Which actor had the longest gap between their first and last Oscar wins?
When Robert De Niro landed a ‘Best Supporting Actor’ Oscar nomination for his chilling performance as William King Hale in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, the 80-year-old was 48 years and 333 days removed from his first Academy Award nod. That nomination came for playing young Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II, of course, and the almost five-decade-long gap between first and last nomination made De Niro a Guinness World Record holder.
Interestingly, though, had De Niro walked away with the Little Gold Man at the 96th Academy Awards instead of Robert Downey Jr, who won for his venal turn as Lewis Strauss in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, De Niro would have broken two records.
You see, the longest gap between an actor’s first and last Academy Award win is 47 years and 350 days, and De Niro’s win for Don Vito in ’75 (his first of two victories) set him up nicely to break that record with the callously murderous Hale. Alas, it wasn’t to be – but De Niro could still triumph in the end if he wins another Oscar before hanging up his acting boots for good.
Who is the actor with that record-setting 47-year and 350-day gap between their first and last Oscar win, though? Well, when measured from the date of her first nomination on February 26th, 1934, to her final win on February 11th, 1982, that honour belongs to Katharine Hepburn.
The iconic star won ‘Best Actress’ for playing Eva Lovelace in Morning Glory, and landed her last Oscar for her portrayal of the lively Ethel Thayer opposite Henry and Jane Fonda in On Golden Pond. In between, she received another ten nominations, winning twice for Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner in 1968 and The Lion in Winter in 1969.
Ironically, despite being nominated for 12 Oscars and winning four in one of history’s most decorated acting careers, Hepburn only attended the Academy Awards ceremony once. Amusingly, and fittingly for a woman who never played by anyone’s rules, the solitary time she decided to darken the Oscars door was on a night she wasn’t even nominated for anything.
This came when she showed up in 1974 to present her pal, the producer Lawrence Weingarten, with the Irving G Thalberg Memorial Award. Brilliantly, to an audience stunned that she’d finally graced the Oscars with her presence, Hepburn joked, “I’m living proof that a person can wait 41 years to be unselfish.”
However, Hepburn’s quip might have been tinged with a modicum of regret and self-criticism, because when she was asked why she regularly eschewed the awards, she admitted, “If I sit here in my chair where I must be honest with myself so that I’ll progress and my character will improve: ‘Why don’t I go to the Academy Awards?’ It has to be that I’m afraid I’m going to lose.” She even scolded herself for not attending, saying it was “second-rate” and “cheap” of her not to join in the festivities.
As for the possibility of anyone breaking Hepburn’s record, there aren’t as many viable candidates as you may think. De Niro is the obvious frontrunner, but his Godfather Part II co-star Al Pacino is hamstrung by the fact he didn’t actually win his sole Oscar until 1993, despite being nominated seven times over the preceding two decades. Michael Caine recently retired, so he’s unlikely to break the record, while the likes of Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand may be in with a shout, but only if they work for at least another 20 years.
In truth, Meryl Streep is probably the closest to breaking the record aside from De Niro, and that seems perfectly apt. Streep first triumphed in 1980 for her nuanced turn in Kramer vs Kramer, and has picked up a historic total of 21 nominations. It’s been 45 years since that first win, and would anyone really bet against the 76-year-old, widely viewed as one of the greatest actors of all time, picking up another win or two before it’s all said and done?
