The Holocaust: a subject the academy never forgets

A few years ago, on an episode of his British comedy series "Extras," Ricky Gervais and guest star Kate Winslet exchanged a few lines of dialogue that seem rather ironic as we approach this year's Oscars. On the show, Gervais visits the set of a fictional Winslet film about the Holocaust and the following back-and-forth ensues:

GERVAIS: "I think, you know, you doing this is so commendable -- you know, using your profile to keep the message alive about the Holocaust."

WINSLET: "My God, I'm not doing it for that. And I don't think we really need another film about the Holocaust, do we? It's like, how many have there been? You know, we get it -- it was grim, move on. No, I'm doing it because I've noticed that if you do a film about the Holocaust, guaranteed Oscar."

Winslet, of course, was joking. Still, one can't help but chuckle, as Gervais himself did at this year's Golden Globe Awards, about the fact that she is now poised to win her first career Academy Award, after five previous nominations, for a performance in -- you guessed it -- a movie about the Holocaust, "The Reader," and at the tail end of an awards season that featured a record number of them vying for Oscars. (They included "Adam Resurrected," "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," "Defiance," "Good" and "Valkyrie.")

All of this left me wondering: Does the thesis advanced about the academy's proclivity for Holocaust/Nazi-related movies actually check out? I mean, we all know that recent Holocaust-related films such as "Schindler's List" (1993) and "The Pianist" (2002) did indeed have "Oscars coming out their ...," as her "Extras" character put it, but is it only a recent trend, or one that has held up consistently over the years since the tragic events took place?

To help answer that question, I have assembled below a list of every Holocaust/Nazi-related performance ever nominated for an Oscar (there are, by my count, 41), denoted which ones won one (11 of them), and will now leave it to you to form your own conclusions:

• Charles Chaplin ("The Great Dictator," 1940) for best actor
• Jack Oakie ("The Great Dictator," 1940) for best supporting actor
• Paul Lukas ("Watch on the Rhine," 1943) for best actor WON 
• Humphrey Bogart ("Casablanca," 1943) for best actor
• Claude Rains ("Casablanca," 1943) for best supporting actor
• Lucille Watson ("Watch on the Rhine," 1943) for best supporting actress
• Hume Cronyn ("The Seventh Cross," 1944) for best supporting actor
• Claude Rains ("Notorious," 1946) for best supporting actor
• William Holden ("Stalag 17," 1953) for best actor WON 
• Robert Strauss ("Stalag 17," 1953) for best supporting actor
• Ed Wynn ("The Diary of Anne Frank," 1959) for best supporting actor
• Shelley Winters ("The Diary of Anne Frank," 1959) for best supporting actress WON 
• Maximilian Schell ("Judgment at Nuremberg," 1961) for best actor WON 
• Spencer Tracy ("Judgment at Nuremberg," 1961) for best actor
• Montgomery Clift ("Judgment at Nuremberg," 1961) for best supporting actor
• Judy Garland ("Judgment at Nuremberg," 1961) for best supporting actress
• Rod Steiger ("The Pawnbroker," 1965) for best actor
• Julie Andrews ("The Sound of Music," 1965) for best actress
• Peggy Wood ("The Sound of Music," 1965) for best supporting actress
• Ida Kaminska ("The Shop on Main Street," 1966) for best actress
• John Cassavetes ("The Dirty Dozen," 1967) for best supporting actor
• Gene Wilder ("The Producers," 1968) for best supporting actor
• Liza Minnelli ("Cabaret," 1972) for best actress WON 
• Joel Grey ("Cabaret," 1972) for best supporting actor WON 
• Maximilian Schell ("The Man in the Glass Booth," 1975) for best actor
• Laurence Olivier ("Marathon Man," 1976) for best supporting actor
• Jane Fonda ("Julia," 1977) for best actress
  
• Jason Robards ("Julia," 1977) for best supporting actor WON 
• Maximilian Schell ("Julia," 1977) for best supporting actor
• Vanessa Redgrave ("Julia," 1977) for best supporting actor WON
• Laurence Olivier ("The Boys from Brazil," 1978) for best actor
• Meryl Streep ("Sophie's Choice," 1982) for best actress WON
• Charles Durning ("To Be or Not to Be," 1983) for best supporting actor
• Jessica Lange ("Music Box," 1989) for best actress
• Anjelica Huston ("Enemies, a Love Story," 1989) for best supporting actress
• Lena Olin ("Enemies, a Love Story," 1989) for best supporting actress
• Liam Neeson ("Schindler's List," 1993) for best actor
• Ralph Fiennes ("Schindler's List," 1993) for best supporting actor
• Roberto Benigni ("Life is Beautiful," 1998) for best actor WON 
• Adrien Brody ("The Pianist," 2002) for best actor WON 
• Kate Winslet ("The Reader," 2008) for best actress TBD 

Photo: Kate Winslet and David Kross in "The Reader" (The Weinstein Co.)

Comments

[Jude]

Jason Robards won for supporting in "Julia," not lead. You also didn't mention that Vanessa Redgrave won the supporting Oscar for "Julia" also.

[Robert Hamer]

There was one other nominated performer from Judgement at Nuremberg that you forgot to mention: Montgomery Clift for Best Supporting Actor.

[Jude]

Just noticed another "Julia" related error. Jane Fonda won a Best Actress nomination for it.

[Scott Feinberg]

Robert and Jude, Thanks for catching that! Scott

[brett knowles]

mmmm.there are many of these films about WW11 not the holocaust,that should change your percentages somewhat.

[Jason]

No way the Dirty Dozen and Casablanca are "Holocaust" movies. I think to qualify the holocaust has to be central to the main plot.

[zeke budd]

The feature film odds are besides the point- it's the documentary categories that always (at least from the 60's through the 90's, til Michael Moore came along) seemed to be won by Holocaust (not just WW2-related) films. If you researched that proposition, I wonder what you'd find.