Actors who won Oscars for war movies

First, we will acknowledge the “war movie” genre can feel a bit nebulous, but we’re satisfied with the films we landed on. It’s a little surprising we didn’t get a war film winner for Best Actor until 1941, but Sergeant York is undoubtedly a war film. It’s about Alvin York, a decorated American soldier who served in World War I. Remember when they used to make movies about war heroes? Things were different back in the day.

March had already won Best Actor for perhaps the seminal take on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but he won his second Oscar in this category for The Best Years of Our Lives. Now, William Wyler’s film is about the aftermath of war, focusing on three men readjusting to civilian life after serving in World War II. So, yeah, it’s not in the midst of war and full of battle scenes, but The Best Years of Our Lives was one of the first significant films to document the troubles many soldiers faced dealing with the physical and emotional damage war had inflicted upon them, so we definitely consider it a war movie.

Leave it to Billy Wilder to make a wry, darkly humorous war film about a German POW camp. Holden is one of the many American soldiers in the titular Stalag 17, and he won Best Actor for his turn as J.J. Sefton. Interestingly, acclaimed director Otto Preminger has a key acting role in Stalag 17. It was one of his few roles, though he did play Mr. Freeze on the Adam West Batman, which rules.

Holden is also in The Bridge on the River Kwai, but Guinness won Best Actor. This is another World War II film set in a POW camp, but this time, a Japanese POW camp in Thailand, where the prisoners are put to work constructing the titular bridge as part of the Burma Railway. Guinness’ Colonel Nicholson is an interesting character, a man so consumed with his principles that he, at first, submits himself to torture rather than abandon them, but in turn, those principles lead to him becoming borderline obsessed with turning the bridge project into a success.

When the Academy wanted to nominate Scott for The Hustler, he said, “Don’t do it,” and they listened. When Patton rolled around, the Academy didn’t care. Scott was nominated for Best Actor for the titular role, and he even won. Of course, true to form, Scott refused to accept the award.

Coming Home is another war film about life after war, but this time, we are in the 1970s, and we are dealing with Vietnam. Criticism of Vietnam as a conflict was decidedly different from other wars. Voight plays Luke Martin, a paraplegic man who suffered his injuries during the war. He is based on Ron Kovic, who wrote the autobiography Born on the Fourth of July , which became a film starring Tom Cruise as Kovic.

This is, perhaps, the iffiest selection on the list. Forrest Gump is a lot of things. It’s also, at least in part, a movie about war and Vietnam. The Vietnam War has the largest impact on the film of any event. It introduced Bubba and Lieutenant Dan, both key figures in Forrest’s life. Plus, Hanks is an icon, and he won his second Best Actor award in a row, so we wanted to include it.

The Pianist is classified as a war film, so we will include it. Plus, Brody’s win is notable. At 29, he was and remains the youngest winner of Best Actor. Evidently, Best Actor is not an award for the young.

Many war movies are about soldiers. However, what about the leaders who have to make tough decisions related to war? You could make an extensive biopic of Winston Churchill, but Darkest Hour focuses itself on Churchill’s time as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during World War II. While it was far from Oldman’s best work, and this felt like a career achievement Oscar, he did win for playing Churchill, and it counts.

We now move to Best Actress. Back in the day, women were not allowed to enlist in militaries across the globe. Garson, to quote her Wikipedia page, “became popular during the Second World War for her portrayal of strong women on the homefront.” This was how women were often able to carve out a role in war films of a certain era. Garson was nominated one way or another for five years in a row, all during World War II, including her win for Mrs. Miniver.

Vittorio De Sica was one of the icons of the Italian Neorealism movement, so if you wanted a war film that would be a real bummer, he was your guy. Two Women is a story set in Italy that focuses on a woman trying to keep her daughter shielded from the horrors the war is inflicting upon the country. Notably, this is an Italian film, and Loren speaks her native Italian in the movie. As such, her win for Best Actress is a rare instance of an acting Oscar won for a role not primarily in English.

We mentioned Coming Home earlier, and Fonda was pivotal in getting that movie made. You may not know this, but Fonda was a Vietnam War activist. She was friends with Kovic and wanted to bring a story like his to the big screen. It helped her win Best Actress for the second time, after her win for Klute.

Now, onto Best Supporting Actor, and back to The Best Years of Our Lives. Russell is one of the more interesting stories among any Oscar winners. Russell was not an actor. He was a soldier who lost his hands in a demolition accident. Russell was cast to play Homer Parrish, a man who lost his hands during the war. For his performance, Russell won Best Supporting Actor. He basically never acted again and made history when he put his Oscar up for auction to pay medical bills. After Russell’s death, it became known the person who had bought the Oscar was Hollywood bigwig Lew Wasserman, who donated it back to the Academy.

Twelve O’Clock High is not a title that inherently screams “war movie,” but indeed, this Gregory Peck vehicle is a war movie. The 1949 film focuses on a squad of bomber pilots in the U.S. Air Force during, yes, World War II. Jagger was never a movie star, but as a guy who worked during the studio system, he was in a ton of films. However, he did win an Oscar for his turn as Major Harvey Stovall.

Sinatra is largely remembered as one of the most successful musicians of all time. He also acted, as you may know, but it was no lark for the Chairman of the Board. Sinatra was a talented actor, and while he did some comedies, he also did some serious dramas. That includes Best Picture winner From Here to Eternity, a 1953 film about soldiers stationed in Hawaii in 1941, so you can probably guess how this film plays out.

Lemmon was, arguably, the finest “dramedy” actor of his generation and perhaps ever. If you want to mix humor and tragedy together, Lemmon was your man. Also, he was in Some Like It Hot, which is more purely farce, but he crushed it there. Lemmon would win Best Actor for Save the Tiger in what felt something like a career achievement award (little did they know he’d keep working for another couple of decades). However, he already had a Best Supporting Actor award for Mister Roberts, a war movie that is, yes, classified as a dramedy.

In 1978, two Vietnam films were pitted against one another in the Oscar race. Coming Home has come up a couple of times already and scored a couple of acting wins. The other film was Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter. Ultimately, The Deer Hunter would win out, largely on the strength of winning Best Picture. However, Walken also won Best Supporting Actor for the film.

It’s been a bit since we’ve seen a Best Supporting Actor win for a war movie. The last one came in 1989 when Washington won for Glory. By the time of this Civil War film, Washington was already a known commodity. However, winning this Oscar helped push him to movie stardom and even more critical acclaim. That includes winning Best Actor for Training Day many years later.

Wright had been nominated for Best Supporting Actress in 1941 for Little Foxes but did not win. The following year, she would go from bridesmaid to bride, so to speak. Wright, like Garson, won for Mrs. Miniver. She then solidified herself as a “woman on the homefront” actress by being in The Best Years of Our Lives.

Ernest Hemingway is an acclaimed novelist, but his work has largely not been successfully adapted to the screen. For Whom the Bell Tolls, a 1943 adaptation, is one of the most successful. The film starred Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman, but Greek actress Paxinou won an Oscar for the movie about Americans fighting in the Spanish Civil War.

We return to From Here to Eternity, which indeed won both Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress. Reed is perhaps best remembered for her titular sitcom or her turn in Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. As such, she is often thought of as working in a lighter, happier fare. Not so much here. Reed plays “Lorene,” a woman who works at a club frequented by soldiers and just wants to make enough money to return to the mainland.

These days, The English Patient is perhaps consigned to being remembered as that film Elaine Benes hated. However, it was a massive Oscar success, including winning Best Picture. Also, its reputation is better than Elaine’s assessment (she loved “Sack Lunch,” after all). Binoche won Best Supporting Actress for this sweeping romance that is also a war film.