26 YEAR OLD KATHERINE HEPBURN WINS HER FIRST OSCAR FOR MORNING GLORY IN 1933. HER SECOND CAME A MERE 34 YEARS LATER!
When I checked the 2012 Oscar nominations, the side of my brain marked statistician began to palpitate; just slightly. Like Andrew Sampson at a cricket match. Almost everyone nominated could set, better or achieve some kind of record.
COULD DJANGO UNCHAINED PROVIDE A SECOND WIN FOR CHRISTOPH WALTZ?
Where to start? I’ll just jump straight in. In the category for Best Supporting Actor, all five nominees have already got a statue stowed away at home in some suitable place…
WALTER BRENNAN- HERE WITH EDDIE ARNOLD AND A YOUNG FRANCES FARMER
so… Alan Arkin, Christoph Waltz and Tommy Lee Jones could join that elite band of double winners; a group that includes Jason Robards, Peter Ustinov and Anthony Quinn. Only Walter Brennan ever won three; including the very first… awarded to an actor in a Supporting Role…he won it, aged 42, for Come and Get It in 1936.
PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN IS ONLY SEVEN YEARS OLDER THAN FELLOW NOMINEE JOAQUIN PHOENIX
If Philip Seymour Hoffman, who won a Main citation for Capote in 2005, wins this year for a Supporting role in The Master, he will join another small grouping, one that includes Kevin Spacey, Gene Hackman and at the moment, both Robert De Niro and Denzel Washington.
GLOVES UP-DE NIRO IN 1980
All these actors have won both a Main and a Supporting award. Bob could float into a new category, all his own, ‘Two Supports and a Main’. If he wins for Silver Linings Playbook, his new Oscar will go nicely with his The Godfather Part II award from 1974 and his Main one for Raging Bull, won way back in 1980.
DENZEL WASHINGTON-FLYING HIGH
Which brings us to Denzel, he already holds every single record standing for African American actors and now could join Jack Nicholson as a different kind of triple winner; ‘Two Mains and a Support’; if he wins for Flight.
DAYS OF GLORY
Added to 2001’s Training Day and his 1989 Supporting award for Glory; the Washington mantelpiece will look even more festive than it does now.
DAY LEWIS LEFT PLAYS ABIE BABY
Daniel Day Lewis could do even better; he already has two Mains for My Left Foot dating from 1989 and There Will Be Blood, from 2007.
ARTHUR AND REBECCA MILLER
So the son of poet Cecil Day Lewis and husband of writer/ director Rebecca Miller (who is, in a bizarre way Marilyn Monroe’s step daughter, well sort of; her father Arthur Miller was married to Monroe in the 50s.)
TRACY WAS NOMINATED SEVEN TIMES; HE WAS THE FIRST DOUBLE WINNER; TAKING HOME THE AWARD IN 1937 AND AGAIN THE FOLLOWING YEAR
Day Lewis could really set a new record if he wins for a third time. No one, not even my beloved Spencer Tracy, was able to achieve that.
PETER FINCH-REMEMBER 'I'M MAD AS HELL AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE?'
Oh, yes, and Hugh Jackman could become another dinkum Aussie winner, strangely, both Peter Finch and Heath Ledger were Australians and sadly both received the Oscar nod posthumously.
DISASTER FLICK NOMINEE NAOMI WATTS
Naomi Watts, who began her professional career in Australia, could win for The Impossible if a Tsunami doesn’t blow her away first. British born Watts is the daughter of doomed Pink Floyd road manager, Peter Watts.
ONE TOO MANY FOR THE ROAD
Watts worked on Ummagumma and provided some of the manic laughter on Brain Damage a track on Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album; like many of his generation, Watts succumbed to a surfeit of the 60s and 70s in 1976, aged just 30.
THE BROTHERS PHOENIX
To round off that depressing little linking; Joaquin formally Leaf Phoenix, nominated for The Master is the brother of River Phoenix, whose very promising career was halted by a drug overdose in 1993.
THE HEAD AND HANDS BELONG TO JEAN LOUIS TRINTIGNANT- A MATINEE IDOL IN THE 60S
The Main Actress award is a very ageist affair this year; the oldest nominee, Emmanuella Riva, nominated for Amour, who at 85, is five years older than Jessica Tandy was, when she won hers for Driving Miss Daisy, back in 1989.
CAN QUVENZHANE WALLIS SET A NEW RECORD? MORE IMPORTANTLY, WILL WE EVER LEARN TO SPELL HER NAME?
Nominated for Beasts of the Southern Wild, Quvenzhane Wallis is even more interesting, she’s nine, younger even than Keisha Castle Hughes was when she was nominated for Whale Rider
NOMINEES GALORE IN SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
She is also a lot younger than a fellow nominee, Jennifer Lawrence who was not yet twenty one when she was nominated for Winter’s Bone in 2010.
MORE NOMINEES FROM SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK; WEAVER AND DE NIRO
Jacki Weaver, who was also nominated in 2010 for Animal Kingdom, is another Aussie nominated this year for Silver Linings Playbook, in fact almost everybody from Silver Linings Playbook has been nominated in some form or another.
WRITER/DIRECTOR DAVID O RUSSELL
David O Russell has two chances, for directing the movie and writing the Best Adapted Screenplay, the film for Best Film and Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro in the other acting categories.
BRANDO WAS THE NON WINNER FROM THE STREETCAR MOVIE- HERE HE IS WIITH HIS BROADWAY BLANCHE- JESSICA TANDY
If they all win, this would be a first, not even Gone With The Wind could have achieved that distinction. From an acting point of view, only A Streetcar Named Desire in 1951 and Network in 1976 came close with three winners out of a possible four.
SALLY FIELD WAS A UNION MAID IN NORMA RAE
Three decades ago, Sally Field won two Main awards, firstly for Norma Rae in 1979 and then, five years later for Places in the Heart, assuring herself a page in the record books.
APART FROM THAT MRS LINCOLN, DID YOU ENJOY THE PLAY?
Field has worked long and hard, both in movies and has recently enjoyed success on television. Now, she is back on the big screen, playing Mary Todd Lincoln opposite Daniel Day Lewis.
BERGMAN RETURNS TO WIN HER SECOND AWARD. CO STAR HELEN HAYES ALSO WON TWO- A MAIN AWARD IN 1932 AND A SUPPORT AS THE LITTLE OLD STOWAWAY LADY IN 1970'S AIRPORT
Will she equal Ingrid Bergman and Meryl Streep, by winning a triple crown, in Bergman’s case two Mains (Gaslight and Anastasia) and a Support (Murder on the Orient Express)? In Streep’s case a Support ( Kramer vs Kramer) and two Mains (Sophie’s Choice and The Iron Lady.)
A COMEBACK FOR HELEN HUNT
Helen Hunt won opposite perennial winner Jack Nicholson in 1997 in As Good As It Gets which was as good as it got for her for years, until The Sessions.
DOUBLE WINNER MAGGIE SMITH IS STILL GOING STRONG- HERE A STILL FROM DOWNTON ABBEY
If Hunt wins, she will join a band of gypsies (One Main, One Support) that includes Maggie Smith and Jessica Lange.
TRACY DID NOT LIVE TO SEE FELLOW NOMINEE KATHERINE HEPBURN WIN HER SECOND AWARD FOR GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER. SHE WON AGAIN- TWICE, IN 1968 AND 1981
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Katherine Hepburn stands alone
CANNON FODDER FROM SAVING PRIVATE RYAN
For a long while, Spielberg was overlooked by The Academy; then came Shindler’s List in 1993 which won Best Picture as well and again for Saving Private Ryan in 1998, which was one of those strange years when director and film didn’t match,
STEPHEN DIRECTS SALLY
Shakespeare in Love directed by John Madden, received the Best Picture nod. This year Lincoln may put Spielberg into new category, joining the Capra/Zinnemann/ Willie Wyler Triumvirate on three awards each, only John Ford has won four.
I WONDER WHERE SOUTH AFRICA IS? A YOUNG SIXTO RODRIGUEZ
And here's hoping for Searching for Sugar Man, I remember the days when I Wonder was the song played to shreds at student parties; that one and Peter Sarstedt’s Take off Your Clothes, oh, the innocence of youth.
CHRIS AS A YOUNG MAN
Watch the oldest male Supporting winner on M- Net this week, Chris Plummer for years a very versatile second fiddle leading man suddenly came good, loosing to Chris Waltz three years ago.
AND WINNING AN OSCAR SOME 50 YEARS LATER
And then winning last year, for playing the gay father in Beginners [M-Net.Monday.22.30]. Apparently, the marvelous and extremely talented actor, who, at 83, is almost as old as Oscar, is busier than ever.
TOM?
Apart from Daniel Day Lewis, the only double winners who could turn into triple winners are Sean Penn, Tom Hanks, Dustin Hoffman, while Jack Nicholson could turn three and a half into four.
OR SEAN?
The most likely candidate, in a way, is Sean Penn. The rest are sadly long dead. All the survivors are superb actors, all they need is time, a good script and a whole lot of luck.
SOMETHING DAME SHIRLEY,SIR TOM, SIR PAUL AND DURAN DURAN FAILED TO DO
As James Bond once said, Never Say Never; will Adele and Skyfall finally provide him with a Best Song Winner?
And a final good luck wish to all involved in Asad.
DIRECTOR ANG LEE
Also, I nearly forgot Ang Lee, he could be playing Doubles, after The Life of Pi.