List of actors who have appeared in multiple Best Picture Academy Award winners

This is a list of actors who have appeared in multiple Best Picture Academy Award winners. The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to artists working in the motion picture industry. As of 2015, 88 films have won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Each of the actors in this list has appeared in two or more such films. This list contains a total of 155 actors and collectively represents their 363 appearances in 85 Best Picture-winning films. This list, although still incomplete, contains appearances through the 88th Academy Awards ceremony held on February 28, 2016.

List of actors

Notes

1. Ward Bond appeared in 11 films that were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. In addition to appearing in the three Best Picture winners listed above, Bond also appeared in the following eight Best Picture nominees: Arrowsmith (1931/1932), Lady for a Day (1932/1933), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Sergeant York (1941), It's a Wonderful Life (1946), The Quiet Man (1952), and Mister Roberts (1955).^[3]
2. John Cazale appeared in only five feature films, all of which were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. In addition to the three films listed above, Cazale also appeared in The Conversation (1974) and Dog Day Afternoon (1975). Twelve years after his death, Cazale appeared in archive footage in a sixth feature film, The Godfather Part III (1990), which was also nominated for Best Picture.
3. Judd Hirsch and Danny DeVito are the only cast members of the television show Taxi that have appeared in more than one Best Picture Oscar-winning film. In addition: fellow Taxi cast members Randall Carver, Christopher Lloyd, Carol Kane and Tony Danza have respectively appeared in Best Picture Oscar winners Midnight Cowboy (1969), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Annie Hall (1977) and Crash (2005); one of the show's co-creators, James L. Brooks, wrote, produced and directed Best Picture Oscar winner Terms of Endearment (1983).
4. Neither Brad Dourif nor Christopher Lee appeared in the theatrical release of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). However, deleted scenes including Dourif and Lee were subsequently re-inserted into the Extended Edition DVD version of the film.
5. Clint Eastwood is currently the only person ever to produce, direct, and star in two Best Picture Oscar winners.
6. Bess Flowers appeared in 23 films that were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. In addition to appearing in the five Best Picture winners listed above, Flowers also appeared in the following eighteen Best Picture nominees: Anthony Adverse (1936), Dodsworth (1936), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), The Awful Truth (1937), In Old Chicago (1937), One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937), Love Affair (1939), Ninotchka (1939), Heaven Can Wait (1943), Watch on the Rhine (1943), Double Indemnity (1944), Mildred Pierce (1945), The Razor's Edge (1946), Father of the Bride (1950), A Place in the Sun (1951), The Robe (1953), Witness for the Prosecution (1957), and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961).
7. In addition to appearing in the two films listed above, Robert Redford also directed Ordinary People (1980), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
8. In addition to appearing in the three Best Picture winners listed above, Bodil Rosing also appeared in Sunrise (1927). Sunrise was the only film to win the Academy Award for Best Unique and Artistic Production; after the 1st Academy Awards, this award category was discontinued.
9. In addition to her own Best Picture appearances, all three of Rachel Kempson's children appeared in Best Pictures as well. Lynn Redgrave appeared in Tom Jones (1963) and Corin Redgrave and Vanessa Redgrave appeared in A Man for All Seasons (1966).

Superlatives

• Most Appearances in Best Picture Nominees - Actors who appeared in the most Best Picture nominees are: Bess Flowers (23 films), Ward Bond (11 films), Franklyn Farnum (11 films), Jack Nicholson (10 films), Robert De Niro (9 films), William Holden (9 films), Elizabeth Taylor (9 films, 2 uncredited), Olivia de Havilland (8 films), Leonardo DiCaprio (8 films), Robert Duvall (8 films), Harrison Ford (8 films), Tom Hanks (8 films), Dustin Hoffman (8 films), Gregory Peck (8 films), Tom Wilkinson (8 films), Cate Blanchett (7 films), Marlon Brando (7 films), Wallis Clark (7 films), Daniel Day-Lewis (7 films), John Gielgud (7 films), Katharine Hepburn (7 films), Deborah Kerr (7 films), Laurence Olivier (7 films, 1 uncredited), Brad Pitt (7 films) and James Stewart (7 films).^[4]
• Most Appearances in Best Picture Winners - Actors who appeared in the most Best Picture winners are: Franklyn Farnum (7 films), Wallis Clark (5 films), and Bess Flowers (5 films).
• Most Consecutive Appearances - Actors who appeared in three consecutive Best Picture winners are: Wallis Clark (1934 through 1936) and Harry Davenport (1937 through 1939).
• Most Represented Films - Films most represented on this list are: The Godfather Part II (15 times), The Godfather (14 times), You Can't Take It With You (14 times), Gandhi (10 times), and Around the World in 80 Days (10 times).
• Longest Span Between Appearances - Actors with the longest span between appearances in Best Picture winners are: Christopher Lee (55 years), Sue Casey (48 years), Christopher Plummer (36 years), David Warner (34 years), Howland Chamberlain (33 years) and Oliver Reed (32 years).

Statistics

• Actors - The 149 actors listed above have collectively delivered a total of 351 appearances in 84 Best Picture-winning films:
  • 1 actor appeared in 7 Best Pictures;
  • 2 actors appeared in 5 Best Pictures;
  • 3 actors appeared in 4 Best Pictures;
  • 38 actors appeared in 3 Best Pictures; and
  • 109 actors appeared in 2 Best Pictures.
• Films - To date, 88 films have won the Academy Award for Best Picture, only three of which are not represented in the above list:
  • West Side Story (1961);
  • Chicago (2002); and
  • Slumdog Millionaire (2008).

List of other contributors

This is a list of others who have contributed to multiple Best Picture Academy Award winners. The following list contains people who have worked, in capacities other than acting, on two or more Best Picture Academy Award winners. This list does not include minor film crew workers, such as grips or production assistants. Rather, it lists people who have significantly contributed to the overall production of the films (e.g., producers, directors, screenwriters, composers, cinematographers, film editors, costume designers, etc.). Furthermore, actors who also contributed to multiple Best Picture winners in non-acting capacities, such as Clint Eastwood or Robert Redford, are not included within this list if they are included in the above list.

Notes

1. Francis Ford Coppola also produced The Godfather Part II (1974), and he was director and screenwriter of The Godfather (1972). He wrote the screenplay for Patton (1970).
2. Paul Haggis also directed Crash (2005), and he was producer and screenwriter of Million Dollar Baby (2004). He is currently the only person to have written two consecutive Best Picture Academy Award winners.
3. Gerald R. Molen acted in and co-produced Rain Man (1988) and produced Schindler's List (1993). Molen was also credited as a transportation coordinator for Ordinary People (1980).
4. Marni Nixon dubbed the singing voices of Natalie Wood in West Side Story (1961) and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady (1964). Nixon also appeared onscreen in the role of Sister Sophia in The Sound of Music (1965).
5. Although not credited on-screen as a producer, Saul Zaentz owns (through Tolkien Enterprises) the worldwide film, stage, and merchandise rights to The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

See also

• List of Best Picture milestones

References