5 youngest celebs to be nominated for an Oscar
The Oscar award is one of the most prestigious and well-known awards in the film industry. It is an annual ceremony organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to recognize excellence in cinematic achievements.
The very first Academy Awards were handed out in 1929, and since then, the ceremony has become one of the most high-profile events in the entertainment industry. The 95th Academy Awards will be presented on March 12, 2023, in a ceremony held at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles.
The ceremony will honor films released in 2022, and will be broadcast on US television by ABC.
The Oscars have a history of highlighting young talent. This year, 27-year-old Paul Mescal, nominated for Aftersun, has a chance of becoming the youngest actor to win the award for Best Actor, beating Adrien Brody's record if he does win the title.
On that note, check out this list of the youngest celebs ever to be nominated for the award.
Tatum O' Neal to Jackie Cooper: 5 youngest nominees in the history of the Oscars
1) Justin Henry
The distinction of the youngest actor ever to be nominated in any Oscar category belongs to Justin Henry. He has held on to this distinction for over four decades now.
At the 52nd Academy Awards, Justin Henry was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Billy Kramer opposite legendary actors Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep in Robert Benton's Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), which also won the award for Best Picture that year. He was only 8 years and 276 days old at the time of his nomination.
Little Justin Henry was up against Mickey Rooney (The Black Stallion), Robert Duvall (Apocalypse Now), Frederic Forrest (The Rose), and Melvyn Douglas (Being There). Douglas was ultimately crowned winner in the category.
2) Quvenzhané Wallis
Quvenzhané Wallis is the youngest actress to ever be nominated for an Oscar and the youngest Best Actress nominee in history. Quvenzhané Wallis' critically-acclaimed performance as six-year-old Hushpuppy in Benh Zeitlin's Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) led to her nomination for Best Actress at the age of 9 years, 135 days.
Quvenzhané Wallis was up against Emmanuelle Riva (Amour), the oldest actress to ever be nominated in the Best Actress category, Naomi Watts (The Impossible), Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty), and the ultimate winner, Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook).
3) Jackie Cooper
Jackie Cooper is the youngest person ever nominated in the Best Actor category. He was nominated for the Oscar award for Best Actor for his role in Norman Taurog's 1931 comedy Skippy as the eponymous scrappy boy based on Percy Crosby's popular comic strip and novel of the same name. He was only 9 years, 20 days old at the time of his nomination.
Other nominees that year included Fredric March (The Royal Family of Broadway), Richard Dix (Cimarron), Adolphe Menjoy (The Front Page), and Lionel Barrymore, who ultimately won the prize for A Free Soul.
4) Tatum O'Neal
Tatum O'Neal is the youngest competitive winner in the history of the Academy Awards. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her powerful performance as Addie Loggins in Peter Bogdanovich's 1973 black-and-white comedy Paper Moon.
She was only 10 years and 106 days old when she won the award.
To become the youngest competitive Oscar winner in history, she beat out Linda Blair (The Exorcist), Candy Clark (American Graffiti), Sylvia Sidney (Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams), and her Paper Moon co-star Madeline Kahn.
5) Mary Badham
Mary Badham held onto the record for the youngest actress ever nominated in an Oscar category for over a decade, until she was beaten by none other than Tatum O'Neal. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her depiction of the character Jean Louise “Scout” Finch in Robert Mulligan’s 1962 film adaptation of Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird.
Mary Badham was only 10 years and 141 days old when she competed against Thelma Ritter (Birdman of Alcatraz), Shirley Knight (Sweet Bird of Youth), Angela Lansbury (The Manchurian Candidate), and the ultimate winner, Patty Duke (The Miracle Worker).
Iconic comedian and late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel will be hosting the Oscars for the third time this year. Prior to this, Kimmel hosted the 89th Oscars in 2017, and the 90th Oscars in 2018.
Don't forget to watch the highly anticipated 95th Academy Awards 2023 on ABC on Sunday, March 12, 2023, at 8 pm ET.
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Upasya Bhowal