Actors who Won the Oscar for War Movies

Actors who Won the Oscar for War Movies Back when an Oscar meant something. These actors at the peak of their careers managed to win the highest award in the world for their roles in the War category at the Academy Awards. Some of these names you will know, some not so much. Let me know which of the actors and the movies they played in you saw. Many of these also made westerns. If you enjoy this video, hit the notification button to get my new videos. If you want to check out my many other video

s, head over to my channel. The link is in the description. Keep your head down! Let’s Get into it Gary Cooper in Sergeant York. A Tennessee farmer and marksman is drafted in World War I, and struggles with his pacifist inclinations before becoming one of the most celebrated war heroes. About Alvin York, a decorated American soldier who served in World War I. Back when they used to make movies about war heroes? Gary Cooper, unable to participate in WWII due to his age and an old injury, felt tha

t this film was his way of contributing to the cause. He later said, "Sergeant Alvin C. York and I had quite a few things in common. We both were raised in the mountains--Tennessee for him, Montana for me--and learned to ride and shoot as a natural part of growing up. 'Sergeant York' won me an Academy Award. I liked the role because of the background of the picture, and because I was portraying a good, sound American character." York himself was on the set for a few days during filming. When one

of the crew members tactlessly asked him how many "Jerries" he had killed, York started sobbing so vehemently he threw up. The crew member was nearly fired, but the next day, York demanded that he keep his job. William Holden in Stalag 17 After two Americans are killed while escaping from a German P.O.W. camp in World War II, the barracks black marketeer, J.J. Sefton, is suspected of being an informer. A darkly humorous war film about a German POW camp. Holden is one of the many American soldie

rs in the titular Stalag 17, 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. Holden never felt he deserved an Oscar for his performance in this film. His wife felt it was to compensate for him not winning for "Sunset Blvd. (1950)." Holden did not like the part of Sefton as written, thinking him too selfish. He kept asking Director, Billy Wilder to make Sefton nicer. Wilder refused. Ho

lden actually refused the role but was forced to do it by the studio. Fredric March in The Best Years of Our Lives March had already won Best Actor for perhaps the seminal take on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, his second Oscar in this category for The Best Years of Our Lives. Three World War II veterans, two of them traumatized or disabled, return home to the American midwest to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed. The film is about the aftermath of war, focusing on th

e three men readjusting to civilian life after serving in World War II. It’s not in the midst of war and full of battle scenes, but one of the first films to document the troubles many soldiers faced dealing with the physical and emotional damage war inflicted upon them, so definitely consider it a war movie. This was Fredric March's favorite movie out of all his own films. The film cast includes four Oscar winners: Fredric March, Teresa Wright, Hoagy Carmichael and Harold Russell; and one Oscar

nominee: Blake Edwards. Alec Guinness in The Bridge on the River Kwai British POWs are forced to build a railway bridge across the river Kwai for their Japanese captors in occupied Burma, not knowing that the allied forces are planning a daring commando raid through the jungle to destroy it. Holden also appeared in The Bridge on the River Kwai, but Guinness won Best Actor. Another World War II film set in a POW camp, this time, a Japanese POW camp in Thailand, prisoners are put to work construc

ting the titular bridge as part of the Burma Railway. Guinness’ Colonel Nicholson is a man so consumed with his principles that he, at first, submits himself to torture rather than abandon them, in turn, those principles lead to him becoming borderline obsessed with turning the bridge project into a success. Initially, Guinness had doubts about playing the role of Colonel Nicholson. Guinness had become a much-loved figure on-screen, appearing in a series of popular comedies. The Nicholson charac

ter seemed humorless, unlovable, and perhaps even dull. Guinness tried to inject some humor into his portrayal of the Colonel. Director Sir David Lean was very much opposed to this idea, insisting that it be played straight. Thus began an argument between the two men that continued throughout filming. George C. Scott in Patton The World War II phase of the career of controversial American general George S. Patton. 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. Scott won the Academy Award for Best Actor, famously refusing to accept it, claiming that competition between actors was unfair, disliking the Academy's voting process and called the Academy Awards a big "meat parade". Jon Voight in Coming Home In 1968 California, a woman whose husband is a Marine

officer fighting in Vietnam falls in love with a former high school classmate who suffered a paralyzing combat injury in the war. Coming Home is a war film about life after war, but this time, we are in the 1970s, dealing with Vietnam. Criticism of Vietnam was decidedly different from other wars. Voight plays Luke Martin, a paraplegic man who suffered his injuries during the war. Based on Ron Kovic, who wrote the autobiography Born on the Fourth of July, which became a film starring Tom Cruise a

s Kovic. The opening scene where the vets in the hospital are talking was unscripted. They were real Vietnam vets discussing their own views about the war. Jon Voight was supposed to have added to the dialogue, but out of respect, stayed silent and listened. Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump The history of the United States from the 1950s to the '70s unfolds from the perspective of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75, who yearns to be reunited with his childhood sweetheart. Forrest Gump is a lot of things.

It’s also, at least in part, a movie about war and Vietnam. Having 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. When Forrest gets up to talk at the Vietnam rally in Washington, the microphone plug is pulled and you cannot hear him. According to Tom Hanks he said, "Sometimes when people go to Vietnam, they go home to their

mommas without any legs. Sometimes they don't go home at all. That's a bad thing. That's all I have to say about that." Adrien Brody in The Pianist During WWII, acclaimed Polish musician Wladyslaw faced various struggles as he lost contact with his family. As the situation worsens, he hides in the ruins of Warsaw in order to survive. The Pianist is a war film. 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

. To connect with the feeling of loss to play the role, Adrien Brody got rid of his apartment, sold his car, disconnected his phone, didn't watch television, and lost 30 pounds in order to play Wladyslaw Szpilman. "I was missing everyone and everything good,". "But put me right in the character. I want to feel that I'm experiencing something, I want to feel the journey, and I felt it." Even after the film, it took him "over 6 months" to get settled again. Gary Oldman in Darkest Hour In May 1940,

the fate of World War II hangs on Winston Churchill, who must decide whether to negotiate with Adolf Hitler, or fight on knowing that it could mean the end of the British Empire. War movies are about soldiers. However, what about the leaders who had to make tough decisions related to war? Darkest Hour focuses itself on Churchill’s time as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during World War II. Far from Oldman’s best work, and felt like a career achievement Oscar, he did win for playing Church

ill, and it counts. Oldman spent a year studying Winston Churchill and his mannerisms before starting on this movie. Harold Russell in The Best Years of Our Lives Three World War II veterans, two of them traumatized or disabled, return home to the American midwest to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed. A Best Supporting Actor, 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. Cast to play Homer Parrish, a man who lost his hands during the war. Russell won Best Supporting Actor. He 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. Dean Jagger in Twelve O’Clock High A tough-as-nails general (Gregory Peck as General Savage)

takes over a B-17 bomber unit suffering from low morale and whips them into fighting shape. Twelve O’Clock High is not a title that screams “war movie,” but this Gregory Peck vehicle is a war movie. The film focuses on a squad of bomber pilots in the U.S. Air Force during World War II. Jagger was never a movie star, just a guy who worked during the studio system, he was in many films. Somehow, he did win his Oscar for his role as Major Harvey Stovall. In this film, Dean Jagger plays a World War

I veteran retired Army officer who volunteers to return to active duty in World War II. Frank Sinatra in From Here to Eternity At a U.S. Army base in 1941 Hawaii, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his commanding officer's wife and top aide begin a tentative affair. 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, an

d 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. The scene in which Maggio meets Prew and Lorene in the bar after he walks off guard duty, was actually Frank Sinatra's screen test for the part of Maggio. To impress director Fred Zinnemann, he did an ad-lib using olives as dice and pretending to shoot craps. The entire se

quence was kept as is and used in the picture. Jack Lemmon in Mister Roberts In the waning days of World War II, the cargo officer of a Navy supply ship chafes at its role far from the action in the Pacific's backwater areas, his frustration rising when its captain denies the crew liberty over petty irritations. 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. Henry Fonda and Jack Lemmon actually served in the Navy during World War II. Upon discharge, each man also held the same rank as their on-screen ch

aracters, Lieutenant (junior grade) and Ensign, respectively. Christopher Walken in The Deer Hunter An in-depth examination of the ways in which the Vietnam War impacts and disrupts the lives of several friends in a small steel mill town in Pennsylvania. 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. Co-writer and director Michael Cimino convinced Christopher Walken to spit in Robert De Niro's face. When Walken actually did it, De Niro was completely shocked, as evidenced by his reaction. In fact, De Niro was so furious about it, he nearly left the set. Cimino later said of Walken, "He's got balls!" Denzel Washington in Glory Robert Gould Shaw leads the U.S. Civil War'

s first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices from both his own Union Army, and the Confederates. It’s been a while 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. Denzel Washingt

on was initially opposed to appearing in the film until he realized it gave him a shot at portraying a fully fleshed-out character. ​​If you liked this video make sure you hit the notification button so you will see all my new videos as they come up. Take a look at my channel to see all my many other videos. The link is in the description. Check out my Facebook page as well. I appreciate likes and subscribers. I am Wrangler, bye for now, see you again soon.