Oscar best actor and best actress winners tend to come from best pictures

In case best actor nominee Sean Penn ("Milk"), best actor nominee Frank Langella ("Frost/Nixon"), best actor nominee Brad Pitt ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"), or best actress nominee Kate Winslet ("The Reader") need a confidence booster heading into the final week before the 81st Academy Awards, here's one: the winners of the lead acting categories have almost always come from nominees for -- and frequently winners of -- the best picture Oscar. This year, those are the only four leading acting nominees whose films are eligible for that high honor.

AwardsDaily reader MGO recently looked into this parallel, as far as it applies to the last 14 years, but I think it's valuable to go back even further than that. So here's a look at the the best actor and best actress winners of the past 80 years, along with markers indicating whether or not their films were recognized either as a nominee or winner in the best picture category:

• 1927/1928 Emil Jannings for "The Last Command"/"The Way of All Flesh" and Janet Gaynor for "Seventh Heaven" NOM/"Sunrise" WON
• 1928/1929 Warner Baxter for "In Old Arizona" NOM and Mary Pickford for "Coquette" 
• 1929/1930 Lionel Barrymore for "A Free Soul" and Marie Dressler for "Min and Bill" 
• 1930/1931 George Arliss for "Disraeli" NOM and Norma Shearer for "The Divorcee" NOM
• 1931/1932 Wallace Beery for "The Champ" NOM/Fredric March for "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and Helen Hayes for "The Sin of Madelon Claudet" 
• 1933 Charles Laughton for "The Private Life of Henry VIII" WON and Katharine Hepburn for "Morning Glory"
• 1934 Clark Gable for "It Happened One Night" WON and Claudette Colbert for "It Happened One Night" WON
• 1935 Victor McLaglen for "The Informer" NOM and Bette Davis for "Dangerous"  
• 1936 Paul Muni for "The Story of Louis Pasteur" NOM and Luise Rainer for "The Great Ziegfeld" WON
• 1937 Spencer Tracy for "Captains Courageous" NOM and Luise Rainer for "The Good Earth" NOM 
• 1938 Spencer Tracy for "Boys Town" NOM and Bette Davis for "Jezebel" NOM
  
• 1939 Robert Donat for "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" NOM and Vivien Leigh for "Gone with the Wind" WON
• 1940 James Stewart for "The Philadelphia Story" NOM and Ginger Rogers for "Kitty Foyle" NOM
• 1941 Gary Cooper for "Sergeant York" NOM and Joan Fontaine for "Suspicion" NOM
• 1942 James Cagney  for "Yankee Doodle Dandy" NOM and Greer Garson for "Mrs. Miniver" WON  
• 1943 Paul Lukas for "Watch on the Rhine" NOM and Jennifer Jones for "The Song of Bernadette" NOM
• 1944 Bing Crosby for "Going My Way" WON and Ingrid Bergman for "Gaslight" NOM
• 1945 Ray Milland for "The Lost Weekend" WON and Joan Crawford for "Mildred Pierce" NOM
• 1946 Fredric March for "The Best Years of Our Lives" WON and Olivia de Havilland for "To Each His Own"
• 1947 Ronald Colman for "A Double Life" and Loretta Young for "The Farmer's Daughter"  
• 1948 Laurence Olivier for "Hamlet" WON and Jane Wyman for "Johnny Belinda" NOM
• 1949 Broderick Crawford for "All the King's Men" WON and Olivia de Havilland for "The Heiress" NOM
• 1950 Jose Ferrer for "Cyrano de Bergerac" and Judy Holliday for "Born Yesterday" NOM
• 1951 Humphrey Bogart for "The African Queen" and Vivien Leigh  for "A Streetcar Named Desire" NOM
• 1952 Gary Cooper for "High Noon" NOM and Shirley Booth for "Come Back, Little Sheba"   
• 1953 William Holden for "Stalag 17" and Audrey Hepburn for "Roman Holiday" NOM
• 1954 Marlon Brando for "On the Waterfront" WON and Grace Kelly for "The Country Girl" NOM
• 1955 Ernest Borgnine for "Marty" WON and Anna Magnani for "The Rose Tattoo" NOM
• 1956 Yul Brynner for "The King and I" NOM and Ingrid Bergman for "Anastasia"
  
• 1957 Alec Guinness for "The Bridge on the River Kwai" WON and Joanne Woodward for "The Three Faces of Eve"
  
• 1958 David Niven for "Separate Tables" NOM and Susan Hayward for "I Want to Live!"
  
• 1959 Charlton Heston for "Ben-Hur" WON and Simone Signoret for "Room at the Top" NOM
• 1960 Burt Lancaster for "Elmer Gantry" NOM and Elizabeth Taylor for "Butterfield 8" 
• 1961 Maximilian Schell for "Judgment at Nuremberg" NOM and Sophia Loren for "Two Women" 
• 1962 Gregory Peck for "To Kill a Mockingbird" NOM and Anne Bancroft for "The Miracle Worker" 
• 1963 Sidney Poitier for "Lilies of the Field" NOM and Patricia Neal for "Hud" 
• 1964 Rex Harrison for "My Fair Lady" WON and Julie Andrews for "Mary Poppins" NOM
• 1965 Lee Marvin for "Cat Ballou" and Julie Christie for "Darling" NOM
• 1966 Paul Scofield for "A Man for All Seasons" WON and Elizabeth Taylor for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" NOM
• 1967 Rod Steiger for "In the Heat of the Night" WON and Katharine Hepburn for "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" NOM
• 1968 Cliff Robertson for "Charly" and Katharine Hepburn for "The Lion in Winter" NOM/Barbra Streisand for "Funny Girl" NOM
• 1969 John Wayne for "True Grit" and Maggie Smith for "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie"
• 1970 George C. Scott for "Patton" WON and Glenda Jackson for "Women in Love"
• 1971 Gene Hackman for "The French Connection" WON and Jane Fonda for "Klute" 
• 1972 Marlon Brando for "The Godfather" WON and Liza Minnelli for "Cabaret" NOM
• 1973 Jack Lemmon for "Save the Tiger" and Glenda Jackson for "A Touch of Class" NOM
• 1974 Art Carney for "Harry and Tonto" and Ellen Burstyn for "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" 
• 1975 Jack Nicholson for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" WON and Louise Fletcher for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" WON
• 1976 Peter Finch for "Network" NOM and Faye Dunaway for "Network" NOM
• 1977 Richard Dreyfuss for "The Goodbye Girl" NOM and Diane Keaton for "Annie Hall" WON
• 1978 Jon Voight for "Coming Home" NOM and Jane Fonda for "Coming Home" NOM
• 1979 Dustin Hoffman for "Kramer vs. Kramer" WON and Sally Field for "Norma Rae" NOM
• 1980 Robert De Niro for "Raging Bull" NOM and Sissy Spacek for "Coal Miner's Daughter" NOM
  
• 1981 Henry Fonda for "On Golden Pond" and Katharine Hepburn for "On Golden Pond" 
• 1982 Ben Kingsley for "Gandhi" WON and Meryl Streep for "Sophie's Choice"
• 1983 Robert Duvall for "Tender Mercies" NOM and Shirley MacLaine for "Terms of Endearment" WON
• 1984 F. Murray Abraham for "Amadeus" WON and Sally Field for "Places in the Heart" NOM
• 1985 William Hurt  for "Kiss of the Spider Woman" NOM and Geraldine Page for "The Trip to Bountiful"
• 1986 Paul Newman for "The Color of Money" and Marlee Matlin for "Children of a Lesser God" NOM
• 1987 Michael Douglas for "Wall Street" and Cher for "Moonstruck" NOM
• 1988 Dustin Hoffman for "Rain Man" WON and Jodie Foster for "The Accused"
• 1989 Daniel Day-Lewis for "My Left Foot" NOM and Jessica Tandy for "Driving Miss Daisy" WON
• 1990 Jeremy Irons for "Reversal of Fortune" and Kathy Bates for "Misery"
• 1991 Anthony Hopkins for "The Silence of the Lambs" WON and Jodie Foster for "The Silence of the Lambs" WON
• 1992 Al Pacino for "Scent of a Woman" NOM and Emma Thompson for "Howard's End" NOM
• 1993 Tom Hanks for "Philadelphia" and Holly Hunter for "The Piano" NOM
• 1994 Tom Hanks for "Forrest Gump" WON and Jessica Lange for "Blue Sky"
• 1995 Nicolas Cage for "Leaving Las Vegas" and Susan Sarandon for "Dead Man Walking"
• 1996 Geoffrey Rush for "Shine" NOM and Frances McDormand for "Fargo" NOM 
• 1997 Jack Nicholson for "As Good As It Gets" NOM and Helen Hunt for "As Good As It Gets" NOM
• 1998 Roberto Benigni for "Life Is Beautiful" NOM and Gwyneth Paltrow for "Shakespeare in Love" WON
• 1999 Kevin Spacey for "American Beauty" WON and Hilary Swank for "Boys Don't Cry"
• 2000 Russell Crowe for "Gladiator" WON and Julia Roberts for "Erin Brokovich" NOM
• 2001 Denzel Washington for "Training Day" and Halle Berry for "Monster's Ball"
  
• 2002 Adrien Brody for "The Pianist" NOM and Nicole Kidman for "The Hours" NOM
• 2003 Sean Penn for "Mystic River" NOM and Charlize Theron for "Monster"
• 2004 Jamie Foxx for "Ray" NOM and Hilary Swank for "Million Dollar Baby" WON
• 2005 Philip Seymour Hoffman for "Capote" NOM and Reese Witherspoon for "Walk the Line"
• 2006 Forest Whitaker for "The Last King of Scotland" and Helen Mirren for "The Queen" NOM
• 2007 Daniel Day-Lewis for "There Will Be Blood" NOM and Marion Cotillard for "La Vie En Rose"

Notes:

• 62 of 81 best actor Oscar winners over the past 80 years (includes 1 tie) were recognized for their work in a film that was nominated for the best picture Oscar, as well; 26 of those 62 films won the best picture Oscar.
  

• 50 of 81 best actress Oscar winners over the past 80 years (includes 1 tie) were recognized for their work in a film that was nominated for the best picture Oscar, as well; 12 of those 50 films won the best picture Oscar.

• There have been three years in which both the best actor and best actress winner appeared in the film that won best picture. (See: 1934, 1975, 1991.)

• There have only been seven years in which neither the best actor nor best actress winner appeared in the film that won best picture. (See: 1929/1930, 1947, 1969, 1974, 1990, 1995, 2001.)

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Photos: Frank Langella in "Frost/Nixon" (Universal), Sean Penn in "Milk" (Focus Features), Brad Pitt in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount), and Kate Winslet in "The Reader" (The Weinstein Company)

Comments

[shtexas]

You can add 2001 to the list of years neither the best actor nor best actress winner appeared in a best picture nominee. Training Day was not up for best picture.

[Mark]

Training Day was not nominated for Best Picture.

[BenJack]

1991 was Jodie Foster, not Emma Thompson.

[Scott Feinberg]

"Shtexas," "Mark," and "BenJack," thanks for catching those -- all corrected!

[Beth]

I wonder why Pitt, CCBB is included. The awards thus far allow for artistic creation.

Pitt was not in the film in the first hour. I wonder if this isn't a cross breed between animated and acting, better suited to another slot.

Milk would seem the only film that would command LA attention as well as Penn.

[Lee Barnathan]

Uh, check out 1981: Henry Fonda and Katherine Hepburn won, but Chariots of Fire won best Picture. I seem to recall only Ian Holm was nominated, and it was for supporting actor.

SF: Lee, what am I checking out? The fact that there is nothing beside either Fonda or Hepburn's reflects the fact that On Golden Pond was not nominated for best picture. I know Chariots of Fire won. (And you are correct that the sole acting nod for that film was Holm's.)