by Nathaniel R
With just 2 days to go until Oscar let's talk famous couples who've both been Oscar blessed. This year we have loved the offscreen symmetry of A Star is Born's Sam Elliott finally having an Oscar nomination to match his beautiful wife's; Katharine Ross was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for The Graduate (1967) and now Elliott has a matching nomination in Supporting Actor just before their 25th wedding anniversary. They were married around the time Elliott started work on Mask (1985) and Ross started work on the Dynasty spinoff The Colbys (1985-1987). They co-starred together just last year (albeit briefly) when Ross played Elliott's character's ex-wife in The Hero (2017).
It's fairly rare for two members of a movie star couple to win Oscars while they're together (lots of Hollywood relationships being short-lived) but the gold standard is surely Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward...
Woodward and Newman met on the Broadway production of Picnic (He was playing what became the Cliff Robertson role in the movie version / she was an understudy) but they got famous roughly at the same time in the movies. In fact, they were newlyweds when Woodward won her Oscar. She won Best Actress for The Three Faces of Eve (1957) just three months after marrying Newman.
We've always adored this 1958 photo (above) with Paul getting a sad makeshift "Noscar" to go with his wife's bonafide trophy. The Newman / Woodward marriage apparently didn't have any of the professional jealousy that some showbiz marriages fall to (hello A Star is Born's enduring trope). Newman had to wait almost 30 more years before he finally won an Oscar and they remained happily married until his death. Woodward is still with us (she turns 89 next week) though she's in ill health which is why she's been gone from the public eye for so long now.
Other movie star couples who won Oscars during their relationship!
Jack and Anjelica in 1976
Jack Nicholson & Anjelica Huston: They were together for 15 years during which Jack won his first two Oscars (Cuckoo's Nest, and Terms of Endearment) and Anjelica won hers (Prizzi's Honor)
Viv & Larry in the late 1940s when their relationship was beginning to fall apart. He was about to have Hamlet and she was about to become Blanche DuBois.
Vivien Leigh & Sir Laurence Olivier: Leigh was famously cast in Gone With the Wind at the last second for the already in production film while visiting Olivier in Los Angeles. They tied the knot just months after her Best Actress win. During their 20+ year relationship they each received multiple statues. He'd later win for Hamlet and Henry V and she'd win again for A Streetcar Named Desire
Susan Sarandon & Tim Robbins: They never married but during their 21 year relationship they each won acting Oscars (Dead Man Walking and Mystic River, respectively)
??? Woody Allen & Diane Keaton??? They were a relatively informal couple after first meeting in 1969 on his Broadway play "Play it Again, Sam". Were they even really still together-together by 1977? They weren't living together at that point but who knows since they've remained close friends ever since meeting. Both won Oscars for Annie Hall (1977) which he wrote for her (Annie being her nickname and "Hall" her actual last name). Keaton went to the Oscars but Woody didn't (of course).
Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie: Jolie was already an Oscar winner long before they met but during their 12 year relationship she received an honorary Oscar for her humanitarian work and he won Best Picture for producing 12 Years a Slave.
Javier Bardem & Penelope Cruz: They both won supporting Oscar shortly after their relationship began for No Country for Old Men and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (in which they co-starred), respectively. They didn't actually get married until two years after they were both winners, though.
Did we miss anyone?
P.S. As a reminder we're talking about movie star couples who won while they were together. There are many former couples who have won and couples who won before they were together and some where only one of them won but the other didn't. Etcetera.