Oscar: the dead but nominated actors and actresses

Nohe long history of Oscar awardssometimes it happened that an actor or actress (currently only one) has managed to win a nomination, or even a victory, post-mortem. The last time it happened was in 2021 when Chadwick Boseman he came close to winning Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. This year there are no missing actors in the running but a musician: the great one Robbie Robertsonguitarist of the legendary group The Band And author of the original music for Martin Scorsese’s film Killers of the Flower Moon. Here are all the performers nominated posthumously.

Oscar: posthumous nominations for actors

Jeanne Eagles for The letter (1930)

Beautiful and famous silent film actressand Broadway star, Jeanne Eagles disappears at just 39 years old due to a lethal mix of alcohol and heroin and tranquilizers. Her premature death does not prevent her from obtaining a nomination for his latest film: The letterbased on the play of the same name by William Somerset Maugham.

Jeanne is nominated for an Oscar as best actress, the first posthumous nomination for an actor or actress in the history of the prestigious award. That year, however, Mary Pickford won For Coquette by Sam Taylor.

About Jeanne’s tragic story the biopic was made in 1957 One great love starring Kim Novak. Where the actress’s life from stardom to fame is told unfortunate marriage to football player Edward Coy – until slow descent into alcoholism.

James Dean – The Valley of Eden (1956) e The giant (1957)

Quintessence of the beautiful and cursed star, James Dean dies at just 24 years old in a car accident in 1955. Premature death did nothing but fuel the myth (which still lasts today). Shortly before his death, Dean had starred in two films: The Valley of Eden by Elia Kazan and The giant by George Stevensthe latter completed with a stunt double.

In The Valley of Edenthe actor had embodied to perfection the torments of the young protagonist Cal Traska young boy who experiences a strong conflict with his father and who tries in every way to reconcile with him before the man’s death. A splendid and painful interpretation which he gave to Dean a nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Ernest Borgnine won for Marty, life of a shy person).

In the giantJames is instead the Texan farmhand Jett Rink, secretly in love with Liz Taylorunhappy wife of Rock Hudson. Another touching interpretation that won over the second posthumous nomination as Best Actor (won Yul Brynner for the musical The king and I).

Spencer Tracy – Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? (1967)

Already winner of two Oscars in 1938 and 1939 – For Courageous captains And The city of boys –Tracy managed to snag a Best Actor nomination for too Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?. Filmed with Katharine Hepburn (who will win theOscar for Best Actress), is a liberal drama in which he plays a family man who disapproves (and then changes his mind) of his daughter’s engagement with the young African American doctor Sidney Poitier.

The nomination comes after his death, which occurred due to a heart attack two weeks after filming ended (he was 67 years old). The prize, however, goes to Rod Steiger For The Hot Night of Inspector Tibbsanother film with Sidney Poitier.

Peter Finch – Fifth estate (1976)

Thanks to the splendid interpretation of Howard Beale in Sidney Lumet’s film, a television host who announces his intention to commit suicide live, Finch was the first actor to win a posthumous Oscar for Best Actor.

He is unable to collect it because he dies a few weeks before the ceremony. But it beats one very strong competition: Sylvester Stallone in Rocky, Robert De Niro by Taxi Drivers and Giancarlo Giannini in Pasqualino Settebellezze by Lina Wertmüller.

Ralph Richardon – Greystoke – The legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1983)

Ralph Richardson he died of a heart attack at the age of 80 in 1983. The following year he was nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for Greystoke – The Legend of Tarzan next to Christopher Lambert. Films in which she starred the lovable grandfather who tried to educate in civility victorian his nephew Tarzan, now grown up.

He is beaten by Haing S. NgorKorean actor (who later disappeared into thin air) co-star of Roland Joffè’s film Screams of silence.

Massimo Troisi – The postman (1995)

Massimo TroisHe passed away in 1994 due to heart problems at just 41 years old. For more than a decade he was the beloved protagonist of many TV programs and cult films such as I thought it was love but instead it was a carriage.

Already seriously ill, he nevertheless accepts the leading role in The postmanbased on the book Neruda’s postman by Antonio Skármeta, and which he stages the friendship that arises between a humble postman and the poet Neruda (Philippe Noiret).

Massimo dies twelve hours after filming ended – but he comes anyway candidate as Best Leading Actor. Award then won by Nicolas Cage for the role of an alcoholic in Out of Las Vegas by Mike Figgis.

Heath Ledger – The dark Knight (2008)

Among the most beloved interpreters of his generationfrom 10 things I hate about you to The secrets of Brokeback Mountain, Heath Ledger died accidentally from drug abuse at age 28 in 2008. Shortly after the role of Joker in the Dark Knight by Nolan.

The nomination, which arrives on time, gives the second posthumous Oscar to an actor, this time as a supporting role.

Chadwick Boseman – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020)

Marvel movie star Black Pantherthe actor dies in August 2020 for colon cancer (he was 42 years old). However, he earned a nomination for Best Leading Actor for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Where he plays an ambitious and talkative trumpeter in 1930s Chicago.

For the boomakers, Chadwick’s victory is almost a given but, to everyone’s enormous surprise, to win the Oscar (for the second time later The Silence of the Lambs) It’s Anthony Hopkins For The Father – Nothing is as it seems.

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