Oscar Trivia, Weekly: Double Oscar winners... How long does it take?
Wednesday, August 28, 2019 at 2:28PM For today's utterly random weekly Oscar trivia, how about two-time acting winners? For the purposes of this list we're ignoring the rare third wins (that list only includes six people: Streep, Hepburn, Nicholson, Bergman, Brennan, and Day-Lewis) and focusing on the gaps between the first and second Oscar wins. What is most common for the double-dippers?
Marlon Brando's two wins...
ALL THE DOUBLE-WINNERS
+ GAPS BETWEEN OSCAR WINS
FROM LONGEST TO SHORTEST
01
Helen Hayes (38 years: The Sin of Madelon Claudet to Airport)
02
Katharine Hepburn (34 years: Morning Glory to Guess Who's Coming to Dinner)
03
Frances McDormand (21 years: Fargo to Three Billboards)...
04
Gene Hackman (19 years: The French Connection to Unforgiven)
05 [TIE]
Marlon Brandon (18 years: On the Waterfront to The Godfather)
Daniel Day-Lewis (18 years: My Left Foot to There Will Be Blood)
Jack Lemmon (18 years: Mister Roberts to Save the Tiger)
08
Melvyn Douglas (16 years: Hud to Being There)
09
Fredric March (14 years: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde to The Best Years of Our Lives)
10
Michael Caine (13 years: Hannah and Her Sisters to Cider House Rules)
11 [TIE]
Ingrid Bergman (12 years: Gaslight to Anastasia)
Jessica Lange (12 years: Tootsie to Blue Sky)
Vivien Leigh (12 years: Gone With the Wind to A Streetcar Named Desire)
Denzel Washington (12 years: Glory to Training Day)
15
Gary Cooper (11 years: Sergeant York to High Noon)
16 [TIE]
Dustin Hoffman (9 years: Kramer vs Kramer to Rain Man)
Maggie Smith (9 years: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie to California Suite)
Cate Blanchett (9 years: The Aviator to Blue Jasmine)
19 [TIE]
Jack Nicholson (8 years: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to Terms of Endearment)
Dianne Wiest (8 years: Hannah and Her Sisters to Bullets Over Broadway)
21
Jane Fonda (7 years: Klute to Coming Home)
22 [TIE]
Robert De Niro (6 years: The Godfather Part II to Raging Bull)
Elizabeth Taylor (6 years: Butterfield 8 to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)
Shelley Winters (6 years: The Diary of Anne Frank to A Patch of Blue)
25 [TIE]
Sally Field (5 years: Norma Rae to Places in the Heart)
Sean Penn (5 years: Mystic River to Milk)
Hilary Swank (5 years: Boys Don't Cry to Million Dollar Baby)
28 [TIE]
Anthony Quinn (4 years: Viva Zapata! to Lust for Life)
Kevin Spacey (4 years: The Usual Suspects to American Beauty)
Peter Ustinov (4 years: Spartacus to Topkapi)
31 [TIE]
Bette Davis (3 years: Dangerous to Jezebel)
Olivia de Havilland (3 years: To Each His Own to The Heiress)
Jodie Foster (3 years: The Accused to Silence of the Lambs)
Meryl Streep (3 years: Kramer vs Kramer to Sophie's Choice)
Glenda Jackson (3 years: Women in Love to A Touch of Class)
Christoph Waltz (3 years: Inglourious Basterds to Django Unchained)
37 [TIE]
Walter Brennan (2 years: Come and Get It to Kentucky)
Mahersha Ali (2 years: Moonlight to Green Book)
39 [TIE] - back-to-back acting winners.
Tom Hanks (Philadelphia to Forrest Gump)
Luise Rainer (The Great Ziegfeld to The Good Earth)
Jason Robards (All the Presidents Men to Julia)
Spencer Tracy (Captains Courageous to Boys Town)
What does it all mean? Here are some observations about the list. Please do add your own in the comments.
* 42 people have won two (or more) acting Oscars. We see just from perusing the list quickly that it's a more common, should you be so rarely blessed as to win two acting Oscars, to do it in under a decade's time.
* The average spread of time is about 9 years. (This means it's about time for Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Melissa Leo, or Colin Firth to win a second Oscar. Teehee)
* It's slightly more common to win two Oscars if you're a male actor than a female actor... though it bears noting that Hepburn and Streep, both women, hold the two most important singular records: most wins and most nominations, respectively.
* In terms of those who have won two Oscars, it's more common to win two leading Oscars than the other combos. 47% of those double wins are both leading statues, 29% of the doubles are a combo of leading and support, and 24% of those doubles are for two supporting triumphs.
Could anyone win a second acting Oscar this year?
Oh that's a silly question, Nathaniel! We don't even know the nominees yet. Neverthless it's worth noting that if any of the following actors are nominated they could theoretically win a second: Renée Zellweger for Judy, Charlize Theron or Nicole Kidman for Bombshell, Christian Bale for Ford vs Ferrari, Natalie Portman for Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Gary Oldman for The Laundromat, Anne Hathaway for Dark Waters, or Anna Paquin, Al Pacino or Joe Pesci for The Irishman. From that group the person who'd have the longest gap between wins would be Joe Pesci (29 years) and the shortest gap would be Gary Oldman (2 years).
WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THESE STATS? ANY OTHER OBSERVATIONS?
Reader Comments (42)
6 people you forgot Ingrid Bergman!
... and now this year Antonio Banderas wins Leading for Pain and Glory and Supporting for The Laundromat and obliterates every single stat.
Just kidding... but having seen one, and the trailer for the other... I begin to wonder if he is going to be double nominated here and at the Globes. Huge range in a single year.
Good post!
Judy, Bombshell, Ford vs Ferrari (really?), Lucy in the Sky, The Laundromat, The Irishman (210 min.). Is it me or the season looks terrible?
Don't forget Charlize Theron! I could see her picking up a second sometime soon, she's got quite a bit of momentum if the right role comes around.
Anne Hathaway seems primed for a second Oscar win, similar to Sally Field's. I don't know that it will happen this year, but I suspect she'll land in the right project and win all the awards.
Even better question: Can Streep earn her fourth Oscar win this year? Would tie Hepburn.
I know this isn't about three-peats, but would you rank Bergman, Brennan, Day-Lewis, Hepburn, Nicholson, and Streep all among the greatest (screen) actors of all time? Because even though some of their wins have not aged well, their overall talent still seems quite extraordinary.
I would love to see Queen Anne win Best Actress as she is due for one but I have the project that will give her that 2nd Oscar but also so much more.
Kathy Bates pulling a Gene Hackman winning a 2nd Oscar in supporting under the direction of Eastwood for Richard Jewell -- whether this shorten season which should have surprises come Oscar night or next year which will be the 30th anniversary of Misery.
I also could see Charlize, Natalie and Anne winning a second.
Hepburn has five if you include The Aviator.
The one to watch is Saoirse.
I think Renee stands the best chance of making hers a pair, provided her performance is a hit, because her real-life narrative already makes for quite a comeback story -- a two-decades-old hot streak followed by a maligned win then a fall into relative obscurity with eventual "redemption" coming via the ghost of one of Hollywood's most beloved and tortured stars. I already can imagine the Be Kind Rewind YouTube video about it.
Now that Ali has two I think there's going to be a HUGE push to see Washington crowned a triple winner the next time he's nominated. As talented as Ali is, something doesn't seem quite right about the ease of his double wins when the Academy made the arguably "greatest black actor" (actor of any race, really, but sticking with this for argument's sake) wait 12 years for a second trophy. I intuit that the investment in Denzel's legacy calls for him to be further distinguished from the pack, if we're talking about sheer number of statuettes.
Maggie Smith comeback? People tend to love her in that role ..
Great set of stats!
Gene Hackman is joint third with a 21-year gap.
I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Anna Paquin win a second Oscar one day...
Thanks for putting this together! I did something similar a few years ago. Want to point out even though the average years is 9, the median year range is 6! Meaning more people win Oscars in under 6 years than longer than that.
It really put things into perspective and made me realize how little the "recent" winner argument actually prevents someone from winning. Under the right circumstances the Academy really doesn't mind (I'd argue they're a bit more mindful of a third) giving one that soon. It also makes sense when you think about it. The Academy sometimes gets obsessed with certain actors. And often actors that win hit their stride/career peak and star in several movies that get more attention from the Academy!
Another fact to reflect this: 29 of those 42 films were Best Picture nominees (and at least 6 more would probably have been under the 5+ system). And only 2 were their films sole nomination (both which I think benefited from good timing with weak lineups).
I would love that Viola Davis could win a second Oscar as leading actress and i really think that is very possible.
Still mystified why Jodie and Jessica won two and then … television (Jessica) or nothing much else (Jodie). But who am I to talk.
I just want Glenn Close to win an Oscar (yep! still bitter about last year Coleman (who was great btw but in a SUPPORTING role!!!!)
Faye- Short answer: There women Hollywood is sexist if you have a vagina you're considered
old at 35
Anne Hathaway is the new Jessica Lange. She belongs to the leading league, not the supporting.
Wait, what about the 29 years between Meryl’s Sophie and Iron Lady wins?
Oh wait, never mind.
Jessica became the second actress in history, after Meryl Streep, to follow up a Best Supporting Actress Oscar win with a Best Actress Oscar win, an achievement not repeated until nearly twenty years later by Cate Blanchett.
It is a little weird that Jodie and Jessica were never nominated again. But Jessica won a Tony so that is a feather in her cap. I personally wish Jodie had tried harder with acting but it was not of interest to her. In hindsight, I think Meryl, Daniel Day-Lewis and Denzel seem so deserving for legend status and Tom Hanks is not very interesting to me. Charlize still has so much potential.
I bow to your Oscar Trivia. You da Man, Nathaniel!
It's a gap of three years for Olivia de Havilland: 1946 and 1949. Some of those who won their second Oscar very soon were expexted to, but others were surprises (and still are, since no one seems to have an explanation) like Jason Robards, Glenda Jackson, Peter Ustinov, Anthony Quinn or maybe even Christoph Waltz.
PEGGY SUE I'm with you !! :-S ...and I really really wanna be positive ... but so fare I'm not really excited - ( besides that Paulson looks super promising in the Goldfinch trailer ). Arrrgh... love the write-up though !!
.. need to correct myself - Paulson looks promissing in the Goldfinch trailer she posted on her instagram page !! Xandra with an X
@Faye & @Jono - Foster *was* nominated for an Oscar after her double win. It was for Nell in 1994, the same year Lange won her second. So she didn’t drop off completely, and also had Contact in the ‘90s.
I love this stuff! Also, Olivia de Havilland is only 3 years (‘46 and ‘49).
Thanks but the less said about Nell the better.
Jodie should have lost to Glenn, Sigourney, or even Meryl in 1988, and won her 2nd with Nell. I want to live in that world.
Kate Winslet could easily wins a second one in the right project/role. Think about how close she comes for Steve Jobs (by the Way the best performance of the bunch).
The other one is Viola Davis in Lead. I think everyone in Hollywood would vote if she is nomed again, when she has the right role.
Cate Blanchett is the only One I think for a third oscar and please no streep every year she has a role. she steals so much noms from other more worthier candidates. I love her, but its ridiculous.. Nom her, when she has a shoot to win, but not for every performance.
And I think of a hundred actresses that are more worthier of a second oscar then Hathaway. Her post oscar career is shitty. Her rom coms are always unfunny and stupid. wonder that she hasnt won a razzie yet. ^^ (And now shit over me ^^)
Arlo: I agree. Nell is such a great performance and underrated movie. If that was the case, Glenn Close would have been an Oscar winner by now
Actors up for a 2nd Oscar me think: Nicole Kidman, Kate Winslet, Christian Bale
Actors up for a 3rd Oscar: Cate Blanchett
Future young actors up for 2 Oscars: Saoirse Ronan, Adam Driver
I recall a lot of attention for Forster for Nell. If she hadn't won twice recently she might have won for that year.
From what I have gathered from Foster's interviews, she seems very very proud of Nell. If she hadn't had won for The Accused, I think that would've been her second Oscar. She actually won the SAG that year - it was an extremely weak year for best actress.
1994 was *not* a weak year for best actress; it was a weak best actress *lineup* at the Oscars that year — a crucial difference. Throw in Alfre Woodard (Crooklyn), Chien-Lien Wu (Eat Drink Man Woman), Irène Jacob (Three Colors: Red), Isabelle Adjani (Queen Margot), Jennifer Jason Leigh (Dorothy Parker and the Vicious Circle *or* The Hudsucker Proxy), and/or Linda Fiorentino (The Last Seduction), and you have a stellar actress lineup right there.
@Mareko: AGREED. Alfre Woodard and Linda Fiorentino were both terrific.
And Kathleen Turner in Seriak Mom!
/3rtful
Bergman is listed with 12 years for gaslight to Anastasia. What are the 6 people you
say we’re forgot?
Why is it /3rtful posts always make no sense?
"
/3rtful
Bergman is listed with 12 years for gaslight to Anastasia. What are the 6 people you
say we’re forgot?"
3rtful was referring that initially Ingrid Bergman did not appear in this article as a three-time Oscar winner, they only mentioned Streep, Hepburn, Nicholson, Brennan and Day-Lewis as three-time Oscar winner. Of course the article was corrected and Ingrid Bergman's name was added.
1. I was curious how much Nell grossed in 1994. It made 33 million, which according to box office mojo, is 70 million adjusted for ticket inflation. That's insane to me.
2. Which leads me to think maybe she could have won for it if she hadn't won for The Accused. Though I actually think if she'd lost for Silence of the Lambs (to say, Susan Sarandon), she'd more likely to win in 1994.
3. Just over 50% of the double winners were nominated again after their second win.
4. If Hollywood "knew" the second oscar was coming, would they have voted elsewhere for the first? I think Blanchett and MAYBE Foster drop out in that scenario. Blanchett's had a whiff of "we've better do this now since she didn't come back as quickly as we thought" and Foster is in an uber-competitive year. I thought it would be more frequent, to be honest, but most of these performers have first oscars that are stronger than their second one. Or they're like Meryl Streep and both oscars seem undeniable.