Summary
- Tom Hanks is one of the two actors who won the Best Actor award at the Oscars two years in a row.
- Hanks won his first Oscar for his role in the 1993 film “Philadelphia,” which tackles discrimination against AIDS and homosexuality.
- Spencer Tracy is the other actor to achieve this consecutive Best Actor win, with his Oscars coming from the films “Captains Courageous” and “Boys Town.”
Winning an award at the Oscars is a huge honor in the film industry. Whether it’s for Best Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Soundtrack, or any other category, actors and directors alike wait anxiously in their seats to see whose name gets called on to come on stage. To accept that golden, humanoid statue and add it to their collection of awards. While some may disagree with this notion, and find awards ceremonies of poor taste, many actors still have practically set records of how many awards they have won, and not just an Oscar.
The Academy sets records of its own as well. Not exactly how many awards total are given out, perhaps, but for example, the number of awards given for a single film. Or the most awards won by a single person. Or what films received the Big Five awards (Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay). Did you know that, during the 95 years of this awards ceremony’s history, only two actors won two Best Actor awards consecutively? It’s rather impressive that this has only happened twice. So, who are these two actors that set such an Academy record?
Tom Hanks
Philadelphia and Forrest Gump
One of the actors who won an Oscar two years in a row is the man, the myth, the legend Tom Hanks himself. He has been part of so many films over the years, including providing his voice for animated films. He has taken home about 50 awards during his career. Of those awards, two of them are Oscars for Best Actor. The first Oscar Hanks won was for his role as Andrew “Andy” Beckett in the 1993 film Philadelphia.
Philadelphia is a sad but beautifully written legal drama about a man named Andy Beckett who is unfairly fired from his law firm after his employers discovered he was gay and had AIDS. He teams up with a personal injury lawyer named Joe Miller (Denzel Washington), who is the only lawyer willing to help him sue his law firm. Throughout the film, we see Hank’s character continuously being discriminated against for both his illness and his sexuality, and Washington’s character relates to this as a Black man.
Just a year later, Hanks won an Oscar for Best Actor for the 1994 comedy-drama that has become one of America’s most adored films, Forrest Gump. The Liberty of Congress even selected this film in 2011 to preserve it in the United States National Film Registry. That is how incredible and culturally important this film is. It’s no wonder Hanks won an Oscar for Forrest Gump.
For those who may have not seen it, Forrest Gump is about an autistic, lovable man named Forrest Gump who talks about his life to strangers who sit next to him at a bus stop. With the support of his mother (Sally Field), Forrest is encouraged to live his life beyond his disabilities and live it to the fullest he can. Throughout the film, we see him struggling to save the love of his life, Jenny (Robin Wright), become a football star, become a Vietnam war hero, captain a shrimp boat, and just inspire those around him with his incredibly sweet personality.
Every Movie Where Tom Hanks Plays a Captain, Ranked
From ships to planes and more, these are all the times Tom Hanks has appeared in a movie as a Captain of some sort.
Spencer Tracy
Captains Courageous and Boys Town
Before Hanks, it was Spencer Tracy who consecutively won two Oscars for Best Actor. Known for his natural versatility in his performing style, Tracy was one of the major stars during Hollywood’s Golden Age. He had been in at least 75 films during his career and built a stature for himself among his peers as one of the screen’s best actors. The first Oscar he earned, funny enough, was for a film he originally did not want to be a part of.
Tracy won Best Actor for the role of Manuel Fidello in the 1937 adventure film Captains Courageous, a film primarily about a spoiled man named Harvey Cheyne (Freddie Bartholomew) who gets suspended from boarding school, so his father takes him on a business trip to Europe. Harvey falls overboard and gets saved by Tracy’s character Manuel, a humble fisherman, and is forced to become a low-rank member of Manuel’s captain’s ship’s crew.
Tracy won yet another Oscar for Best Actor for his 1938 movie Boys Town, a biographical drama that is based on an Irish priest named Father Edward J. Flanagan, who founded an orphanage and educational complex for underprivileged boys in Nebraska named “Boys Town.” In this movie, as Father Edward is using a tough-love system to shepherd these boys in the right direction, one thief by the name of Whitey Marsh (Mickey Rooney) doesn’t make that easy for Father Edward. Though the movie itself was largely fictional, it tells an incredible story about a real person and a real place. Tracy’s amazing performance of this character earned him the Best Actor award from the Academy.
Other Consecutive Oscars
Granted, Hanks and Tracy are the only two male actors to win Best Actor awards twice in a row. That does not mean they are the only actors in general to have set such a record. Katharine Hepburn won two Best Actress Oscars consecutively for the 1967 film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and the 1968 film The Lion in Winter. The latter award holds another interesting position in Oscars history as it’s one of just six ties that have occurred at the Academy Awards.
Along with Hepburn, Luise Rainer is another actress who has won consecutive Best Actress awards for The Great Ziegfiled (1936) and The Good Earth (1937). Jason Robards is the only actor to win two consecutive Best Supporting Actor for the films All the President’s Men (1976) and Julia (1977). Meanwhile, some well-deserving actors have yet to win an Oscar at all. Maybe that is a record in and of itself.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
