Inspired by a few answers to a thread in the Game Room:
Manny people ask me and now I wonder: who was the actor who won an Oscar for a role while having the least screentime in that role.
It was mentioned that Judi Dench won a Best Supporting Actress award for only 8 minutes of screentime in “Shakespeare in Love.” Does any other actor or actress beat that?
Beatrice Straight won an Oscar for five minutes and forty seconds of work in Network.
I would have to say the Oscar for the shortest performance would have to be that “special” Oscar that Shirley Temple got…She was well under five foot at the time.
We’re only counting acting performances in feature films, right? I can picture someone winning an Oscar for composing (and possibly performing) a song that runs for less than five minutes within a film.
Well, Bugs Bunny did win an Oscar for Knight Knight Bugs which clocks in at 6:48. Once you take off the credits, that’s close to Beatrice Straight. But though it allowed him to be billed as “that Oscar-winning rabbit,” the actual Oscar went to Producer John Burton.
I don’t think Beatrice Straight will be beat.
However, just for the record, how much screen time did Heath Ledger have in The Dark Knight? Was it 30 minutes even?
Never mind. I just found it. It was 33:10, so I was pretty close.
Here is the list:
Huh, I always pegged that one as fairly lame and formulaic by Warner-toon standards.
Anthony Hopkins deserves special mention for winning Best Actor.
Yeah, 16 minutes or so. I’d forgotten he’s in it so little, since he is the most memorable thing in it.
David Niven’s lead win for Separate Tables is the record-holder at 15 min. 38 sec.
And honorable mention goes to Hermione Baddeley, whose supporting nod for Room at the Top ran for a mere 2 min. 32 sec.
Shirley Temple gave out the shortest Oscar of all time, seven of them, to Walt Disney. I’ve seen them in person and they’re really tiny.
Although he didn’t win an Oscar for performing, Pierre Boulle did win an Oscar for Best Screenplay adaption for Bridge On the River Kwai. Although Boulle wrote the book, he had nothing to do with the movie, since his English was very poor. But the real writers were on the Hollywood blacklist at the time, so Boulle became the front man.
Boulle also gave the shortest acceptance speech: “Merci.”
Just a sampling:
Moon River (1 min. 41 sec.)
When You Wish Upon a Star (1 min. 47 sec.)
Buttons and Bows (1 min. 52 sec.)
The Way You Look Tonight (1 min. 58 sec.)
On display here, along with about two dozen other Oscars (and countless other international awards), the largest single display of its kind anywhere, I suspect.
It is, but it was a weak year. Theatrical cartoons were dying out; the only other nominees were Disney’s Paul Bunyan and Terrytoons’s Sydney’s Family Tree. I suspect the Academy figured it was just time to give it to Bugs.
It wasn’t even nominated for Best Supporting Actor—mainly due to its length, and the ridiculously good competition in 1992—but I always thought that Alec Baldwin’s speech in Glengarry Glen Ross was the sort of performance that could have won an Oscar in a lesser year. It’s only 7:08 long.
(What a year for iconic performances: where Gene Hackman in *Unforgiven’*s competition included Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men, and Jaye Davidson in The Crying Game.)
In all fairness, that was far from the best WB short that year. Robin Hood Daffy, Hare-way to the Stars, Hip-Hip Hurry! and Cat Feud (all Chuck Jones films) were also that year and are better than Friz Freleng’s KKB (not the best Yosemite Sam film, either).
I’m not sure what the submission process was for shorts back then (given the huge volume being created) but it was probably dictated by the studio, which would’ve meant some internal politics would probably be involved.
At least Bugs won an Oscar, though. A Mickey Mouse short never has.
And Ned Beatty was also nominated for that movie for Best Supporting Actor for a quite small role, but didn’t win. Great movie, great performances, large and small.
“Let’s get back to page twenty-two, number 5, small ‘a’. Subsidiary rights.”
Not correct. “Lend a Paw” won the 1942 Oscar for Best Short Subject - Cartoon.
My mistake! I saw this “factoid” thrown around after the most recent Academy Awards but hadn’t done a complete fact-check myself. Thanks!
