Who was the first person to direct their own Oscar-winning performance?
Many actors try their hands at directing, but not all of them should have taken the creative leap.
In certain circumstances, you can’t help but wonder if the only reason an actor was given the chance to direct a movie was because of their status in Hollywood. You’d think that if you can act, you’d have a good grasp on directing a movie, but that’s just not always the case. Luckily, there are enough examples out there of great actors becoming great directors to put a cinephile’s mind at ease.
From Gary Oldman (Nil By Mouth) and Tim Roth (The War Zone) to Ida Lupino (Outrage) and Ron Howard (Apollo 13), many actors have shown that they’re just as capable of directing, but fewer take on the role of directing and starring in a movie. This is something that Clint Eastwood has done many times, which is perhaps why he has earned such a stalwart position in Hollywood – he can do many difficult tasks well.
However, there are only a few instances in which actors have directed themselves in a movie, only to earn an Oscar nomination for that performance. On a few rare occasions, a star has found themselves nominated for both ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Actor’, like Orson Welles, who was nominated for both, alongside ‘Best Original Screenplay’ and ‘Best Picture’ for Citizen Kane. He only won ‘Best Original Screenplay’, but his recognition for directing and starring in the film was no small feat.
This is something that Warren Beatty has also achieved, earning several nominations, including ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Actor’ for Heaven Can Wait before later achieving this same nominations for Reds. But who was the first actor to win an Oscar for a performance they also directed?
The first person to direct their own Oscar-winning performance
Before Roberto Benigni took home ‘Best Actor’ for Life Is Beautiful, which he also directed, Laurence Olivier set the record for the first person to receive the honour. The legendary actor, who’d cut his teeth in the theatre as an accomplished Shakespeare expert, made his directorial debut in 1944 with Henry V before tackling another one of the Bard’s plays for his next project.
In 1948, Olivier directed Hamlet, also starring as the titular character alongside Basil Sydney as Claudius and Eileen Herlie as Gertrude. It’s hardly surprising that the actor earned an Academy Award nomination for the film, which saw him give an incredible performance as the troubled character. He’d played the character several times on stage before, but finally, he was awarded a prize for his depiction of the protagonist on screen.
Sadly, he missed out on winning ‘Best Director’, with John Huston instead taking home the golden statuette for The Treasure of Sierra Madre. Still, his performance as Hamlet would win him his first and only competitive Oscar, and what better than to become a Guinness World Record holder in the process by also having directed the performance?
While Olivier might have been better celebrated as an actor – one of the finest of all time – he certainly wasn’t half bad at directing, either.
