Marlon Brando Had A Historic Oscars Run 70 Years Ago That Hasn't Been Matched Since

2-time Oscar winner Marlon Brando had a historic run 70 years ago that has yet to be matched or replicated. Some of Marlon Brando's best movies came out of Hollywood's Golden Age, which took place from the late 1910s until the early 1960s. Although many of Brando's most prolific roles would arise in the 1970s in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, his performances as a leading man were just as impressive at the start of his acting career during the early 1950s.

Brando remains one of the few actors in Oscars history to win the Academy Award for Best Actor twice in his career. He is cemented among other great actors such as Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Tom Hanks, Sean Penn, and Anthony Hopkins. Daniel Day-Lewis remains the only actor to have ever won the award for three separate performances. He also remains the third youngest actor ever to win the Oscar after winning for On the Waterfront in 1954 at 30 years and 361 days old.

Marlon Brando Was Nominated For The Best Actor Oscar In Four Consecutive Years

Brando only won one Oscar during that streak for On the Waterfront

Marlon Brando holds an Oscars record for the longest streak of consecutive Best Actor nominations. He received four consecutive nominations for Best Actor from 1951-1954, only winning in 1954 for On the Waterfront. He was also nominated for his leading roles in A Streetcar Named Desire directed by Elia Kazan (1951), Viva Zapata! (1952) directed by Elia Kazan, and Julius Caesar (1953) directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz before taking home his first Oscar in 1955.

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Brando would go on to receive three other Best Actor nominations in his lifetime, for 1957's Sayonara directed by Joshua Logan, 1972's The Godfather directed by Coppola, which marked his second and final Academy Award win, and 1972's Last Tango in Paris directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. Brando was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor for 1989's A Dry White Season directed by Euzhan Palcy. He also won three BAFTA Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, and a Supporting Actor Emmy Award for Roots: The Next Generation in 1979.

Only Four Actors Have Even Come Close To Marlon Brando's Best Actor Oscars Record

Richard Burton, Al Pacino, William Hurt, & Russell Crowe were each nominated 3 straight years

Only four actors in the history of Hollywood have ever come close to matching Brando's four-year Best Actor nomination streak. Richard Burton (1964-1966), Al Pacino (1973-1975), William Hurt (1985-1987), and Russell Crowe (1999-2001) are the only actors since 1954 to receive three consecutive nominations for Best Actor. Burton received six Best Actor nominations but no wins, while Hurt won in 1986 for Kiss of the Spider Woman. Pacino has been nominated five times and won for 1993's Scent of a Woman. Crowe received three nominations and won in 2001 for Gladiator. It's unlikely that any modern actor will break Marlon Brando's historic 4-year streak.

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