Today's question comes courtesy of Garrett Levin (pictured), an associate in the D.C. office of Jenner & Block. Readers following our "Oscar Countdown" may have noticed that Garrett knows a thing or two about Oscar trivia! (Observe from the link above that Garrett's undergraduate degree from NYU is in "film and television production"!)
Garrett's question: Name the six people who have been nominated for Oscars in four different categories. (Hint: Two of them have received all but two of their collective nominations together.)
Total Guesses:
Clint Eastwood
Kevin Costner
Fran Walsh
Peter Jackson
Orson Welles
Warren Beatty
Posted by: Lance McMillian | February 25, 2010 at 02:09 PM
I had Eastwood and Costner in mind, too, along with Laurence Olivier (sic). Throw in Robert Redford?
Posted by: Tim Zinnecker | February 25, 2010 at 02:24 PM
Woody Allen?
Posted by: Just guessing | February 25, 2010 at 02:29 PM
Nice guesses.
You got Warren Beatty correct and here's another hint, he's one of only two actors to accomplish this feat. Here are his stats: Warren Beatty (14 total nominations; 2 wins, 1 Competitive Award and 1 Honorary Award) -- Beatty's only competitive win was for Best Director in 1981 for REDS. His work on REDS also garnered him nominations for Best Actor, Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. In 1978 he was nominated for Best Director, Best Actor, Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay for HEAVEN CAN WAIT. Beatty's other nominations are: Best Actor (BONNIE AND CLYDE 1967 and BUGSY 1991); Best Picture (BONNIE AND CLYDE 1967 and BUGSY 1991); Best Original Screenplay (SHAMPOO 1975); and Best Adapted Screenplay (BULWORTH 1998).
It turns out that you also got both Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson correct, although my original source for this question left them out of the answer, so I didn't have them included unfortunately. Sorry about that mix up.
Jackson's stats are as follows: 8 nominations, 3 wins -- Jackson won the Oscars for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture for THE LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING in 2003. He was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay for HEAVENLY CREATURES in 1994, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture for THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING in 2001, and Best Picture for THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS in 2002.
Fran Walsh's stats are as follows: 7 nominations, 3 wins -- She shared all of Jackson's nominations except for his Best Director nods. Her fourth category, and her third win, come from Best Original Song for "Into the West" from THE LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING in 2003.
To be clear, although Walsh and Jackson are correct answers to the question and interestingly also satisfy the hint I originally gave, they are not the answers I was looking for with the hint.
Orson Welles is an interesting case, because he was actually only nominated for 3 Oscars in his career, for Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay for CITIZEN KANE. Although CITIZEN KANE was also nominated for Best Picture that year, prior to 1950 the Best Picture nomination went only to the production company, not the individual producers. So Welles is not considered by the Academy to have a nomination for Best Picture. Amazingly, to me at least, Citizen Kane only won one Oscar, for Best Original Screenplay.
Clint Eastwood has been nominated in three categories -- Best Actor (two times, both in films he also directed); Best Director (four times, winning twice); and Best Picture (four times, winning twice). He also received the Thalberg Award in 1994.
Kevin Costner was nominated for Best Actor, Best Director and Best Picture for DANCES WITH WOLVES in 1990, his only three nominations.
Posted by: Garrett | February 25, 2010 at 02:38 PM
Woody Allen has been nominated in three categories: Best Actor (once for ANNIE HALL); Best Director (six times, winning only for ANNIE HALL); and Best Original Screenplay (nominated a whopping 14 times, winning for ANNIE HALL and HANNAH AND HER SISTERS). He's never received a Best Picture or Best Adapted Screenplay nomination.
Laurence Olivier has been nominated in three categories: Best Actor (nine nominations, one win for HAMLET); Best Director (one nomination, also for HAMLET); and Best Supporting Actor (one nomination for MARATHON MAN). He also received two special awards, one for "his outstanding achievement as actor, producer and director in bringing HENRY V to the screen" in 1946 and one for his lifetime achievement.
Robert Redford has been nominated in three categories: Best Actor (THE STING); Best Director (twice, for ORDINARY PEOPLE, which he won, and QUIZ SHOW); and Best Picture (QUIZ SHOW). He also received an Honorary Award in 2001 for his work with Sundance.
Posted by: Garrett | February 25, 2010 at 02:49 PM
Here are a couple of hints to fill in the gaps:
1) One of the people to accomplish this feat is the most nominated person in Oscar history.
2) The two people who have received all but two of their nominations together are the people on the list who have been nominated most recently for an Oscar (even more recently than Jackson and Walsh).
3) The other actor to have been nominated in four categories has only been nominated for four Oscars total. He also did not match Warren Beatty's amazing accomplishment of being nominated in four categories for one film.
4) The final person on the list won his only Oscar in the Best Special Visual Effects category, despite having 12 other nominations.
Posted by: Garrett | February 25, 2010 at 04:32 PM
Hitchcock for #4?
Posted by: Lance McMillian | February 25, 2010 at 04:58 PM
Nope, although #4 was nominated for Best Director 4 times (for four consecutive films that he made over a period of 11 years).
Hitchcock was nominated 5 times for Best Director, but never won and was never nominated in any other category. His only Oscar was a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1967.
Posted by: Garrett | February 25, 2010 at 05:11 PM
1) Walt Disney
2) The Coen (sp?) brothers
3) George Clooney
4) Stanley Kubrick
Posted by: STB | February 25, 2010 at 05:25 PM
4 out of the 5 remaining (plus an extra one). Nice work.
Walt Disney (59 total nominations; 26 wins, 22 Competitive Awards and 4 Honorary Awards) -- He received a whopping 54 nominations spread through the following three categories: Best Animated Short Subject, Best Live-Action Short Subject, and Best Documentary Short Subject. He was also nominated for Best Picture (MARY POPPINS in 1965) and Best Documentary Feature (4 times).
Stanley Kubrick (13 total nominations; 1 win) -- Kubrick's only win was for Special Visual Effects in 1968 for 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. Also received nominations for Best Director (DR. STRANGELOVE 1964; 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY; A CLOCKWORK ORANGE 1971; BARRY LYNDON 1975), Best Adapted Screenplay (DR. STRANGELOVE; A CLOCKWORK ORANGE; BARRY LYNDON; FULL METAL JACKET 1987), Best Picture (DR. STRANGELOVE; A CLOCKWORK ORANGE; BARRY LYNDON), and Best Original Screenplay (2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY).
Joel and Ethan Coen (9 total nominations; 4 wins) -- The Coen brothers have received all but two of their nominations together. Their first nominations came for FARGO in 1996, and at that time, Joel received the director credit and the Best Director nomination, while Ethan received the producer credit and the Best Picture nomination. Neither of them won those awards. Instead, they won together for Best Original Screenplay for FARGO, as well as Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Adapted Screenplay for NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN in 2007. They were also jointly nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? (adapted from The Odyssey) in 2000. And in one of my favorite Oscar trivia bits, they have been nominated together twice for Best Film Editing (FARGO and NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN) under the pseudonym Roderick Jaynes. Mr. Jaynes has yet to win an Oscar, but you can read a brief piece he wrote for The Guardian describing the process of naming the Coen Brothers' film THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE - http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2001/sep/28/artsfeatures
Along with Warren Beatty, the Coen Brothers are the only people to get nominations in four categories for a single film. The Coen Brothers did it with NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN and Beatty did it for both REDS and HEAVEN CAN WAIT.
With respect to Clooney that answer is also correct, although not on my original source. Clooney won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2005 for SYRIANA and was also nominated that year for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK. In 2007 he was nominated for Best Actor for MICHAEL CLAYTON.
My apologies, there's still one other person out there, although based on the fact that we've already identified 3 people not on the list who should have been, there may actually be others. I suppose I deserve this for picking an overly complicated question. I'll disclose my source later, in the hopes that others don't attempt to rely on it for accurate Oscar trivia.
Posted by: Garrett | February 25, 2010 at 05:37 PM
Apparently, Kenneth Branagh has been nominated in 4 different categories:
Best Adapted Screenplay, Hamlet (1996)
Best Live Action Short, Swan Song (1992)
Best Actor, Henry V (1989)
Best Director, Henry V (1989)
Posted by: Jacqueline Lipton | February 25, 2010 at 08:22 PM
Yep...that was the last one.
Thanks for letting me play along. Sorry for asking for six people when it should've been 9.
Posted by: Garrett | February 25, 2010 at 09:24 PM