Mister Tee wrote: ↑Fri Jun 09, 2023 1:15 am
I’ll start off with siblings.
1. There’s only one true case of sisters both having best pictures to their credit.* If you don’t get this one, you probably shouldn’t even bother with the remainder of the quiz. If you need a hint: Their winning films came in consecutive years.
* (A sort of exception will be dealt with below.)
Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine
There are 6 sets of brothers who’ve both appeared in Oscar-winning best films.
Found six but one may not be the pair hinted at.
2. Three of those brother combos actually appeared in the same best picture winner. In two of those three cases, one of the brothers also appeared in a later best picture winner.
a) The first should be one of the most obvious.
John and Lionel Barrymore
b) The second, you’d be more likely to know about one brother’s later winning film (and Oscar-winning performance) than to realize either of them is in this famous film.
Barry Fitzgerald and Arthur Shields
c) The third comes decades later, with one of the brothers far more prominently featured in the film. To the tune of an acting nomination.
Matt and Kevin Dillon
3. The 4th instance is two brothers who each appeared in biopic winners.
One of the brothers is quite familiar -– he’s got a famous role in a film everyone’s seen.
The other I’d frankly not heard of till a week or so ago, when my father mentioned him in a context totally removed from movies. But IMDB shows him with over 100 credits.
Frank and Ralph Morgan
Actually Ralph, who was older, was initially more famous. He was also in more films I saw on TV as a kid than I did his brother's better known ones.
4. The 5th pair is two actors we first saw in their quite young days. The more prominent brother –- the one with an Oscar nomination –- didn’t get his best picture winner till almost 20 years after his younger sibling.
Colin and Jonathan Firth
5. The last in this group features one brother who appeared in three best picture winners over a decade and a half (the last in a small role). The other co-starred in his best picture winner, sometime between his sibling’s 2nd & 3rd.
Sounds like George Sanders and Tom Conway who had an uncredited role in Mrs. Miniver but I'm only aware of two Best Picture winners in which Sanders appeared so this may not be the correct answer.
Missing siblings: Sybil and Richard Thorndike who were both in Hamlet
On to Married Couples, the largest group I found. I include any two who were married at any point in their lives; it didn’t matter if they were married at the time their films won. In fact, I could only find one case where a couple was married at the time when each of their films won. Hollywood marriages, right?
6. Let’s start with that pair. They didn’t stay married forever, but during their 15 years together, each saw a film of theirs win the top award. The two films were wildly different in tone, and budget. (If no one guesses them quickly, I can provide more explicit clues.)
Don't know but Movita and Marlon Brando were married for eight years after both had starred in Oscar winning films 19 years apart six years before their marriage.
7. There are three cases of couples who were married for one partner’s winning film, but not the other. In two cases, the films were released during the same decade.
a) The first is another legendary acting winner pair that should be the first to come to mind.
Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh.
b) In the second case, he’s an acting winner for his best picture. She has been highly awarded in other media, but not film. She had a small but memorable part in a beloved, Oscar-winning film.
George C. Scott and Colleen Dewhurst
c) In the third, he’d already appeared in a winning film prior to their marriage but had another during their time together. Then, she appeared (in a minor part) in a film that won over 40 years later.
Rod Steiger and Claire Bloom
8. An interesting sub-group I’ve encountered: People who met on the sets of their winning movies and subsequently tied the knot. There were four such couples, ranging from the WWII years through the new millennium.
One of them should come easily to mind.
Hint: In each case, one of the partners got an acting nomination for the film, the other didn’t. Three times, it was the female.
Greer Garson and Richard Ney
Bette Davis and Gary Merrill
Clint Eastwood and Frances Fisher
Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany
9. I found only one case of a couple that married shortly after each had appeared prominently in a best picture winner. It was a short-lived union -– barely 4 years -– but it counts. One of them won an Oscar, the other has been nominated multiple times.
Don't know.
10. Finally, two cases that emerged strictly from IMDB research, and I’d be surprised if anyone gets.
a) Their marriage began and ended long before either got to the Oscars. He appeared in two legendary best picture winners almost two decades apart. She had a smaller role in a film that won between his two. Her name was only vaguely familiar to me.
Don't know.
b) This was one that shocked hell out of me. He appeared in two big best picture winners just a few years apart. She top-lined a best picture winner decades later. You think of her as permanently married to someone else. But they were, in fact, married for about 8 years, prior to either of them being prominent.
Jack Hawkins and Jessica Tandy - a legendary pairing I thought everyone knew about.
Missing couple: Jim Carter and Imelda Staunton who were together in Shakespeare in Love
And, at last, the parent/child group -- the ones that got me onto this topic in the first place.
11. The parent had a very small part in a famous musical. The offspring had a larger role in a winning movie over 40 years later. (This was the one that inspired this entire topic.)
Hint: The other parent is almost certainly the most famous of the three –- winner of an acting Oscar –- but has never had a best picture winner.
Don't know.
12. The parent is a multi-nominee under acting, and had a juicy supporting role in a powerful best picture winner. The child hasn’t had as prominent a career (though is a Tony winner), but made an impression in a serious drama that won a decade-plus later.
Chistopher and Amanda Plummer
13. Should be the easiest of this group. The parent has appeared in two Oscar winners, more than two decades apart. The child's film won in the years between the two. Both of them have had prominent TV careers.
Martin and Charlie Sheen
And, finally, the Oscar-palooza (also the one that explains the asterisk on the sister-sibling question):
14. The parent had minor roles in two best picture winners, two decades apart. One of the offspring also had a small role in the first of those. Two other offspring -– of opposite genders –- appeared in a best picture winner just a view years later than that first film (though one in just a wordless cameo).
Lynn, Vanessa, and Corin Redgrave - parent in Oscar winning films was Rachel Kempson
Missing: Mother and Son-in-Law – Gladys Cooper and Robert Morley
I hope you enjoy puzzling these out as much as I enjoyed researching them.