Meryl Streep: The Oscar Girl Ruth
With 17 nominations for Best Actress and a “batting average” of 0.607, she is the most decorated actor in Oscar history.
Meryl Streep’s 17 Best Actress nominations include this year’s nod for her performance in “The Post.”
Photo:
20th century fox; Everett Collection (16)
Most actors dream of landing this role that earns them an Oscar nomination. And then there’s Meryl Streep, who is so revered by her peers that just staring in a movie makes her more likely than not to win a Best Actress nod.
This year Oscar nomination for her role as newspaper editor Kay Graham in “The post office” raises Ms. Streep’s Oscar batting average to 0.607. With 17 nominations for Best Actress in 28 years of qualifying, she is quantifiably the most decorated actor in Oscar history, now in her 90th year.
Daniel Day-Lewis, who received his sixth nomination in 12 years of qualifying for the top male actor award, is in the running for “Phantom thread”. He increased his best actor average to .500 with this performance, which he has says it will be his last.
Only Greer Garson, nominated seven times in the 14 years of qualifying, matches Mr. Day-Lewis’s rate.
Streep Series
Meryl Streep is in contention for an Oscar for “The Post,” her 17th batting for the Oscar for Best Actress. Here’s how she stacks up against other Hollywood heavyweights.
Qualifying performances against Oscar nominations and wins for the main performance
Performances (% nominees)
Applications
Oscars won
Meryl Streep
28 (60.7%)
Daniel Day-Lewis
12 (50.0%)
Greer Garson
14 (50.0%)
30 (40.0%)
Katharine Hepburn
23 (39.1%)
Laurence Olivier
19 (36.8%)
Dustin Hoffman
17 (35.3%)
sissy espacek
27 (29.6%)
Jack nicholson
31 (29.0%)
Spencer tracy
Bette davis
35 (28.6%)
0
20
30
ten
Qualifying performances against Oscar nominations and wins for the main performance
Oscars won
Applications
Performances (% nominees)
28 (60.7%)
Meryl Streep
12 (50.0%)
Daniel Day-Lewis
14 (50.0%)
Greer Garson
30 (40.0%)
Catherine hepburn
23 (39.1%)
Laurence Olivier
19 (36.8%)
Dustin Hoffman
17 (35.3%)
sissy espacek
27 (29.6%)
Jack nicholson
Spencer tracy
31 (29.0%)
35 (28.6%)
Bette davis
20
0
ten
30
Qualifying performances against Oscar nominations and wins for the main performance
Oscars won
Performances (% nominees)
Applications
Meryl Streep
28 (60.7%)
12 (50.0%)
Daniel Day-Lewis
Greer Garson
14 (50.0%)
30 (40.0%)
Catherine hepburn
23 (39.1%)
Laurence Olivier
19 (36.8%)
Dustin Hoffman
17 (35.3%)
sissy espacek
27 (29.6%)
Jack nicholson
31 (29.0%)
Spencer tracy
35 (28.6%)
Bette davis
ten
30
0
20
Qualifying performance vs Oscar
nominations and victories for the main performance
Performances
(% Nominated)
Oscars won
Nomination
Meryl Streep
28 (60.7%)
Daniel Day-Lewis
12 (50.0%)
Greer Garson
14 (50.0%)
Catherine hepburn
30 (40.0%)
Laurence Olivier
23 (39.1%)
There is no direct correlation between nominations and wins. While Ms Streep has the highest batting average, she has won just two Academy Awards for Best Actress (plus one for Best Supporting Actress), while Katharine Hepburn has won a record four. Mr. Day-Lewis has won three Academy Awards for Best Actor, more than any other man.
The Wall Street Journal calculated the batting averages of the main players based on billing on IMDB.com, the movie poster, or both. Only actors and actresses with at least six nominations for a principal performance and at least one win were considered.
Ms. Streep has dominated the Oscars for decades. This is her fourth best actress since 2010, except for her nomination for Best Supporting Actress for “Into The Woods” in 2014. Her dominance has rarely diminished, but her strongest decade has been. the 1980s, when she was nominated six times and won the statuette in 1982 for “Sophie’s Choice”.
While surprisingly given their overlapping careers, this is the first time Ms Streep and Mr Day-Lewis have both competed for lead actor awards. Their fans might want to see the couple emerge victorious as a testament to their performances, but also because this is the last year that it could happen, if Mr Day-Lewis’s retirement takes effect as planned.
It has been 50 years since two of these decorated actors were not eligible for the grand acting awards. In 1968, Mrs. Hepburn (an average of 0.400 similar to that of Ted Williams to be nominated in the qualifying years) and Spencer Tracy (0.290) were nominated for their performances in the 1967 film “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”.
M / s. Hepburn just won, after losing the previous eight times, she was nominated. While the history of the Oscars shows that the Academy often honors legendary artists with nominations, winning the top prize is another matter entirely.
More Oscars coverage
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Published in the print edition of March 1, 2018 under the name ‘.’
