Continuing what I started last week, here are some more interesting biographical performances which caught Oscar’s eye.  The list is almost never-ending; the lure to portray historical figures is obviously irresistible, and you have to admit that actors give it their all.  What we’re seeing here to the left is Yul Brynner as King Mongkut of Siam in the musical The King and I, a role he originated on Broadway opposite Gertrude Lawrence and then transferred to the screen with a new Mrs. Anna played by Deborah Kerr.  Both Brynner and Kerr were nominated in the lead acting category in 1957, but only Yul went home with the statuette.  As you can see, Brynner was certainly a romanticized version of Mongkut (who had also been played by Rex Harrison in the non-musical Anna and the King opposite Irene Dunne some years earlier), but a truly yummy one!

1957′s Best Actor noms also included Kirk Douglas as Vincent Van Gogh in Lust for Life, and he didn’t pretty-up the tortured painter for his portrayal.  Douglas went for a near-perfect visual impersonation of Van Gogh and achieved it, if not the Academy Award.  In 1959, Susan Hayward gave a bravura performance in I Want to Live, winning the Oscar for her role as tough gal/Death Row inmate Barbara Graham.  (Movie Morlock Suzidoll recently wrote an amazing piece here on the movie and Hayward’s performance.)  In 1961, Spencer Tracy was nominated as Clarence Darrow in Inherit the Wind, and Greer Garson got a nom as First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in Sunrise at Campobello, donning false teeth to recreate Eleanor’s charming toothy grin.

In the next few years, Burt Lancaster was nominated as prison canary breeder Robert Stroud in Birdman of Alcatraz, Peter O’ Toole as legendary Lawrence of Arabia, and both Anne Bancroft as Annie Sullivan for Best Actress and Patty Duke as Helen Keller as Supporting won for their roles in The Miracle Worker in 1963.  The next year Rex Harrison eked a nom out of his role as Julius Caesar in the notorious Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor, and the next year both Richard Burton and Peter O’ Toole as Thomas a Becket and King Henry II, respectively, were nominated in Becket.  Debbie Reynolds also got a nom for her role as Titanic survivor The Unsinkable Molly Brown. 

Of course, Julie Andrews was in the running for her role as Maria Von Trapp in The Sound of Music in 1966, and Paul Scofield won the next year for playing Sir Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons.  In 1968, both Warren Beatty as ’30s bankrobber Clyde Barrow and Faye Dunaway as his Texas moll Bonnie Parker were nominated for their roles in Bonnie and Clyde, and so were co-stars Gene Hackman and Estelle Parsons in the supporting category, with Parsons winning.   The next year, Peter O’ Toole again was nominated for his second time around playing King Henry II in The Lion in Winter, and his co-star Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine shared the Best Actress Oscar with Barbra Streisand as American comic actress Fanny Brice in Funny Girl.

In 1970, Richard Burton and Genevieve Bujold got nominations for playing King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn in Anne of the Thousand Days.  Perhaps one of the most famous wins for Best Actor as a real person was George C. Scott’s 1971 win for playing larger-than-life U.S. WWII general George Patton in Patton.   Scott famously refused to pick up the award, decrying the competitive nature of the Oscars, and though his producer picked up the award, it was returned to the Academy as Scott wished.   The same year James Earl Jones and his co-star Jane Alexander were nominated for their roles as boxer Jack Johnson and his ladyfriend in The Great White Hope. 

And the historical roles never stop.  1972 saw Vanessa Redgrave get a nom as Mary, Queen of Scots and Janet Suzman for the female half of Nicholas and Alexandra.  The next year singer Diana Ross received a nomination for playing blues singer Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues.  In 1975 both Dustin Hoffman and Valerie Perrine were nominated for playing Lenny Bruce and his wife Honey in Lenny.

And wait…there’s more!  James Whitmore playing Harry Truman in Give ‘Em Hell, Harry, Jane Fonda as Lillian Hellman in Julia, Gary Busey as Buddy Holly in The Buddy Holly Story, Robert DeNiro as boxer Jake La Motta in Raging Bull, John Hurt as The Elephant Man, Sissy Spacek winning as Tammy Wynette in Coal Miner’s Daughter.  Warren Beatty as John Reed and Diane Keaton as Louise Bryant in Reds, Ben Kingsley winning as Gandhi, Jessica Lange as Frances Farmer in Frances, Meryl Streep as activist Karen Silkwood in Silkwood,  F. Murray Abraham winning as Salieri in Amadeus, Sam Waterston as journalist Sydney Schanberg in The Killing Fields, Meryl Streep as Karen Blixen in Out of Africa, Robin Williams as Army disc jockey Adrian Cronauer in Good Morning, Viet Nam, Sigourney Weaver as Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist, Daniel Day Lewis winning as disabled painter Christy Brown in My Left Foot, Tom Cruise as Nam vet Ron Kovic in Born on the Fourth of July, Jeremy Irons winning as Klaus Van Bulow in Reversal of Fortune….

It never ends.  Really.  There are just too many to cover. We’ll see whether or not this year brings another win in the bio category with either Langella or Penn taking home the Oscar — and you know I’m rooting for Mickey Rourke — and of course I’m waiting like a crazed person for Liam Neeson to play Abraham Lincoln in Spielberg’s planned bio of my favorite president.  Today’s popular culture dotes on actors as if they’re the most interesting people on earth, but if you ask the actors…seems like they’re just crazy about doffing the glitter and getting into the lives of others who really make a mark on history.  May it never end!