copyright A.M.P.A.S., a registered trademark

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the Academy Awards are just around the corner, and this week the Movie Morlocks are focusing our sites once again on Oscar lore, legends, and lunacy. Beginning today and concluding next Sunday, we offer our comments, gripes, and insights for your edification and entertainment. Stick with us throughout the week, and you’ll likely learn something you didn’t know, find something to disagree with, and feel compelled to make a comment or two!

******

Recently, I read Marc Eliot’s biography titled Cary Grant, and I was intrigued by a comment Eliot made about the reasons for Grant’s decision to star as Cole Porter in Night and Day (1946). According to the author, Grant had been turning down a number of film roles during the mid-1940s, because he had become disenchanted with Hollywood. However, he was lured back with the offer to star in Night and Day because of the prestige of doing a biopic (biography picture). It seems that a biopic is considered a career high point for an actor and is often the road to receiving an Academy Award nomination. Eliot then went to prove his point by listing those actors who had won Oscars for playing historical or real-life figures. It was indeed a lengthy and impressive roster, which made an impression on me. (By the way, Grant was not even nominated for his performance as Porter in  Night and Day.)

Prompted by Eliot’s comment about the importance of the biopic in an actor’s career, I studied the nominations and wins in the four acting categories of the Academy Awards to see how often actors won for portraying historical or real-life figures. The exercise resulted in some delights, surprises, and questions that I offer here for your consideration.

IN THE THIRD YEAR OF OSCAR, GEORGE ARLISS WON THE FIRST BEST ACTOR AWARD FOR PLAYING A HISORICAL FIGURE--DISRAELI (1929-30).

I’ll begin with an explanation of the types of films  I considered for this exercise. Biopics make up the vast majority of the films I included, though I also used dramas based on the actual events or experiences of historical figures or real-life persons (The French Connection; Melvin and Howard; Missing; The Accused, etc.). I did not consider those films based on true stories that were so fictionalized that the names of the main characters had been changed. For example, Sally Field’s star turn in Norma Rae was based on the experiences of textile mill worker Crystal Lee Sutton, but this seemed too far removed from the real-life person. Likewise, I did not include composite characters in biopics; that is, secondary characters who are composites of real-life figures associated with the main subject of the biopic. Admittedly, it was sometimes difficult to tell if a secondary character in a biopic was a fictional concoction, but fortunately, this did not occur too often. Keep in mind that all of my comments are based on empirical observations with no historical or theoretical considerations; they are simply food for thought and should not be taken as definitive research or studied conclusions. Also, last year my fellow Morlock, Medusa, did a lovely overview of “Oscar’s Love Affair With Biography,” Part I and Part II. My article is a different spin, but inevitably some ground will be retread. Please go back and review her thorough overview for a well-rounded perspective on this topic.

In the 82 years that the Academy has been handing out awards, including this year’s nominations, there have been only eight years in which no actor/actress was nominated for playing a historical or real-life figure. The year 1986 was the last in which no actor/actress was nominated for playing this type of role. The Academy as well as audiences seems to adore movies based on real people. I know from working in DVD marketing that the phrase “based on a true story” is always a plus when touting a title, and the appeal of biopics must be related to this cultural fixation on narratives involving the real world. This fixation is more pronounced in the contemporary era as the average number of nominations for actors/actresses playing historical or real-life figures has doubled since about 1980. Prior to 1980, the average was two to four nominations per year. The exceptions were 1943 when there were six nominations, four for The Song of Bernadette and two for Madame Curie, and 1967, when there were five nominations, all for Bonnie and Clyde. Beginning with 1980, the average number of nominations per year for actors/actresses playing historical or real-life figures was four to six. Occasionally, the nominations have exceeded the average number. In 1993, there were seven nominations, spread out among In the Name of the Father, What’s Love Got to Do With It, and Schindler’s List. The year 2001 also saw seven nominations for actors/actresses playing real-life people in the films A Beautiful Mind, Ali, and Iris. The highest number of nominations to date appeared in 2004, when eight performers were honored for their portrayals of historical or real-life people in Ray, Hotel Rwanda, Finding Neverland, The Aviator, and Kinsey. I hesitate to draw any hard and fast conclusions beyond these observations because there are a lot of historical factors to consider, including changes over the decades in the average number of movies produced per year and the makeup of the typical movie-going audience. However, I was surprised at the marked increase in nominations for actors/actresses in biopics and real-life dramas beginning in 1980—the year that Heaven’s Gate killed the western genre, the year that the studios took back final cut for most productions, and the year that marked a deliberate return to more audience-friendly, commercial filmmaking.

LAUGHTON AS HENRY VIII

I have long suspected that the members of the Academy are Anglophiles, or else they assume any film about European royalty must be worthy of accolades because of the “distinguished” subject matter. A look at the nominations for actors playing kings, queens, emperors, and related characters bears out my suspicions. Beginning with the 1932-33 Academy Awards, when Charles Laughton won Best Actor for the title role in The Private Life of Henry VIII, 25 actors and actresses have been nominated for playing members of a monarchy. (I also included Charles Boyer’s turn as Napoleon in Conquest from 1937, because he crowned himself emperor, though that’s stretching a bit.) Eighteen of those played members of English royalty. Some came by their nominations “honestly,” if you will, because they played royalty via Shakespeare. Lawrence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh were both nominated as Best Actor for playing Henry V, and they both directed themselves. Olivier’s version was released in 1944; Branagh’s in 1989.

BURTON AS HENRY VIII

However, performances as stiff-upper-lip monarchs in conventional dialogue-driven historical dramas are  more the norm. Laughton was not the only actor to be lauded for playing Henry VIII; Richard Burton was also nominated as the corpulent king in Anne of the Thousand Days in 1969, and Robert Shaw was nominated for his interpretation in A Man for All Seasons in 1966.  And, whenever Peter O’Toole feels the urge to be Oscar-nominated, he should simply snag a role as Henry II. He has been nominated twice for playing this 12th-century Plantagenet king—for Becket (1964) and A Lion in Winter (1968). Subjects involving machinations in the English court must have been a subtext for American politics of the 1960s, or else the Kennedy-Camelot metaphor gave Americans a taste of all things British, because that decade overflows with Oscar-nominated movies about the English monarchy. This trend began with Becket, which landed O’Toole, Richard Burton (as Thomas Becket), and John Gielgud (as Louis VII) acting nominations. It was followed two years later by A Man for All Seasons, with Paul Scofield winning Best Actor as Sir Thomas More, Robert Shaw nominated as Henry VIII, and Wendy Hiller nominated as Alice More. In 1968, Peter O’Toole and Katharine Hepburn were nominated as Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter. The following year, Anne of the Thousand Days was released, with nominations going to Burton, Genevieve Bujold (as Anne Boleyn), and Anthony Quayle (Cardinal Wolsey). In 1971, Vanessa Redgrave was nominated for her performance in the title role of Mary, Queen of Scots. On a side note, Hepburn tied for Best Actress in 1968 with Barbra Streisand who won for her portrayal of Fanny Brice in Funny Girl. Both won for their performances as historical figures, though their characters couldn’t have been more opposite.

ROBERT SHAW AS HENRY VIII

Didn’t we fight a war a couple of hundred years ago to get out from under the weight of a monarchy? Personally, I do not share the Academy’s infatuation with the British royal family. And, their insistence on awarding nominations for any British actress playing any Queen Elizabeth is just plain strange. Most recently, Helen Mirren won for her portrayal of Elizabeth II in The Queen in 2006. Cate Blanchett has been nominated twice for playing Elizabeth I, in 1998 and in 2007. Unbelievably, Judi Dench was also nominated in 1998 for playing Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love (see below). Mirren played Elizabeth I in a mini-series, making it ineligible for Oscar nominations—thankfully. I struggled through about half of the 1998 Elizabeth, and in my opinion, Blanchett’s performance, while perfectly fine, did not compensate for the choppy editing by director Shekhar Kapoor. An early sequence in which Elizabeth interacts with her court was downright confusing. Kapoor combined extensive panning shots with shot/reverse shot, and in doing so, he violated the 180-degree rule so many times it was difficult to tell whom Elizabeth was addressing and vice versa. The sequence looked like it had been edited by a chainsaw. It just proved to me that an English accent, a stiff upper lip, and men in tights will catch the eye of Academy members every time.

ALEXANDER KNOX AS WILSON--A FORGOTTEN ACTOR IN A FORGOTTEN FILM

In contrast, the Academy has nominated actors playing American presidents, politicians, or statesmen only nine times, and that’s including Louis Calhern’s turn as Oliver Wendell Holmes in The Magnificent Yankee (1950) and Greer Garson’s performance as Eleanor Roosevelt in Sunrise at Campobello (1960). Interestingly, two of those nine nominations were for actors playing Richard Nixon, Anthony Hopkins in Nixon (1995) and Frank Langella as Frost/Nixon (2008), who was beat out for the Best Actor award by Sean Penn playing San Francisco politician Harvey Milk in Milk. To celebrate President’s Day, enjoy the Oscar-nominated performances in  these lesser known films: Raymond Massey in the title role in Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940), James Whitmore as Truman in Give ‘Em Hell Harry (1975), and Alexander Knox in the title role  of Wilson (1944).

Interestingly, Henry Fonda’s famous portrayal of Lincoln in John Ford’s Young Mr. Lincoln was not nominated. Neither was Steven Culps’s excellent portrayal of Bobby Kennedy in 13 Days; Josh Brolin’s wicked interpretation of George W. Bush in W; or Nick Nolte’s controlled performance as Thomas Jefferson in Jefferson in Paris (1995).  Why do Academy members favor portrayals of British royalty in conventional biopics but seem blasé about performances in films about American politicians and statesmen? If any readers have any theories, I would be interested in hearing them.

Another observation I found interesting involved portrayals of the famous vs. portrayals of regular folk. Prior to 1970, very few nominations were given to actors/actresses in roles depicting real-life common folk. As a matter of fact, they were quite rare. Gary Cooper won Best Actor for portraying war hero Alvin York in Sergeant York (1941), while Margaret Wycherly was nominated for Supporting Actress as his mother, and Walter Brennan for Supporting Actor as Pastor Rosier Pyle. In 1946, Rosalind Russell was nominated as Best Actress for the title role in Sister Kenny, a real-life nurse who discovered a successful treatment for polio. After 1970, roles in which actors/actresses played real people in extraordinary circumstances were nominated with increasing frequency, peaking during the 1980s. These real-life protagonists were not always heroic, such as Gene Hackman in his Oscar-winning turn as Detective Popeye Doyle in The French Connection (1971), or Al Pacino who was nominated for his portrayal of would-be bank robber Sonny Wortzik in Dog Day Afternoon (see below). But, during the 1980s, actors/actresses playing ordinary people who rise to the occasion to become heroes tended to garner nominations. Notable examples include Jack Lemmon’s performance as an ordinary father looking for his son mysteriously killed in Chile  in Missing (1982); Meryl Streep as whistle-blower Karen Silkwood murdered for exposing negligence in the nuclear-power industry in Silkwood (1983); and, Edward James Olmos as inner-city teacher Jaime Escalante in Stand and Deliver (1988).

Nominations  for playing regular folk faded away in the 1990s to be replaced with nominations for playing entertainers, reflecting our culture’s endless fascination with celebrity and the media’s downright obsession with it. In 1992, Robert Downey, Jr. was nominated as Best Actor for the title role of Chaplin. Downey had big shoes to fill, no pun intended, and he did a remarkable job, as did a dozen or so actors and actresses playing their silent-era counterparts in a biopic that was every movie buff’s dream. The following year, Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett were nominated for their roles as Ike and Tina Tuner in What’s Love Got to Do with It? In 1994, Martin Landau won Best Supporting Actor for his poignant portrayal of Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood. Johnny Depp gave a fearless performance in the title role of Tim Burton’s valentine to Hollywood’s so-called worst director, but the Academy chose to ignore him. However, they did waste a nomination on Nigel Hawthorne as Best Actor for The Madness of King George, playing —you guessed it—an English monarch, because, hey, there can’t be too many of those. In 1998, Ian McKellan was nominated as Best Actor for playing director James Whale in Gods and Monsters.

Nominations for portrayals of show business favorites continued into the millennium, with Jamie Foxx winning Best Actor as Ray Charles in Ray and Cate Blanchett winning Best Supporting Actress as Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator, both in 2004. The following year, Reese Witherspoon won Best Actress as June Carter Cash in Walk the Line; in 2007, Marion Cotillard deserved her Best Actress Oscar for inhabiting the role of Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose; and for 2009, Meryl Streep has been nominated for her portrayal of Julia Child in Julie and Julia.

Actors playing other actors or entertainers foreground the problem inherent in this type of portrayal, which is the fine line between impersonation and performance. Some actors/actresses seem too eager to nail down the unique physical and vocal characteristics of their celebrity, so that their interpretation runs the risk of being a surface caricature. This approach reminds me of old-school impressionists like Frank Gorshin or Rich Little, who could also imitate the physical and vocal characteristics of the famous, but I would not call their schtick “acting.” Comparing Blanchett’s Katharine Hepburn to Witherspoon’s June Carter Cash illustrates the differences between the two. Both Hepburn and Carter Cash had unique vocal inflections/accents and larger-than-life physical characteristics. Blanchett seemed to focus on the physical Hepburn, because she is all voice and strut, failing to capture her character’s charm and intelligence. Witherspoon used her natural Southern accent in portraying Carter Cash but downplayed the latter’s penchant for mugging and exaggerated expression, which freed Witherspoon to portray a range of emotions as Carter Cash, who was a woman in love with a complicated man.  Absolutely understanding the difference between impersonation and performance, actor Christian McKay rocked the role of Orson Welles in this year’s Orson and Me, but sadly he was not nominated.

While exploring this topic of actors/actresses who play historical or real-life characters, I also compiled a list of oddities. These observations don’t have anything in common, but perhaps you will find them amusing, or you can offer them as cocktail chatter at your Oscar party. During the 1950s, Susan Hayward had a lock on portrayals of troubled singers. In 1952, she was nominated for her star turn as popular singer Jane Froman, who was severely injured in a plane crash, in With a Song in My Heart, and three years later, she was nominated for her role as Broadway singer Lilian Roth, who struggled with alcoholism, in I’ll Cry Tomorrow. When Hayward finally did win an Oscar as Best Actress in 1958 for I Want to Live, it was also for portraying a real-life figure, but one not nearly so classy as Froman or Roth.  Hayward’s gutsy, no-holds-barred interpretation of convicted murderess Barbara Graham would put most of 2009’s Best Actress nominees to shame (see above).  Another interesting tidbit of trivia involves the 2001 biopic of writer Iris Murdoch entitled Iris. Judi Dench and Kate Winslet were nominated for playing Iris at different points in her career, so two actresses were nominated for playing the same role in the same film.

JACKIE GLEASON AS THE FICTIONAL MINNESOTA FATS IN 'THE HUSTLER'

And, my favorite bit of trivia gleaned from this exercise centers around the 1961 drama The Hustler, which featured a pool shark called Minnesota Fats, portrayed marvelously by Jackie Gleason who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. The movie was based on a novel by Walter Tevis, but it was champion pool player Willie Mosconi who served as technical advisor. Mosconi claimed in an interview that Gleason’s character was based on a pool shark named New York Fats, whose real name was Rudolf Wanderone. Thrilled at the attention, Wanderone dropped “New York” in favor of “Minnesota,” though he had never been to that state. Today, those who write about the Oscars sometimes assume Gleason is portraying the real-life pool shark. This may be the only case in which an Oscar-nominated portrayal of a fictional character turned into an Oscar-nominated portrayal of a real-life figure!

Enjoy the Academy Awards, which air on March 7, and be sure to read my fellow Morlocks’ Oscar musings throughout the week.