The rare award brought back specifically for Samuel L Jackson that hasn’t been given out since
One of the defining images from the long and lauded career of Samuel L Jackson was the unrepentant look of indignation on his face when he didn’t receive an Academy Award for his work in Pulp Fiction.
Jackson was the overwhelming favourite in the race to be named ‘Best Supporting Actor’ after Quentin Tarantino’s seminal crime thriller had become a cultural sensation, and he didn’t even try to hide his fury when the statue went to Ed Wood‘s Martin Landau instead.
Despite everything he’s achieved and the sheer volume of classic films he’s appeared in over the decades, it remains the one and only time Jackson has ever been nominated for a competitive Oscar. He did win an honorary gong in 2021, though, but it blows the mind that scooping a Bafta for Pulp Fiction is the only major trophy he’s been able to put in the cabinet after defeating a field of fellow nominees.
However, his status as the single highest-grossing actor in the history of cinema speaks volumes to not only his wide-ranging appeal and longevity, but his ability to sniff out the roles that bring the biggest commercial rewards. That being said, he did receive a particularly prestigious honour back in the early 1990s, a distinction so rare that he still ranks as the fourth and final person to have won it.
A fixture of the filmic calendar for decades, the Cannes Film Festival plays host to cinema from all nations and walks of life, with the best features and their leading lights being rewarded annually. While there aren’t strictly supporting categories, the organisation has taken it upon itself to bestow an incredibly fleeting prize to those it deems worthy.
Dear Father‘s Stefano Madia was the first person to be named ‘Best Supporting Actor’ at Cannes, with the trophy seemingly becoming a fixture of the line-up after Breaker Morant‘s Jack Thompson and Chariots of Fire‘s Ian Holm followed in those footsteps in consecutive years between 1979 and 1981.
After that, though, it was a decade before another supporting performance was recognised at Cannes, with the powers-that-be dusting off the shiny trinket and handing it Jackson’s way for his searing turn in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever. Barton Fink‘s John Turturro was named ‘Best Actor’, but clearly, the voting body decided that Jackson needed something to show for his efforts as Gator.
To this day, it stands as the final time anybody has won a ‘Best Supporting Actor’ prize from Cannes, which speaks volumes to just how blown away the people in charge were by Jackson’s incredible tour-de-force. It’s been more than 30 years, and the festival has never again felt the need to break open the emergency glass and hand it over to someone else, making it a fascinating slice of history.
