This year's top Oscar contenders have education in common. All of them are teachers or are outside the educational system. -Carla Meyer
2
Nominees Paul Giamatti and Jeffrey Wright play equally erudite curmudgeons employed as educators in “The Holdovers” and “American Fiction,” respectively. But the issue of education…
3
… runs through his category: J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) taught at UC Berkeley before creating the atomic bomb; conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein (Bradley Cooper) frequently lectured; and civil rights activist Bayard Rustin (Colman Domingo) attended teacher's college. So there is a…
40-100%
… Chances are (depending on how loosely you define “teacher”) an actor who played an educator will be named the film's lead actor. second year in a row, after Brendan Fraser, whose character in “The Whale” taught English at the university.
5 minutes
The total number of Oscar-winning leading actors who played teachers becomes weak after obvious winners like Robert Donat (“Goodbye, Mr. Chips”) and Rex Harrison (“My Fair Lady”). Teaching is usually one of the characters' many jobs, or it is not emphasized in the film. Besides…
2
… Some of the best-known performances (Edward James Olmos in “Stand and Deliver” and Robin Williams in “Dead Poets Society”) were nominated but did not win. AND Sidney Poitier wasn't even nominated for “To Sir, With Love.”
1998
Robin Williams ultimately won in the supporting category for playing an educator in “Good Will Hunting.” As a therapist, he also taught psychology at community colleges.
2007
Before playing a character whose job is “the beach,” current supporting actor nominee Ryan Gosling received a lead actor nomination for playing a devoted but self-destructive high school teacher in “Half Nelson.”
