Character Actors' Oscar-Nominated Best Picture Triples
by urbanemovies | created - 28 Feb 2018 | updated - 11 Mar 2023 | PublicCreated in 2018, the "John C. Reilly Award" is Hollywood's unofficial award for character actors, Hollywood's unofficial award for character actors, which serves as a badge of honor for those who specialize in character actor roles. It is bestowed on any actor who makes credited appearances in at least three Oscars Best Picture nominees in a single year. Only thirteen actors have achieved this rare feat; eleven were between 1935 and 1943 during Hollywood's Golden Age. Those awards happened when Best Picture nominees averaged 10-12 movies per year and contract players made several pictures every year. The “John C. Reilly Award” is the awards namesake by virtue of being the only actor to remarkably accomplish a triple in a year when only five movies were Best Picture Oscar nominated.
In your opinion, which "John C. Reilly Award" recipient has the best Oscar-nominated Best Picture threesome?
After voting, discuss the topic here.
1. Thomas Mitchell
Actor | Stagecoach
Thomas Mitchell was one of the great American character actors, whose credits read like a list of the greatest American films of the 20th century: Lost Horizon (1937); Stagecoach (1939); The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939); Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939); Gone with the Wind (1939); It's a ...
1940 Oscars Best Picture Nominee Triple:
Gone With the Wind, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Stagecoach
2. Michael Stuhlbarg
Actor | A Serious Man
Michael Stewart Stuhlbarg was born in Long Beach, California. He attended UCLA, and then The Juilliard School in New York City, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. His other studies included time at the Vilnius Conservatory in Lithuania, the British American Drama Academy at Baliol and...
2018 Oscars Best Picture Nominee Triple:
Call Me by Your Name, The Post and The Shape of Water
3. Charles Laughton
Actor | Witness for the Prosecution
Charles Laughton was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, to Eliza (Conlon) and Robert Laughton, hotel keepers of Irish and English descent, respectively. He was educated at Stonyhurst (a highly esteemed Jesuit college in England) and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (received gold medal). ...
1936 Oscars Best Picture Nominee Triple:
Les Miserables, Mutiny on the Bounty and Ruggles of Red Gap
4. John C. Reilly
Actor | Chicago
Character actor, dramatic leading man, or hilarious comic foil? With an astonishing range of roles already under his belt, John C. Reilly has played an eclectic host of rich characters to great effect over the years, from seedy ne'er-do-wells, to lovable, good-natured schlepps.
The fifth of six ...
2003 Oscars Best Picture Nominee Triple:
Chicago, The Hours and Gangs of New York
5. Adolphe Menjou
Actor | Paths of Glory
The words "suave" and "debonair" became synonymous with the name Adolphe Menjou in Hollywood, both on- and off-camera. The epitome of knavish, continental charm and sartorial opulence, Menjou, complete with trademark waxy black mustache, evolved into one of Hollywood's most distinguished of artists...
1938 Oscars Best Picture Nominee Triple:
One Hundred Men and a Girl, Stage Door and A Star Is Born
6. Claudette Colbert
Actress | It Happened One Night
One of the brightest film stars to grace the screen was born Emilie Claudette Chauchoin on September 13, 1903, in Saint Mandé, France where her father owned a bakery at 57, rue de la République (now Avenue Général de Gaulle). The family moved to the United States when she was three. As Claudette ...
1935 Oscars Best Picture Nominee Triple:
Cleopatra, Imitation of Life and It Happened One Night
7. Ivan F. Simpson
Actor | The Adventures of Robin Hood
Ivan F. Simpson was born on February 4, 1875 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He was an actor, known for The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Captain Blood (1935) and Maid of Salem (1937). He died on October 12, 1951 in New York City, New York, USA.
1936 Oscars Best Picture Nominee Triple:
Captain Blood, David Copperfield and Mutiny on the Bounty
8. Edward Fielding
Actor | Rebecca
Edward Fielding was born on March 19, 1875 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Rebecca (1940), The Pride of the Yankees (1942) and Sherlock Holmes (1916). He was married to Elizabeth Sherman Clark. He died on January 10, 1945 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
1941 Oscars Best Picture Nominee Triple:
All This, Kitty Foyle and Rebecca
9. Douglas Croft
Actor | Batman
Who was the first "Robin, the Boy Wonder"? No, not Burt Ward, but this popular, curly-haired child actor of the 1940s. In addition to being in the first "Batman" film, he appeared in many other major films, mostly at Warner Brothers. In almost all of these films, he played the hero as a boy, "...
1943 Oscars Best Picture Nominee Triple:
Kings Row, The Pride of the Yankees and Yankee Doodle Dandy
10. Jessie Ralph
Actress | Captain Blood
Jessie Ralph was a sailor's daughter, who first came to the stage at the age of 16, performing with a stock company in either Boston, Massachusetts, or Providence, Rhode Island (accounts differ). The year was 1880, and it took Jessie another 26 years to make her debut on the Great White Way in "The...
1936 Oscars Best Picture Nominee Triple:
Captain Blood, David Copperfield and Les Miserables
11. Henry Daniell
Actor | The Philadelphia Story
One of Hollywood's greatest screen villains, Charles Henry Pywell Daniell was born in London, England, the son of Elinor Mary (Wookey) and Henry Pyweh Daniell, L.R.C.P. He had the profound misfortune to make his professional theatrical debut on the eve of World War I. His life thus interrupted, he ...
1941 Oscars Best Picture Nominee Triple:
All This, The Great Dictator and The Philadelphia Story
12. Fritz Leiber
Actor | Bagdad
Fritz Leiber was born on January 31, 1882 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Bagdad (1949), Monsieur Verdoux (1947) and Anthony Adverse (1936). He was married to Virginia Bronson. He died on October 14, 1949 in Pacific Palisades, California, USA.
1937 Oscars Best Picture Nominee Triple:
Anthony Adverse, The Story of Louis Pasteur and A Tale of Two Cities
(Note: Fritz Leiber and Donald Woods appear in the same threesome, use the actor themselves or one of these same year movies: Sins of Man, Down to the Sea, Hearts in Bondage or Under Two Flags as a tiebreaker)
13. Donald Woods
Actor | The Case of the Stuttering Bishop
Donald Woods, a prolific cinema and television character actor whose career spanned 75 films and 150 TV programs over 40 years, was born Ralph L. Zink on December 2, 1906, in Brandon, Manitoba. (He legally changed his name to Donald Woods in 1945.) His family eventually departed Canada for ...
1937 Oscars Best Picture Nominee Triple:
Anthony Adverse, The Story of Louis Pasteur and A Tale of Two Cities
(Note: Fritz Leiber and Donald Woods appear in the same threesome, use the actor themselves or one of these same year movies: Isle of Fury, A Son Comes Home, The White Angel or Road Gang as a tiebreaker)
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