Who was the first parent and child Oscar nominated for the same movie?
Nepotism is the blood that flows through Hollywood, and even the most unsuspecting actor or filmmaker can often surprise you by having a family member with their own Wikipedia page. The industry can feel like such an exclusive club that this is hardly surprising; for many nepo-babies, Hollywood is all they’ve ever known, so it doesn’t take much for their parents to pull some strings and land them their first job.
In many instances, the children of famous stars grow up to be incredibly talented, and you can hardly blame them for using their pre-existing connections to find a way into the industry. Take Francis Ford Coppola, for example, whose family members include everyone from Lost in Translation director Sofia Coppola to iconic actor Nicolas Cage and frequent Wes Anderson collaborator Jason Schwartzman – to name just a few.
Hollywood families often deliver brilliance as much as they bring overhyped and talentless offspring into existence, but let’s not be entirely negative. There have been times when both parents and children have been Oscar-nominated for the same films, which is rather impressive.
The first instance of this happened in 1981 when Jane Fonda and her father, Henry, appeared in On Golden Pond. The movie, directed by Mark Rydell and starring Katharine Hepburn, earned significant acclaim. The older Fonda would make his last performance in the film, dying about half a year after it was released.
Luckily, he found himself Oscar-nominated, competing against the likes of Warren Beatty, Paul Newman, Burt Lancaster, and Dudley Moore. He managed to take home the prize, which was surprisingly his first Academy Award. Meanwhile, his daughter Jane, known for previous roles in Barbarella, Klute, and 9 to 5, played his daughter in On Golden Pond, too, earning a ‘Best Supporting Actress’ nod.
She had already won two Oscars in the past for Klute and Coming Home, and this time around, she lost to Maureen Stapleton for Reds. Additionally, Hepburn won ‘Best Actress’ and Ernest Thompson won ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’, making On Golden Pond a rather successful film. Sadly, the two Fondas didn’t make history by both winning Oscars for the film, although they arguably made history with the nomination alone.
How many times has it happened?
This has only happened twice, with the next occurrence of a parent and child both earning nominations from the Oscars coming in 1991 with Rambling Rose, directed by Martha Coolidge. Diane Ladd was nominated for ‘Best Supporting Actress’, while her daughter, 23-year-old Laura Dern, was nominated for ‘Best Actress’. Neither of the actors won in their categories, but they still made history by becoming the first mother and daughter to be nominated in the same film.
Rambling Rose was widely praised, and it only emphasised the pair’s natural acting abilities. This wasn’t the first time they’d shared the screen with each other, though; Dern and Ladd have also acted alongside each other in Wild at Heart, Citizen Ruth, Inland Empire, and Enlightened.
While various parents and their children have appeared in movies together over the years, from Ryan and Tatum O’Neal in Paper Moon to Maureen O’Sullivan and Mia Farrow in Hannah and Her Sisters, only Henry and Jane Fonda and Diane Ladd and Laura Dern have found themselves nominated in the same film.
