'Training Day' Flashback & Double Oscar Wins
Tuesday, October 4, 2011 at 7:08PM 
Ten years ago tomorrow, the bad cop / good cop drama Training Day debuted in theaters. It was a relatively inauspicious debut (for our purposes) in that, though the film was an instant hit, Oscar fanatics weren't really breathlessly awaiting its debut like it was a 'prestige picture' per se. The film surprised and wound up with two nominations for its leading actors, one in lead (Denzel Washington) and one in supporting (Ethan Hawke) because that's how Oscar do.
All it took was a couple of awesome soundbites and a sense that Denzel Washington was peaking as a movie star with that loss for Malcolm X still a regularly discussed Academy embarrassment and *BOOM* Julia Roberts was all
I love my life!"
.... and it was Oscar Number Two for Denzel!
Were you watching?
King Kong ain't got shit on him.
Oscar #2 let Denzel into the slim ranks of actors with two competitive gold men. Here's the complete list in the order it occurred (because I like to make things difficult for myself).
- Luise Rainer (The Great Ziegfeld and The Good Earth 1936-1937)
- Bette Davis (Dangerous and Jezebel 1935-1938)
- Walter Brennan (Come and Get It and Kentucky 1936-1938) *
- Spencer Tracy (Captains Courageous and Boys Town 1937-1938)
- Fredric March (Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and The Best Years of Our Lives 1931/32-1946)
- Olivia deHavilland (To Each His Own and The Heiress 1946-1949)
- Vivien Leigh (Gone With the Wind and Streetcar Named Desire 1939-1951)
- Gary Cooper (Sergeant York and High Noon 1941-1952)
- Anthony Quinn (Viva Zapata! and Lust for Life 1952-1956)
- Ingrid Bergman (Gaslight and Anastasia 1944-1956) *
- Peter Ustinov (Spartacus and Topkapi 1960-1964)
- Shelley Winters (Diary of Anne Frank and A Patch of Blue 1959-1965)
- Elizabeth Taylor (BUtterfield 8 and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf 1960-1966)
- Katharine Hepburn (Morning Glory and Guess Who's Coming To Dinner? 1932/33-1967) *
- Helen Hayes (The Sin of Madelon Claudet and Airport 1931/32 -1970)
- Marlon Brando (On the Waterfront and The Godfather 1954-1972)
- Glenda Jackson (Women in Love and A Touch of Class 1970-1973)
- Jack Lemmon (Mister Roberts and Save the Tiger 1955-1973)
- Jason Robards (All the President's Men and Julia 1976-1977)
- Jane Fonda (Klute and Coming Home 1971-1978)
- Maggie Smith (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and California Suite 1969-1978)
- Melvyn Douglas (Hud and Being There 1963-1979)
- Robert DeNiro (The Godfather Part II and Raging Bull 1974-1980)
- Meryl Streep (Kramer vs. Kramer and Sophie's Choice 1979-1982)
- Jack Nicholson (One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and Terms of Endearment 1975-1983) *
- Sally Field (Norma Rae and Places in the Heart 1979-1984)
- Dustin Hoffman (Kramer vs. Kramer and Rainman 1979-1988)
- Jodie Foster (The Accused and Silence of the Lambs 1988-1991)
- Gene Hackman (The French Connection and Unforgiven 1971-1992)
- Dianne Wiest (Hannah and Her Sisters and Bullets Over Broadway 1986-1994)
- Jessica Lange (Tootsie and Blue Sky 1982-1994)
- Tom Hanks (Philadelphia and Forrest Gump 1993-1994)
- Michael Caine (Hannah and Her Sisters and Cider House Rules 1986-1999)
- Kevin Spacey (Usual Suspects and American Beauty 1995-1999)
- Denzel Washington (Glory and Training Day 1989-2001)
- Hilary Swank (Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby 1999-2004)
- Daniel Day-Lewis (My Left Foot and There Will Be Blood 1989-2007)
- Sean Penn (Mystic River and Milk 2003-2008)
* They won again after this for a total of 3 Oscars (except Hepburn the all time leader with 4 competitive acting wins)
The thing I find most interesting about seeing them all together like this is that it instantly reveals that if someone is going to win a second Oscar it usually happens quickly after the first... 3 to 6 years being common. (which immediately makes you wonder about people by the name of Helen Mirren, Marion Cotillard, Javier Bardem and Kate Winslet). The list also shows us that the late 1930s were just brutal for actresses whose names weren't Bette or Luise, that the 1970s were the most friendly towards previous winners and that 1938 and 1994 are strange anomalies, years in which three of the four Oscar winners had already won gold. It's only so long before we have a year with all four since there's a first time for everything.
Third time acting wins have only happened in 1940, 1968, 1974 & 1997
Only four people have ever won more than two acting Oscars and the last to join the club was Jack Nicholson in 1997 for As Good As It Gets. The universe assumes that Meryl Streep will be the fifth, but will she? Quite a few two-timers are still working.
Answer Me These Questions Three
- Which three double winners did you find most deserving of both?
- Which three would you immediately remove if you had a time machine?
- Who do you think is joining the two-timer ranks next?
Reader Comments (90)
1. Most deserving: Leigh, Hackman, and a tossup between Wiest and Melvyn Douglas for the third spot.
2. Takeaway: Robards (for the wisp of a role in "Julia"); Hayes in "Airport" and Lange in "Tootsie" (strictly because of category fraud
3. Join the club: Frances McDormand and (wishful thinking) Sissy Spacek
zigzag -- agreed. to this day I think of Jason Robards win for "JULIA" as the weirdest Oscar win ever. There was just NOTHING to that role, it's not a difficult character or great performance, there were other ways to reward the movie (which they took), he's not in all that much of the movie, and he'd just won. It makes no sense to me whatsoever on any normal Oscar level I could think of. Did he have a health scare that year like Liz taylor in Butterfield 8?
it makes no kind of sense I've ever been acquainted with.
Cal: Lemmon, not really. Even if you try to assign another one for another of his (two) really deserving parts, you're robbing either 1. Jean-Pierre Leaud for The 400 Blows or 2. Anthony Perkins for Psycho. If you stick to the American cinema, then I guess Lemmon is deserving for Some Like it Hot, but if you're an internationalist... you can see there's a reason Leaud became a major actor in France.
Most deserving of both in their particular roles? Viven Leigh, Shelley Winters, Meryl Streep.
Walter Brennan as a three time Oscar winner is pretty embarrasing actually. He's perfectly fine though very limited in his range. He should have won three Emmys instead, but his time was before TV.
Melvyn Douglas doesn't feel like he should be a double winner. He's like the poor man's William Powell.
Also, I have to remove Glenda Jackson. Her second Oscar should have gone to Barbra (and I guess then Barbra would be a double winner). Also, I didn't like either of Kate Hepburn's 60s wins. Yes, you read that right. I think The Lion In Winter is way overrated.
Jason Robards should not have won for Julia, but as I recall, all the nominees in that category that year were pretty weak (yes, I'm that old).
Kevin Spacey having two Oscars kind of pisses me off.
And who will win a second Oscar? Cate or Kate are the most likely among the women I guess. I'm trying to think of a name that hasn't been mentioned much yet. It should be someone who is considered underawarded right now. Tommy Lee Jones? Julie Andrews in a swan song? Liza playing a dying former star? Oh, oops.
Oooh, this is fun! Though no one's going to read this on page 2. Eh.
3 I'd take away:
Sean Penn's for "Mystic River": Give it to Bill Murray for "Lost in Translation"
Jodie Foster in "The Accused": Give it to Glenn Close for "Dangerous Liaisons"
Hilary Swank in "Million Dollar Baby": Give it to Imelda Staunton in "Vera Drake"
3 most deserving:
Vivian Leigh ("Gone With the Wind" & "A Streetcar Named Desire"): two iconic performances for the ages; 'nuff said
Dianne Wiest ("Hannah and Her Sisters" & "Bullets Over Broadway"): I have to include anything with "Bullets Over Broadway" in it, but I did love Wiest in both roles
Dustin Hoffman ("Kramer vs. Kramer" & "Rainman"): I'll probably get mad flak for this, but I really thought he was great in both of these roles, despite how baity the latter film was; some of these choices that I could vote for I've only seen one of their two winning roles, so disclaimer in advance
Who's joining the two-timers club in the future?
Actor: I feel like it's about to happen any year for George Clooney. That supporting win won't be enough for some people, and one of these days, I think he'll carry a film to winning best picture. I think it'll need to be for something more "Good Night and Good Luck"-ish than "The Ides of March" and "The Descendants" though.
Actress: Once Cate Blanchett is done with her Australian theater kick and really gets back into headlining films again, watch out. She's another case where I don't think the supporting win will be "enough" for people. Just like with Clooney, it'll be seen as an upgrade of sorts. I feel like voters would be more likely to do that than to hand out two lead prizes to the same person. Though Penn and DDL have pulled it off recently, so who knows. Then I'd say Kate Winslet's next up.
Dave in Alamitos Beach: Kevin Spacey the unctuous and vain PERSON having two Oscars. Yeah, upsets me a little bit too. Spacey the actor actually whole heartedly deserving the wins because the three performances (Osment, Pitt and Broadbent) that were really anywhere close to him were either 1. Not nominated or 2. In another category? Perfectly fine with me. Would you really want the Academy to have called up "Denzel Washington for The Hurricane"? That would have just resulted in another win for A Beautiful Mind two years later. And A Beautiful Mind is the worst film to win Oscars. Sap, sap, mountains of sap. And critics FELL for it. (And never mind that Jennifer Connelly is a clear, "You were great in Requiem, but we could never vote for that kind of whore" win.)
Don't mean to bash prostitution (we should be more accepting of it), but I was just trying to suss out the Academy's reasoning (and plausible overall voice) for giving A Beautiful Mind that win. The Academy is too "in the center" to accept that kind of role, although they probably do keep the role in mind for future rewards.
Ty -- i'm reading on page 2 and i agree with everything you wrote about some star wins "not being enough" for people. The way MANY people on the internet talk you'd think that Cate Blanchett, for example, was still Oscarless ;)
Volvagia -- eh. don't agree that Connelly won for Requiem. I think Ellen Burstyn was only nominated because she was Ellen Burstyn (yes, the performance is great but that's often an afterhought in certain situations) because i'm sure many voters would'nt have touched that movie with a 10 foot pole. and also: her type of role in A Beautiful Mind is a very common type of winning role Teary LongSuffering Wife. as boring as that role is almost every time, people fall for it.
Dave -- don't be dissing Melvyn Douglas. he was SO GREAT in "Hud". why have i still never written about Hud? what is wrong with me?
1. Tom Hanks, Sean Penn, Daniel Day Lewis
2. Vivien Leigh, Kevin Spacey, Denzel Washington
3. George Clooney definitely
Nathan you never said who you want to win a 2nd Oscar. We know how you feel about Streep and Pfeiffer but what about someone else who has already won but needs another to be the cherry on top.
I want to take back those mean things I said about Bates. Of course I want her to get Oscar number 2. In fact Anjelica Huston could use another, and Julia Roberts. She's the last real female movie star-- no one else comes close. I don't care how cold her star appeal is these days I can't throw away who she is, like Harrsion Ford, she's too much of an icon.
/3rtfull -- who i WANT to win a second? That all depends on whether or not they give another great performance. But i'd be happy to see Holly Hunter up their again if she ever lands another great role. Or Jane Fonda a third time (i'm not joking... so long as someone challenges her in a big way and she rewards them with something like her 70s work) and every once in awhile i get sad remembering that Julie Chrstie didn't join the two-time club for Away From Her.
TheConversation2011: Gene Hackman is consistently good, I agree. But the role in Unforgiven is not deserve to win an Oscar. If you compare the " Best supporting Actor's villain winners in the 90s (Gene Hackman in Unforgiven, Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive (well, not technically villian but he against the protagonist almost all the time) to those in the 00s (the string from Javier Bandern in No Country for Old Man, Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, Christopher Waltz in Inglourious Basterds), the latter characters are far more complex: they both funny, scary and basically the steal the show. They have ability to floor us each and every time we watch those films. Only Kevin Spacey role in The Usual Suspect in the 90s reached that level imo.
I'd hand Lemmon Oscars for several movies: Some Like it Hot, Days of Wine and Roses, The Apartment, The China Syndrome... Oh, there was somebody who was better. You can always argue about that, but you'll be always missing the point. The point is to be deserving. That's how History Oscar works. That's how nobody complain about, for example, Judy Holliday beating Swanson and Davis. She deserved her Oscar, period.
BY the way, Lemmon in Some Like it Hot is way greater than Leaud in The 400 Blows. It's a fresh and charming break-through, but it was Truffaut's fault. He directed a then non-actor to a beautiful performance, and that's it. And people in France never saw him as a major actor. He is not a Piccoli, a Bouquet, or somebody like that. He is a major star of a certain kind with beautiful typecast performances. It's not like he can star a crwopleaser in drag and then play a recovering alcoholic. COME ON
What a titillating parlor game.
As multiple Oscar-winning actors go, I can't deny Frederick March, Gary Cooper, Anthony Quinn, Marlon Brando, Melvyn Douglas, Gene Hackman, Jason Robards, Robert Deniro and Daniel Day-Lewis theirs; nor can I vouch for Walter Brennan, Spencer Tracy or Peter Ustinov across the board. But I definitely would rescind Denzel Washington's and Sean Penn's first (why AMPAS chose him over Bill Murray is beyond me); Jack Lemmon's, Dustin Hoffman's, Tom Hanks', Michael Caine's, and Kevin Spacey's second (Russell Crowe, please); and Jack Nicholson's egregious third.
On the actress side, Bette Davis, Vivien Leigh, Meryl Streep and Diane Wiest are safe, but there's no way I wouldn't strip both of Jessica Lange's (Teri Garr should've won for Tootsie, by the way); Olivia De Havilland's, Elizabeth Taylor's and Jodie Foster's first; Luise Rainer's, Shelly Winter's, Katherine Hepburn's, Helen Hayes', Glenda Jackson's, Jane Fonda's, Sally Field's and Hilary Swank's second; Ingrid Bergman's third, and Hepburn's fourth. (If only Susan Sarandon had won for Atlantic City, maybe Elisabeth Shue then would have the Oscar that's rightfully hers for Leaving Las Vegas...sigh.)
I'm glad you like Douglas in "Hud," Nathaniel. I was surprised by how moved I was by him when I first saw the film. I wish more people would see Winters in "A Patch of Blue"--a brilliant performance in a film that continues to fascinate me. I also agree with just about everyone who took something away from Katharine Hepburn. She definitely won for the wrong roles. As weak as the '77 supporting actor roster was, I'm as puzzled by you as to why Robards won. It's akin to Burstyn being Emmy-nominated for "Mrs. Harris"--did they even *see* "Julia" to begin with?
MOST DESERVING
1. Vivien Leigh, “Gone with the Wind” (’39) & “A Streetcar Name Desire” (’51)
2. Marlon Brando, “On the Waterfront” (’54) & “The Godfather” (’72)
3. Sean Penn, “Mystic River” (’03) & “Milk” (’08)
LEAST DESERVING
1. Michael Caine, “Cider House Rules” (99), hand to Jude Law
2. Hilary Swank, “Million Dollar Baby” (’04), hand to Imelda Staunton
3. Walter Brennan, “Kentucky” (’38), hand to John Garfield
MOST LIKELY TO SNAG A SECOND
1. Judi Dench
2. Kate Winslet
3. Vanessa Redgrave
Which three double winners did you find most deserving of both?
Brando, Hepburn, and Spacey.
Which three would you immediately remove if you had a time machine?
Denzel Washington, Jason Robards (not the actor, but the two bland performances he won for, should have won in '62 and '65), and Rainer
Who do you think is joining the two-timer ranks next?
George Clooney. or Vanessa Redgrave.
tombeet: I completely disagree that Ledger and Waltz are more complex performances than Hackman in Unforgiven, your completely underrating him. Ledger especially is not a complex performance at all, its full of tics, mannerisms and acting, but its all surface. Hackman's performane in Unforgiven is complex, there is far more ambuigity in his performance, because even though he has extreme methods of violence you still understand things from his point of view considering Clint Eastwood's character is the villain. Hackman as Bill Daggett much like the house he builds is flawed and leaky because he cant build a house and he cant enforce law because he is unable to transcend his dark and violent past. I think Ledger and Waltz are two of the most overrated villain performances of recent times.
01. Marlon Brando, Daniel Day Lewis, Vivien Leigh
02. Sally Field cause I find her really annoying. Hilary Swank because I find her really annoying. Bening and Winslet were much more desvering both times. Jessica Lange I find semi annoying and her 94 win is not desvering at all. Michael Caine cause he stole the Oscar from Tom Cruise
03. My Queen Blanchett, Tilda Swinton. Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Jospeh Gordon Lewitt, Angelina Jolie, Viola Davis, Judi Dench, Emma Thompson
04. Should had a third Oscar:
Meryl Streep for either Silkwood, Adaptation or Prada
Daniel Day Lewis either In The Name of The Father or Gangs of New York
Marlon Brando for Last Tango in Paris and or A Streetcar Named Desire
Cate Blanchett for Elizabeth and Notes on a Scandal
Maggie Smith for Gosford Park
@The Conversation
The great thing about Unforgiven is that you can't find a hero and you can't find a villain, and still, you can relate to everyone or at least understand everyone. It's a helluva movie.
Agreed Cal, thats why I always find it baffling that people consider Hackman's win undeserving especially when compared to Jaye Davidson, who's claim to fame was his gimmick in his film not his acting. It was such a widly inconsistent characterisation
Oh, I'll complain about Judy Holliday winning an Oscar any day of the week. For my money that was Gloria Swanson's Oscar win, though Bette Davis was to die for as well.
I know I'd take away Swank's second Oscar and probably give it to either Winslet or Staunton. Beyond that, I'd have to think about some of these others. Wish I'd seen some more of these choices. I haven't seen either of Jack Lemmon's wins for example, or Hackman in "The French Connection."
I'd love to see Cate Blanchett, Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, and Sissy Spacek repeat wins one of these days. I'd agree that George Clooney is inching his way toward that lead actor Oscar any year now. I don't think anyone's mentioned this yet, but I could totally see them give Jack Nicholson a fourth wn before he retires, probably in a juicy supporting actor turn. They'll give him a fourth before they give Meryl a third I bet.
Rex -- if Jack hasn't retired (it's tough to say) i think you're right. They just love rewarding him.
Cal, the conversation and others -- i think 1992 is one of THE weirdest years in terms of acting noms and disagreements about who was worthy. Both acting categories (male division) are kind of weird and unsatisfying for different reasons but no one ever seems to agree.
Ryan -- wow sean penn in Mystic River? You don't hear that one much anymore in terms of deserving. (it kills me that Johnny Depp -- who i proudly gave the gold to -- made such a hackery of things that people no longer really respect that performance as an acting triumph despite how iconic and genius it was on first exposure)
I also think Sean Penn is mesmerizing in Mystic River.
TheConversation2011: okay, here my thought:
-About Gene Hackman in Unforgiven:
+ Performance: it is actually NOT a breakthrough performance for him. He's a veteran actor and consistency good in many films (which we are both agree). From Superman, Mississippi Burning, The Royal Tenenbaums (which I personally love his performance so much I want him to nominate for Oscar that year) that Hackman did a better job, yet he was ignored and instead they rewarded him for less deserving role. That leads to:
+Character: The main problem I had with Little Bill is he's quite "been there, done that". The audience really can expect what he's gonna do and he did just that. Nothing more.
Jay Davidson's character, on the other hand:
+Character: The role is important to the movie and before it was made someone had read the script and said that the role is impossible to perform. (maybe Spielberg but I'm not sure here). It's the role that if it isn't believable, the whole film would fall apart.
+ Performance: It is really his breakthrough performance. Period before the twist of the movie, you don't expect that she's a he. After the twist his performance is good enough that make you feel his inner complex persona. I watched it again and I felt the performance still hold up very well.
And about the villains in the 00s:
Character: All 3 performances, at some points in the movies, you see the villains directly in their faces and you really don't know what the heck is going on inside their heads, or what they gonna do, then you find out later and you think: well, I must have see that coming. Even now sometimes you don't know exactly some of their behaviors (Did Chigurh kill Moss's wife, what happened with Joker's Glasgow smile, the pipe of Landa (Does he actually smoke at all?)... and these little things make them far more complex.
Performance: I believed in some shots, the actors often adlib or improvise a scene (notably Joker in 'Blowing up a hospital' scene. And I figure that not because of their contradiction dialogues or over-smart decision, but their facial expression and little gestures that make them become as unique and famous (or infamous?) as they are now; and these come from extraordinary performances. Those are also their best works to date.
I loved Denzel in Training Day! Both of his wins were great to me.
Vivien Leigh is the best two-time winner! I just watched The Heiress, and Olivia de Havilland was amazing! It was better than To Each His Own, but I don't mind either win!
I don't think much of Jessica Lange. Both of her wins were awful ones. The only win I would have supported for her was Frances, and no one was beating Streep that year. Both of Jodie Foster's wins don't do too much for me either. It's easy to rag on Hilary Swank, but at least she proved herself in Boys Don't Cry. That makes up for a lot, especially Million Dollar Baby.
I'll be rooting for Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench to win lead Oscars to go with their supporting ones. I think Blanchett can do it. Dench might have to settle for another supporting one.
But I also do respect your point and I honestly think that this is exactly what a cinema would be. People take different point of view from movies and rarely feel exactly the same thing about 1 movie. And what's exactly great performance? I think the performance is good if it personally APPEAL to you. In that sense there's no right or wrong, nor better/worse performance. You made your point, I hope I make my point here. ^ ^
I agree tombeet, nicely put
And thanks for explaining what it was about those performances that appealed to you so much. I think the best villain performance of all time is Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List, it was a performance based on a real person, but Fiennes finds so many layers and complexities in this monster
MOST DESERVING: Vivien Leigh (she looks to be something of a consensus choice around here), Marlon Brando, and Daniel Day-Lewis
LEAST DESERVING: Sally Field (again, probably the consensus choice), Jessica Lange, and as much as it kills me to say it, Jack Nicholson. But the thing about him is that I think he SHOULD be in the "multiple winner" club, but his 2nd and 3rd wins are not roles he should have won for. Cuckoo's Nest, yes, but I wish he would have also won earlier for Five Easy Pieces, The Last Detail, and/or Easy Rider instead of winning later for Terms of Endearment and As Good As It Gets.
As for actors who seemed destined to win a second Oscar in the future, I agree with some that have already been mentioned such as Kate Winslet, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and George Clooney. I'd also add (and forgive me if these have been mentioned as well):
-Emma Thompson (still a very respected actress who could easily win with a juicy supporting role)
-Sissy Spacek (came very close with In the Bedroom)
-Julie Christie (came very close with Away from Her, although she rarely acts anymore)
-Tilda Swinton (the fact that her win was also her only nomination seems outright wrong)
-Javier Bardem (he'll win in the lead category one day...I just have a feeling about it)
-Geoffey Rush (another actor who's probably come close to joining the 2-timer club already, most notably this past year)
-Ben Kingsley (doesn't it seem like he just...should?)
Also, if Meryl Streep doesn't win a third Oscar soon, Daniel Day-Lewis is the most likely to beat her to the 3-timer club, but don't count out Maggie Smith or even Robert De Niro, who seems to generate buzz every 2 or 3 years but ultimately goes nowhere with it. One of these good-on-paper roles has to actually pull through for him at some point, right?
Also, what about multiple Best Director winners? Only 18 filmmakers have won Best Director more than once, and only 3 have won more than twice (John Ford won 4 times, and both William Wyler and Frank Capra won 3 times). Could Spielberg or Eastwood become the 4th person to win this award 3+ times this year?
I'm so willing to bet that it's Colin Firth who joins the two-time winners' club.
Which second Oscars I'd remove:
This one is tricky because I truly believe that last seven two-time winners won one of their Oscars for a very inferior performance.
I'd take away Jessica Lange's 'Blue Sky' Oscar, Tom Hanks' 'Forrest Gump', Caine's 'Cider House Rules', Spacey's 'American Beauty' - and I love 'American Beauty AND Kevin Spacey but in my book that movie belongs to ANNETTE BENING who nobody mentioned here but SHOULD HAVE TWO OSCARS BY NOW (!), Denzel's 'Training Day', Swank's 'Million Dollar Baby', Day-Lewis' 'My Left Foot' and Penn's 'Mystic River' Oscar. And I'd add Jodie Foster's 'The Accused' one too of course.
Three most deserved:
Although Vivien Leigh was never as impressive in the rest of her career as she was in her two wins, those are two very deserved - and amazing - wins.
And it's algo hard to argue with Gary Cooper, Robert DeNiro, Meryl Streep and Dianne Wiest.
About Meryl Streep: I like to pretend that she has 4 Oscars like Hepburn, for 'Kramer vs. Kramer', 'Sophie's Choice', 'Silkwood' and 'Postcards from the Edge'. As she should have. So much awesomeness contained in only these four performances that could make up for many of these two-time winners' terrible wins.
Nathaniel I agree about Julie Christie, who should have multiple Oscars by now anyway, I was really pulling for her for Away from Her and still think she should have won although the sting of the loss was diminished by the Oscar going to Marion Cotillard's brilliant performance. If she had lost to a lesser performance it would have been horrendous.
I had said that Kate Winslet would be next in the two timers club but forgot about the buzz around Vanessa Redgrave's latest role. It would be fantastic to see her win, when is she not great and completely deserving?
Tilda Swinton will be the next two-time winner! Clooney is too much like Pitt (pretty guy), and Pitt doesn't have one. And Hoffman was nominated in 2008 and 2009 in the wake of his 2006 win, but hasn't he faded since then? Cotillard was a contender for Public Enemy, Nine and Inception since her win, and none of them worked out. She'd be lucky to be nominated again, let alone win again. And all other possibilities are too old... except for Cate & Kate... but no, I think Tilda is more likely...
She's less famous than Cate & Kate, but so is/was Swank...
Swinton is too old to be a serious contender for best actress. Her films aren't in the Academy's wheelhouse. She'll be lucky to receive a 2nd nomination and win in Supporting again.
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-Tilda Swinton (the fact that her win was also her only nomination seems outright wrong)
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No. It means when they had a first chance to give it to her they did.
I agree with Dave from Alamitos Beach's comment last year. Walter Brennan's three wins were a real embarrassment. But the thing is that in the beginning of his career he had worked as an extra and a stuntman, so that he was very popular with the extras' Union. At the time he won in 1936, 1938 and 1940 extras had the right to vote. That's why he won every time he was nominated. He was nominated again in 1941 for Sergeant York, but he "finally" lost! I seem to recall having read that his 3 Oscars were a factor that resulted in extras no longer having that right. And so by the time he got his fourth nomination Brennan didn't have their support.
Brennan's responsible for ushering the denial of extras having right to vote. Theoretically making winning an Oscar all the more difficult.