Of all the roles that the late Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix have starred in to date, embodying the character of the Joker in the DC Universe still ranks as some of their best performances ever. In fact, both actors were so tremendously acclaimed for their respective portrayals of the same character that they even won Oscars for the same!
However, while they were one of the duos to win an Academy Award for playing the same character in two different movies, they weren’t the first ones to hold this title. Instead, the very first pair of actors to have won an Academy Award each for playing the same character in two different movies was Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro.
The two actors who won Oscars for the same roles before Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix
For Heath Ledger, not only was the role of Joker in The Dark Knight the last ever character he embodied before his untimely death, but it was also one of the best performances (if not the best) of his entire career. This is why he even scored an Academy Award for the same.
More than a decade later, someone else stepped into that very role and ended up winning the hearts of fans worldwide with an equally spectacular performance in 2019’s Joker. This someone was fans’ very own favorite, Joaquin Phoenix, who also went on to win an Academy Award for the same.
Just like that, two actors, one of whom even passed away before the release of one of the best films of his whole star-studded career, earned an Academy Award each for giving an absolutely exceptional performance as the same character, just in different movies.
However, a long time before them, in the early 1970s, two other actors bagged the respective honor from the Academy in this exact same manner. This duo consisted of none other than the two Hollywood legends, Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro.
Brando scored his second Academy Award for his distinctive portrayal of Vito Corleone in 1972’s The Godfather, which he refused to accept because he was boycotting the ceremony. But he then left the cast after being reportedly “mistreated by Paramount” (via ScreenRant).
This is why De Niro replaced him to play a younger version of Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II. And surprisingly enough, his performance won him his first-ever award from the Academy as well, making him and Brando the first pair to win an Oscar for the same role in different films.
Just like that, while Ledger and Phoenix won in the categories of Best Actor in a Supporting Role and Best Actor in a Leading Role respectively, Brando and De Niro won in the same manner as the former scored Best Actor while the latter was selected as the Best Supporting Actor.
Two other actors who scored Academy Awards in a similar manner
While the first two actors who won Academy Awards for playing the same character in two different movies were Brando and Robert De Niro, two other actors have scored the respective accolade in a similar manner: Rita Moreno and Ariana DeBose.
However, their situation was slightly different than Ledger, Phoenix, Brando, and De Niro’s, for they scored an Oscar for the same role in the same category, but in different versions of the same movie, i.e. the two West Side Story films.
Rita Moreno took home the first and only Academy Award of her life in the Best Actress in a Supporting Role category for her breathtaking portrayal of Anita in the 1961 version of West Side Story.
More than six decades later, in a remake of the original film, Ariana DeBose embodied the same character in 2021’s version of West Side Story and ended up bagging her own first and only Academy Award in the same category for her exceptional performance.
Well, for what it’s worth, the Academy Awards have seen some seriously intriguing wins, for real!
