[Editor’s note: For this article, The Hollywood Reporter only looked at the shortest and longest screen times in the lead acting categories. Best supporting actor and actress were not included.]
longest screen time
Vivien Leigh, Gone with the wind (1939)
movie length 3 hours 58 minutes
screen time 2 hours and 23 minutes
Run time percentage 60%
Vivien Leigh holds the record for the longest acting performance to win an Oscar, despite the work taking a deep toll on her body and spirit. The film itself is also the longest-running film to win Best Picture. Victor Fleming at the 12th Annual Academy Awards Gone with the wind Hattie McDaniel also won Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first African American to win an Oscar. Leigh was nominated alongside Bette Davis (dark victory), Irene Dunn (love story), Greta Garbo (Ninotchka) and Greer Garson (Goodbye, Mr. Chips).
Charlton Heston, Benhao (1959)
movie length 3 hours and 32 minutes
screen time 2 hours and 1 minute
Run time percentage 57.1%
Charlton Heston starred in more than half of William Wyler’s religious epic, which also won awards for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Hugh Griffith) and Best Director. although Benhao Heston’s performance as Judah Ben-Hur has also been hailed as one of his best. He was nominated alongside Laurence Harvey (top floor room), Jack Lemmon (Some people like it hot)Paul Mooney (the last angry man) and James Stewart (Anatomy of a Murder).
barbra streisand, funny girl (1968)
movie length 2 hours and 35 minutes
screen time 2 hours and 1 minute
Run time percentage 78.1%
Wheeler’s film is based on Isabel Lennart’s book of the stage musical of the same name. Barbra Streisand, who played the iconic Fanny Brice on and off Broadway, was on screen for more than two hours in her film debut. She shared an Oscar with Katharine Hepburn lion in winter. (This was the only time the two tied for Best Actress.) Streisand and Hepburn beat out Patricia Neal (The theme is roses), Vanessa Redgrave (isadora) and Joanne Woodward (Rachel, Rachel).
Daniel Day-Lewis, There will be blood (2007)
movie length 2 hours and 38 minutes
screen time 1 hour 57 minutes
Run time percentage 74.1%
Paul Thomas Anderson’s There will be bloodOften considered one of the best films of the 21st century, Daniel Day-Lewis won his second of three Academy Awards (following the 1989 Oscar) my left foot and before 2012 Lincoln). and there will be BloodWith eight nominations in total, Day-Lewis was nominated alongside George Clooney (Michael Clayton), Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street), Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promise) and Tommy Lee Jones (in the valley of elah).
minimum screen time
Louise Fletcher, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
movie length 2 hours and 13 minutes
screen time 22 minutes
Run time percentage 16.5%
Some feel that Louise Fletcher’s Nurse Ratched should be relegated to a supporting role, even though she does play one of the most brutal movie villains on the big screen. The psychological drama, directed by Milos Forman and starring Jack Nicholson and Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd in supporting roles, won all five Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor or Actor), the first film since 1934 It happened one night to accomplish this feat.
Patricia Neal, heads up display (1963)
movie length 1 hour 48 minutes
screen time 21 minutes
Run time percentage 19.4%
Neal’s win marks the best actress with the shortest screen time. She won the award for playing the victimized housekeeper Alma Brown in Martin Ritter’s morality-themed Western. She was nominated for Best Actress along with Leslie Caron (L shaped room), Shirley MacLaine (Lovely Irma), Rachel Roberts (This sports life) and Natalie Wood (Fall in love with the right stranger). In 1968, Neal was again nominated for Best Actress for her performance The theme is roses.
Anthony Hopkins, silence of the lambs (1991)
movie length 1 hour 58 minutes
screen time 16 minutes
Run time percentage 13.5%
It was another win that some felt should have been in the supporting category, although Anthony Hopkins, who played Hannibal Lecter, earned extra time with his voice off-screen when he beat out Robert De Niro. (Koepfer), Robin Williams (Fisher King), Nick Nolte (prince of tides) and Warren Beatty (Bugsy) on Oscar night. Jonathan Demme’s film, which also took home all five major Oscars, including best actress for Jodie Foster, ran 56 minutes.
David Niven, separate table (1958)
movie length 1 hour 40 minutes
screen time 15 minutes
Run time percentage 15%
David Niven won his only Oscar for playing a war veteran who keeps a secret in this Delbert Mann drama set in an English coastal hotel. Co-star Wendy Hiller won Best Supporting Actress that year, and her screen time was less than 22 minutes. Niven is the only actor to win an Oscar in the same year as host of the Academy Awards. He collaborated with Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier (both rebel), Paul Newman (Cat on a hot tin roof) and Spencer Tracy (old man and sea).
This story appears in the November 20 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
