How many times have two people shared an Oscar for acting?
There may be a few actors out there who are openly disdainful of the Academy Awards, but for most, taking home one of the iconic gold statuettes is the pinnacle of their professional lives.
Some actors have built entire careers around winning what is considered the most prestigious award in the industry, taking specific parts just for their Oscar-worthy nature—think of the heaps of names who have ingratiated themselves by starring in mediocre biopics, just because they tend to do well on the awards circuit.
One can imagine the shock for any such actor, patiently awaiting the announcement of their name on the big night, only to hear the accolade called in conjunction with someone else’s name. Yes, a tie is not just the uniform code but a possibility at the Oscars.
Such a sporting rule may be rare on the stage, but it’s not unprecedented for two people, two films, or even two crew members to share the title.
How many declarations of ties has the Oscars seen?
There have only been six ties in the 97-year-long history of the Academy Awards. A decade and more prior to ‘Best Sound Editing’ becoming a defunct category, Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty tied with Sam Mendes’ Skyfall for the honour in 2012. Prior to that, in 1995, Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life and the beloved Trevor were bound in a glory tie for ‘Best Short Film (Live Action)’.
In 1987, Artie Shaw: Time is All You’ve Got and Down and Out in America shared the Academy Award for ‘Best Documentary Feature’. And, in 1950, two short documentaries, A Chance To Live and So Much So Little, shared the award in their category.
Of course, the times that two people have shared an Oscar for acting have been the most iconic. And, it’s happened a total of two times. No offence to the former categories mentioned, but there’s much more buzz around the acting and directing awards. While we’re yet to witness two directors being forced to share the glory, I live in hope that we might one day get to see that ensuing chaos.
How many ‘Best Actor’ ties have been announced?
One of the ties, if you can really call it that by today’s standards, for the ‘Best Actor’ Academy Award came only a few years into the award’s history. During the fifth iteration, Frederic March was awarded for his performance in the imaginative horror adaptation Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
As March and everybody else present were heading off to celebrate his win as the show came to a close, a numbers cruncher realised that fellow nominee Wallace Beery had only been one vote behind in the tally. For some reason, this meant that March had to share his Academy Award with Beery for his work. I mean, it was only right considering his nomination was for The Champ.
But, by far the most famous time that two actors had to share their Oscar glory for acting was in 1969. The legendary Katherine Hepburn and Barbara Streisand both won the Academy Award for ‘Best Actress’, with the former cinching for A Lion in Winter, and on her third out of four eventual wins. Presumably, it wasn’t that big of a deal for her, but for Streisand, not only was this her first win, but Funny Girl was also her debut film.
While it was surely an honour to tie with the great Hepburn, there’s no doubt that Streisand must have been a little disappointed to share such a career-defining moment. As for Hepburn, she wasn’t even in attendance, being one of those rare actors who didn’t seem to care about awards. She notoriously never accepted any of her four Oscars, saying that “my work is my prize”.
Though Streisand shared the stage with A Lion in Winter director Anthony Harvey, she went on to win an Oscar for ‘Best Original Song’ all for herself, nearly a decade later, and claims the prestigious title of Egot. Tying for ‘Best Actor’ probably doesn’t haunt the multi-hyphenate now in her old and storied age.
It’s been nearly 60 years since Hepburn and Streisand had to share their Oscar, and over a decade since the last Academy Awards tie in general, but who knows when this rare occurrence might strike again?
