Barry
Fitzgerald was nominated in both categories for his performance in Going My Way in 1944
(current rules prevent this.) He won Best
Supporting Actor,
losing the
Best Actor
Award to his costar Bing Crosby. The Oscars weren't the only awards group
to confuse his status, as he won Best Actor from the New York Film Critics
and Best Supporting Actor from the Golden Globes (although to be fair,
the New York critics didn't start awarding a Best Supporting Actor prize until 1969).
No other performer has won the Oscar and New York Film Critics award for
the same performance in different categories although Valerie Perrine came close
in 1974 for Lenny, winning the critics' award for Best Supporting Actress
and an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.
Due to the wartime
metal shortage during World War II, Fitzgerald
(along with all the other
Oscar winners of the WWII era)
was given a plaster Oscar. He
accidentally decapitated it with
a golf ball while practicing putting
in his living room.
His studio paid for a replacement, and
he was given a gold
Oscar after the war. |
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