Mini-Countdown: Five Longest Waits In Oscar History

One of the most striking things about this year's Oscar nominations was how many of the acting nominees were receiving a nomination after a long period of time. Joe Pesci (29 years), Al Pacino (27 years), Anthony Hopkins (22 years), Tom Hanks (19 years), Kathy Bates (17 years), and Renée Zellweger (16 years) all chalked up another nod after the best part of two (and in some cases, three) decades. 

However, these are not close to the longest times some actors have had to wait between their recognition by the Academy. Here are the five longest waits between acting nominations in Oscars history (as of 2020):

1. HENRY FONDA: 41 YEARS

Fonda received his first Oscar nomination in the Best Actor category for playing Tom Joad in The Grapes Of Wrath (1940) [but would lose out to James Stewart for The Philadelphia Story (1940)]. It would be a colossal 41 years until the Academy saw fit to nominate him for a second time, again as Best Actor. [He received a Best Picture nomination as producer of 12 Angry Men (1957) in between the two]. His performance as Norman Thayer Jr. in On Golden Pond (1981) would win him the Oscar; however, he wasn't present at the ceremony and his daughter and co-star Jane Fonda accepted the award on his behalf. As of 2020, Fonda is the oldest winner of the Best Actor Oscar (he was 76 when he won). 


2. SYLVESTER STALLONE: 39 YEARS

Sylvester Stallone got his first acting Oscar nomination when he starred as struggling small-time boxer Rocky Balboa in Rocky (1976) (which also gained him a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination as well). However, Peter Finch's electric performance in Network won through. Fast forward nearly forty years, and Stallone brought Rocky back to ask as mentor to Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan) in Creed (2015), giving a fine performance which netted him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, which (frankly) he should have won [which went to Mark Rylance instead for Bridge Of Spies (2015)]. Whilst an Oscar still proves elusive, Stallone nevertheless has a rather elite claim to fame: as of 2020, he is one of only six actors (the others being Peter O'Toole, Paul Newman, Bing Crosby, Al Pacino and Cate Blanchett) who have been nominated for two Oscars for playing the same character in different films. 


3. HELEN HAYES: 39 YEARS

The First Lady of the American Theatre was also an Oscar-winning actress, winning a Best Actress Oscar for one of her first film roles, The Lullaby [also known as The Sin Of Madelon Claudet] (1931). Despite a career which included Arrowsmith (1931), A Farewell To Arms (1932) and Anastasia (1956), it would be nearly four decades before Hayes received her second acting nomination, this time in the Best Supporting Actress category for playing elderly stowaway Ada Quonsett in star-studded disaster movie Airport (1970). At the 43rd Academy Awards in 1971, Hayes won (netting the film's only win from 10 nominations), becoming the first performer to win Oscars in lead and supporting categories. 


4. JACK PALANCE: 38 YEARS

Palance got three Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominations throughout his career: he was nominated for two years on the run [for noir thriller Sudden Fear (1952) and Western drama Shane (1953)] and then... nothing for 38 years. Until his performance as grizzled trail boss Curly Washburn in City Slickers (1991). Palance's nod for Best Supporting Actor would be the film's only Oscar nomination- and Palance won! His acceptance speech will go down in Oscars history as one of the most WTF moments when he proceeded to do a series of one-armed push-ups during the speech (which he claimed convinced studio insurance agents that he was well enough to work on the film). 


5. ALAN ARKIN: 38 YEARS

In many of these cases, the gap has come between an actor's first and second nomination. In the case of Alan Arkin, his 38 year wait came between his second and third nominations. Arkin got his second Best Actor nod for The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (1968) in which he played a deaf-mute. His third nomination- and his first in the Best Supporting Actor category- came for his wonderfully warm and cantankerous performance as the drug-using Grandpa Hoover in Little Miss Sunshine (2006), which he won! [Arkin received his second Best Supporting Actor nod six years later for his role in Argo (2012)]

Review: Million Dollar Arm (UK Cert: PG)

With sports films “based on a true story”, you accept that you already know what’s about to happen: the main character will start from the bottom and work their way up, sometimes stumbling back to the beginning, but getting there in the end. The reason you watch a real-life sports film is for what makes it stand out; is it the performances, the script, the visuals? The trouble with Disney’s Million Dollar Arm is that, while it’s solidly made, there’s nothing that makes it tower over this over-crowded sub-genre.

The plot is a slight twist on an old formula. Agent to the sports stars JB (Mad Men’s Jon Hamm) is struggling to keep his business afloat. In a last ditch effort, he travels to India to launch a reality TV show to find an unknown baseball player and get them signed up with a major league team.

There’s nothing really wrong with Million Dollar Arm, but it falls miles short of classic status. The acting is all up-to-scratch. Hamm is a gifted actor; he turns on the charm as Don Draper, but can also play a convincing, clueless tool in Kristen Wiig’s Bridesmaids. Here he makes charisma look easy as JB, who initially sees his talent show winners as an investment, a commodity, but ends up forming a strong friendship with them. Alan Arkin may play tiny variations of the same role, but he’s done a fine job in all of his films. In Million Dollar Arm, Arkin is a grouchy as hell baseball scout who refuses to even look at potential players; he shuts his eyes and waits to hear that perfect strike. Pitobash raises a smile whenever he’s onscreen with his never failing enthusiasm as JB’s right-hand man, Amit. Lake Bell is given the love interest role, but at least her character, Brenda, has a personality; she’s quirky and feisty and given a reasonable amount of screen time. Last but definitely not least, Bill Paxton gives a rare understated performance as baseball coach Tom House. For most of the film, House clashes with JB over what makes a great baseball player. JB believes if you train a player for enough hours, eventually they’ll figure out what they’re doing. House, on the other hand, sees his players as family, adopted children who need to be nurtured, taken care of.

You can’t even fault the cinematography, Gyula Pados giving us different glimpses of India: Bollywood, show business India with its bright costumes, dancing, and blaring music; the diverse landscape of hills, rivers and frantic cities; the ramshackle villages and poverty in India, contrasting with the showy glamour of its film and TV industry.

What lets Million Dollar Arm down is Thomas McCarthy’s script. While the film is dotted with some smart one-liners (“That’s cricket? Looks like an insane asylum opened up and all the inmates were allowed to play.”), it is virtually scene-after-scene of seen-it-all-before clichés. The broke hero who is up to his neck in debt; the underdogs from poor backgrounds get picked for the team; the rousing speech; the point where it looks like everyone is going home, hanging their heads; the players coming back, ready to prove everyone wrong – all of this features in Million Dollar Arm. While you can argue that the events you’re seeing happened in real life – and this is a Disney film – that doesn’t mean audiences should be sat knowing near enough what is about to happen in every scene. When you do that, you’re not engaged with what’s going on; you don’t care about the characters as much as you should. Films based on real-life tweak the facts all the time to make things more interesting and unpredictable; why couldn’t the same happen with Million Dollar Arm?

To sum up, Million Dollar Arm is enjoyable enough – you won’t be in the cinema, angrily kicking the chair in front of you – but it never reaches the giddy heights of Friday Night Lights, The Fighter, or Warrior. Too often while sitting through Million Dollar Arm, you’ll find yourself thinking, “This is about to happen” and it does, pretty much how you imagined it.

3 out of 5

Matt

Programme 24: Argo and 1960s Movies

The Watchers Film Show: Ep 24 from The Watchers Film Show on Vimeo.


Programme 24 is now available!

Tez reviews Ben Affleck's latest movie Argo and we discuss our favourite movies from the 1960s!

In the news, there's a belated sequel to a Hollywood classic, the opening weekend box office for Skyfall and casting rumours for a Tarzan remake.

Podcasts versions are also available here and here.

Enjoy!