2. ART IMITATING LIFE
Tropic Thunder taught us, to win an acting Oscar, you don't go full retard. While it's true that characters with mental handicaps fall under the category 'Oscar Bait' very well, there's a subclass that gets even more recognition: real life people. I was originally planning to ask for anyone who's been nominated for playing a real person...then I saw the list. So, for this question...
Name a Best Actor or Best Actress winner who won for playing a real, factual person (living or dead).
Bonus! For one point off, name who they played to win. For an 800 on the SAT Essay section, in three pages describe how the thespian made a mockery of history.
Well, no one went for the essay section, and no one dropped either. There were a LOT of singletons here, too. I expected as much, because, seriously, there's a TON of these. Pick a random year, 1999 to 2010, you've got a 92% chance of picking a year where one of them was playing a real person (the oddball is 2001). I also thank you for not making me deal with edge cases like Willie Stark / Huey Long.
Asterisks (*) represent correct responses for the bonus point, given in parenthesis.
Daniel Day Lewis (Christy Brown) (4)
econgator*
gamawire*
teapot37*
Turd Ferguson*
Charlize Theron (Aileen Wournos) (3)
barandall800*
billy pilgrim*
Paucle*
Ben Kingsley (Gandhi) (2)
Peggles*
ayeembored*
Hillary Swank (Brandon Teena) (2)
fowlerism*
goforthetie*
Adrian Brody (Wladyslaw Szpilman) (1)
Vanya
Barbra Streisand (Fanny Brice) (1)
seaborgium*
F Murray Abraham (Antonio Salieri) (1)
opusthepenguin*
Forest Whitaker (Idi Amin) (1)
xxaaxx*
Jamie Foxx (Ray Charles) (1)
amorris525*
Katherine Hepburn (Eleanor of Aquitaine) (1)
Woof*
Paul Muni (Louis Pasteur) (1)
RandyG
Paul Scofield (Thomas More) (1)
bomtr (Not Thomas Becket. Sorry.)
Reese Witherspoon (June Carter) (1)
Bamaman*
Robert DeNiro (Jake LaMotta) (1)
Woppy T*
Sandra Bullock (Leigh Anne Tuohi) (1)
cheezguyty*
Spencer Tracy (Father Flanagan) (1)
MarkBarrett*
Incorrect
Cate Blanchett (Only won for Best Supporting as Katherine Hepburn) - mitchparov
Judi Dench (Iris Murdoch, nominated. Won Best Supporting as Queen Elizabeth) - debramc
Kirk Douglas (Spartacus? Not even nominated. As Van Gogh, nominated but lost) - oddsox
Linda Hunt (Won Best Actress as Billy Kwan, The Year of Living Dangerously, but not a real person) - WRV
Meryl Streep (Nom. for Isak Dineson (and 5 other real people). Her only wins were fictional chars.) - Rackme32
Notable Omissions
George Arliss - Benjamin Disraeli
Charles Laughton - King Henry VIII
Gary Cooper - Sgt. Alvin York
James Cagney - George M. Cohan
Yul Brynner - King Mongkut of Siam
George C. Scott - Gen. George S. Patton (Yep, I totally overlooked the fact he's completely legit for this category.)
Jeremy Irons - Claus von Bulow
Geoffrey Rush - David Helfgott
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Truman Capote
Sean Penn - Harvey Milk
Colin Firth - King George VI
Luise Rainer - Anna Held
Jennifer Jones - Bernadette Soubirous
Ingrid Bergman - Anastasia
Susan Hayward - Barbara Graham
Anne Bancroft - Annie Sullivan
Sissy Spacek - Loretta Lynn
Susan Sarandon - Sister Helen Prejean
Julia Roberts - Erin Brockovich
Nicole Kidman - Virginia Woolf
Helen Mirren - Queen Elizabeth II
Marion Cotillard - Edith Piaf
Standings After Round 2
Code: Select all
Bamaman ......... 0 = 0 + (1 - 1)
amorris525 ...... 2 = 2 + (1 - 1)
goforthetie ..... 2 = 1 + (2 - 1)
xxaaxx .......... 2 = 2 + (1 - 1)
ayeembored ...... 3 = 2 + (2 - 1)
bomtr ........... 3 = 2 + (1 + 0)
Peggles ......... 3 = 2 + (2 - 1)
RandyG .......... 3 = 2 + (1 + 0)
seaborgium ...... 3 = 3 + (1 - 1)
billy pilgrim ... 4 = 2 + (3 - 1)
cheezguyty ...... 4 = 4 + (1 - 1)
gamawire ........ 4 = 1 + (4 - 1)
MarkBarrett ..... 4 = 4 + (1 - 1)
opusthepenguin .. 4 = 4 + (1 - 1)
Paucle .......... 4 = 2 + (3 - 1)
teapot37 ........ 4 = 1 + (4 - 1)
Vanya ........... 4 = 3 + (1 + 0)
Woppy T ......... 4 = 4 + (1 - 1)
barandall800 .... 6 = 4 + (3 - 1)
econgator ....... 7 = 4 + (4 - 1)
Woof ............ 9 = 9 + (1 - 1)
fowlerism ...... 10 = 9 + (2 - 1)
WRV ............ 10 = 1 + (9 + 0)
oddsox ......... 12 = 3 + (9 + 0)
Turd Ferguson .. 12 = 9 + (4 - 1)
mitchparov ..... 13 = 4 + (9 + 0)
Rackme32 ....... 13 = 4 + (9 + 0)
debramc ........ 18 = 9 + (9 + 0)