2 days til Oscar. Offscreen Oscar pairs
Friday, February 22, 2019 at 12:30PM by Nathaniel R
With just 2 days to go until Oscar let's talk famous couples who've both been Oscar blessed. This year we have loved the offscreen symmetry of A Star is Born's Sam Elliott finally having an Oscar nomination to match his beautiful wife's; Katharine Ross was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for The Graduate (1967) and now Elliott has a matching nomination in Supporting Actor just before their 25th wedding anniversary. They were married around the time Elliott started work on Mask (1985) and Ross started work on the Dynasty spinoff The Colbys (1985-1987). They co-starred together just last year (albeit briefly) when Ross played Elliott's character's ex-wife in The Hero (2017).
It's fairly rare for two members of a movie star couple to win Oscars while they're together (lots of Hollywood relationships being short-lived) but the gold standard is surely Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward...
Woodward and Newman met on the Broadway production of Picnic (He was playing what became the Cliff Robertson role in the movie version / she was an understudy) but they got famous roughly at the same time in the movies. In fact, they were newlyweds when Woodward won her Oscar. She won Best Actress for The Three Faces of Eve (1957) just three months after marrying Newman.
We've always adored this 1958 photo (above) with Paul getting a sad makeshift "Noscar" to go with his wife's bonafide trophy. The Newman / Woodward marriage apparently didn't have any of the professional jealousy that some showbiz marriages fall to (hello A Star is Born's enduring trope). Newman had to wait almost 30 more years before he finally won an Oscar and they remained happily married until his death. Woodward is still with us (she turns 89 next week) though she's in ill health which is why she's been gone from the public eye for so long now.
Other movie star couples who won Oscars during their relationship!
Jack and Anjelica in 1976
Jack Nicholson & Anjelica Huston: They were together for 15 years during which Jack won his first two Oscars (Cuckoo's Nest, and Terms of Endearment) and Anjelica won hers (Prizzi's Honor)
Viv & Larry in the late 1940s when their relationship was beginning to fall apart. He was about to have Hamlet and she was about to become Blanche DuBois.
Vivien Leigh & Sir Laurence Olivier: Leigh was famously cast in Gone With the Wind at the last second for the already in production film while visiting Olivier in Los Angeles. They tied the knot just months after her Best Actress win. During their 20+ year relationship they each received multiple statues. He'd later win for Hamlet and Henry V and she'd win again for A Streetcar Named Desire
Susan Sarandon & Tim Robbins: They never married but during their 21 year relationship they each won acting Oscars (Dead Man Walking and Mystic River, respectively)
??? Woody Allen & Diane Keaton??? They were a relatively informal couple after first meeting in 1969 on his Broadway play "Play it Again, Sam". Were they even really still together-together by 1977? They weren't living together at that point but who knows since they've remained close friends ever since meeting. Both won Oscars for Annie Hall (1977) which he wrote for her (Annie being her nickname and "Hall" her actual last name). Keaton went to the Oscars but Woody didn't (of course).
Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie: Jolie was already an Oscar winner long before they met but during their 12 year relationship she received an honorary Oscar for her humanitarian work and he won Best Picture for producing 12 Years a Slave.
Javier Bardem & Penelope Cruz: They both won supporting Oscar shortly after their relationship began for No Country for Old Men and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (in which they co-starred), respectively. They didn't actually get married until two years after they were both winners, though.
Did we miss anyone?
P.S. As a reminder we're talking about movie star couples who won while they were together. There are many former couples who have won and couples who won before they were together and some where only one of them won but the other didn't. Etcetera.
Reader Comments (26)
Javier and Penelope!!! I miss them.
Were Daniel Day Lewis and Isabelle Adjani together when he won for My Left Foot?
Off the top of my head...
Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger
Jack Fisk and Sissy Spacek
Frances McDormand and Joel Coen
Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassebnder
I feel like there are a bunch more!
Do James Dean and Sal Mineo count? It's pretty much confirmed now, isn't it?
Katherine Hepburn & Tracy
Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton
Lee Grant & Joe Feury
Geraldine Page & Rip Torn
Anne Bancroft & Mel Brooks
Rachel Roberts & Rex Harrison
Barbara Streisand & Elliott Gould
Julie Christie & Warren Beatty
Marsha Mason & Neil Simon
Penelope and Javier are everything! I hope they last forever.
I can't believe Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were only together for 12 years! It felt like way longer. What star power in that pairing.
Laurence Olivier & Joan Plowright, though hers for Enchanted April was after he died.
Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas!
George & Arlo & Bruno & JEM -- yeah, good ones. thanks hor the reminders. but for this list i was going exclusively for movie stars who won while they were together rather than were just nominated or won before or after their relatinoships.
Cris -- hmmm. i dont know.
Anouk Aimee and Albert Finney
Diane Keaton and Woody Allen
In the spirit of "present all 24":
Janusz Kaminski and Holly Hunter
George Lucas and Marcia Lucas
Ray McKinnon and Lisa Blount
J. Roy Helland and Meryl Streep (just kidding; I couldn't find a good makeup-related Oscar couple)
Got it! You should change that second paragraph then .. :)
You missed the former King and Queen of the Luvvies Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson. Both were together when they received their first Oscar nominations.
Oh wait of course Branagh didn't win.
julie andrews (competitive) and blake edwards (honorary).
OH AND bigelow and cameron.
If they did the tradition of last years male winner gives it the female category, Javier would’ve given Penelope hers!!
Great topic. Thanks for posting.
I love Newman and Woodward sooo much (he's permanently on my list of 5 favorite actors) but I think Bardem and Cruz are approaching that territory.
Guestguestguest, thank you for the trivia - especially the Kaminski & Hunter relationship, which is a fact I continually forget. I'll remember it someday - I'm now remembering w/out prompting that Tracee Ellis Ross is the daughter of Diana Ross.
I was expecting that Javier gives the Oscar to Penélope but that year they change the rules.
P.S. Paul Newman always looks gorgeous.
A LOT of the people listed above have never won Oscars: Michelle Williams, George Lucas, Isabel Adjani, Richard Burton, Joan Plowright.... Isn't anyone looking things up before they post?
Ross and Elliot were married in May of 1984, making their upcoming wedding anniversary their 35th.
Anne Bancroft and Men Brooks! I would have loved you talked about them.
Dan H - I think a lot of us took the Elliott/Ross path and picked nominees, not winners...
Warren and Annette! Oh wait.
Newman and Woodward are true movie star royalty