Classic Film Guide

Lead Actors in Oscar's Best Picture Winners

Several (male) actors have appeared in more than one movie that won the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences highest award (e.g. the Best Picture Oscar); in fact, a few have acted in back-to-back winners! Not surprisingly though, some of the best known actors from the studio era never appeared in an Academy Award winning Best Picture. For instance, Fred Astaire, Richard Burton, James Cagney, Kirk Douglas, Errol Flynn, Henry Fonda, Cary Grant, Lee Marvin, Steve McQueen, Robert Mitchum, Edward G. Robinson, Mickey Rooney, Robert Ryan, Robert Taylor, Spencer Tracy, and John Wayne are among the most well-known leading actors who never appeared in a movie that one the Best Picture Oscar.

Additionally, were it not for Around the World in Eighty Days (1956), which featured cameo roles for many leading men, Charles Boyer, Ronald Colman, and David Niven would not have appeared in an Oscar winner either; also, Frank Sinatra (From Here to Eternity (1953)) would not have appeared in two, nor John Gielgud in three (see below). Plus, excluding the two Godfather films (not that anyone should) would drop Robert Duvall and Al Pacino from the list of actors who've appeared in Best Picture Oscar winners and Marlon Brando (On the Waterfront (1954)) and Robert De Niro (The Deer Hunter (1978)) from these multiple BP winner appearance listings:

Actors who have appeared in two non-consecutive Academy Award Best Picture winners include:

Lionel Barrymore - Grand Hotel (1932) and You Can't Take It with You (1938)
Ernest Borgnine - From Here to Eternity (1953) and Marty (1955)
Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, and Robert Duvall (as mentioned above)
Barry Fitzgerald - How Green Was My Valley (1941) and Going My Way (1944)
Alec Guinness - The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Gene Hackman - The French Connection (1971) and Unforgiven (1992)
Charlton Heston - The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) and Ben-Hur (1959)
Karl Malden - On the Waterfront (1954) and Patton (1970)
* Jack Nicholson - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and Terms of Endearment (1983)
Laurence Olivier - Rebecca (1940) and Hamlet (1948)
Al Pacino (as mentioned above)
* Robert Redford - The Sting (1973) and Out of Africa (1985)
George Sanders - Rebecca (1940) and All About Eve (1950)
Robert Shaw - A Man for All Seasons (1966) and The Sting (1973)
Frank Sinatra (as mentioned above)
Rod Steiger - On the Waterfront (1954) and In the Heat of the Night (1967)
James Stewart - You Can't Take It with You (1938) and The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)

* No, I didn't forget Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven (1992), Million Dollar Baby (2004)), Russell Crowe (Gladiator (2000), A Beautiful Mind (2001)) or other more recent actors who have appeared in multiple Best Picture winners; I was trying to confine this list to studio era actors as best I could.

Actors who have appeared in CONSECUTIVE Academy Award Best Picture winners:

Clark Gable - It Happened One Night (1934) and Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) **
John Gielgud - Chariots of Fire (1981) and Gandhi (1982) **
Walter Pidgeon - How Green Was My Valley (1941) and Mrs. Miniver (1942)
* Christopher Walken - Annie Hall (1977) and The Deer Hunter (1978)

** Gable (Gone With the Wind (1939)) and Gielgud (Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)) each appeared in three Oscar winning Best Pictures; currently, they share this distinction with only one other actor - Dustin Hoffman - who appeared in Midnight Cowboy (1969), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), & Rain Man (1988).

Some other TCM favorites who have appeared in ONE of the Academy's Best Picture winners include: Humphrey Bogart (Casablanca (1942)), Montgomery Clift and Burt Lancaster (From Here to Eternity (1953)), Gary Cooper (Wings (1927)), Bing Crosby (Going My Way (1944)), John Garfield and Gregory Peck (Gentleman's Agreement (1947)), William Holden (The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)), Leslie Howard (Gone With the Wind (1939)), Gene Kelly (An American in Paris (1951)), Fredric March (The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)), Ray Milland (The Lost Weekend (1945)), Sidney Poitier (In the Heat of the Night (1967)), William Powell (The Great Ziegfeld (1936)), Anthony Quinn (Lawrence of Arabia (1962)), and Orson Welles (A Man for All Seasons (1966)).

In addition to leading men, several character actors have appeared in more than one Oscar winning Best Picture, such as John Cazale (both Godfathers and The Deer Hunter (1978)), Donald Crisp (Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), The Life of Emile Zola (1937), How Green Was My Valley (1941)), Jack Hawkins (The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Ben-Hur (1959)), Stanley Holloway (Hamlet (1948), My Fair Lady (1964)), Roscoe Karns (Wings (1927), It Happened One Night (1934)), Claude Rains (Casablanca (1942), Lawrence of Arabia (1962)), and Vincent Schiavelli (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Amadeus (1984)), to name a few.