8 actors who were nominated for or awarded an Oscar after their death
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This year’s Oscar nominations have been announced, and it’s happy reading for the likes of One Battle After Another, Hamnet and Sinners – which, with 16 nods, has received more nominations than any film in the history of the ceremony. The red carpet is set to be as crowded as ever come March 15, as the great and good of the film world dust off their finery and sharpen their acceptance speeches in the hope of taking one of those little gold statues home. But sadly, there are those actors who never got their big moment in the Oscars spotlight because they passed away before it took place. (Picture: Getty/Rex)
In Academy Awards history only two actors have ever won posthumous Oscars but others have been nominated, only to pass away either before making the shortlist, or before the ceremony. Read on to find out who those actors were and which movies won them the honour after they had left us… (Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)
1. Jeanne Eagels (The Letter)
First up, we need to go all the way back to the 1930 Oscars when Jeanne Eagels, a Broadway actress who also made her mark in the early days of sound films, starred in this drama about a woman in Singapore facing trial for murder. Sadly the actress died in October 1929 aged just 39 – with her death later being attributed to an overdose of the sedative chloral hydrate. Two months later she became the first person ever to receive a posthumous Oscar nomination for her performance, although back in those days, at what was only the second ever ceremony, the shortlist was regarded as ‘unofficial’, with the Academy shortlisting actors based on records of the films which judges had given their opinions on. Regardless of the selection process, Engels lost out to Mary Pickford for her role in Coquette. (Picture: Everett/Shutterstock)
2. James Dean (Giant & East Of Eden)
James Dean remains a big screen icon to this day, with a career which was tragically cut short when he died in a car crash in 1955, aged just 24. At the time he’d only completed starring roles in three films – Rebel Without A Cause, East Of Eden and Giant – with the latter two winning him posthumous Oscar nominations, in 1956 and 1957 respectively (and becoming the first male actor to be nominated after death in the process). Although he didn’t win either of them, losing out to Ernest Borgnine for Marty in 1956 and Yul Brynner in 1957 for The King And I, it serves as a reminder of the enormous impact he made on cinema. (Picture: Everett/Shutterstock)
3. Spencer Tracy (Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner)
Hollywood legend Spencer Tracy had already made Oscars history by becoming the first actor ever to win consecutive best actor prizes, for Captains Courageous and Boys Town in 1939 and 1939. However, the last of his nine best actor nominations came for his final ever film, 1967’s Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, one of the first Hollywood movies to depict interracial marriage in a positive light. Tracy finished work on the movie just 17 days before his death, with his co-star and long-term partner Katharine Hepburn admitting she never saw the finished film as it would be ‘too painful’ for her to do so. Both were Oscar nominated for their roles, but while Hepburn won, Tracy lost (posthumously) to Rod Steiger for In The Heat Of The Night. Which, like Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, also starred Sidney Poitier. (Picture: Columbia/Kobal/Shutterstock)
4. Peter Finch (Network)
While a number of actors were posthumously nominated for awards in the first few decades of the Oscars, it was 1977 before the first posthumous acting win. That honour belonged to British-Australian actor Peter Finch, who was awarded the statue for his role in the 1976 satire Network as Howard Beale, a news presenter whose increasingly erratic on-air behaviour sees ratings soar. The actor died of a heart attack, aged 60, in the lobby of the Beverly Hills Hotel in January 1977, winning the Oscar, which was accepted by his widow Eletha, just two months later. Ultimately, Finch was the only actor to be posthumously rewarded with an Oscar until 2009. (Picture: Moviestore/Shutterstock)
5. Sir Ralph Richardson (Greystoke: The Legend Of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes)
To a British acting legend now. Sir Ralph Richardson was a regular on the stage in this country as well as starring in over 60 films during his career. It was his final role in the Tarzan retelling of Greystoke which won him a posthumous acting nod – only his second nomination, the other being for 1949’s The Heiress. The film sees the actor as the 6th Earl of Greystoke, who is rejuvenated in the final days of his life by his lost grandson, reclaimed from the wild. Richardson died aged 80 in October 1983 after suffering a series of strokes, with the film being dedicated to him when it was released the following year. He missed out on a posthumous Oscar however, as it went to Haing S. Ngor for The Killing Fields. (Picture: Archive Photos/Shutterstock)
6. Massimo Troisi (Il Postino)
Italian actor Massimo Troisi was well known in his home country as a screenwriter, director, actor and cabaret performer. It was his 1994 movie Il Postino about the real-life friendship between Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and an Italian postman which found him fame elsewhere. Tragically, Troisi was severely unwell with a long-term heart condition during production, and died of a heart attack, aged 41, just 12 hours after filming finished. The actor later scored two posthumous nominations for the film for best actor and best adapted screenplay. The film, which also landed nods for best picture and director (Michael Radford) lost out on both counts (to Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas, and to Braveheart) only taking home the trophy for best original score. (Picture: Pft/Shutterstock)
7. Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
Australian actor Heath Ledger’s hugely promising Hollywood career was cut tragically short in January 2008 when he died from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs aged just 28. At the time the actor had already built up an impressive body of work in the likes of Brokeback Mountain, 10 Things I Hate About You, A Knight’s Tale, Monster’s Ball and The Patriot. A few months before his death he’d finished filming his role as The Joker in Christopher Nolan’s Batman movie The Dark Knight. It was this incredible performance which led him to become only the second actor to win a posthumous Oscar, taking the statue for best supporting actor at the 2008 ceremony. His mother and sister collected the award, which was designated for his daughter Matilda, for her to become the owner of it when she turned 18. (which she did in 2023). (Picture: Moviestore/Shutterstock)
8. Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom)
The most recent posthumous nod in Oscars history went to Chadwick Boseman, best known for his role as T’Challa in Marvel’s Black Panther. The actor, who notched up an impressive body of work over two decades, died from colon cancer in August 2020, aged 43, with one of his final performances, in the adaptation of stage play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, earning him a posthumous best actor nomination in 2021. While he sadly missed out on the prize, which was won by Anthony Hopkins for The Father, Boseman was rewarded elsewhere, winning a best actor Globe, an MTV Movie Award, a BET Award, and the Critics Choice prize for best actor. (Picture: Netflix/Moviestore/Shutterstock)
