Double-Accoladed Actors part…2

Two weeks ago I promised a second part to the blog I wrote on Actors who have been nominated for an Oscar for playing the same character twice in two different films. Please feel free to continue the dialogue on this interesting segment of the acting community!

• Sylvester Stallone wrote and starred in Rocky (1976), portraying the leading role of Rocky Balboa. The film earned him Oscar nominations for his Acting performance as well as his Original Screenplay, though Stallone lost both awards to Network (1976): Peter Finch for his Acting performance and Paddy Chayefsky for Original Screenplay. In “Rocky,” Stallone also served as the boxing choreographer, and was generous enough to give bit parts in the film to his father and his brother, who share the name Frank, and his dog, Butkus. In addition to being one of the six actors nominated twice for playing the same character, Stallone is also the third person to be nominated for acting and writing in the same year, following Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator (1940) and Orson Welles in Citizen Kane (1941). Stallone currently is the record-holder for the most years in between nominations for playing the same character in a gap of 39 years, recreating the “Balboa” role in Creed (2015), in which he was nominated in the supporting category. He was defeated yet again by Mark Rylance for Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies (2015).
• Paul Newman originated the role of “Fast Eddie” Felson in The Hustler (1961). Before Newman was cast in this film, ironically, he had never held a pool cue. It was because of this that he took out the dining room from his home and installed a pool table—so he could spend literally every hour practicing and do all of his own shots in the film. At one point, he even challenged co-star, Jackie Gleason, who in reality was a much better pool player, to a $50 bet on a pool game. Although Gleason won, and Newman paid him the next day with a total of 5000 pennies, Gleason and Newman did become close friends and Newman was able to improve on his own skills while making the movie. Newman later went on to recreate the role 25 years later in Martin Scorsese’s The Color of Money (1986). Newman said that he felt that Scorsese was the right person to direct the sequel because he liked the way Scrosese directed Raging Bull (1980) six years earlier. “Raging Bull,” is a biopic on boxer, Jake LaMotta, who was impersonated in the film by Robert DeNiro who won an Oscar for the performance, though the real LaMotta, ironically, appeared as a bartender in “The Hustler.”
• Cate Blanchett first played the role of Queen Elizabeth I in Elizabeth (1998). At the time, Cate Blanchett wasn’t internationally known as a movie star, though that was remedied as a result of this one. Ironically, in 1998, Dame Judi Dench was nominated as Best Supporting Actor for her 8-minute portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love (1998). Although Blanchett lost the Leading Oscar to Gwyneth Paltrow for her portrayal of Viola De Lesseps in “Shakespeare in Love,” Dench won. (Coincidentally, this movie also starred Joseph Fiennes and Geoffrey Rush who also appeared in “Shakespeare in Love,” and both films were nominated for Best Picture as well. “Shakespeare” won.) Blanchett reprised her role as Queen Elizabeth I 19 years later in Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007). This nomination made Blanchett the only woman to be nominated for an Oscar twice for playing the same character in two different movies. Although she lost the award to Marion Cotillard in La Vie en Rose (2007), she won for the first time as Best Supporting Actress for her impersonation of Katharine Hepburn in Scorsese’s The Aviator (2004) and the second time in the Leading Category for her portrayal of Jasmine in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine (2013). To this day, Blanchett is also the only Oscar-winning actress ever to win an Oscar for impersonating another Oscar winner.  

Wayne + Russi = Mickey and Minnie

1977. The release year for films such as The Rescuers, Freaky Friday, Pete’s Dragon, and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. It was also the year the Disney Studios was looking for a new voice talent for Mickey Mouse—after the retirement of the studio’s Sound Effects Head, Jimmy MacDonald, who had voiced the character since 1947, and had assumed the role from Walt Disney himself. 

The studio hired Wayne Allwine, who began his career working in the Disney Studio mailing room, and later in the sound effects department under MacDonald’s mentorship. Allwine made his debut as Mickey Mouse in The All New Mickey Mouse Club in 1977, the first television revival of the Original Mickey Mouse Club (It aired on television from 1955-1958). Allwine’s first theatrical appearance as Mickey happened in 1983 when Disney produced Mickey’s Christmas Carol in which Mickey Mouse portrays Bob Cratchit.

Russi Taylor, on the other hand, began her career voicing the baby from Ted and Georgette’s marriage on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-1977). She also voiced Strawberry Shortcake in the characters first six original television specials. She won the role of Minnie Mouse in 1986, (succeeding Ruth Gordon and Janet Waldo (Judy Jetson’s voice)), beating more than 200 actresses for the part! Her debut as Minnie was in a special called DTV: Doggone Valentine in 1987. She met Allwine, at a recording session for a television special called Totally Minnie which aired in 1988. 

Surprisingly, Taylor and Allwine fell in love—and became husband and wife in 1991. Together, they began voicing Minnie and Mickey together on a regular basis, from the television show Disney’s House of Mouse (2001-2003) to the direct-to-video movies Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas (1999) and Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas (2004) to the Magic Kingdom Park Atrraction, Mickey’s Philhar Magic, which opened at the Magic Kingdom in 2003. Taylor also succeeded Clarence Nash as the voice of Donald Duck’s three nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, in the series DuckTales (1987-1990).

Besides Mickey, Wayne Allwine also voiced the Horned King’s Guards in The Black Cauldron (1985), and one of Professor Ratigan’s cronies in The Great Mouse Detective (1986). Around the time he voiced Mickey, Allwine also lent his talents as a sound effects editor to Disney/Touchstone-produced films such as Splash (1984) and Three Men and a Baby (1987). He continued to voice the character of Mickey Mouse for a total of 32 years until his untimely death on May 18th, 2009, due to acute diabetes, at the age of 62. His last performances as Mickey were in the video game Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and in the “Goofy Babysitter,” episode of The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse which aired on television in 2011. Both programs of which were dedicated in his memory.

Around the time that she got the part of Minnie Mouse, Russi Taylor also succeeded Clarence Nash as the voice of Donald Duck’s three nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie in ‘86. Besides that, she lent her voice to several direct-to-video sequels: Cinderella 2: Dreams Come True (2002), The Fox and the Hound 2 (2006), Cinderella 3: A Twist in Time (2007). In addition, she had voice parts on the television shows: Jake and the Neverland Pirates (2011-2016) Sofia the First (2012-2018). In addition to all of her Disney roles, Taylor also voiced Pebbles Flintstone in The Flintstone Comedy Hour (1980) and the character of Martin Prince in The Simpsons (1989-present). Taylor voiced the character of Minnie Mouse for a total of 33 years before she passed away of colon cancer on July 26, 2019 at the age of 75.

The romantic relationship of Mickey and Minnie Mouse represents a huge part of the legacy of Disney and it continues to stand the test of time. From the time they debuted together in the short Plane Crazy in 1928, to their more recent appearance together in the ABC television special Mickey’s 90th Spectacular in 2018, Allwine and Russell were a classic pair. Walt Disney is started their life together, but it was Wayne Allwine and Russi Taylor who made the magic last!