The only actor to have starred in three consecutive even-year ‘Best Picture’ Academy Award winners
Finally receiving the ultimate recognition at the Academy Awards is a relief that can barely be expressed. Take, for instance, Leonardo DiCaprio, who was, at last, awarded the ‘Best Actor’ award in 2016 for his role in Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s The Revenant, having previously been nominated for the gong three separate times – for 2005’s The Aviator, 2007’s Blood Diamond and 2014’s The Wolf of Wall Street.
Many people had expected Leo to take the ‘Best Actor’ award in 2014, but he came up against fierce competition in Matthew McConaughey and his excellent performance in Dallas Buyer’s Club. They’d equally felt that his eventual awarding for The Revenant was something of a retrospective recognition, seeing as he essentially grunted his way through the entire movie, although admittedly going to great method acting lengths to prepare for the role.
While DiCaprio’s journey to obtaining the recognition he undoubtedly deserved was somewhat torturous (in the lightest possible sense), others have had it far more straightforward. Take, for instance, Talia Shire, the only person to have starred in three consecutive even-year ‘Best Picture’ winning movies.
Shire was born Talia Rose Coppola in New York in 1946 as the only daughter of Carmine Coppola and his wife, Italia Pennino. Coppola, a famed arranger and composer, is, of course, the father of legendary director Francis Ford, making Shire The Godfather director’s sister, the aunt of Nicolas Cage, and the mother of Jason Schwartzman.
The first film that Shire performed in that won the ‘Best Picture’ Academy Award was her brother’s 1972 mob masterpiece The Godfather, in which she played Connie Corleone, the youngest child and only daughter of Don Vito Corleone, played exquisitely by the inimitable Marlon Brando.
Two years later, Shire reprised her role as Connie Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s sequel The Godfather Part II, which saw her express her bitterness for her on-screen brother Michael Corleone – played by Al Pacino. Shire received even more recognition for her role in the 1974 classic when she was nominated for the ‘Best Supporting Actress’ Award.
Then, a further two years down the line, in 1976, Shire played another supporting role in another ‘Best Picture’ gong, although, at that time, her brother was not involved in its production. Shire portrayed the iconic Adrian Pennino in John G. Avildsen’s sports drama classic Rocky. Adrian is the romantic interest of Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa, who he meets in a pet shop, and together, the two actors create one of the most-beloved on-screen relationships of all time. In doing so, she took the honour of becoming the only actor to have starred in three consecutive even-year ‘Best Picture’ winners.
