by Baby Clyde
I recently watched Susan Hayward all but demanding voters hand her the Best Actress Oscar in-movie during 1958's I Want To Live. It got me to thinking about her fellow Academy favourites, whose eventual triumphs were also their Oscar swan song.
If an actor who achieves multiple acting nominations is going to win it’s usually early on. It’s common to bag the statue and then spend the rest of your career chasing another. Bette Davis won on her first 2 attempts and then suffered 8 consecutive losses. Spencer Tracy won on attempts 2 and 3 and then spent the next 30 years and 6 nominations waiting for his name to be called again. Sometimes a veteran actor with multiple nods will finally get the prize and continue on in Oscar good books, like Paul Newman who won on nomination 7 and scored two more in following decades. But a surprisingly high amount of winners who have been made to wait find that their greatest triumph is also their last.
If you win on your 5th nomination (or later) odds are high that you won't be invited back. Consider...
Susan Hayward – I Want To Live (1958)
Her 5th nomination in 12 years. Playing death row inmate Barbara Graham was Hayward big chance at Oscar glory and there is now way she was going to let it pass. Chewing the prison bars and electric chair along with the scenery she left nothing to chance. Not known for their subtle tastes The Academy gave her the gold despite stiff competition from fellow favourites Rosalind Russell (Auntie Mame) and Deborah Kerr (Separate Tables) who were on their 4th and 5th nominations respectively. Neither went on to win in the future and Hayward was never nominated again. After the ceremony producer Walter Wanger is said to have joked ‘Thank heavens, now we can all relax. Susie got what she’s been chasing for twenty years’. It seems the Academy took his words a bit too literally.
Previous Nominations – Smash Up, The Story of A Woman (1947), My Foolish Heart (1949), With A Song In My Heart (1952), I’ll Cry Tomorrow (1955)
Gregory Peck – To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
Few actors got off to such an auspicious start with Oscar voters as Gregory Peck. Nominated for only his second film Keys To the Kingdom (1944) he racked up a total of 4 nominations in the next 6 years, but no wins. Their ardour quickly cooled as he failed to gain a single nod throughout the 50’s and it took his signature role to get him back in Oscar’s sights. And what a role it was.
Has any part been more perfectly embodied than that of Atticus Finch by Gregory Peck? The star brought all of his famous warmth and decency to the role of the small town lawyer defending a black man accused of rape in the film version of Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. Despite it being one of the strongest Best Actor line-ups ever there was no doubt who the winner would be. But that was it. He never garnered another nomination.
He maybe came closest in 1978 for playing German war criminal Dr Joseph Mengele in The Boys From Brazil but despite a Golden Globe nomination it was co-star Laurence Olivier that got the Oscar nod for his more sympathetic turn as the Nazi hunter. There was also pre-release Oscar Buzz for Old Gringo (1989) but when it got booed at Cannes and bombed on release those soon fizzled. It got Razzie noms instead. A 1967 Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award had to make up for the rest of his career snubs.
Previous Nominations – The Keys of The Kingdon (1944), The Yearling (1946), Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), Twelve O’clock High (1949)
Shirley MacLaine – Terms of Endearment (1983)
When Susan Hayward won in 1958, she beat a young Shirley MacLaine on her first nomination for Some Came Running. Little would they know how closely their Oscar journeys would mirror each other. On her 5th Best Actress nomination MacLaine too became a slam dunk winner in her most iconic role. "I deserve this," she declared at the podium as she collected her award for playing Aurora Greenway in the year’s Best Picture winner Terms Of Endearment and so she did. After nearly 30 years in the business and an infamous loss ‘to a tracheotomy’ in 1960 Shirley’s time had come. Unaccountably it was to be her last time she gained Oscar’s attention.
Of all the actors discussed here MacLaine’s lack of further nominations is the most mystifying. In the following years she appeared in numerous buzzy projects and baity roles. Nominated for 2 post Endearment BAFTA awards and 5 Golden Globes in the Movie categories she even won the Best Dramatic Actress award for Madame Sousatska (1988) but for some reason The Academy continuously ignored her. In one of their most shocking snubs she even failed to gain a nomination for essentially playing Hollywood royalty Debbie Reynolds in Postcards From The Edge (1990). She famously sang ‘I’m Still Here’ in the film but the Academy had stopped listening.
Previous Nominations – Some Came Running (1958), The Apartment (1960), Irma La Douce (1963), The Turning Point (1977)
Jessica Lange – Blue Sky (1994)
This one is more like 'Two and Done'. At the 1982 Oscars Jessica Lange was nominated in both Actress (Frances) and Supporting Actress (Tootsie) categories. As was the custom back then she was awarded in Supporting like every other double nominee before her. The problem? Lange was not a Supporting player. She was an A List Leading lady and in much the same was a Cate Blanchett years later, the award she had didn’t seem commensurate with her stature. Continuing to accrue nominations (All in the Lead category) throughout the next decade by 1994 she was on her 6th in total. With arguably one of the weakest Actress line-ups ever, even the fact her film had been on the shelf for 3 years couldn’t stop her from triumphing. Whilst the Academy may have ignored her ever since, other bodies have done the opposite. With 3 Emmy’s, 2 Golden Globes and a Tony, her awards cupboard isn’t exactly bare.
Previous Nominations – Frances (1982), Tootsie (1982), Country (1984), Sweet Dreams (1985), Music Box (1990)
Susan Sarandon – Dean Man Walking (1995).
It’s rare for an actress in her mid 40’s to suddenly reach a career high in the movies but the early 90’s were a golden period for Susan Sarandon, literally. First nommed for Atlantic City (1981) it took another decade for her to grab voters attention again. Once she did the nominations kept on coming. She nabbed four in 5 years between 1991 and her eventual win in 1995. You might assume that she’d just worn them down, but the performance was worthy and the standing ovation from her peers genuine. It’s strange then that to this day she has never been honoured again. There is no way her dying mother role in Stepmom (1998) gets overlooked if the Academy didn’t feel she had already been rewarded enough.
Previous Nominations – Atlantic City (1981), Thelma and Louise (1991), Lorenzo’s Oil (1992), The Client (1994)
But there’s still time. With three of the above mentioned still alive and consistently working they can look to the Oscar paths of some fellow ignored winners to see that it’s never too late.
Kate Winslet’s illustrious Oscar career came to a screeching halt after her win for The Reader (2008) on her 6th attempt. She’d averaged a nomination every couple of years up to that point, so it seemed like an eternity until she finally got nommed again for Steve Jobs (2015). Waiting even longer was eternal bridesmaid Al Pacino who had to wait until 1992 when he was double nominated for Glengarry Glen Ross and The Scent of a Woman. Winning for the latter it took an astonishing 27 years for The Academy to notice him again when he was nominated last year for The Irishman.
By that reckoning Jessica and Susan only have a couple of years to wait until they are back on Oscar’s radar.