2001 Academy Awards® Winners and History Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001) Monsters, Inc.

(2001) Actor: DENZEL WASHINGTON in "Training Day," Russell Crowe in "A Beautiful Mind," Sean Penn in "I Am Sam," Will Smith in "Ali," Tom Wilkinson in "In the Bedroom" Actress: HALLE BERRY in "Monster's Ball," Judi Dench in "Iris," Nicole Kidman in "Moulin Rouge!," Sissy Spacek in "In the Bedroom," Renee Zellwegger in "Bridget Jones's Diary" Supporting Actor: JIM BROADBENT in "Iris," Ethan Hawke in "Training Day," Ben Kingsley in "Sexy Beast," Ian McKellen in " The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring ," Jon Voight in "Ali" Supporting Actress: JENNIFER CONNELLY in "A Beautiful Mind," Helen Mirren in "Gosford Park," Maggie Smith in "Gosford Park," Marisa Tomei in "In the Bedroom," Kate Winslet in "Iris" Director: RON HOWARD for "A Beautiful Mind," Ridley Scott for "Black Hawk Down," Robert Altman for "Gosford Park," Peter Jackson for " The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of

 the Ring ," David Lynch for "Mulholland Drive" This year's ceremony, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg (for her fourth time), was notable as being the longest ever - at 4 hours, 23 minutes.

It also marked the first year that the Best Animated Feature Film category was offered. This was a year of eclectic Best Picture-nominated films: a sword-and-sorcery Hobbit/elves fantasy adventure, the first in a trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring a period murder mystery set in a British estate, Gosford Park an audacious musical romance set in a decadent, late 19th century Parisian nightclub/dance-hall/theatre, Moulin Rouge a drama about an afflicted, Nobel Prize-winning mathematical genius, the ultimate winner A Beautiful Mind another intimate drama about the torment of a New England (Maine) family over a son's sudden murder, In the Bedroom This was the tenth consecutive year that Miramax had a Best Picture nominee (this year, it was In the Bedroom) - a record for any studio. For the newly-created category - Best Animated Feature Film, according to the Academy's rules, an 'animated film' had to be at least 70 minutes in length, have a significant amount of major animated characters, and be at least 75% animated. The three nominees this year were Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius Monsters, Inc.

PDI/Dreamworks' Shrek (the winner), with its lovable green ogre (Mike Myers) and smart-alec donkey (Eddie Murphy). [Note: This was the first-ever Oscar for an animated feature film.] Three of the five Best Picture-nominated films had specifically fanciful elements: the dazzling musical fantasy of Moulin Rouge the epic fantasy tale The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring the delusionary fantasies of the main character's mind in A Beautiful Mind The Best Picture winner was A Beautiful Mind (with eight nominations and four major wins): Best Director (Ron Howard), Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Connelly), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Akiva Goldsman). First time nominee and former child actor/director Ron Howard's case study drama and romance was loosely adapted from Sylvia Nasar's prize-winning biography about a courageous Princeton Univ. math genius experiencing a harrowing struggle with mental illness (schizophrenia). To date, it was the last biopic film to win Best Picture. The story's time frame spanned a period of five decades beginning with 1947. [Howard had made fifteen feature films in his career.

Six years earlier, his Best Picture nominee Apollo 13 (1995) was honored by nine nominations - without a corresponding Best Director nomination.] Although its two lead actors (Crowe and Connelly) received Golden Globe awards, only Connelly went home with the Oscar. With this Best Picture win, DreamWorks became the second studio to win three Best Pictures in a row: American Beauty (1999) Annie Hall (1977) . The film with the most nominations (13) this year, director Peter Jackson's fantasy epic about wizards and scorcerers, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring , also had four wins (in technical categories basically): Makeup, Cinematography, Visual Effects, and Original Score. The first installment in the film trilogy, based on the best-selling novels of J.R.R. Tolkien was one of the most financially-successful of the year, and the first Best Picture nomination for its studio - New Line (a division of AOL Time Warner). This was also the first nomination for 40 year old New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson. [The Lord of the Rings became the ninth film ever to receive 13 Oscar nominations or more.

Two other films in Academy Awards history have had 14 nominations, and six other films have had 13 nominations. [Three of these nine films did not win Best Picture: Mary Poppins (1964), Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1966) , and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) .] The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) (13 nominations and 4 wins) No other sci-fi fantasy adventure of this kind, with loads of special effects, has been nominated for Best Picture since Star Wars (1977) (and Lucas' film lost the top award). Australian director Baz Luhrmann's gaudy, fantasy musical-romance Moulin Rouge (with eight nominations and two wins for Luhrmann's collaborator and wife Catherine Martin in two similar categories: Costume Design and Art Direction) was set in late 19th century Paris and featured a soundtrack with 20th century pop tunes. Nicole Kidman's Best Actress nomination was one of its eight nominations, but Luhrmann was denied a Best Director nomination.

[It was the first live-action musical to be given a Best Picture nomination since All That Jazz (1979). The last musical to win Best Picture was Oliver! (1968). The animated musical Beauty and the Beast (1991) was nominated for Best Picture ten years earlier.] Veteran, 77 year old, five-time maverick nominee/director Robert Altman's upstairs/downstairs murder mystery Gosford Park (with seven nominations and only one win) was set in 1930s Britain (Altman's first in this satirized Masterpiece Theatre-Merchant Ivory genre) at a country estate. It displayed his signature naturalistic, sprawling style (with 23 lead characters and as many plot strands all extraordinarily knitted together) and an all-star and talented British cast. Its only win was for Best Original Screenplay (Julian Fellowes). [It was Altman's first Best Picture AND Best Director nomination since Nashville (1975) .

This was Altman's fifth unsuccessful Best Director nomination - he was also nominated as Best Director for M*A*S*H (1970), The Player (1992), and Short Cuts (1993).] First-time writer/producer/director Todd Field's low-budget, emotionally-powerful and honest, laconic-paced family drama In the Bedroom (with five nominations - three for its actors - and no wins) lost in all categories. Usually, bleak dramas of this sort were only nominated in the various acting categories in recent years (i.e., Leaving Las Vegas (1995), Requiem for a Dream (2000)), and not for Best Picture. Among the other major film nominees were the following: Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down (with four nominations and two wins, for Film Editing and Sound; it lost for Cinematography and Director) Pearl Harbor (with four nominations and one win, for Sound Editing) director Jean Pierre Jeunet's delightful and amusing French-imported fairy-tale love story Amelie (with five nominations and no wins), that starred the adorably-cute, pixie-ish Audrey Tautou (whose sadness morphs her into cascading water).

It lost its favored Best Foreign Film nomination to Bosnia's entry, No Man's Land Pixar's and Disney's animated Monsters, Inc. (with four nominations and one win, for Randy Newman's Original Song "If I Didn't Have You") - this marked Newman's 16th nomination and first Oscar! director Richard Eyre's biographical portrait of novelist Iris Murdoch in Iris (with three nominations and one win, for Best Supporting Actor) Three of the directors of the five nominated Best Picture films were included in the list of Best Director nominees. Two of the five directors who had Best Picture nominations were conspicuously denied Best Director nominations: Baz Luhrmann for the dizzying and hyper-real spectacle Moulin Rouge Todd Field for In the Bedroom In their places were directing nominations for two three-time nominees who had never won a Best Director Oscar: 56 year old eccentric director David Lynch for the twisty, surreal, neo-noir, nightmarish love story Mulholland Drive (with one nomination and no wins), and 64 year old Ridley Scott for Black Hawk Down (with four nominations and two wins), an intense and brutal war film and graphic recreation of America's 1993 involvement and botched mission in the E.

African city of Mogadishu, Somalia. [Moulin Rouge's chances of winning Best Picture were proven to be slight, based upon Academy Awards history. The only three times a film won Best Picture without its director being nominated are the following: (1) un-nominated director William Wellman's Wings (1927/28) won Best Picture, while the Best Director award went to Frank Borzage for Seventh Heaven (1927/28) (2) Edmund Goulding's Grand Hotel (1931/32) was named Best Picture, while Frank Borzage won Best Director again for Bad Girl (1931/32) (3) Driving Miss Daisy (1989), when Oliver Stone won Best Director for Born on the Fourth of July (1989). Ridley Scott and David Lynch also faced unlikely odds to win Best Director. Director Frank Lloyd has been the only person to win the Best Director Oscar for a film not nominated for Best Picture - The Divine Lady (1928/29).] Three of the four Oscar winners in the four major acting categories were first-time nominees.

And this was an historic year - the top acting honors went to two African-Americans, the first time ever in Academy history. The Best Actor winner was Denzel Washington (with his fifth nomination and second win) as a corrupt, rakish, 13-year veteran cop of a narcotics squad, a hateful but charismatic Detective Sergeant Alonzo Harris in director Antoine Fuqua's police drama/thriller Training Day (with two nominations and one win). [With his nomination, Washington became the most-nominated black actor. He also became the first black actor to win two Academy Awards, and the first African-American since Sidney Poitier (a Best Actor winner for Lilies of the Field (1963)) to win a Best Actor statue. Note: Some argue that Poitier's Bahamas heritage makes Denzel Washington the first true African-American actor to win Best Actor.

(Washington received his earlier Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in Glory (1989), another supporting nomination for his role as Steven Biko in Cry Freedom (1987), and two Best Actor nominations for Malcolm X (1992) and The Hurricane (1999).)] In the Best Actor category, it was the first time that two African-American actors were nominated for Best Actor in the same year. The other African-American nominee was Will Smith (with his first nomination), as legendary boxer and former heavy-weight champ Muhammad Ali (from 1964-1974) in director Michael Mann's sports bio-drama Ali. The other three Best Actor nominees were: New Zealand-born Russell Crowe (with his third nomination and third Best Actor nomination in a row), for his role in A Beautiful Mind as delusional mathematical genius John Forbes Nash, Jr. - who won the 1994 Nobel prize for his work in game theory and was afflicted with paranoid schizophrenia.

(Crowe was last year's Best Actor winner for playing a Roman general-turned-slave in Gladiator (2000), and he was previously nominated for The Insider (1999).) [The last actor to receive three consecutive nominations was William Hurt, in Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985) (an Oscar win), Children of a Lesser God (1986), and Broadcast News (1987).] Maverick actor Sean Penn (with his third nomination) as Sam Dawson in director Jessie Nelson's I Am Sam (a combination of Rain Man (1988) and Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)), as a developmentally-disabled father who works in a coffee shop and seeks the custody of his 7 year-old daughter Lucy (Dakota Fanning). British-born Tom Wilkinson (with his first nomination) as grief-stricken New England doctor and justice-seeking vigilante father Matt Fowler in In the Bedroom There were two veteran Oscar nominees and three first-timers in the Best Actress category.

In a monumental, career-altering victory, 35 year old Halle Berry (with her first nomination) became the first black actress to win a Best Actress Academy Award in AMPAS' 74 year history! She portrayed African-American Leticia Musgrove, an executed killer's (Sean Combs) grief-stricken widow in a town poisoned with Southern racism in director Marc Forster's racially-charged romance Monster's Ball (with two nominations and one win). (The last Best Actress nomination for a black actress was Angela Bassett for What's Love Got to Do With It? (1993).) The other Best Actress nominees were: Sissy Spacek (with her sixth nomination and one past Oscar win) as the traumatized, withdrawn, chain-smoking, middle-aged, silently-angry and grieving mother Ruth Fowler in In the Bedroom.

(She won an Oscar 21 years earlier for playing Kentucky singer Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), and was last nominated for Crimes of the Heart (1986).) 67 year old Briton Judi Dench (with her fourth nomination in five years, and one past win) as feisty English philosophical and libertine-spirited novelist Iris Murdoch who eventually suffered from Alzheimer's in later life in Iris. (Dench's previous nominations were Best Actress for Mrs. Brown (1997), a win for Best Supporting Actress for Shakespeare in Love (1998), and a nomination for Supporting Actress for Chocolat (2000).) [This was the second time that two actresses were nominated for playing the same character in the same film - Kate Winslet was also nominated for her role of Iris in Iris.

The first time this occurred was when Kate Winslet and Gloria Stuart were both nominated for playing the same character (Rose) in the same film -- Titanic (1997).] 34 year old Australian-raised Nicole Kidman (with her first nomination and in her first musical role), as an ill-fated, dying-from-consumption, sexy nightclub singer and doomed lover/courtesan named Satine in the bold, hyperactive and re-inventive Moulin Rouge (she was the film's only acting nominee). [If Kidman had won in this category, she would have been the first actress in almost 30 years to win an Oscar for a musical (Liza Minnelli won for Cabaret (1972) ].

32 year old deglamourized American Texan Renee Zellweger (with her first nomination) as a thirty-something, lovelorn, weight-challenged Londoner in a publishing house haplessly seeking romance in director Sharon Maguire's British comedy Bridget Jones's Diary, a witty adaptation of Helen Fielding's popular novel Note: The acting nominations of the trio of Smith, Washington and Berry marked the third time that three African-American actors have been nominated for acting roles. (This also happened in 1972 and in 1985). However, it must be noted that this was only the second time that three African-American performers have been nominated in the top acting categories. (In 1972 in the Best Actress and Best Actor categories, Diana Ross was nominated for Lady Sings the Blues (1972), and Paul Winfield and Cicely Tyson for Sounder (1972). None of them won.) The Best Supporting Actor and Actress categories each had a first-time nominee as the winner.

Surprise winner 52 year-old British actor Jim Broadbent (with his first nomination) won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar as Iris Murdoch's doting, clumsy, affectionate and devoted husband John Bayley in Iris. (Broadbent also starred in un-nominated roles in both Moulin Rouge and Bridget Jones's Diary.) The other nominees in the Best Supporting Actor category included two other British performers: the favored 62 year old Sir Ian McKellen (with his second nomination after a nod three years earlier for his great performance in Gods and Monsters (1998)) as kindly wizard Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 58 year old Sir Ben Kingsley (with his third nomination and one past win) as menacing, bullying, volatile mobster/hitman Don "Malky" Logan in director Jonathan Glazer's UK crime thriller Sexy Beast.

(Kingsley was a previous Best Actor Oscar winner for Gandhi (1982).) 30 year old Ethan Hawke (with his first nomination) as Jake Hoyt, an eager, idealistic rookie narcotics detective in the Los Angeles Police Department serving under Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington) in Training Day 63 year old Jon Voight (with his fourth nomination and one past win) for his caricatured, heavily-made-up portrayal of ABC sports broadcaster Howard Cosell in Ali - with only 13 minutes of screen time. (This was Voight's first nomination for a supporting role. He won his sole Oscar for Coming Home (1978), and his last nomination was as Best Actor for Runaway Train (1985).) In the Best Supporting Actress category, the category's only first-time nominee was also the winner. The Oscar was presented to 31 year-old Golden Globe winner Jennifer Connelly (with her first nomination after two decades and 23 films in her career) as Nash's beautiful former student and loyal, stalwart, devoted, and long-suffering wife Alicia in A Beautiful Mind.

Two other Best Supporting Actress nominees were co-stars in Altman's comedy of class manners ensemble film, Gosford Park. (As a footnote to this pair of nominations for an Altman film, it also happened for his film Nashville (1975) , when Ronee Blakley and Lily Tomlin were honored with competing nominations.) The four other Best Supporting Actress nominees were: 56 year old Helen Mirren (with her second nomination) as the cooly efficient, but tragic, melancholy and impenetrable 'downstairs' housekeeper Mrs. Wilson in Gosford Park 67 year old, two-time Oscar winner Maggie Smith (with her sixth nomination and her fourth for Best Supporting Actress) as flighty, pampered, snooty, sarcastic and tippling matronly guest Lady Constance - the spoiled aristocratic Countess of Trentham in Gosford Park.

(Maggie Smith previously won Best Actress for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), and Best Supporting Actress for California Suite (1978).) 37 year old Marisa Tomei (with her second nomination and one past win) as attractive, separated, and troubled mom Natalie Strout involved with her boyfriend/lover Frank Fowler (Nick Stahl), a ten years younger high school graduate (and summer lobster fisherman) in In the Bedroom. (Nine years earlier, Tomei won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar - in an upset - for her role as Brooklynite Mona Lisa Vito in My Cousin Vinny (1992).) 26 year old Kate Winslet (with her third nomination) as Iris Murdoch in her resolute, free-spirited and bolder youth in Iris.

(Winslet was previously nominated as Best Supporting Actress for Sense and Sensibility (1995), and Best Actress for Titanic (1997).) This year's Honorary Award was presented to Sidney Poitier, "in recognition of his remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human being." He was the first male actor of color who won the Best Actor Oscar for Lilies of the Field (1963) - his sole Oscar win. He was also nominated as Best Actor for The Defiant Ones (1958) , although he had appeared in lots of great films including The Blackboard Jungle (1955), A Raisin in the Sun (1961), To Sir With Love (1967), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), and In the Heat of the Night (1967) . Another Honorary Award was given to Robert Redford, "Actor, Director, Producer.

Creator of Sundance, inspiration to independent and innovative filmmakers everywhere." In his career, he had been nominated four times (with one win): once as Best Actor for The Sting (1973), twice as Best Director for Best Picture-winning Ordinary People (1980) (with his sole Oscar win) and Quiz Show (1994), and also Best Picture for the latter film. He had also appeared in many memorable roles in films such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) , The Candidate (1972), All the President's Men (1977), Out of Africa (1985), Indecent Proposal (1993), and served as director for A River Runs Through It (1992) and The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000). Oscar Snubs and Omissions: Black Hawk Down (with four nominations and two wins) and Mulholland Drive were favored for Best Picture nominations, but didn't receive them. Other films without major film nominations included Darabont's failing The Majestic and Steven Spielberg's A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (with 29 year old Jude Law).

The director of Best Picture-nominee Moulin Rouge, Baz Luhrmann, was surprisingly left out of the Best Director race, as was actor and leading man Ewan McGregor as ambitious but poor British poet/writer Christian in the romantic musical opposite love interest Nicole Kidman as Moulin Rouge courtesan Satine. One of the most successful films of the year, Chris Columbus' Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone , had only three nominations (Art Direction, Costume Design, and Score) and no wins. Billy Bob Thornton was not deservedly nominated for his appearances in three films: as Hank, an emotionally-tortured Georgia Death Row prison guard in the melodramatic Monster's Ball, as a costume-changing, hypochondriac bank robber (one of the "Sleepover Bandits") Terry Collins in Barry Levinson's Bandits, and as humble, unassuming (but scheming) barber Ed Crane in the Coen brothers' beautifully filmed black and white noir The Man Who Wasn't There. Golden Globe winner Gene Hackman was also overlooked for his role as the partly sinister, shifty, high-living patriarch Royal Tenenbaum in Wes Anderson's comedy-drama The Royal Tenenbaums (with only one nomination) .

Tovah Feldshuh was overlooked as Scarsdale Jewish matron Judy Stein with a lesbian daughter in Kissing Jessica Stein. And Steve Buscemi should have received a supporting nod for his role as nerdy, misfit, socially-inept record collector Seymour, as should have Illeana Douglas as the high school art instructor named Roberta, in Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World, but the film did get a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination. And if 80 year old Carl Reiner had been nominated for Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven, it would have been his first nomination.

Three Best Actress nominations were clearly left on the cutting room floor: Tilda Swinton for her role as blackmailed, maternally-protective, burdened and determined Margaret Hall, in David Siegel's dramatic The Deep End Australian Naomi Watts for her dual roles as wholesome, idealized small-town girl Betty Elms in Hollywood whose identity was 'robbed' (and her alter ego as failed aspiring actress Diane), in David Lynch's mesmerizing, disorienting and dizzying, puzzling fantasy Mulholland Drive Audrey Tautou as the title character - a 23 year-old Parisian waitress in the delightful comedy Amelie Three-time nominee Michelle Pfeiffer was ignored for her role as lawyer Rita Harrison who assumed Sean Penn's case in I Am Sam. [Pfeiffer has two Best Actress nominations, for The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) and Love Field (1992), and one Best Supporting Actress nomination for Dangerous Liaisons (1988).] And Thora Birch in Ghost World and Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde were likewise neglected in their comedic roles. Ghost World received only one nomination - for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Both Richard Linklater's innovatively-animated experimental film Waking Life, and Hironobu Sakaguchi's sci-fi Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, the first feature-length motion picture to use CGI for its characters, were un-nominated in the newly-created category Best Animated Feature Film. (And there were only three nominees: Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Monsters, Inc., and the winner Shrek ). Also, writer/director Christopher Nolan's clever, highly inventive, Mobius strip told-in-reverse noir Memento (2000) was mostly forgotten (as was Guy Pearce as the tattooed, short-term amnesiac Leonard Shelby) - it had only two unrewarded nominations for Film Editing and Original Screenplay.

Also omitted was Life as a House (and 20 year old Hayden Christensen's supporting role as the troubled and hateful estranged son Sam), director Lasse Hallstrom's The Shipping News with Kevin Spacey as Quoyle in Newfoundland, Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky (and Cameron Diaz' role as Julie Gianni, Tom Cruise's jealous ex-lover when he falls for Penelope Cruz), the Australian film Lantana (and Anthony LaPaglia's performance as police detective Leon Zat, and Kerry Armstrong's role as his emotionally-starved wife), and director/writer John Cameron Mitchell's gleefully-unusual, trans-gendered rock opera Hedwig and the Angry Inch (with no nominations). Oscar-nominated Nicole Kidman's other film - director Alejandro Amenabar's creepy and classic ghost story titled The Others, was devoid of nominations.

[Academy rules prohibited actors/actresses from receiving more than one nomination per category, so Kidman's superior work in The Others was edged out by the more recent Moulin Rouge.] Best Supporting Actor, 2001 Best Supporting Actor, 2001 (Click on the linked film titles for reviews of the corresponding films.) Nominee 5:2 Pluses Moulin Rouge fans loved him. Then, having made viewers sigh at his sad-sack Pop in Bridget Jones's Diary , Broadbent went full throttle and made them bawl as John Bayley, the uxoriously devoted but increasingly frustrated husband of Iris Murdoch. Like Marcia Gay Harden in Pollock , or heck, Jennifer Connelly in A Beautiful Mind , Broadbent may prove that having the less "showy" of two parts in a biopic may secretly be the best means of getting noticed. Minuses Iris won't reach the same wide audience that has certainly seen The Fellowship of the Ring, and Ian McKellen is a more established name who gives voters more impetus to reward him. Sure Broadbent won the Golden Globe, but McKellen wasn't competing.

Ethan Hawke 50:1 Ethan, I like you, and therefore I'm not going to lie to you... ...ain't no chance. Unpopular movie, a dubious understanding of "supporting," and an off-the-charts Inexperience Factor compared to the other four nominees. This ingenue stuff works in Best Supporting Actress (Tomei, Paquin, Sorvino), but not here. Ben Kingsley Sexy Beast 6:1 Supporters have been trumpeting this performance all year. Like Memento's script, Kingsley's pure-id villain has been touted since last year's Oscar derby as a certain contender in this year's, and his most vocal proponents claim that he's reinvented an archetype. Nice switcheroo from the days of playing Gandhi. Did I mention Gandhi? Kingsley already has an Oscar, which Broadbent and McKellen don't, nor is he likely to offer half so cuddly or puckish an acceptance speech. Don Logan, so say his detractors (and I agree with them), is a sort of high-concept part that operates at close to the same level throughout his screen time.

Ian McKellen The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 3:1 Would anyone else have made this such a memorable role? Would even Alec "Obi-Wan" Guinness, Ralph "Greystoke" Richardson, Laurence "Clash of the Titans" Olivier�all those names with which McKellen's gets regularly bandied about�have had any such luck sliding into such a grand, robustly emotional spectacle and still managed to find both the humor and the power in Gandalf? And hey, isn't it embarrassing that this guy has no statues? John Gielgud won, after all those years doing classics, for playing Dudley Moore's butler in Arthur. And, as everyone has been noticing lately, Alec Guinness lost in Star Wars. Guinness, let's remember, already had an Oscar, was a less ingratiating character, campaigned much less hard to win, and was up against Jason Robards of all people. So those debits may not hurt McKellen as much as the fact that McKellen is vying for votes among the same youngish crowd that Training Day and Sexy Beast are likely to impress. Broadbent has the whole old-fogey contingent in his corner.

Jon Voight Supporting Actor: Jim Broadbent - Oscar-Winning Men: 2000-2009 - Pictures - CBS News Next 2000: Kevin Spacey Actor Kevin Spacey smiles following winning the Best Actor Oscar during the 72nd Academy Awards in Los Angeles, Sunday, March 26, 2000. Spacey won for his role in "American Beauty" as Lester Burnham, a depressed middle aged suburban dad going through a mid-life crisis. He won his first Oscar in 1996 for his role in "The Usual Suspects." Credit: AP Supporting Actor: Michael Caine Michael Caine won his second Oscar in 2000 for his role in "Cider House Rules." In the film, Caine portrayed Dr. Larch who trains orphan Homer Wells (Tobey Maguire) to become a doctor.

He won his first oscar in 1987 for his role in "Hannah and Her Sisters." Credit: AP 2001: Russell Crowe Best actor Russell Crowe poses with his Oscar for "Gladiator" at the 73rd annual Academy Awards, Sunday, March 25, 2001, in Los Angeles. Crowe was nominated in the category of Best Actor for three straight years, but only took home the oscar for his role as betrayed Roman general turned gladiator Maximus. Credit: AP Supporting Actor: Benicio Del Toro Benicio Del Toro took home an Oscar in 2001 for his role in "Traffic." In the film, Del Toro portrayed dedicated-yet-corrupt Mexican cop Javier Rodriguez, who battles with his jaded ethics. Credit: AP 2002: Denzel Washington Denzel Washington and Halle Berry show off the Best Actor and Best Actress awards they won at the 74th annual Academy Awards, March 24, 2002, in Los Angeles. Berry and Washington made movie history as the first black actors to win both lead-role Oscar honors.

Washington took home his Oscar for his role as L.A.P.D detective Alonzo Harris in "Training Day." He also won an Oscar in 1990 for his role in "Glory." Credit: AP Supporting Actor: Jim Broadbent Jim Broadbent poses with his Oscar for Best Actor In A Supporting Role for the movie "Iris" backstage during the 74th Annual Academy Awards March 24, 2002. In the film Broadbent portrayed John Bayley the husband of British writer and philosopher Iris Murdoch. Credit: Getty Images/Frederick M. Brown 2003: Adrien Brody Adrien Brody took him the Oscar for Best Actor during the Academy Award's 2003 telecast. Brody won the award for his role as Polish Jewish musician Wladyslaw Szpilman in the holocaust film "The Pianist." He also made headlines that night for kissing married actress Halle Berry as she presented him with his Oscar. Credit: AP Supporting Actor: Chris Cooper Actor Chris Cooper poses with his Oscar during the Academy Awards ceremony on March 23, 2003.

Cooper won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in "Adaptation" during the 2003 Academy Awards. In the film he portrayed John Laroche, a plant dealer who clones rare orchids and sells them to collecters. Credit: AP 2004: Sean Penn Sean Penn shows off his Oscar for "Mystic River" during the 76th annual Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, Sunday, Feb. 29, 2004. In the film, Penn portrayed Jimmy Markum, an ex-con father of three whose daughter is murdered. Credit: AP Supporting Actor: Tim Robbins Tim Robbins shows off his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor during the Academy Awards telecast in 2004. In "Mystic River," Robbins portrayed Dave Boyle, who is haunted by childhood memories and becomes reuinted with old friends after one man's daughter is murdered. Credit: AP 2005: Jamie Foxx Jamie Foxx poses with the Oscar he won for best actor for his work in "Ray" at the 77th Academy Awards Sunday, Feb. 27, 2005, in Los Angeles.

In the film Foxx portrayed legendary blind pianist Ray Charles. Credit: AP Supporting Actor: Morgan Freeman Actor Morgan Freeman poses with the Oscar for best supporting actor for his work in "Million Dollar Baby" at the 77th Academy Awards Sunday, Feb. 27, 2005, in Los Angeles. In the film, Freeman portrayed Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris, who looks after Frankie Dunn's (Clint Eastwood) gym and sees the potential in female boxer Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank). Credit: AP 2006: Philip Seymour Hoffman Philip Seymour Hoffman accepts his Oscar for best actor for his role in "Capote" at the Academy Awards telecast in 2006. In the film Hoffman portrayed Truman Capote, a popular writer during the 1950s. Credit: AP Photo Supporting Actor George Clooney George Clooney, who won an Oscar for best supporting actor for his work in "Syriana," arrives at the Governor's Ball following the 78th Academy Awards Sunday, March 5, 2006, in Los Angeles. In the film Clooney portrayed CIA agent Bob Barnes, who falls in disgrace after an unsuccessful mission in the Middle East.

Credit: AP Photo/Chris Carlson 2007: Forest Whitaker Forest Whitaker, Oscar-winner for his work in "The Last King of Scotland" arrives at the annual Vanity Fair Oscar party on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2007. Whitaker in the film portrayed brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, who was a rabid Scotland fan, during the 1970s. Credit: AP Photo/Danny Moloshok Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin Actor Alan Arkin accepts the Oscar for best supporting actor for his work in "Little Miss Sunshine" at the 79th Academy Awards, Sunday, Feb. 25, 2007, in Hollywood. In the film Arkin portrayed heroin-addicted grandpa Edwin Hoover who coaches his grandaugther for a beauty pageant. Credit: AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill 2008: Daniel Day-Lewis British actor Daniel Day-Lewis accepts the Oscar for best actor for his work in "There Will Be Blood" at the 80th Academy Awards Sunday, Feb. 24, 2008, in Los Angeles.

Day-Lewis won his Oscar for his role as Daniel Plainview, a charismatic and ruthless oil prospector. He also took home an Oscar in 1990 for his role in "My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown." Credit: AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem Spanish actor Javier Bardem accepts the Oscar for best supporting actor for his work in "No Country for Old Men" at the 80th Academy Awards Sunday, Feb. 24, 2008, in Los Angeles. In the film he portrayed psychopathic serial killer Anton Chigurh. Credit: AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill 2009: Sean Penn Sean Penn accepts the Oscar for best actor for his work in "Milk" during the 81st Academy Awards Sunday, Feb. 22, 2009, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. Penn took home his second Oscar of the decade for his role as Harvey Milk, a gay rights activist and California's first openly gay elected official. Credit: AP Supporting Actor Heath Ledger Actor Heath Ledger, seen here as the Joker, passed away before his film "The Dark Knight" hit theaters.

During the Academy Award's 2009 telecast Ledger became only the second person in the Academy Awards history to win an Oscar posthumously. His parents and sister were at the ceremony to accept his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor just a year after his death. Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures Jim Broadbent - Biography - IMDb Jim Broadbent Jump to: Overview (3) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (1) | Trivia (31) | Personal Quotes (3) Overview (3) 6' 2" (1.88 m) Mini Bio (1) One of England's most versatile character actors, Jim Broadbent was born on May 24, 1949, in Lincolnshire, the youngest son of furniture maker Roy Laverick Broadbent and sculptress Doreen "Dee" (Findlay) Broadbent. Jim attended a Quaker boarding school in Reading before successfully applying for a place at an art school. His heart was in acting, though, and he would later transfer to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).

Following his 1972 graduation, he began his professional career on the stage, performing with the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and as part of the National Theatre of Brent, a two-man troupe which he co-founded. In addition to his theatrical work, Broadbent did steady work on television, working for such directors as Mike Newell and Stephen Frears . Broadbent made his film debut in 1978 with a small part in Jerzy Skolimowski 's The Shout (1978). He went on to work with Frears again in The Hit (1984) and with Terry Gilliam in Time Bandits (1981) and Brazil (1985), but it was through his collaboration with Mike Leigh that Broadbent first became known to an international film audience. In 1990 he starred in Leigh's Life Is Sweet (1990), a domestic comedy that cast him as a good-natured cook who dreams of running his own business.

Broadbent gained further visibility the following year with substantial roles in Neil Jordan 's The Crying Game (1992) and Mike Newell 's Enchanted April (1991), and he could subsequently be seen in such diverse fare as Woody Allen 's Bullets Over Broadway (1994), Widows' Peak (1994), Richard Loncraine 's highly acclaimed adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard III (1995) and Little Voice (1998), the last of which cast him as a seedy nightclub owner. Appearing primarily as a character actor in these films, Broadbent took center stage for Leigh's Topsy-Turvy (1999), imbuing the mercurial W.S. Gilbert with emotional complexity and comic poignancy. Jim's breakthrough year was 2001, as he starred in three critically and commercially successful films. Many would consider him the definitive supporting actor of that year. First he starred as Bridget's dad (Colin Jones) in Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), which propelled Renée Zellweger to an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

Next came the multiple Oscar-nominated film (including Best Picture) Moulin Rouge! (2001), for which he won a Best Supporting Actor BAFTA award for his scene-stealing performance as Harold Zidler. Lastly, came the small biopic Iris (2001), for which he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor as devoted husband John Bayley to Judi Dench 's Iris Murdoch, the British novelist who suffered from Alzheimer's disease. The film hit home with Jim, since his own mother had passed away from Alzheimer's in 1995. - IMDb Mini Biography By: TrendEkiD@aol.com Spouse (1) Trivia (31) Graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in 1972. He is the son of Roy Broadbent, who was involved in converting a Methodist Church into a theater. It was later renamed the Broadbent Theater after his death in 1971. Honorary President of the Lindsey Rural Players. Voice of Vroomfondel in the BBC radio series version of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".

Shortly after winning his Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in Iris (2001), he was interviewed by Joan Rivers , who apparently didn't even know what nationality he was. On live TV, Rivers said, "Here we have Jim Broadbent, all the way from Australia. You're Australian aren't you?" But there were to be no tantrums from the star - the mild-mannered actor replied, "No, I'm British." At The Orange British Academy Film Awards on Monday January 28th 2002, he was nominated for the best Performance by an Actor in a leading role Award for his role in the film Iris. His mother, who died in 1995, suffered from Alzheimer's Disease. Nominated for a 2004 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for Winnie-the-Pooh. In 2001, appeared in Moulin Rouge! (2001) with Nicole Kidman , Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) with Renée Zellweger and Iris (2001) with Judi Dench . All three of these women were nominated for Best Actress for their roles.

Is the only Oscar-winning actor in the Superman films who has only won a single Oscar. Marlon Brando won for On the Waterfront and The Godfather; Gene Hackman for The French Connection and Unforgiven; and Kevin Spacey for The Usual Suspects and American Beauty. Broadbent only won for Iris. Was offered the part of Del Boy in BBC's Sitcom "Only Fools and Horses", but declined the role. But he did guest-star in three episodes of the show. He declined the O.B.E. (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) for his services to drama in 2002. Plays former President Richard Nixon in Dirty Tricks (2000). Nixon was previously played by Anthony Hopkins in Nixon (1995). Hopkins also appeared in Shadowlands (1993) as C.S. Lewis , author of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), in which Broadbent appeared.

He won an Oscar for playing John Bayley in Iris (2001), making him one of 17 actors to win the Award for playing a real person who was still alive at the evening of the Award ceremony (as of 2015). The other sixteen actors and their respective performances are: Spencer Tracy for playing Father Edward Flanagan in Boys Town (1938), Gary Cooper for playing Alvin C.

York in Sergeant York (1941), Patty Duke for playing Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker (1962), Jason Robards for playing Ben Bradlee in All the President's Men (1976), Robert De Niro for playing Jake La Motta in Raging Bull (1980), Sissy Spacek for playing Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980)_, Jeremy Irons for playing Claus Von Bullow in Reversal of Fortune (1990), Susan Sarandon for playing Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking (1995), Geoffrey Rush for playing David Helfgott in Shine (1996), Julia Roberts for playing Erin Brockovich in Erin Brockovich (2000), Helen Mirren for playing Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006), Sandra Bullock for playing Leigh Anne Tuohy in The Blind Side (2009), Melissa Leo for playing Alice Eklund-Ward in The Fighter (2010), Christian Bale for playing Dickie Eklund in The Fighter (2010), Meryl Streep for playing Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady (2011) and

 Eddie Redmayne for playing Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything (2014).

Considered for the role of Wilbur Turnblad in Hairspray (2007). Has played the husband of Iris Murdoch and Margaret Thatcher . Two notable figures who - as portrayed in each film - eventually succumbed to Alzheimer's disease. One of two actors to star in both a Harry Potter and Superman film, along with Richard Griffiths. Considered for the roles of Roger Derebridge, Lamson, Kelly and Brash Guard in Lifeforce (1985). Appears in The Go-Between (1971) and also the TV remake of The Go-Between (2015). In the latter he plays the lead role while in the first he has a small uncredited part. As of 2016, he has appeared in four films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: The Crying Game (1992), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Gangs of New York (2002) and Brooklyn (2015). Child evacuees features as a major theme in two of his family films.

In The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) he portrays a host to children leaving London during the Second World War. He later portrayed a former child evacuee in Paddington (2014). Regularly works with Mike Leigh . It took him two-and-a-half hours every day to be fitted into his fat suit for Moulin Rouge! (2001). His father, Roy, came from a wealthy family and used his inheritance to found a commune for conscientious objectors in Lincolnshire. Has portrayed Santa Claus in two different films; Arthur Christmas (2011) and Get Santa (2014). His twin sister died at birth. In the "Like a Virgin" number from Moulin Rouge! (2001), his voice is dubbed by an opera singer, mimicking Broadbent's own vocal performance. The floor was rubbed in with Coca Cola so Broadbent and the dancers wouldn't slip. The segment to took a week to film. Jim Broadbent - Actor - Biography.com Jim Broadbent Jim Broadbent is an Academy Award-winning British actor known for his work with Mike Leigh, Woody Allen and Terry Gilliam.

His film credits include Topsy-Turvy, Iris and Moulin Rouge!. IN THESE GROUPS Famous British Actors Synopsis Jim Broadbent was born on May 24, 1949, in Lincolnshire, England. After attending the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Broadbent launched a stage career, performing with British directors such as Trevor Nunn and Mike Leigh. He also delivered notable performances in film, including parts in Terry Gilliam's Brazil, Bullets Over Broadway and Topsy-Turvy. Broadbent won an Academy Award for best supporting actor for his performance in Iris, released in 2001. That same year, he played Harold Zidler, owner of the Moulin Rouge theater, in the musical Moulin Rouge!. Early Career Born on May 24, 1949, in Lincolnshire, England, Broadbent attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in London before launching a distinguished stage career in the 1970s, performing.

He performed with several acclaimed British directors, including Trevor Nunn, Richard Eyre and Mike Leigh, whose long and fruitful professional association with Broadbent began with the plays Ecstasy (1979) and Goosepimples (1981). Broadbent made his feature film debut in 1978 with a small role in the British film The Shout. He worked steadily on stage and on television, appearing in the 1977 science-fiction TV miniseries Illuminatus, Leigh's 1982 television feature Birth of a Nation, and a 1985 BBC adaptation of Silas Marner. He also had small roles in two films by the eccentric but acclaimed director Terry Gilliam, Time Bandits (1981) and Brazil (1985). In 1986, Broadbent landed his biggest film role to that date, receiving second billing to Anthony Hopkins in Mike Newell's feature directorial debut, The Good Father (1987).

Career Highlights While Broadbent's first American film, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) was a somewhat inauspicious beginning, he continued to do high quality work in his native England. His first leading role in a film came in Mike Leigh's Life is Sweet (1990), a comedy about an offbeat family that won three awards from the National Society of Film Critics (U.S), including Best Film. In Newell's well reviewed Enchanted April (1992), Broadbent appeared alongside Miranda Richardson and Joan Plowright, among others, and in the highly controversial The Crying Game (1992), he played a kindly bartender. In 1994, Broadbent appeared as a highly successful stage actor with a tendency to overeat in Woody Allen's acclaimed comedy Bullets Over Broadway, also starring John Cusack and Dianne Wiest.

His talent for fine supporting and character roles was honed over the next several years, as he appeared in such films as Richard III (1995), also starring Ian McKellen; Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997); and most notably Little Voice (1998), also starring Michael Caine, for which he earned rave reviews for his performance as a nightclub owner. In Topsy-Turvy, Mike Leigh's 1999 film about the legendary composers Gilbert & Sullivan, Broadbent turned in what many said was his finest performance, playing the blustery, ambitious William Gilbert. He won widespread acclaim for his performance in the film, including a London Film Critics' Circle Award for best British actor, and a British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award for best actor. Later Work Broadbent was everywhere on film in 2001, it seemed, as he had featured roles in three of the year's most impressive films. In the outlandish musical romance Moulin Rouge, starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor and directed by Baz Luhrmann, Broadbent played Zidler, the scheming owner of the cabaret of the film's title, with scene-stealing bravado.

The role earned him BAFTA honors for Best Supporting Actor. In Bridget Jones' Diary, Broadbent toned down the flamboyance of the former role to play the dowdy father of the title character, played by Renee Zellweger. Broadbent's most notable role, however, was as John Bailey, the writer and devoted husband of novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch (played by Judi Dench) in Iris, Richard Eyre's 2001 film based on Bayley's memoir, Elegy for Iris. Broadbent's portrayal of the long-suffering Bayley, who adores his wife's brilliant mind and struggles with her through the ravaging force of her Alzheimer's disease, earned him long-awaited recognition, including a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for best supporting actor. In 2002, Broadbent appeared in Martin Scorsese's period epic Gangs of New York, playing the notorious 19th century New York politician Boss Tweed. Broadbent is married to artist Anastasia Lewis. Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

Citation Information Jim Broadbent: A Life in Pictures | BAFTA Home Film Film Features Jim Broadbent: A Life in Pictures Jim Broadbent: A Life in Pictures Share 4 December 2013 Jim Broadbent, whose filmography includes Topsy-Turvy, Gangs of New York, Moulin Rouge! and Iris, delivered an enchanting Life in Pictures interview with Boyd Hilton. This event was sponsored by Deutsche Bank. Listen to Jim Broadbent's A Life in Pictures: Download the transcript of the event here. Jim Broadbent A Life In Pictures Transcript 195 Piccadilly 4 December 2013 (200.3 KB) "Rather than babysitters we were often left back stage [...] it was terribly exciting" noted Jim Broadbent as the interview commenced with a discussion regarding his childhood involvement with theatre followed by memories of drama school, which, Broadbent noted was "the complete playground I'd been looking for". Moving from theatre and onto the screen, Broadbent discussed his early collaborations with director Mike Leigh. In particular, the television film A Sense of History catalysed Broadbent's career as he both wrote and starred in the short production.

"I was walking on my own talking to myself" noted Broadbent, "and came across this character. I thought 'oh, he's new, I'll keep him talking" and six months later the film was aired on Channel 4. Describing his BAFTA-nominated role in Topsy-Turvy , Broadbent was honest and reflective, suggesting that "it was not a role I would have chosen for myself [but] it was a really exciting job". From the meticulously researched characterisation of W. S. Gilbert to the extravagant flamboyance of Moulin Rouge!, Broadbent described the experience as "thrilling" and noted that when approached for the musical role he thought "whatever else, it was going to be utterly extraordinary". 2001 proved a prolific year for Broadbent, whose collaboration with Judi Dench in Iris earned him a BAFTA nomination, an Oscar and a Golden Globe. Broadbent nodded towards drawing on personal experience for the emotional role and described how hearing an interview with John Bayley really helped: "if the voice is there I find it useful, so useful, to hear the voice and get into character", he observed.

Discussing his experiences in comedies such as Hot Fuzz, and most recently, Le Week-end, the actor highlighted the importance of humour: "if you do get it right and it is true it will make people laugh.. that’s where comedy comes from". As the interview drew to a close, the audience enquired what draws Broadbent to the roles he takes on: "is it something I would like to go and see? Would I want to be in the audience?" Broadbent posed, "if not then it would probably be something I would pass on." Jim Broadbent's Career in Film To think 'Jim Broadbent' is to think 'versatility'. Whether bringing a comic ease as the quiet, loveable father in Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), a deep poignancy to When Did You Last See Your Father (2007), or his sensitive performance as Denis Thatcher in The Iron Lady (2011), Broadbent's career has delved and dived across a stunning spectrum of medium, genre and character. As the son of amateur actors, Broadbent began on the stage before moving onto both the big and small screens where he has accumulated over 130 credits.

With central roles in TV movies Walter (1982), Birth of a Nation (1983) and Messiah (1984) – the latter which he co-wrote - Broadbent also featured in The Black Adder (1983) and Happy Families (1985). Broadbent's early film roles include appearing in Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits (1981) and Brazil (1985), as well as Mike Newell's The Good Father (1985) alongside Anthony Hopkins. But it wasn't until 1990 with Life Is Sweet that his film career really hit its stride. This working relationship with director Mike Leigh was to prove fruitful, resulting in films including Vera Drake (2004) and Another Year (2010). One of their most famous collaborations remains Topsy-Turvy (1999), where Broadbent’s charismatic performance as W.S. Gilbert resulted in his first BAFTA nomination in 2000 as one half of the Victorian theatrical duo Gilbert and Sullivan.

Broadbent's first BAFTA win came in 2002 for his portrayal of the flamboyant Harold Zidler in Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! (2001), where he memorably sang an unforgettable version of Madonna's Like a Virgin. It would prove to be a prolific year for Broadbent; his depiction of John Bayley in Iris (2001) alongside Judi Dench gave him a further BAFTA nomination, an Oscar and a Golden Globe Award. His continued work in television has also been met with critical acclaim. Broadbent received his second BAFTA in 2007 for his depiction of the eponymous Longford (2006) to accompany a further two nominations for television, most recently for his touching performance as Logan Mountstuart in Any Human Heart (2010). Broadbent's latest roles include playing a terrifying psychiatrist in Filth (2013), as well as the down to earth university professor in Roger Michell's Le Week-End (2013) bringing his natural comic wit to the film. Both of these performances emphasise Broadbent's ability to consistently surprise and delight audiences in equal measures throughout his career.

This BAFTA: A Life In Pictures Interview was generously sponsored by... Share Jim Broadbent - BIFA - The British Independent Film Awards Brooklyn Jim Broadbent One of England's most versatile character actors, Jim Broadbent was born on May 24, 1949, in Lincolnshire, the youngest son of furniture maker Roy Laverick Broadbent and sculptress Doreen "Dee" (Findlay) Broadbent. Jim attended a Quaker boarding school in Reading before successfully applying for a place at an art school. His heart was in acting, though, and he would later transfer to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). Following his 1972 graduation, he began his professional career on the stage, performing with the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and as part of the National Theatre of Brent, a two-man troupe which he co-founded. In addition to his theatrical work, Broadbent did steady work on television, working for such directors asMike Newell and Stephen Frears. Broadbent made his film debut in 1978 with a small part in Jerzy Skolimowski's The Shout (1978).

He went on to work with Frears again in The Hit(1984) and with Terry Gilliam in Time Bandits (1981) and Brazil (1985), but it was through his collaboration with Mike Leigh that Broadbent first became known to an international film audience. In 1990 he starred in Leigh's Life Is Sweet (1990), a domestic comedy that cast him as a good-natured cook who dreams of running his own business. Broadbent gained further visibility the following year with substantial roles in Neil Jordan'sThe Crying Game (1992) and Mike Newell's Screen Two: Enchanted April (1991), and he could subsequently be seen in such diverse fare as Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway(1994), Widows' Peak (1994), Richard Loncraine's highly acclaimed adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard III (1995) and Little Voice (1998), the last of which cast him as a seedy nightclub owner.

Appearing primarily as a character actor in these films, Broadbent took center stage for Leigh's Topsy-Turvy (1999), imbuing the mercurial W.S. Gilbert with emotional complexity and comic poignancy. Jim's breakthrough year was 2001, as he starred in three critically and commercially successful films. Many would consider him the definitive supporting actor of that year. First he starred as Bridget's dad (Colin Jones) inBridget Jones's Diary (2001), which propelled Renée Zellweger to an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Next came the multiple Oscar-nominated film (including Best Picture) Moulin Rouge! (2001), for which he won a Best Supporting Actor BAFTA award for his scene-stealing performance as Harold Zidler. Lastly, came the small biopic Iris (2001), for which he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor as devoted husband John Bayley to Judi Dench's Iris Murdoch, the British novelist who suffered from Alzheimer's disease. The film hit home with Jim, since his own mother had passed away from Alzheimer's in 1995.

In 2007, he received the BIFA Richard Harris award. He has also received BIFA nominations for 1999's Topsy-Turvy (Best Actor), 2007's And When Did You Last See Your Father? (Best Actor), 2009's The Damned United (Best Supporting Actor), 2010's Another Year (Best Actor) and 2013's Le Week-End (Best Actor). Jim Broadbent – MovieActors.com IRIS (Drama – R) Jim Broadbent won his Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of highly respected British writer, John Bayley, as he lovingly takes care of his beloved wife, Iris, as she falls victim to Alzheimer's disease. Based on John Bayley's two books: Iris, Iris & The Friends. About Jim Broadbent (1949 – ) Jim Broadbent was born on May 24th, 1949, in Lincolnshire, England. His father, Roy Broadbent, was a furniture maker and his mother, Dee, was a sculptress.

In 1972, he graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. This talented actor performed in productions of Royal National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as finding steady gigs in British television. In 1978, Jim Broadbent started his film career in "The Shout." The film that got him international attention was Mike Leigh's comedy, "Life is Sweet." This supporting character actor's film career started to roll with such films as "The Crying Game" and "Bullets Over Broadway." In 2001, Broadbent was in three well-reviewed films: "Bridget Jones's Diary"," Moulin Rouge " and "Iris." Jim Broadbent's other notable movie credits include... THE PASSAGE (1979) THE DOGS OF WAR (1980) BREAKING GLASS (1980)

Question: For which film did British actor Jim Broadbent win the 'Oscar' as Best Supporting Actor in 2001?
Answer: 'IRIS'