We're but one week from Hollywood's High Holy Night! With the magic number 7 today let's look at the 7 films which produced matching his & hers Oscars. This is, as you can surmise from the low number, an uncommon occurence! This rare feat requires so many perfect elements to be in place. Just being an iconic movie couple doesn't remotely cut it (notice how Gone With the Wind, Bonnie & Clyde, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf don't appear to cite three quick examples) as it almost always requires two narratives beyond 'loving the film' as well as the absence of a formidable opponent without their own powerhouse narrative in not one but two separate categories.
Here are the 7 films which managed to win both lead acting Oscars...
It Happened One Night (1934) Clark Gable & Claudette Colbert
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) Jack Nicholson & Louise Fletcher
Network (1976) Peter Finch & Faye Dunaway
Coming Home (1978) Jon Voight & Jane Fonda
On Golden Pond (1981) Henry Fonda & Katharine Hepburn
Silence of the Lambs (1991) Jodie Foster & Anthony Hopkins
As Good As It Gets (1997) Jack Nicholson & Helen Hunt
Related Statistics....
• Interesting that romantic dramas aren't represented as well as you might expect in that his & hers list -- but that's because it's very hard for leading men to win for roles that are primarily romantic in nature.
• The last film to manage this package deal win was 20 whole years ago now. Coincidentally As Good As It Gets was the only one of the seven films to achieve this that missed a nomination in what's known as "The Big Five" (pic/dir/actress/actor/screenplay) as it wasn't nominated for Best Director.
• Only three films have ever won 'The Big Five': It Happened One Night (1934), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), and The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
• Jack Nicholson is the only actor to appear twice on this list... though Clark Gable and Katharine Hepburn probably came close to being in two winning pairs as well with Clark missing the lead win for Gone With the Wind for 1939 and Hepburn's co-star Peter O'Toole also probably narrowly missing the lead win for The Lion in Winter for 1968. But then Nicholson has multiple chances to make this happen. Half of his leading man nominations came with a nominated Best Actress co-star
• There's only one near-miss for His & Hers Leading Oscars since As Good As It Gets. That film was inarguably American Beauty (Bening would surely have joined Kevin Spacey on the podium given her SAG win had Hillary Swank not shocked everyone with her tremendous work as trans man Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry). Had Fences campaigned both of its leads in lead this year it might have had a solid shot at joining these seven films but the only film this year that could do it is La La Land. That would require a shocking Best Actor win for Ryan Gosling, though.
Do you have any observations about this list? Which of these winning pairs do you love most?