Oscar Trivia: Who has had the most consecutive acting nominations?
Tuesday, March 22, 2022 at 2:00PM by Nathaniel R
Given that this year brought us only one repeat acting nominee from last season (Olivia Colman, from The Father to The Lost Daughter) we thought it would be a fun detour to look back at thespians that Oscar was obsessed with for a relatively intense stretch of time. Which of the 20 actors nominated this year will be back again next year and start a run towards this rarefied list?Care to make a guess? Maybe it'll be Olivia Colman a third consecutive time. We could see it if Empire of Light opens in time.
Now, it's pretty easy to return again and again at The Emmys given that one series can last for several years (and the TV Academy falls out of love slowly), but for the Oscars, where it's new projects and characters every year, it's very dificult to hold interest for years on end...
For the purposes of this list we're only looking at actors since the craft categories are much different beasts (for instance, John Williams, who the Academy can't live without, had 8 consecutive nominations and he did the five-times-consecutively thing that only two actors have ever done not once but thrice at different points in his career.
History has plenty of consecutive acting nominations but it's fairly rare to return for three or more years in a row so let's look at the 21 people who've done it. Two thirds of them won during this intense stretch when Oscar was stanning them.
5 consecutive nomination club in chronological order...
* indicates that all of these nominations were leading roles
Jezebel. © Warner Bros
* Bette Davis (38-42)
Jezebel ★, Dark Victory, The Letter, The Little Foxes, and Now Voyager
The craziest thing about Davis's half-decade consecutive run is that she deserved each and every one of these nominations; None were coasting on her fame/acclaim!
Mrs Miniver (1942). © MGM
* Greer Garson (41-45)
Blossoms in the Dust, Mrs Miniver ★, Madame Curie, Mrs Parkington, and Valley of Decision
Both of these runs were over by the mid-40s. No actors in the subsequent 75+ years have equalled it with consistent every year Oscar favor.
4 consecutive nominations club in chronological order...
Jennifer Jones (43-46)
Song of Bernadette ★, Since You Went Away, Love Letters, and Duel in the Sun
Thelma Ritter (50-53)
All About Eve, The Mating Game, With a Song in My Heart, and Pickup on South Street
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). © Warner Bros
* Marlon Brando (51-54)
A Streetcar Named Desire, Viva Zapata, Julius Caesar, and On the Waterfront ★
* Elizabeth Taylor (57-60)
Raintree County, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Suddenly Last Summer, and BUtterfield 8★
Al Pacino (72-75)
The Godfather, Serpico, Godfather Pt II, and Dog Day Afternoon
3 consecutive nominations club in chronological order...
* Spencer Tracy (36-38)
San Francisco, Captains Courageous ★, and Boys Town ★
* Gary Cooper (41-43)
Sergeant York ★, Pride of the Yankees, and For Whom the Bell Tolls
* Ingrid Bergman (43-45)
For Who the Bell Tolls, Gaslight★, and Bells of St Marys
* Gregory Peck (45-47)
Keys of the Kingdom, The Yearling, and Gentleman's Agreement
The King and I (1956). © Twentieth Century Fox
* Deborah Kerr (56-58)
The King and I, Heaven Knows Mr Allison, and Separate Tables
* Richard Burton (64-66)
Becket, Spy Who Came in From the Cold, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Sometimes a hot consecutive run will make you overdue and a winner even with tough competition later on (see Peck). Other times it will mean they missed their window to award you (see Kerr & Burton)
* Jack Nicholson (73-75)
Last Detail, Chinatown, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ★
* Jane Fonda (77-79)
Julia, Coming Home ★, and China Syndrome
Silkwood © ABC Motion Pictures
* Meryl Streep (81-83)
The French Lieutenant's Woman, Sophie's Choice ★, and Silkwood
It's a bit surprising to notice that Streep has only done a three-consecutive once, given the frequency of her nominations! And while we're here, I will take every opportunity to remind people that Silkwood is Meryl's best performance. You heard me.
Glenn Close (83-85)
World According to Garp, Big Chill, and The Natural
* William Hurt (85-87)
Kiss of the Spider Woman ★, Children of Lesser God, and Broadcast News
* Russell Crowe (99-01)
Insider, Gladiator ★, and A Beautiful Mind
Renée Zellweger (01-03)
Bridget Jones Diary, Chicago, and Cold Mountain ★
Silver Linings Playbook (2012). © The Weinstein Co
Bradley Cooper (12-14)
Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, and American Sniper
Too many actors have been nominated twice in a row to list them all. It's common. So that's the whole list! Any observations?
Reader Comments (15)
I so agree that Silkwood is Meryl's best performance. Speaking of Streep — if she doesn't get nominated this upcoming year, she'll break her longest gap without an Oscar nomination (5 years between Postcards from the Edge and The Bridges of Madison County).
Love this list.
Thank God for Meryl's pregnancies.
I think it's very obvious since her win that The Academy and her peers love Olivia Colman who to me is now in Judi Dench/Amy Adams territory,always in the conversation no matter what the role or if deserving and so far Colman has earned it all 3 times and 4 if you count her Tyrannosaur work.
Strrep in Silkwood is her best by a mile,she just embodied that role.
It's funny, Bette Davis and Greer Garson had phenomenal 5 consecutive nominations, and Bette Davis is iconic, and Greer Garson is not nearly as well known.
So Oscar nominations are no guarantee of iconic status. Appearing in a film that gets seen on TV or is available on streaming counts more for fame.
I was surprised that Katharine Hepburn, Paul Newman, Dustin Hoffman, Audrey Hepburn, Gene Hackman, did not appear on this list. I think of them as dominant actors of their times, and having long careers.
Thus proving once more that Oscar is a fickle beast.
Feels like a special shoutout is deserved for Emma Thompson who got 3 in 2 years (92-93) and a 4th in 95... not exactly the same but if In the Name of the Father had been a '94 release instead of '93...
@Peter
Cate Blanchett did the exact same thing: nomination (and win) on the first nomination in the run (2004), a nomination in 2006, and then two nominations in 2007. So, 3 in 2 years, 4 in 4 (including a win). The same as Thompson.
Kerr, Burton and Close are so sad in this context...
The eyes of the enslaved woman when she sees that Julie is wearing a red dress under her wrap in that Jezebel gif...
Nathaniel:
I agree about Slilkwood. That is the performance of the Meryl Streep acting saga. Amen
Nathianel: I got a question for you. Are you going / or have done an in depth about the breakout year of Chastain in 2011? Because of my God! Coriolanus, Take Shelter, The Help and The Tree of Life are all great movies, particularly Take Shelter and The Tree of Life
It's always so bittersweet to me when I see these articles about records for consecutive acting nominations. This is because Jennifer Jones and Greer Garson are my two favorite actresses. Their legacy should be so much more than it is. They are both brilliant, charismatic performers who convey so much passion in their work. I think their relative anonymity in the modern era is due to their filmography mostly being composed of not-so-famous movies. But if you seek them out, I think young cinephiles would be quite impressed. I just rewatched Love Letters and Random Harvest. They really hold up.
I will second, third, fourth on Meryl Streep being at her best in SILKWOOD.
Meryl's best: Bridges of Madison Country followed by Devil Wears Prada & Sophie's Choice
brookesboy -- I recently watched Portrait of Jennie. My 8-year-old wandered by near the beginning, and she stopped to watch the whole thing. She was mesmerized by it, but she wasn't interested at all when I watched Valley of Decision. So Jennifer Jones > Greer Garson? (I kid; this is all in good fun.)
Cash--Portrait of Jennie is really something. Your child has great taste! Years ago, I asked my mom to watch it with me, thinking she would love it due to nostalgia and classic Hollywood. You know--she was totally bored and said to me, "This has no story." And just walked away. Sigh. LOL!
Random Harvest does hold up. It does make some turns into soap opera-y stuff but is a well made film and Colman and Greer have great chemistry.