The Oscar is the greatest honor that an actor can achieve in Hollywood. However, that doesn’t always mean that one has established a well-known reputation. Fifty years ago, an actor could even compete against Al Pacino and Jack Nicholson, but that name is unlikely to be familiar to anyone.
Which actor is it about? In 1975, the Oscar ceremony was full of heavyweights, even in the category Best Actor
. The following candidates were there:
- Al Pacino for his role in The Godfather – Part 2
- Jack Nicholson for his role in Chinatown
- Albert Finney for his role in Murder on the Orient Express
- Dustin Hoffman for his role in Lenny
- Art Carney for his role in Harry and Tonto
When looking at the line-up today, it is probably surprising that Art Carney defeated cinema icons like Jack Nicholson and Al Pacino. Especially considering that The Godfather – Part 2 managed to grab 6 Oscars.
What is Harry and Tonto about? Art Carney plays the 72-year-old teacher Harry Coombes in the comedy, who has to move out of his apartment in New York. But since he doesn’t want to simply live with his son, he goes on a road trip with his cat Tonto to prove his independence. Along the way, he meets various people.
However, even though Art Carney managed to compete against these icons, hardly anyone knows him today, even though he made films for over 50 years – he also acted in a notoriously bad Star Wars
film.
You can see the trailer for Harry and Tonto here:
A career full of films
How did Art Carney’s career unfold? At 23, he began his career in 1941 with the film Pot o’ Gold, where he plays an unnamed band member. He then appeared in various series for many episodes:
- 76 episodes in The Morey Amsterdam Show (1948 to 1950)
- 96 episodes in The Jackie Gleason Show (1952 to 1957)
- 39 episodes in The Honeymooners (1955 to 1956)
In the Batman series and Twilight Zone, he had individual appearances. However, he actually had his first big breakthrough with the Oscar win for Harry and Tonto in 1974. He then starred in various films, the most famous probably being the Stephen King adaptation Firestarter (1984) and Last Action Hero (1993) with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Star Wars
fans even know him from The Star Wars Holiday Special. There he plays the trader Saun Dann, who operates on the planet Kashyyyk. However, the film is so notoriously bad that it can’t even be found on Disney Plus.
What are his best films? Looking at the ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, there are mainly 4 films:
- The Cat’s Meow from 1977 (95% from 40 critic reviews)
- Harry and Tonto from 1974 (88% from 32 critic reviews)
- The Muppets Take Manhattan (85% from 27 critic reviews)
His last film was then Last Action Hero in 1993. After that, he retired until he sadly passed away in 2003 at the age of 85.
How important is an Oscar for a career? Although an Oscar win at the moment of the award ceremony brings attention and is also a good marketing tool for trailers, some Oscar winners could not build on the prize as one might think.
One of the biggest examples is probably Adrien Brody. In 2002, he won the Oscar for his role in The Pianist, but his career did not take off. Although he had roles in good films, he also made many Direct to DVD
releases, which were usually of low quality.
In 2025, he received an Oscar for The Brutalist, so we must once again wait to see how Adrien Brody’s career develops now. Sometimes Oscar nominations can also be frustrating: The last 4 films of a director were nominated for the Oscar 26 times, but he did not win any of them
