Actors Who Won an Oscar in Their Debut Role

If you’re an old-movie buff, you may remember Gale Sondergaard from a number of films in the 1930s and 1940s, some of them in the Sherlock Holmes series, usually playing a cunning schemer. She won her first and only Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in her debut film, “Anthony Adverse,” a sweeping period love story based on a novel by Hervey Allen. Sondergaard would be nominated for one other Oscar but did not win.

Greek-born Katina Paxinou was a founding member of the National Theatre of Greece. She didn’t gain a starring role in films until she was 42, when she was cast as Pilar in the movie version of the Ernest Hemingway novel “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and won for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. It was Paxinou’s only Oscar nomination. She has 23 other acting credits, including appearances on television series.

“The Best Years of Our Lives” told the story of American servicemen adjusting to civilian life after World War II. One of the characters, Homer Parrish, was played by Harold Russell, a real veteran who had lost his hands in an accident during the war. Russell was the first non-professional actor to win an Academy Award for acting.

Mercedes McCambridge had crafted a career in radio before she turned to the big screen playing strong, willful women. In 1949 she appeared as Sadie Burke in the political drama “All the King’s Men” and won for Best Supporting Actress in her screen debut. McCambridge was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress for the film “Giant.” Among her other credits: She was the voice of the demon in “The Exorcist.”

Baby boomers may remember Shirley Booth as the spirited and acerbic maid in the 1960s sitcom “Hazel.” Booth was an accomplished stage actress before she appeared as the put-upon character Lola Delaney in “Come Back, Little Sheba,” for which she won a Best Actress Academy Award.

New Jersey-born Eva Marie Saint played Edie Doyle, the girlfriend of Hoboken longshoreman Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) who pushes him to stand up against corruption in “On the Waterfront.” The role won her an Oscar, and her demure, vulnerable persona earned her roles in other films such as “North by Northwest,” “Raintree County,” and “Exodus.”

Jo Van Fleet was an honored stage actress before she turned to the big screen, winning a Tony Award in 1954 for role in “A Trip to Bountiful.” The following year, she won the Best Supporting Actress statue as James Dean’s estranged mother in “East of Eden.” Van Fleet has 56 acting credits and was busy doing television series in the 1950s and 1960s, such as “Naked City,” “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” and “The Virginian.”

The daughter of vaudeville performers, Julia Andrews captivated audiences with her voice and charm and became one of the most beloved actresses in movie history. She won the Best Actress Oscar as the title character in “Mary Poppins,” an English nanny with magical talents. Andrews was later nominated for Best Actress in “The Sound of Music” and “Victor Victoria.”

The often-honored Barbra Streisand has been nominated for five Academy Awards and won twice. Of her two Best Actress nominations, the first was for her screen debut for “Funny Girl,” for which she won an Oscar. She was also nominated for Best Actress in the film “The Way We Were.” Her other film credits include “The Owl and the Pussycat,” “Little Fockers,” and “Yentl.”

Tatum O’Neal became the youngest person to win a competitive Academy Award at 10 years old. She played Addie Loggins, a young con artist who swindles people during the Depression along with her adult partner, played by her actual father, Ryan O’Neal. She followed up that success with “The Bad News Bears” and “Little Darlings.” She has 37 acting credits and has done much of her later work on television.

The son of actor Jim Hutton, Timothy Hutton became the youngest man to earn an acting Oscar, when he won for Best Supporting Actor at 20. Hutton played the emotionally damaged son of a family torn apart by the death of a family member. To date, this has been his only Oscar nomination. Hutton has had a busy career, however, with 85 acting credits, many of them as appearances on television series such as “American Crime” and “How to Get Away with Murder.”

The life of Haing S. Ngor could itself be a movie. He was a physician in the Cambodian army before the genocidal Khmer Rouge took over the nation in 1975. He was imprisoned, tortured, became a refugee, and came to the United States in 1980. Even though he had no formal acting training, he was picked to play photographer Dith Pran in “The Killing Fields,” about the Cambodian conflict. He won for Best Supporting Actor. In 1996, Ngor was found shot to death in the garage of a Los Angeles apartment building.

When Marlee Matlin won the Best Actress Oscar in her role as Sarah in the film “Children of a Lesser God,” she made history. At 21, she was the youngest performer to win for Best Actress, and also the first hearing-impaired person to win an acting Oscar. This was her only Oscar nomination and win to date. She has been nominated several times for an Emmy.

Born in Canada and raised in New Zealand, Anna Paquin became the second-youngest actress to win a competitive Academy Award when she took home the Best Supporting Actress for her role as Flora in “The Piano” when she was only 11. Paquin has had a busy career since then, with 54 acting credits. She appeared in Martin Scorsese’s film “The Irishman” and was in the football-themed movie “American Underdog,” released last year.

Gifted with a booming voice, Jennifer Hudson, at 25, became the youngest African-American to win Best Supporting Actress when she took home an Oscar for her role in “Dreamgirls.” The film is based on the Broadway show of the same name about a trio of Black female singers seeking stardom in the 1960s. Besides winning an Academy Award, the former “American Idol” contestant also has won several Grammys.

Lupita Nyong’o tugged at heartstrings with her performance as the abused slave Patsey in the film “12 Years a Slave.” Nyong’o, at 29 then, the youngest person on this list, also has appeared in large-budget films like “Black Panther,” “Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens,” and “The Jungle Book.”