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?