Right now, it seems Timothée Chalamet is the odds-on favorite to win Best Actor at the 98th Academy Awards on March 14th for his starring turn in Marty Supreme. He missed out on the award last year when he was nominated for A Complete Unknown, one of the best music biopics in a while. If he had won last year, he would have been the youngest Best Actor winner ever, but as it stands, if he wins next month, he’ll be the second youngest. It's time the Oscars start rewarding performances for younger actors.
Actors In Their 20s Have Had Little Chance At Winning
Adrien Brody, who won his second Oscar (over Chalamet) last year, holds the record for the youngest Best Actor winner, with his win for The Pianist in 2002, when he was 29 years old. Chalamet turned 30 in December, which means Brody remains the only winner to have done so in his 20s. I would like to see this change, because a lot of fantastic performances by actors in their 20s (or younger) have been nominated, but very rarely rewarded with the Oscar.
I’m talking about actors like Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain. He was nominated for the role at age 27, but lost to Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote in 2006. James Dean was nominated twice, both posthumously, for his roles in Giant and East of Eden. Dean died at age 24 and never won the prize. From 1952 until 1955, Marlon Brando was nominated four years in a row in the category, but didn’t win until the end of that run, after he turned 30.
It’s One Reason We Have ‘Make Up’ Oscars
There are plenty of examples over the years of critically acclaimed and popular actors who have won an Oscar for a performance that is seen as not as strong as an earlier role for which they didn’t win. The classic example here is Al Pacino. Sure, he’s great in Scent of a Woman, which was his first Oscar win, but is he better than he was in The Godfather? Or Dog Day Afternoon? Or Serpico? He didn’t win for those, and it took another 20 years for the Academy to recognize him. He was in his 30s for all of those earlier roles, but what about Matt Damon?
Damon was nominated for what I would argue is still the best performance in his stellar career, in Good Will Hunting, when he was 27. He didn’t win (though he did win for Best Screenplay, along with Ben Affleck), and we’re nearly 30 years hence, and one of the biggest stars on the planet still hasn’t won an Oscar for acting. The same goes for Tom Cruise, who was 28 when he was first nominated, for one of his finest performances, in Born on the Fourth of July. He, too, has yet to win, 35 years later. When the Academy doesn’t reward a younger actor for a great performance, sometimes it’s an opportunity missed that is hard to make up for.
I know, I know, the plight of the young, handsome actor in Hollywood isn’t exactly a cause that many feel bad for, I get it. However, the Academy should be rewarding great performances, no matter how old the actor is. Maybe a win from Chalamet, who is on his third nomination already, will open up that door to more Oscars for actors in their 20s, and we'll have to shorten the list of actors who have shockingly never won an Oscar.
