The Volokh Conspiracy
[Puzzleblogger Kevan Choset, March 3, 2006 at 11:30am] Trackbacks
Some Oscar Trivia:

  • What two people won Oscars for portraying the same character in two different movies?

  • What two people were nominated for Oscars for portraying the same character in the same movie? (There are two sets of answers to this one.)

claritas:
First question: Brando and De Niro, Vito Corleone.
3.3.2006 11:34am
nn (mail):
Do you mean Brando and de Niro portraying Vito Corleone?
3.3.2006 11:35am
MarkW (mail):
Wow, two people posted the answer to the question I know while I was waiting for the comment page to load. :(

I'll have to think about #2
3.3.2006 11:38am
mf24 (mail):
Second question: Kate Winslet &Gloria Stuart as 'Rose' in Titanic?
3.3.2006 11:38am
Brogie62:
Kate Winslet and Gloria Stuart as young and old Rose in Titanic.
3.3.2006 11:44am
Guest 1960:
Arnold as the Terminator
3.3.2006 11:48am
GSC:
Kate Winslet and Judi Dench were both nominated for portraying Iris Murdoch in Iris.
3.3.2006 11:49am
Wickedpinto:
If the two answers are correct, then Kate Winslet is awesome for old chick's careers.
3.3.2006 11:55am
JustLurking:
Paul Newman for Color of Money and the Hustler came to mind, but I think he have been nominated but not won an Oscar for one of the two.
3.3.2006 12:09pm
Matt Barr (mail) (www):
Probably not River Phoenix and Harrison Ford in the third Indiana Jones movie.
3.3.2006 12:13pm
Timothy Sandefur (mail) (www):
I guess it's not William Shatner and Sandra Smith for playing James T. Kirk in the original Star Trek episode "Turnabout Intruder..."

(I'll say it for you: NERD!)
3.3.2006 12:17pm
Soccer Dad (mail) (www):
River Phoenix played Harrison Ford's son in Mosquito Coast. The father and son in IJ and the HG was Harrison Ford playing Sean Connery's son.
3.3.2006 12:17pm
R:
Soccer Dad,

River Phoenix and Harrison both played Indiana Jones (young and old) and it was IJ and the LC. They were both overlooked by the Oscars that year.
3.3.2006 12:32pm
aces:
Timothy:

Nor was it David Prowse and James Earl Jones for playing Darth Vader in "Star Wars"!
3.3.2006 12:48pm
Chrees (mail):
This falls somewhere between the two questions, but if I remember correctly both Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench were nominated the same year for playing Queen Elizabeth I in separate movies (Eliazbeth and Shakespeare in Love).
3.3.2006 12:49pm
Mark H.:
Robert DeNiro and Robert Mitchum playing Max Cody in Cape Fear?
3.3.2006 1:07pm
AEF:
Nitpick...Darth Vader was played by David Prowse, James Earl Jones, AND Sebastian Shaw all in Return of the Jedi.

And in the new DVD release, it's Prowse, Jones, Shaw AND Hayden Christensen, thanks be to Lucas' retroactive filmmaking.
3.3.2006 3:00pm
wandering_guest:
Nicholas Cage and John Travolta each played both of the 2 main characters in 'Face Off'
3.3.2006 4:01pm
Burt Likko (mail) (www):
Jodi Foster and Julianne Moore, both playing Clarice Starling?
3.3.2006 4:49pm
Cal Lanier (mail) (www):
You forgot "What actor has been nominated twice for playing the same person in two different movies?"

Peter O'Toole was nominated for his role as Henry II in both Becket and The Lion in Winter. Should have won for the last one, too.

I think Winslett/Stuart Winslett/Dench is correct. I thought it might be Noah Taylor and Geoffrey Rush in Shine, but Taylor wasn't nominated.
3.3.2006 5:42pm
KeithK (mail):
Chrees, you are correct about Elizabeth. Judi Dench actually won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in Shakespeare in Love, while Cate Blanchett was only nominated.
3.3.2006 6:00pm
Robert Racansky:
Kevin Bacon was in Apollo 13 with Bill Paxton. Bill Paxton was in The Terminator with Linda Hamilton. Linda Hamilton's twin sister Leslie played the T-1000's copy of Sarah Connor in Terminator 2.

Wait, what was the question again?
3.3.2006 6:56pm
Kevan Choset (mail):
Cal,
There's also Paul Newman, who played Fast Eddie Felson in The Hustler, for which he was nominated for an Oscar, and its sequel, The Color of Money, for which he won.
3.4.2006 5:23pm
Lorenzo (mail):
Never underestimate peoples' ability to read a simple question in complex ways. When I read the first question, I thought each person won an Oscar for playing a particular character, and each played that same character in another movie, not that both people played the same character, but in different movies. The way I read it, I would have said Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald who won for The Bells of Saint Mary's and then reprised their roles.
3.4.2006 10:33pm
Edward A. Hoffman (mail):
There should be a third answer to the second question: Noah Taylor should have been nominated for Shine, in which he played the teen-age David Helfgott -- the same character Geoffrey Rush played as an adult.

Rush won the best actor Oscar, and Taylor probably should have been nominated in the same category, though a supporting actor nomination would have been more likely.

The Australian Film Institute nominated both Rush and Taylor for best actor, and Rush won. The Screen Actors Guild nominated Taylor both as supporting actor and as a member of the ensemble cast, though he lost in both categories while Rush got the SAG award for best actor. Several other, less prominent groups nominated Taylor -- some as lead actor and some as supporting actor.
3.5.2006 6:29pm

PicoSearch
Help