The Washington Post
Sunday, March 21, 1999

Wonderful "Life": Italy's "Life Is Beautiful" is only the second film to compete as both Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Picture in the same year, after 1969's "Z." With seven nods, it also becomes the most-nominated foreign-language picture ever, beating "Das Boot" and "Fanny & Alexander," which had six each.

Hot Streep: Meryl Streep won her 11th nomination – Best Actress for "One True Thing" – tying Jack Nicholson. Only Katharine Hepburn has more acting nominations, with 12. Laurence Olivier and Bette Davis are next, with 10 each.

Triples: Roberto Benigni is a triple contender, not only for directing but as a nominee for Best Actor and as co-writer of "Life Is Beautiful." In that feat, he joins the small group of Orson Welles ("Citizen Kane"), Warren Beatty ("Heaven Can Wait," "Reds") and Woody Allen ("Annie Hall"). Randy Newman is also a triple threat, for his scores of "A Bug's Life" and "Pleasantville" and his song from "Babe: Pig in the City" – a rare accomplishment of three nominations for three pictures in one year.

Doubles: Among this year's double nominees: Steven Spielberg (director and producer, "Saving Private Ryan"); Terrence Malick ("The Thin Red Line," directing and screenplay adaptation, from James Jones's novel); Marc Norman (producer and co-writer of "Shakespeare"); Sandy Powell, costume design for both "Shakespeare" and "Velvet Goldmine"; and Hans Zimmer, for his scores of "The Prince of Egypt" and "Red Line."

Beth actress: Judi Dench (with only eight minutes onscreen as Elizabeth I in "Shakespeare") and Cate Blanchett ("Elizabeth") are the second pair of actresses to be nominated in the same year for playing the same role. (Last year, Gloria Stuart and Kate Winslet played the same fictional character in "Titanic.")

Scoring leaders: John Williams has a 37th nomination, for the score of "Saving Private Ryan." Though he's still behind Alfred Newman's 45, he is the most nominated living person.

Most honored directors: John Ford, four awards (1935, 1940, 1941, 1952)
Frank Capra, three awards (1934, 1936, 1938)
William Wyler, three awards (1942, 1946, 1959)

Most nominated non-winning movies: "The Turning Point" (1977, 11 nominations)
"The Color Purple" (1985, 11 nominations)

The only silent film to win Best Picture: "Wings" (1927-28)

The first sound film to win Best Picture: "The Broadway Melody" (1928-29)

The first movie in color to win Best Picture: "Gone With the Wind" (1939)

The only sequel to win Best Picture: "The Godfather Part II" (1974)

The first non-Hollywood film to win Best Picture: "Hamlet" (1948), financed and filmed in England

The first foreign-language performance to win an Oscar: Sophia Loren, named 1961's Best Actress for her work in the Italian film "Two Women"

The only westerns to win Best Picture: "Cimarron" (1931), "Dances With Wolves" (1990), "Unforgiven" (1992)

Best Picture winners that received no nominations for acting:
"Wings" (1927-28)
"The Broadway Melody" (1928-29)
"All Quiet on the Western Front" (1929-30)
"Grand Hotel" (1931-32)
"An American in Paris" (1951)
"The Greatest Show on Earth" (1952)
"Around the World in 80 Days" (1956)
"Gigi" (1958)
"The Last Emperor" (1987)
"Braveheart" (1995)

The only motion pictures to win Best Picture, Direction, Actress, Actor and Screenplay:
"It Happened One Night" (1934)
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975)
"The Silence of the Lambs" (1991)

The only performers to win consecutive Oscars:
Luise Rainer (1936 for "The Great Ziegfeld" and 1937 for "The Good Earth")
Spencer Tracy (1937 for "Captains Courageous" and 1938 for "Boys Town")
Katharine Hepburn (1967 for "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" and 1968 for "The Lion in Winter")
Jason Robards (1976 for "All the President's Men" and 1977 for "Julia")
Tom Hanks (1993 for "Philadelphia" and 1994 for "Forrest Gump")

The only films to win three Oscars for acting:
"A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951)
"Network" (1976)
(To date, no film has won all four of the Oscars for acting.)

The only films to win both Best Actor and Best Actress:
"It Happened One Night" (1934)
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975)
"Network" (1976)
"Coming Home" (1978)
"On Golden Pond" (1981)
"The Silence of the Lambs" (1991)
"As Good as It Gets" (1997)

The only person to win an Oscar for playing an Oscar loser: Maggie Smith in "California Suite" (1978)

The most nominated non-winning performers: Richard Burton (seven nominations, no wins); Peter O'Toole (seven nominations, no wins)

The only performers to win three or more Oscars for acting:
Katharine Hepburn (four wins)
Walter Brennan (three wins)
Ingrid Bergman (three wins)
Jack Nicholson (three wins)

Performers who've won two Oscars for acting: Marlon Brando, Gary Cooper, Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Robert de Niro, Melvyn Douglas, Sally Field, Jane Fonda, Jodie Foster, Gene Hackman, Tom Hanks, Helen Hayes, Dustin Hoffman, Glenda Jackson, Jessica Lange, Vivien Leigh, Jack Lemmon, Fredric March, Anthony Quinn, Luise Rainer (for 1936's "The Good Earth" and 1937's "The Great Ziegfeld"), Jason Robards, Maggie Smith, Meryl Streep, Elizabeth Taylor, Spencer Tracy, Peter Ustinov, Dianne Wiest, Shelley Winters

The only women nominated as Best Director:
Lina Wertmuller ("Seven Beauties," 1976)
Jane Campion ("The Piano," 1993)

The first person nominated as producer, director, actor and screenwriter in a single year: Orson Welles (1941, for "Citizen Kane")

The only African American actors to win Oscars:
Hattie McDaniel (Best Supporting Actress, "Gone With the Wind")
Sidney Poitier (Best Actor, "Lilies of the Field")
Louis Gossett Jr. (Best Supporting Actor, "An Officer and a Gentleman")
Denzel Washington (Best Supporting Actor, "Glory")
Whoopi Goldberg (Best Supporting Actress, "Ghost")
Cuba Gooding Jr. (Best Supporting Actor, "Jerry Maguire")

Youngest performer to receive an Academy Award: Shirley Temple (1934, Special Award; she was 6 years old)

Youngest performer to win a competitive Academy Award: Tatum O'Neal (1973, for "Paper Moon"; 10 years old)

Youngest winner as Best Actor: Richard Dreyfuss (1977, for "The Goodbye Girl"; 29 years old)

Youngest winner as Best Actress: Marlee Matlin (1986, for "Children of a Lesser God"; 21 years old)

Oldest winner as Best Actor: Henry Fonda (1981, for "On Golden Pond"; 76 years old)

Oldest performer to receive an Academy Award: Groucho Marx (1973, Honorary Award; 83 years old)

Oldest performer to win a competitive Academy Award: Jessica Tandy (1989, for "Driving Miss Daisy"; 80 years old)

Host of the Oscars the year the show ran 20 minutes short: Jerry Lewis (1959)

Sources: "70 Years of the Oscar" by Robert Osborne, Washington Post staff and wire reports, Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences.