There has been a lot of talk about the Oscars’ desire to make its nominations (and, by extension, its winners) more diverse, whether in terms of race, gender, sexuality, etc.
And this is happening. A recent example is “Everything and everywhere at the same time”, or Mahershala Ali (a black man of the Muslim faith) who is one of the few actors to win two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor, or Chloé Zhao who becomes the second ( and first ) Asian female) to win Best Director.
There is no doubt that some progress has actually been made. However, there is one minority group in particular that has only had three Academy Awards: people with physical disabilities. The first physically disabled person to win an Oscar was Harold Russell.
However, Russell was not an actor; at least, he never trained to be one. He never dreamed of being an actor, never attended drama school and certainly never thought of becoming famous. According to the book “Five Came Back” by Mark Harris, all he did was enter World War II as a demolition instructor for the Army and he lost both of his hands when a defective pack of TNT exploded.
After the war, he attended Boston University, where he appeared in “Diary of a Sergeant,” a documentary about war veterans undergoing rehabilitation. One very important person who saw the production was William Wyler.
By now Wyler is already an immensely respected director, having won his first of three directing Oscars for “Mrs. Miniver”. Wyler was at a point in his career where he was deeply committed to making films that reflected the ongoing conflict of World War II, particularly the way it affected citizens at home.
He not only has “Mrs. Miniver”, a feature film about a British family who lived during the Blitz bombing in London, but he has also made a short documentary about the legendary Memphis Belle bomber plane.
Now that the war was officially over, Wyler wanted to end his war film series with a stirring tribute to American veterans who had returned home and had to readjust to their new lifestyles.
Also according to “Five Came Back”, Wyler was in the casting process for this film, and one of the main characters would be a disabled man. So Wyler and screenwriter Robert Sherwood decided it would be best to cast a truly handicapped veteran. He imagines that progressive thinking in 1946; very shocking. In any case, the film that would ultimately propel Harold Russell to Oscar immortality was ‘The Best Years of Our Lives’.
“The Best Years of Our Lives” is one of the great American films of the 1940s; of three veterans returning from war, each with their own problems to deal with.
Al (Fredric March) returns to a former bank job he’s emotionally ill-prepared for and has a wife and kids he barely connects with; Fred (Dana Andrews) realizes he can’t hold down a normal job and that his wife isn’t that interested in him now that she’s no longer a soldier; Homer (Harold Russell) is keenly aware of the way ordinary people look at him with compassion, and he’s worried that his fiancée will see him that way too, now that he has hooks for her hands.
These three men cross each other’s lives and help each other live and grow in these post-war challenges. Considering that this film came out at a time when war films were typically more concerned with glorifying battle action and valuing US soldiers as noble heroes, it is interesting that a major Hollywood production focused on showing how that traumatic war experience seeps into your daily life as a veteran, even if you managed to escape it with a clear conscience.
In Russell’s case, it was pretty apparent that he wasn’t much of an actor, and according to the book, Wyler really had to work hard with him to get a viable performance. In Wyler’s words, “he concentrated on guiding his thoughts rather than his actions, because I thought that if he thought right, he could do no wrong.”
Looking at Russell, you can tell he has limited acting skills; he’s quite modest in his emotional expression, and Wyler was careful not to monologue him too much.
However, he has a deep level of seriousness, and the fact that he’s playing a character with such similar experience amplifies the moments where he’s so down on himself and so hopeful of finding acceptance from other people.
The knowledge that he’s speaking and channeling words and emotions that he probably conveyed to himself in ways that most people couldn’t really relate makes his performance something more memorable.
And how did Russell win two Oscars in one performance?
“The Best Years of Our Lives” did extremely well at the Oscars, riding a wave of huge critical and box office acclaim with people’s willingness to highlight empathy for veterans.
The biggest surprise by far, even at the time, was that Harold Russell won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. According to the co-host of the podcast Policy now, Jill Blake, Oscar voters were “convinced he wasn’t going to win,” so they decided to create an honorary award to “bring aid and comfort to disabled veterans through cinema” as a way to “thank veterans.” It was the only time an actor won a second Oscar for the same work.
Russell considered it a great honor, but he didn’t use it as a stepping stone to a full-fledged acting career. He felt much more interested in becoming an activist for the disabled in general and for disabled veterans in America, and his Oscar success gave him a broader platform to pursue that cause.
He would eventually spend the rest of his life involved in disability advocacy, notably being the chairman of the President’s Disabled Employment Committee for four full presidential terms, as well as co-founding the advocacy organization AMVETS.
Russell remained the only disabled actor to win an Oscar for a full 40 years, until Marlee Matlin, who is deaf, took home the Best Actress award for ‘Children of a Lesser God’.
It was another 35 years before Troy Kotsur, also deaf, won Best Supporting Actor for “CODA,” starring Matlin.
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The post Understanding how an actor got two Oscars for a single performance first appeared on Olhar Digital.
Source: Olhar Digital
Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.
