Wednesday, February 23, 2011

lct awards: the YOUNGEST and OLDEST records

Well as this year's LCT Awards near - the big show is taking place tomorrow night (if you're not familiar, please refer to any of the handful of people that come on an annual basis!), and in honor of it's presence, I thought I'd take a look at some history of the awards, which date back to 1984 (my questionable and ever-changing taste can be attributed to my aging from a young viewer to an adult one - so consequently, please be kind).  So let's see who landed in the youngest and oldest Top 20s of the LCT Award film acting nominees - and see where some of the 2010 folks landed in said lists...

Oldest film acting nominees Tandy, Guilbert, Tandy, and Duvall
Well the biggest thing to learn from taking a look at my choices amongst the oldest film acting nominees is that 2010 proved to be a successful year for octogenarians.  Only four people have been nominated into their eighties, and two of them happen to be among this year's group.  And there's a record that could be broken - though Jessica Tandy's nod for Fried Green Tomatoes outages Ann Guilbert's for Please Give by a few months, a win from Guilbert would break the all-time oldest winner record.  As far as the most difficult of the four categories to win if you're 55 and above?  It's surprising - Best Lead Actor.  It turns out not one AARP-card-carrying member has won in the category, the closest being Anthony Hopkins's win in 1991 for The Silence of the Lambs at age 54.


Youngest film acting nominees Lipnicki, Majorino, Whitman, and Breslin
Inversely on the other side of the spectrum, it proved that much like the 55-plus crowd, the under-30 crowd is mostly relegated to the supporting categories.  The easiest one to break into for youngsters appears to be Best Supporting Actress, which seems rather fitting.  In looking at the numbers, though, I found that it's far easier to win an LCT Award for acting if you're under 30 than if your over 55.  Go figure.  I guess I'm inadvertently ageist.  Tina Majorino ranks as the all-time youngest winner at 9 years old, with Haley Joel Osment as the youngest male winner at 11.  The only 2010 nominee to crack the top 20 is Kodi Smit-McPhee (Let Me In), who's 14 years old, at No. 18.


If you've made it this far - (a) thanks for humoring me, and (b) what are you favorite 55+ or pip-squeak performances since 1984?

4 comments:

Castor said...

Christian Bale in Empire of the Sun comes to mind as one of the underrated "pip-squeak" performances in the last 30 years.

Dan said...

Jessica Tandy was definitely like fine wine - she got better with age. Excellent actress, always a delight to see in films.

Andrew K. said...

Can I just say I absolutely LOVE how much effort you put into these awards.

TomS said...

This looks like fun!

Actress Over 55--Definitely Julie Christie in 2006, "Away From Her" (66 years old).
For Actor over 55--Richard Farnsworth in 1999, "The Straight Story" (79 years old).

(Special mentions to Vanessa Redgrave in "Atonement" and Hal Holbrook for "Into the Wild".)

"Pipsqueak" performers--I would agree with Saoirse Ronan ("Atonement") and Haley Joel Osment ("The Sixth Sense") with a very special mention to Freddie Highmore in 2004, for "Finding Neverland" (12 years old).