Every film actor John Cazale appeared in was nominated for Best Picture.
There are impressive filmographies, and then there’s John Cazale's. The actor only appeared in five films during his lifetime, all of which were nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards: The Godfather (1972), The Conversation (1974), The Godfather Part II (1974), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), and The Deer Hunter (1978). Even more remarkably, three of them — both Godfathers and The Deer Hunter — won the top prize. The last of these was released after Cazale’s untimely death from bone cancer in March 1978, at which time the 42-year-old thespian was the romantic partner of fellow great Meryl Streep. (He was also in 1990's The Godfather Part III via archival footage, which didn’t break his streak — that sequel was also up for Best Picture.)
Described by no less an authority than his Godfather co-star Al Pacino as “one of the great actors of our time — that time, any time,” Cazale remains best known for playing the tragic Fredo Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s mafioso saga. Revered by everyone from contemporaries Gene Hackman and Robert De Niro to more recent admirers such as Michael Fassbender and Steve Buscemi, he was the subject of the 2009 documentary I Knew It Was You: Rediscovering John Cazale. The film was well received upon its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, and further cemented Cazale’s status as one of the most respected performers of his generation.
Marlon Brando won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice during his legendary career, the first time for 1954’s On the Waterfront (“I coulda been a contender”) and the second time for The Godfather (“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse”). Few silver-screen characters are as iconic as “Don” Vito Corleone, not least because Brando wasn’t the only all-time great to play him. The Godfather Part II is both a sequel and a prequel, with Robert De Niro playing a young Vito Corleone as he emigrates from Sicily to New York and ascends to power. Like Brando before him, De Niro won an Oscar for his performance — this time as Best Supporting Actor. It was the only time two actors had earned Oscars for playing the same character until Joaquin Phoenix was named Best Actor for playing the title character in 2019’s Joker 11 years after Heath Ledger’s performance as Batman’s nemesis in The Dark Knight. The feat was repeated again in 2022, when Ariana DeBose got a trophy for playing West Side Story’s Anita 60 years after Rita Moreno did likewise.
