Robert De Niro on brink of making Oscar history with ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’

Jacob Sarkisian
·3 min read
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Robert De Niro will go down in Oscars — and cinema — history as one of the best actors of all time and could solidify that status by winning a third Oscar for his turn in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” By so doing, he’s set a new record for the longest gaps between Oscar wins.

Earlier this year, Judd Hirsch set a new record for the longest gap between Oscar nominations after he reaped a Best Supporting Actor bid for “The Fabelmans” 42 years after his nomination for “Ordinary People” in the same category. However, the record for the longest gap between Oscars wins has stood firm for some time and is held by Helen Hayes. She won her first Oscar in 1932 (for Best Actress) for “The Sin of Madelon Claudet.” She won her second Oscar almost 40 years later in 1971, for Best Supporting Actress for “Airport.”

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De Niro could extend that record by three years as he is one of the favorites for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Martin Scorsese‘s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which follows the murder of members of the Osage tribe in 1920s USA, sparking an investigation involving J. Edgar Hoover. De Niro portrays William “King” Hale, who rose to prominence via nefarious means and ordered the murder of several Osage tribe members in order to gain control of their Osage headrights. Currently, we predict that De Niro will win Best Supporting Actor over Ryan Gosling (“Barbie”), Robert Downey Jr. (“Oppenheimer”), John Magaro (“Past Lives”), and Colman Domingo (“The Color Purple”).

If he did win, it would be 42 years after he won his last Oscar — which came in 1981 for Best Actor for “Raging Bull,” another Scorsese flick. That was his second Oscar. He won his first in 1975 for Best Supporting Actor for “The Godfather Part II.” However, that isn’t the only record he could break.

At the moment Katharine Hepburn holds the record for longest gap between first and last wins — she won Best Actress in 1934 for “Morning Glory” and then won the same award again in 1982 for “On Golden Pond” (winning two more Oscars in between for “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” and “The Lion in Winter” in 1968 and 1969 respectively). That was a 48-year gap. If De Niro were to win for “Killers of the Flower Moon,” he would match that record of 48 years.

Plus, that would be his third Oscar overall. There are only seven other performers who have won three or more Oscars for acting — Walter Brennan, Ingrid Bergman, Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Frances McDormand — while Hepburn is out front with four wins.

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