Academy Award nominations: can anyone catch Meryl Streep?

[CaptainCanada]

Streep currently holds the record for the most Oscar nominations: 15, very shortly to become 16 (behind her are Jack Nicholson and the late Katharine Hepburn, each with twelve; ironically, both of them have actually won more times than she has).

Streep is only 60 (going on 61), so she's got probably two more decades of productive film work ahead of her; so any challenger will have deal with her very likely moving the goalposts a few more times. Her film career started in 1977, when she was 28, so she's had 16 nominations in a 34-year period, a little more than 1 every 2 years.

The most likely candidate I can see would be Kate Winslet. Her first film role was in 1994, so that's 17 years, in which she's been nominated 6 times, about the same ratio as Streep (closer to 1 every 3, though). At the same time, he actually started acting much younger than Streep did; she was a double-nominee at 22, six years before Streep even made a movie. When Streep was the age she is now, she had five nominations to Winslet's six. Winslet'd have to pick things up a bit, but it's possible.

Thoughts?

 

[JacksonArcher]

I'll catch up to Meryl Streep. Eventually.

 

[Harvey]

Do you just mean nominations for acting? Because Jerry Goldsmith had 18 Oscar Nominations during his lifetime, and Randy Newman has had quite a few as well.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Act, yes. That's Streep's record.

The record for nominations in any category is held by Walt Disney.

 

[selina]

Wow, I had no idea. I always thought Katherine Hepburn had the most nominations. Very interesting ... So it's probably about time that Meryl wins a statue again.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Wow, I had no idea. I always thought Katherine Hepburn had the most nominations. Very interesting ... So it's probably about time that Meryl wins a statue again.

Hepburn has the most wins of anyone, with four (1933, 1967, 1968, 1981). Then there's Nicholson (1975, 1983, 1997) and a largely-unknown today character actor named Walter Brennan (1936, 1938, 1940), each with three. Nobody else has ever won more than two acting awards.

 

[Too Much Fun]

Nobody else has ever won more than two acting awards.

No, Tom Hanks won twice, two years in a row (1993, 1994).

 

[Harvey]

Read the post again. CaptainCanada says nobody else has won more than twice.

Denzel Washington also has at least two acting wins, supporting actor for Glory and leading actor for Training Day. I'm sure there are more.

 

[Too Much Fun]

Ah, got it. I was thinking that if we were only talking about someone who won two acting awards, CC also forgot someone else who won lead actor and supporting actor, and you just named him.

 

[Harvey]

Wikipedia has a handy list here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_actors_with_two_or_more_Academy_Awards_in_acting_categories

 

[CaptainCanada]

Forgot about Ingrid Bergman; so that makes it a three-way tie for second place.

Looking over the Wiki list, those with the most potential to earn a third Oscar:

Daniel Day-Lewis
Sean Penn
Meryl Streep
Hilary Swank

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Wow, I had no idea. I always thought Katherine Hepburn had the most nominations. Very interesting ... So it's probably about time that Meryl wins a statue again.

Hepburn has the most wins of anyone, with four (1933, 1967, 1968, 1981). Then there's Nicholson (1975, 1983, 1997) and a largely-unknown today character actor named Walter Brennan (1936, 1938, 1940), each with three. Nobody else has ever won more than two acting awards.

Walter Brennan is largely unknown?

 

[Harvey]

Looking him up, I think that's a fair statement, sadly. A lot of his more notable roles are in films that have faded to obscurity.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Read the post again. CaptainCanada says nobody else has won more than twice.

Denzel Washington also has at least two acting wins, supporting actor for Glory and leading actor for Training Day. I'm sure there are more.

Not quite correct. Ingrid Bergman won 3 Oscars - for Gaslight, Anastasia and Murder on the Orient Express) on 7 nominations.

Tons of people have two wins.

Right off the top of my head I can think of:

* Bette Davis (10 nominations, 2 wins for Dangerous and Jezebel)
* Gary Cooper (5 nominations, 2 wins for Sergeant York and High Noon, plus a third Oscar for lifetime achievement awarded to him right before his death in 1961).
* Marlon Brando (7 nominations, 2 wins for On The Waterfront and The Godfather)

Some others who have two wins -

Classic Film - Vivien Leigh, Olivia deHavilland, Fredric March, Jack Lemmon, Spencer Tracy, Shelley Winters, Elizabeth Taylor, Gene Hackman

And some more 'modern' stars: Michael Caine, Dustin Hoffman, Sally Field, Tom Hanks, Jessica Lange, Jodie Foster, Denzel Washington


In addition to all of the above, Laurence Olivier has a ton of nominations - like Bette Davis, he was nominated 10 times. Only won once though - for Hamlet.

And by the way, Walter Brennan is most definitely not 'largely unknown' among classic film fans. In fact, I'm surprised he has so FEW nominations, as he was positively brilliant in everything he ever did.

 

[Harvey]

Yeah, someone else brought up Bergman after that post. And I didn't mean to imply that those were the only two actors with two wins. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

The wikipedia link I posted above lists everyone with two wins or more.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Looking him up, I think that's a fair statement, sadly. A lot of his more notable roles are in films that have faded to obscurity.

Nope. Sorry.

Films he was in are played on TCM all the time.

And I assure you that to the classic film fan (and in particular, big Gary Cooper fans such as myself), films such as Meet John Doe, The Westerner, Sergeant York, Pride of the Yankees, The Wedding Night, Task Force, The Cowboy and the Lady (all of these Gary Cooper films), The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers), My Darling Clementine (Henry Fonda), Red River, Rio Bravo (both big John Wayne westerns), Bad Day at Black Rock, Stanley and Livingstone (both with Spencer Tracy), To Have and Have Not (Bogey and Bacall), and several others have hardly 'faded into obscurity'.

In truth, one of my favorite Walter Brennan roles is in a Gary Cooper film where Brennan pretty nearly ran off with the show - The Westerner. A positively brilliant performance in one of Gary Cooper's best westerns.

 

[Harvey]

There are lots of films on TCM all the time. It doesn't mean they are well known anymore, or that the actors in them are widely known today. I'll grant that some of those films are notable, but that doesn't contradict the statement that "A lot of his more notable roles are in films that have faded to obscurity."

I've seen him in a few roles, and he was a damned fine actor. But I'd wager that someone like Peter Lorre is more widely known today, when it comes to character actors from that era.

 

[Kegg]

I've seen him in a few roles, and he was a damned fine actor. But I'd wager that someone like Peter Lorre is more widely known today, when it comes to character actors from that era.

Easily. I'll admit I had to google Walter Brennan - the name sounded familiar but I couldn't place him. Haven't seen any of the films listed under his Wikipedia entry, I think I recognized the name from his role in American party politics if anything.

...what? Don't blame me!

On the other hand, Peter Lorre's filmography includes the unforgettable role of a child murderer in M and a minor but memorably slimy bit part in Casablanca. Add that to the nine billion Peter Lorre impersonations and I suspect he's better known.

Also, Bette Davis's numerous noms are unsurprising. There may not be a female actress I admire more.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Yeah, I'm sure Brennan was a good actor (they don't give you three Academy Awards for nothing), but most moviegoers wouldn't recognize his name or even his face. Even if people haven't seen a Hepburn movie, they'd probably recognize the name; same with Bergman.