The first man to earn dual Oscar nods accomplished the feat in a most bizarre fashion: In 1945, 56-year-old Irish actor Barry Fitzgerald was nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for the same role, as the gruff priest, Father Fitzgibbon, in Going My Way. In the aftermath of the film's release in 1944, there was confusion over whether the role should be considered lead or supporting; confounding the situation, Fitzgerald's costar, Bing Crosby, was also winning praise for his unquestionably lead performance. The New York Film Critics Circle named Fitzgerald Best Actor over Crosby, but soon after, the Hollywood Foreign Press awarded him their Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe. At the time, Academy bylaws stipulated that the same performance could receive nods in both categories; that rule has since been changed. But following Bainter and Wright, Fitzgerald lost the Best Actor trophy to his costar, Crosby, and emerged victorious in the supporting-actor race. After celebrating his triumph with a bunch of buddies, the actor felt the urge to practice his golf swing at home, and accidentally decapitated his Oscar's plaster head. Paramount graciously coughed up the $10 for a replacement.
Like Wright, Fitzgerald would never earn another nomination. And no actor or actress would receive double nods for almost 40 years.
The woman responsible for breaking the streak: Jessica Lange, who rebounded from her embarrassing film debut in King Kong by playing two wildly different actresses in 1982. Her scenery-chewing turn as emotionally unstable Frances Farmer in Frances earned a Best Actress nod, while her more subtle work as soap-opera starlet Julie Nichols in Tootsie made the cut for Best Supporting Actress, earning the then 33-year-old the first two of her six career nominations. The recognition for Tootsie meant that Lange had to compete with her costar in that film, Teri Garr, who complained to the press that Lange's role should have been considered in the lead category. On Oscar night, there wasn't much debate over who would win Best Actress, and she did: Meryl Streep, for her devastating turn in Sophie's Choice. But the supporting prize, which was up for grabs, went to Lange, who admitted before the ceremonies that she was worried she'd be a two-time loser. At the podium, a deliriously happy -- and relieved -- Lange waved the envelope and exulted, ''Says right there!''
Twelve years later, Lange would finally win the Best Actress trophy for Blue Sky. But for now, every actor or actress who had been nominated for two awards in the same year had won in the supporting category. Would anyone be able to buck that trend?
Sigourney Weaver did, but it was nothing to brag about. In 1988, the 39-year-old actress delivered an impressive lead performance as researcher Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist and a delicious comedic turn as power-hungry boss Katharine Parker in Working Girl. It seemed to be Weaver's year when she won both prizes at the Golden Globes (her Best Actress victory was actually part of a three-way tie with Madame Sousatzka's Shirley MacLaine and The Accused's Jodie Foster), making her the only performer in history to take home two acting Globes in the same evening. But her luck ran out at the Academy Awards: Foster won the Best Actress prize, while The Accidental Tourist's Geena Davis upset her supporting-actress competition. Afterward, Weaver told a reporter: ''It was horrible, everybody was so embarrassed for me that nobody wanted to talk to me. They should have an anteroom for the losers. And I made my parents fly all the way out for it and they were disappointed for me.''
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