A friend of mind came up with an interesting movie trivia question.
What movie’s cast has won the most Oscars throughout their entire acting careers? Note that the Oscars can be from both before and after the movie in question was released, so the answer to this question has the potential to change each year.
For example take the 2011 film “Carnage” which has four principal actors – Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, and John C. Reilly. To date, Foster’s won 2, Winslet has 1, Waltz has 2, and Reilly doesn’t have any. So the movie’s total is 5.
What movie has the highest total?
We don’t know the answer, so I’m throwing it out to the board.
*A Bridge Too Far *(1977) has Gene Hackman (1972), Maximilian Schell (1962), Laurence Olivier (1949), Sean Connery (1988), Michael Caine (1986,1999), Anthony Hopkins (1992), Robert Redford (1981) and Richard Attenborough (1983).
Do the Oscars have to be for acting?
If not, Philadelphia has at least 9: Tom Hanks (2), Denzel Washington (2), Jason Robards (2), Mary Steenburgen (1), Joanne Woodward (1), and Roger Corman (1).
My intention was to limit the Oscars to acting, as I thought that might be less complicated. But if you guys want to consider a separate question where the Oscars are not limited to acting, be my guest!
A Bridge Too Far has Michael Caine (2), Sean Connery, Gene Hackman (2), Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier (3), Maximilian Schell, Robert Redford (2) and Richard Attenborough (2). That’s 8 winners, 14 Oscars (3 of which were non-competitive awards).
Around the World in 80 Days has David Niven, John Gielgud, Ronald Colman, Shirley MacLaine, Charles Coburn, Frank Sinatra (1+), Victor McLaglen, John Mills, Noel Coward(), Charles Boyer(), Buster Keaton(). That’s 11 winners and 12 awards (*=non-competitive).
Robert Altman’s The Player has Whoopi Goldberg, Sydney Pollack (2), Cher, James Coburn, Louise Fletcher, Joel Grey, Anjelica Huston, Jack Lemmon (2), Marlee Matlin,Tim Robbins, Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon, Rod Steiger. That’s 13 winners, 15 Oscars.
The film called The Oscar’s cast has Ed Begley, Ernest Borgnine, Walter Brennan (3), Broderick Crawford, James Dunn, and Edith Head (8). 6 winners, 15 Oscars.
Questions like these revolve around who you consider to be the principal cast of a movie. Someone mentioned The Player, but it hardly seems that should count. Some of the roles (like Julia Roberts) were barely more than cameos.
Let me offer The Lion in Winter; Peter O’Toole, Katharine Hepburn, and Anthony Hopkins have 24 acting nominations among them (not even counting O’Toole’s honorary award).
The Longest Day has a huge cast including many top-level actors of the time. That’s the sort of film I would expect to win a contest of this type. But I’m too lazy to find out.
Roddy
eta: the OP didn’t specify that the Oscars had to be only for the “principal” cast, did it?
While not a winner for overall numbers, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner? has a pretty high bang-for-the-buck ratio. The three leads have 8 Oscars and another 16 nominations between them.
Katherine Hepburn (4 Oscars, 8 more nominations)
Spencer Tracy (2 Oscars, 7 more nominations)
Sidney Portier (2 Oscars (1 honorary), 1 more nomination)
As for nominations, let’s use The Godfather as a minimum benchmark:
Marlon Brando (8), Al Pacino (8), Robert Duvall (6), Diane Keaton (4), Sofia Coppola (3), Carmine Coppola (2), Talia Shire (2), James Caan, Richard Costellano, John Marley = 36 nominations
It didn’t specify it, but the example given mentioned only the four principal actors in Carnage.
And personally, I think it makes the question more interesting. If you include small roles and cameos, it skews the question toward those movies with unusually large casts.