PHANTOM SWAY

    • Twelve Twilight Zone Actors Who Later Won Oscars.

    The holiday season is behind us and that can only mean one thing to non-football fans.

    Awards season!

    Now is the time when Hollywood gathers for its annual grand circle-fest. You know what I’m talking about.  The Golden Globes are over but there’s more to come. Lots more.  Frankly, I’m not as interested in it as I used to be, but I do love trivia so I’m melding the Academy Awards today with my love for the “Twilight Zone.”

    I’m not suggesting that The Twilight Zone was a breeding ground for Oscar winners. Half of these people appeared on any number of early television series like “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Perry Mason,” or “Wagon Train.” Early television was where new talent was born. I focus on “The Twilight Zone” merely because it’s the show that I love.

    As a prelude, let’s look at the two actors who already had Oscars when they appeared on The Twilight Zone.

    Joseph Schildkraut won a 1937 Best Supporting Actor Oscar playing Alfred Dreyfuss in “The Life of Emile Zola.” I’m sure you’ve seen it. Hasn’t everyone?

    That’s Joe on the left.

    Years later he appeared in two episodes of The Twilight Zone, “The Trade-Ins” and the memorable “Deathshead Revisited.”

    Dean Jagger won a 1949 Best Supporting Actor Oscar playing Major Harvey Stovall in “Twelve O’Clock High.”

    That’s him on the right.

    In 1961 he appeared in the Twilight Zone episode “Static.”

    Now we move on to the main event. Twelve Twilight Zone actors who later won Oscars.

    1. Lee Marvin

    At the 1965 Academy Awards, just a year after the show ended, both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor winners were Twilight Zone alumni and both appeared in two episodes. Lee Marvin was in “Steel” and  “The Grave,” a delightfully creepy episode that seems to get overlooked.

    He won his Best Actor Oscar for “Cat Ballou.”

    2. Martin Balsam

    Martin Balsam appeared in the hour long episode “The New Exhibit” as well as “The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine,” (basically “Sunset Boulevard” with a Twilight Zone ending.)

    He and his mustache won the 1965 Supporting Actor Oscar for “A Thousand Clowns.”

    3. Cliff Robertson

    Three years later, that feat was repeated. Cliff Robertson appeared for Rod Serling in “A Hundred Yards Over the Rim” and the Twilight Zone classic, “The Dummy.” (“You’re not gonna leave me here, are you?”)

    He won the 1968 Best Actor Oscar for “Charley” and later went on to play Spiderman’s uncle.

    4. Jack Albertson

    That same year, Jack Albertson, (“The Shelter”)…

    …won a Supporting Actor Oscar for “The Subject Was Roses” and later went on to play Grandpa Joe.

    5. Gig Young

    Gig Young appeared in the second Twilight Zone episode to air, “Walking Distance.”

    Ten years later, he won the 1969 Best Supporting Actor Oscar for “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”

    6. Cloris Leachman

    There’s only one woman on this list. I have my own thoughts on why that is. Cloris Leachman was the mother of six year old Anthony in the classic episode “It’s a Good Life.”

    She picked up her 1971 Best Supporting Actress Oscar for “The Last Picture Show.”

    7. Art Carney

    Along with playing Ed Norton on “The Honeymooners,” Art Carney played an ersatz Santa Claus in “Night of the Meek.”

    He won his surprise Best Actor Oscar for “Harry and Tonto” in 1974.

    8. Robert Duvall

    If you don’t remember Robert Duvall in The Twilight Zone, don’t blame yourself. He was part of the fourth season’s hour long episodes that are only sporadically aired. In “Miniature” he played a shy man who falls in love with a figure in a doll house.

    Then he won the Best Actor Oscar for “Tender Mercies” in 1983.

    9. Martin Landau

    Martin Landau was featured in two Twilight Zone episodes, “Mr. Denton on Doomsday” and “The Jeopardy Room.”

    I like to think everyone was happy when he won his 1994 Supporting Actor Oscar playing Bela Lugosi in “Ed Wood.” I know I was.  It was before I stopped caring.

    10. James Coburn

    James Coburn appeared in a forgettable 1964 Twilight Zone episode called “The Old Man in the Cave.”

    He gets the record for the longest time between his Twilight Zone appearance and his Oscar. In 1998, thirty-four years after the fact, he claimed his award for Best Supporting Actor in “Affliction.”

    The last two on this list are unique and in some ways related. They were actors on The Twilight Zone, but they won Best Director Oscars. Oh ho ho!

    11. Robert Redford

    The first is Robert Redford. He appeared opposite the great Gladys Cooper in “Nothing in the Dark,” one of many Redford roles where actresses acted circles around him.

    That’s just my opinion.

    Redford won Oscar gold first time out of the directing box for 1980’s “Ordinary People.”

    12. Sydney Pollack

    Sydney Pollack started his career as an actor, then turned mostly director who continued to act occasionally but directed. Interestingly, in the Twilight Zone episode “The Trouble With Templeton,” Pollack plays a stage director.

    He earned his Best Director Oscar for 1985‘s “Out of Africa,” another film where an actress acted circles around Robert Redford.

    Again, just my opinion.

     

    André Dupuy
    Latest posts by André Dupuy (see all)