List of actors who have appeared in multiple Best Picture Academy Award winners
This is a list of actors who have appeared in multiple Best Picture Academy Award winners. The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to artists working in the motion picture industry. As of 2018, 91 films have won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Each of the actors in this list has appeared in two or more such films. This list contains a total of 163 actors and collectively represents their 363 appearances in 88 Best Picture-winning films. This list, although still incomplete, contains appearances through the 91st Academy Awards ceremony held on February 24, 2019.
List of actors
Notes
^A Ward Bond appeared in 13 films that were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. In addition to appearing in the three Best Picture winners listed above, Bond also appeared in the following ten Best Picture nominees: Arrowsmith (1931/1932), Lady for a Day (1932/1933), Dead End (1937), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), The Long Voyage Home (1940), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Sergeant York (1941), It's a Wonderful Life (1946), The Quiet Man (1952), and Mister Roberts (1955).[2]
^B John Cazale appeared in only five feature films, all of which were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. In addition to the three films listed above, Cazale also appeared in The Conversation (1974) and Dog Day Afternoon (1975). Twelve years after his death, Cazale appeared in archive footage in a sixth feature film, The Godfather Part III (1990), which was also nominated for Best Picture.
^C Judd Hirsch and Danny DeVito are the only cast members of the television show Taxi that have appeared in more than one Best Picture Oscar-winning film. In addition: fellow Taxi cast members Randall Carver, Christopher Lloyd, Carol Kane and Tony Danza have respectively appeared in Best Picture Oscar winners Midnight Cowboy (1969), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Annie Hall (1977) and Crash (2005); one of the show's co-creators, James L. Brooks, wrote, produced and directed Best Picture Oscar winner Terms of Endearment (1983).
^D Neither Brad Dourif nor Christopher Lee appeared in the theatrical release of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). However, deleted scenes including Dourif and Lee were subsequently re-inserted into the Extended Edition DVD version of the film.
^E Clint Eastwood is currently the only person ever to produce, direct, and star in two Best Picture Oscar winners.
^F Bess Flowers appeared in 23 films that were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. In addition to appearing in the five Best Picture winners listed above, Flowers also appeared in the following eighteen Best Picture nominees: Anthony Adverse (1936), Dodsworth (1936), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), The Awful Truth (1937), In Old Chicago (1937), One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937), Love Affair (1939), Ninotchka (1939), Heaven Can Wait (1943), Watch on the Rhine (1943), Double Indemnity (1944), Mildred Pierce (1945), The Razor's Edge (1946), Father of the Bride (1950), A Place in the Sun (1951), The Robe (1953), Witness for the Prosecution (1957), and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961).
^G In addition to appearing in the two films listed above, Robert Redford also directed Ordinary People (1980), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
^H In addition to appearing in the three Best Picture winners listed above, Bodil Rosing also appeared in Sunrise (1927). Sunrise was the only film to win the Academy Award for Best Unique and Artistic Production; after the 1st Academy Awards, this award category was discontinued.
^I In addition to her own Best Picture appearances, all three of Rachel Kempson's children appeared in Best Pictures as well. Lynn Redgrave appeared in Tom Jones (1963) and Corin Redgrave and Vanessa Redgrave appeared in A Man for All Seasons (1966).
^J Walter Pidgeon and Russell Crowe both played the lead role in back-to-back Best Picture winners, and as of 2019 are the only actors ever to do so.
^K Nick Vallelonga was uncredited as a wedding guest in 1972's Best Picture winner The Godfather. He would go on to write the screenplay and have a small supporting role in 2018's Best Picture winner Green Book.
Superlatives
- Most Appearances in Best Picture Nominees - Actors who appeared in the most Best Picture nominees are: Bess Flowers (23 films - all uncredited), Ward Bond (13 films, 4 uncredited), Robert De Niro (11 films, 1 uncredited), Franklyn Farnum (11 films - all uncredited), Jack Nicholson (10 films), William Holden (9 films), Spencer Tracy (9 films), Elizabeth Taylor (9 films, 2 uncredited), Gary Cooper (9 films), Tom Hanks (9 films), Leonardo DiCaprio (9 films), Lionel Barrymore (8 films), Olivia de Havilland (8 films), Daniel Day-Lewis (7 films), Henry Fonda (8 films), Harrison Ford (8 films), John Gielgud (8 films), Dustin Hoffman (8 films), Burt Lancaster (8 films), Reginald Owen (8 films), Gregory Peck (8 films), Claude Rains (8 films), Tom Wilkinson (8 films), Brad Pitt (8 films), Robert Duvall (8 films, 1 uncredited), Cate Blanchett (7 films), Beulah Bondi (7 films), Marlon Brando (7 films), John Carradine (7 films), Wallis Clark (7 films, 6 uncredited), Gladys Cooper (7 films), Finlay Currie (7 films), Katharine Hepburn (7 films), Fredric March (7 films), Deborah Kerr (7 films), Elsa Lanchester (7 films), Laurence Olivier (7 films, 1 uncredited), James Stewart (7 films), Bette Davis (7 films), Meryl Streep (7 films) and Michael Stuhlbarg (7 films), Al Pacino (6 films).[3]
- Most Appearances in Best Picture Winners - Actors who appeared in the most Best Picture winners are: Franklyn Farnum (7 films), Wallis Clark (5 films), and Bess Flowers (5 films).
- Most Consecutive Appearances - Actors who appeared in three consecutive Best Picture winners are: Wallis Clark (1934 through 1936) and Harry Davenport (1937 through 1939).
- Most Represented Films - Films most represented on this list are: The Godfather Part II (15 times), The Godfather (15 times), You Can't Take It With You (14 times), Gandhi (10 times), and Around the World in 80 Days (10 times).
- Longest Span Between Appearances - Actors with the longest span between appearances in Best Picture winners are: Christopher Lee (55 years), Sue Casey (48 years), Nick Vallelonga (46 years), Christopher Plummer (36 years), David Warner (34 years), Howland Chamberlain (33 years) and Oliver Reed (32 years).
Statistics
- Actors - The 163 actors listed above have collectively delivered a total of 353 appearances in 86 Best Picture-winning films:
- 1 actor appeared in 7 Best Pictures;
- 2 actors appeared in 5 Best Pictures;
- 3 actors appeared in 4 Best Pictures;
- 38 actors appeared in 3 Best Pictures; and
- 112 actors appeared in 2 Best Pictures.
- Films - To date, 92 films have won the Academy Award for Best Picture, only four of which are not represented in the above list:
- West Side Story (1961);
- Chicago (2002);
- Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
- Parasite (2019)
References
- "Dennis Lynch". IMDb.
- "Actors and how many best picture nominees they've been in". The Sophomore Critic. 2007-02-18. Retrieved 2011-03-25.
- "Olivia de Havilland Movies - UMR". www.ultimatemovierankings.com.