A biopic refers to a biographical film, a subgenre characterized by the cinematographic dramatization of the life of a person or a group of real people. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood is fascinated by this type of film, especially by its performers, who throughout the history of the Oscar (mainly in recent years) have been awarded for representing great characters of humanity.
Examples are plenty. meryl streep She managed, converted into ‘The Iron Lady’, to end her streak of twelve consecutive nominations without taking the statuette; while Nicole Kidman only needed half an hour and a false nose to win the award, and Daniel Day-Lewis He managed to be the first man to win three Academy Awards for Best Leading Actor for his portrayal of US President Abraham Lincoln.
In this edition of the popular award, three of the candidates for best actor and actress are for a biopic: Will Smith, Andrew Garfield and Javier Bardem on the male side and Jessica Chastain, Nicole Kidman and Kristen Stewart on the female side. Will any of them win again for a biopic?
YOU CAN SEE: Oscar 2022: 10 films based on real events that have won the award for best film
We present a list with the best performances of a biopic that led its interpreter to win an Academy Award:
Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln
In 2011, the great Daniel Day-Lewis became the first man to win three Oscars for Best Leading Actor for his performance as Lincoln. “Lincoln” by Steven Spielberg narrates the fight of the North American president to abolish slavery in the middle of the Civil War. It is worth mentioning that in 1989 Day-Lewis won his first Oscar for “My Left Foot”, the biopic of the artist with cerebral palsy Christy Brown.
Helen Mirren as Elizabeth II
In 2007 the English actress won the Oscar for her performance as Queen Elizabeth II in “the-queen”. Years later she would receive the Tony for the same character. The curious thing is that both the film and the play were written by Peter Morgan, also the author of the emblematic Netflix series “The Crown”, inspired by the reign of Elizabeth II.
Colin Firth as George VI
And precisely because he played George VI, father of Queen Elizabeth II, the English actor Colin Firth won the award for best actor in 2010 for his work in “The king’s speech”where he played a man who had to take over the British crown after the abdication of his brother, for which he had to leave his communication problems (stuttering) behind.
Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf
Until then unknown outside of France, Marion Cotillard made history in 2007 by becoming the second woman (after Sophia Loren) to win an Oscar for a performance in a language other than English. “Life in Pink” It was the biopic of the legendary Edith Piaf that went through childhood, adolescence, her first steps in music, success, arrival in New York, illnesses and love problems of the artist.
Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote
Tape “Cloak” focused on the episode in the writer’s life in which he traveled to Kansas to investigate a crime that would end up being the source of his most famous novel: “In Cold Blood”. Seymour Hoffman won an Oscar for his great portrayal of the journalist in 2005.
Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher
In 2012 his historic losing streak of twelve consecutive candidacies came to an end with “The woman of iron”, a portrait of the British political conservative Margaret Thatcher in which Meryl Streep addressed her years at the head of the Government and the last moments of her life, when she suffered from dementia.
Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking
It was in 2014 that Eddie Redmayne won the Oscar for playing the physicist Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything”a biopic that adapted the memoirs of his ex-wife Jane and that focuses on the couple’s love story through three key episodes of their relationship: how they met, the diagnosis of his illness and its evolution.
Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf
“The hours” It wasn’t a biopic, but its approach to writer Virginia Woolf’s battle with depression and mental illness was enough to give Nicole Kidman the Oscar in 2002. The Australian wore a prosthetic nose that made her unrecognizable and only appears on screen a little over half an hour.
Sean Penn as Harvey Milk
Four years after winning his first Oscar with “Mystic River,” Sean Penn was once again recognized for “My name is Harvey Milk” in 2008. In Gus Van Sant’s film, the actor played the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the United States. The film begins and ends with the assassination of the politician, a tragic moment that forever changed the fight for civil rights of the LGBT+ community.
Reese Witherspoon as June Carter
In 2005 the tape “On the tightrope” made Reese Witherspoon win the award for best actress playing June Carter, singer and great love in the life of artist Johnny Cash. Throughout the film, four songs sung by Witherspoon appear: two solo and two with Joaquin Phoenix (her co-star).
Other Oscar winners for a biopic:
- Renée Zellweger as Judy Garland for “Judy”
- Adrien Brody as Władysław Szpilman for “The Pianist”
- Hilary Swank as Brandon Teena for “Boys Don’t Cry”
- Geoffrey Rush as David Helfgott for “Shine”
- Charlize Theron as Aileen Wuornos for “Monster”
- Forest Whitaker as Idi Amin in “The Last King of Scotland”
- Julia Roberts as Erin Brockovich for “Erin Brockovich”
- Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles for “Ray”
- Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn for “I Want to Break Free”
- F. Murray Abraham as Salieri for “Amadeus”
- Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine in “The Lion in Winter”
- Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta in “Raging Bull”
- Ben Kingsley as Mahatma Gandhi for “Gandhi”
- George C. Scott as George Patton for “Patton”
- Paul Scofield as Thomas More for “A man for all seasons”
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