends on how you count it. The rules were different in the first few years of Oscar in regards to multiple nominations by the same actor but they were also inconsistent / confusing. Shortly before Shearer, Janet Gaynor was cited for three roles but they were not considered separate nominations.
Similarly, if you count 26 year-old Bette Davis's write-in nomination for Of Human Bondage (1934) as her first nod -- it's not an "official nomination" but is still all over Oscar books / articles about Oscar history -- than she takes a miniature wrecking ball to the middle portions of the chart, taking a couple of these records listed above away from both Kate Winslet and Meryl Streep.
RELATED ARTICLE: The New Best Actress Hierarchy