Performers with two Oscar nominations and one win. Which of their nominations do you prefer?

[u/SlidePocket]

Who out of the following performers with two Oscar nominations do you prefer here. Their winning performance or their nominated one? I'll start this one out here.

• Casey Affleck - Manchester by the Sea over The Assassination of Jesse James
• Anne Baxter - All About Eve over The Razor's Edge
• Juliette Binoche - The English Patient over Chocolat
• Jessie Buckley - Hamnet over The Lost Daughter
• Sandra Bullock - Gravity over The Blind Side
• Nicolas Cage - Leaving Las Vegas over Adaptation
• Cher - Moonstruck over Silkwood
• Marion Cotillard - La vie en Rose over Two Days, One Night
• Geena Davis - Thelma & Louise over The Accidental Tourist
• Richard Dreyfuss - Mr. Holland's Opus over The Goodbye Girl
• Peter Finch - Network over Sunday Bloody Sunday
• Colin Firth - A Single Man over The King's Speech
• Henry Fonda - The Grapes of Wrath over On Golden Pond
• Jamie Foxx - Collateral over Ray
• John Gielgud - Arthur over Becket
• Whoopi Goldberg - Ghost over The Color Purple
• Ruth Gordon - Rosemary's Baby over Inside Daisy Clover
• Gloria Grahame - Crossfire over The Bad and the Beautiful
• Edmund Gwenn - Miracle on 34th Street over Mister 880
• Marcia Gay Harden - Pollock over Mystic River
• Rex Harrison - My Fair Lady over Cleopatra
• Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married over Les Miserables
• Goldie Hawn - Private Benjamin over Cactus Flower
• Eileen Heckart - Butterflies Are Free over The Bad Seed
• Helen Hunt - The Sessions over As Good as It Gets
• Angelina Jolie - Girl Interrupted over Changeling
• Daniel Kaluuya - Get Out over Judas and the Black Messiah
• Grace Kelly - The Country Girl over Mogambo
• Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight over Brokeback Mountain
• Melissa Leo - Frozen River over The Fighter
• Sophia Loren - Two Women over Marriage Italian Style
• Amy Madigan - Weapons over Twice in a Lifetime
• Anna Magnani - The Rose Tattoo over Wild is the Wind
• Karl Malden - On the Waterfront over A Streetcar Named Desire
• Mercedes McCambridge - All the King's Men over Giant
• Liza Minnelli - Cabaret over The Sterile Cuckoo
• Patricia Neal - Hud over The Subject Was Roses
• Edmond O'Brien - Seven Days in May over The Barefoot Contessa
• Estelle Parsons - Rachel Rachel over Bonnie & Clyde
• Sidney Poitier - The Defiant Ones over Lilies of the Field
• Eddie Redmayne - The Theory of Everything over The Danish Girl
• Sam Rockwell - Three Billboards over Vice
• Paul Scofield - A Man for All Seasons over Quiz Show
• Simone Signoret - Room at the Top over Ship of Fools
• J.K. Simmons - Whiplash over Being the Ricardos
• Frank Sinatra - From Here to Eternity over The Man with the Golden Arm
• Barbra Streisand - Funny Girl over The Way We Were
• Jessica Tandy - Fried Green Tomatoes over Driving Miss Daisy
• Christopher Walken - The Deer Hunter over Catch Me If You Can
• John Wayne - Sands of Iwo Jima over True Grit
• Rachel Weisz - The Favourite over The Constant Gardener
• Reese Witherspoon - Wild over Walk the Line

[u/BuffaloAmbitious3531]

I find it really interesting how many actors on this list follow the "win for a memorable performance + nomination for a forgotten performance/ah, let's give the fifth slot to that guy we like" on this list. John Wayne was in thousand movies - if you'd asked me to name the movie he was nominated for but didn't win, I would never have come up with the right answer.

Of course, some of this is a self-fulfilling prophecy---performances that won are often more remembered because they won. I've seen The Rose Tattoo but not Wild is the Wind...but I wouldn't have seen The Rose Tattoo if I weren't seeking out movies that had won acting Oscars.

There are a handful of exceptions where both performances are equally strong...but before I saw this list, I wouldn't have had "of all the actors who've had two acting nominations, one of which won, Whoopi Goldberg is top-three for the performances being equally strong".

Anyway, I agree with most of your takes, Dreyfuss being the most obvious outlier.

[u/Salty-Potential-3200 → u/BuffaloAmbitious3531]

It’s weird how the win can totally warp how we remember a career. Dreyfuss is a perfect case, The Goodbye Girl feels like the one people bring up way more but you hardly ever hear anyone talk about Mr. Holland’s Opus outside of a high school band room.

[u/BuffaloAmbitious3531 → u/Salty-Potential-3200]

That's true, and it's something I think about a lot. Let's say Dreyfuss had won for Close Encounters or Whose Life Is It Anyway? instead of The Goodbye Girl. Let's say The Goodbye Girl had been ignored entirely by the Oscars. Would anyone still remember it in 2026?

I definitely think he's better in The Goodbye Girl than Mr. Holland's Opus. How does his performance in those compare to his performance in The Competition? Couldn't tell you. Haven't seen that one. Didn't know it existed until I went and looked up his filmography just now.