Double Winners & Chart Updates
Friday, February 24, 2017 at 4:40PM 
No Oscar Trivia today. Unless you count all the stuff that's on the Oscar pages. The major category charts have been updated with our popular "how'd they get nominated?" speculation, chosen preferred Oscar clips, and other sorts of trivia. Every acting chart plus Picture and Director are update! Woooo
Thoughts? Comments? Feelings? Nonsense? Opinions? Do share. (Note: The final predictions full article will go up tomorrow but you can see a sneak peek of the predictions on the chart index.)
Okay fine, fine. You have to have your daily trivia don't you? As if the charts aren't enough! You're so greedy, sometimes, I swear. After the jump the six double winning actors who are two for two in that they won both times they were nominated, never losing an official Oscar race. (Obviously they lost out on nominations over the years but that's a different thing and everyone does. Even Streep)
| HELEN HAYES | |
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| The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931) | Airport (1970) |
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| LUISE RAINER | |
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| The Great Ziegfeld (1936) | The Good Earth (1937) |
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| VIVIEN LEIGH | |
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| Gone With the Wind (1939) | A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) |
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| KEVIN SPACEY | |
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| The Usual Suspects (1995) | American Beauty (1999) |
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| HILARY SWANK | |
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| Boys Don't Cry (1999) | Million Dollar Baby (2004) |
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| CHRISTOPH WALTZ | |
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| Inglorious Basterds (2009) | Django Unchained (2012) |
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Reader Comments (19)
Huh. Looks like Irene Dunne (0-for-5 in her career) lost on her 2nd and 3rd nominations to Luise Rainer (2-for-2).
Years later, Annette Bening (0-for-4 in her career) lost on her 2nd and 3rd nominations to Hilary Swank (2-for-2).
You know what would be really crazy? If Annette Bening starred in a remake of an Irene Dunne movie playing the same role. Oh wait, that already happened in 1994.
P.S. That remake was LOVE AFFAIR, and it gets crazier. According to IMDb, "Luise Rainer was also considered for the role that eventually went to Katharine Hepburn."
Finally, I should point out AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER was made between the two versions called LOVE AFFAIR, and the same role of Terry McKay was played by Deborah Kerr, who went 0-for-6 in her career. That role might be cursed.
Hilary Swank beating Annette Bening twice is a giant OUCH. I like Swank but what did she ever do after to merit winning two Academy awards? I guess Annette wins for longevity of career.
I completely forgot that Kevin Spacey won twice. It also seems like a long time ago that he was a player in movies.
Vivien Leigh is the rare double-winner where both of her films are considered classic movies. (If only Meryl had won for The Devil Wears Prada and Bridges of Madison County, but we have the Iron Lady - maddening. If only that movie had been directed by Spielberg or Kathryn Bigelow).
Good luck to all the Oscar nominees and Kimmel. I look forward to watching the winning actor's speeches later on YouTube (for some reason, I can't even with sitting down to watch this year's 3-hour show from front to back).
Look at that 1939 best actress lineup. If it was a 5-way tie I wouldn't have been upset at all.
Scarlett O'Hara and Blanche DuBois. Good luck matching that duo!
Denzel got nominated for his red carpet presence?
(May have to remove Negga's duplicate reasons there.....)
Ugh just kills me every time I remember Spacey won with Harris. That last scene of his in Apollo 13 is such magic.
Applause to you Brevity. That is some top Oscar trivia.
Nat, check Denzel's percnentages again. I think that might be Ruth Negga's percentages by accident.
Brilliant work. Tell your boss you deserve a raise!
Yeah, I'm with Adelutza on 1939. Everyone talks about 1995 being the best lineup, but I don't know. I think 1939 is just unbelievably strong.
I was also thinking the same things as others. That 1939 Actress line up has to be the best/toughest of all time. Everyone of those performance are excellent and not considered classic !
My heart hurts seeing Christoph Waltz has won two Oscars. How undeserving.
1939 was indeed choice for Best Actress (and film in general). I often think 1950, 1967, 1977, 1991, and 1995 were on par, but then I remember Eleanor Parker (Caged), Katherine Hepburn (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?), Talia Shire (Rocky), Bette Midler (The Rose), and Sharon Stone (Casino), respectively, and they all seem to come down a notch in mind.
And to think, Sally Field would've been on this list if not for Lincoln!
Ugh, 1976! Bette Midler (For the Boys)! (1977 and The Rose were both delicious; lest I disparage either.)
Glad that Vivien Leigh won both times out and she is in this select group but whenever I watch her in Waterloo Bridge I can't believe that the awesome performance she gives in it went ignored.
Luise Rainer does beautiful deserving work in The Good Earth but no matter how I look at it I'll never understand the win for The Great Ziegfeld especially in lead!
Best: Leigh BY FAR
Worst: Swank duh
Is there another runner up in this list besides Sally Field?
The Fields and Swank parallels are interesting. They won their first *and* second Oscars exactly 20 years apart, both times! Each of their first Oscar wins is unimpeachable, but their second wins (2 for 2)...dubious at best. Wonder if Swank will come back in 2032 and snag a long-awaited nomination in the Best Supporting Actress category? That would be ca-razy.
I have never quite understood why Hilary Swank is considered such an undeserving winner for Million Dollar Baby. I am sure we can think of other actors who are far less deserving of their Oscar wins.
Most people's dislike for that win comes from the fact that Annette Bening should have won, and that's the most confusing part. The other three nominees give better performances that Bening yet the discussion always comes down to Swank vs Bening. Staunton (critical darling of the year) and Winslet (risk-taker who was IMO more overdue than Bening despite being younger) give much more memorable performances.
As hard as it is sometimes (I have my favorites too), shouldn't we also try to judge Oscar wins on their own merit? I can live with an overdue performer winning for a lesser performance, and similarly I can also live with a lesser actor going two-for-two for good/great performances. Swank got great reviews and won a few major critics awards. After Million Dollar Baby surprised everyone late in the season, it became quite apparent that she would sweep through the season. Swank vs Bening was never a thing. In fact, I would argue that they were in much closer competition the first time around. The nascent Oscar websites tried to make it into a rivalry because it made for an interesting read.
I will never understand how Waltz won for Django Unchained, even accounting for the relatively weak Oscar category that year. As revelatory as his performance as Hans Lanza was, he's essentially been playing variations on that character ever since. Alas, the best male supporting performance of 2012 was housed in an otherwise fatally flawed sci-fi spinoff.