Renee Zellweger has been ...
Glitter: Renée Zellweger in Chicago
Question: Renee Zellweger has been nominated for an Oscar three years in a row. Can you tell me how many other times this has happened? Has anyone ever pulled it off more than three times in a row? Thanks!
Answer: William Hurt and Russell Crowe have both been nominated for best actor three times in a row, Hurt for Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), Children of a Lesser God (1986) and Broadcast News (1987) — he won for Kiss of the Spider Woman — and Crowe for The Insider (1999), Gladiator (2000) and A Beautiful Mind (2001). Crowe won for Gladiator. And just for the record, Zellweger's three-in-a-row nominations were for Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Chicago (2002) and Cold Mountain (2003); the third time was the lucky one for her.
In the past, Elizabeth Taylor was nominated in the best-actress category four years running, for Raintree County (1957), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) and Butterfield 8 (1960), winning for the last — and though hugely entertaining, in most people's estimation, least — of the four. And Marlon Brando was a best-actor nominee in four sequential years for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Viva Zapata! (1952), Julius Caesar (1953) and On the Waterfront (1954). Like Taylor, he won at the end of the streak, but unlike Taylor, he won for one of the finest performances of a legendary career. Both Taylor and Brando racked up additional nominations and wins subsequently: She took home a much-deserved statuette for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) and was given a Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1992, while Brando was awarded an Oscar for The Godfather (1972) but refused to accept it.
