Which Oscar-nominated actor had the least amount of screen time?
Since 1929, the Academy Awards have given golden statuettes to filmmakers, actors and other film industry creatives for their stellar contributions to cinema. By 1953, the award ceremony had become a televised event, drawing in eager film fans to see which movies would be crowned the best of the best.
Now, it’s one of the industry’s most anticipated days of the year, with millions tuning in to watch the event. The ceremony typically gives way to plenty of controversy, with everything from stage streakers, arguments, smacks, and wrongly awarded nominees making the Oscars a must-watch. It’s the most prestigious major award ceremony, with practically everyone in Hollywood donning their finest outfits for the event to gather and celebrate the previous year’s cinematic achievements.
There have been many accidental records set over the years, such as Kathryn Bigelow becoming the first woman to win ‘Best Director’ (81 years after the first ceremony) or Jane and Henry Fonda making history as the first and only father-daughter duo to be nominated during the same year (even more amazingly, for the same film, On Golden Pond). Then there are the records for youngest and oldest winners, such as Tatum O’Neal winning an Oscar at the age of ten after starring in Paper Moon and James Ivory nabbing one when he was 89 for his Call Me By Your Name screenplay.
However, one of the most fascinating categories of Oscar records is performance length. There have been several actors who have won awards despite appearing on screen for an incredibly short amount of time. It was Beatrice Straight who earned the title of ‘shortest Oscar-winning performance’ after appearing in Network for just five minutes and two seconds.
Her performance in the film, released in 1976 was so good that she grabbed the attention of critics in spite of the fact she only appears in one scene. Yet, the sequence was so explosive and vital to the plot that there was no way anyone could forget it, ultimately allowing Straight to win her first and only Oscar.
When it comes to the shortest-ever performance to be nominated, however, it was Hermione Baddeley who earned this title back in 1959 with Room at the Top, a feat no one has yet surpassed. The actor appeared in Jack Clayton’s film as Elspeth, earning a nomination for ‘Best Supporting Actress’—even though she’d appeared in the film for just two minutes and 20 seconds. She wasn’t the only cast member nominated; Simone Signoret and Laurence Harvey were also acknowledged by the Academy, with the former winning ‘Best Actress’.
Baddeley’s performance could’ve easily been dismissed because she appeared for such a short amount of time, especially considering the movie runs for a total of 115 minutes, yet her acting was just too brilliant. Out of the three scenes she was in, she only spoke in two, but it’s the one where she has a conversation with Joe, Harvey’s character, that allowed her to give an Oscar-worthy performance.
In the end, Baddeley lost out to Shelley Winters for her performance in The Diary of Anne Frank, but the actor was still able to emerge as a world record holder, making her a winner in her own right.
