By Zach Seemayer
11:30 PM PDT, July 7, 2014
Winning an Oscar isn't easy, and dating in Hollywood isn't easy either. So, when two Oscar winners get together, it's something special.
Sometimes their mutual pool of talent works, and they become one of Hollywood's fabled success stories. Sometimes their fame and ambition drive them apart. However you cut it, it's fascinating to see that much talent walk down a red carpet hand-in-hand.
To celebrate both love and acclaim, here are eight Oscar-winning Hollywood couples.
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Talented Pairs
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Winning an Oscar isn't easy, and dating in Hollywood isn't easy either. So, when two Oscar winners get together, it's something special.
Sometimes their mutual pool of talent works, and they become one of Hollywood's fabled success stories. Sometimes their fame and ambition drive them apart. However you cut it, it's fascinating to see that much talent walk down a red carpet hand-in-hand.
To celebrate both love and acclaim, here are eight Oscar-winning Hollywood couples.
Sometimes their mutual pool of talent works, and they become one of Hollywood's fabled success stories. Sometimes their fame and ambition drive them apart. However you cut it, it's fascinating to see that much talent walk down a red carpet hand-in-hand.
To celebrate both love and acclaim, here are eight Oscar-winning Hollywood couples.
Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones
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Married since 2000, Douglas and Zeta-Jones have had their public ups and downs, but no one can deny their acting chops. Douglas has won two Oscars, first for the 1976 film One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest – which he produced but didn't star in –, and then for Wall Street in 1988. Zeta-Jones won for Chicago in 2003.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt (and Billy Bob Thornton)
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Currently engaged, Jolie and Pitt might be THE power couple in Hollywood. Both are A-listers of the highest caliber and both have won Oscars. Jolie won in 2000 for her performance in Girl, Interrupted. Pitt has yet to win for acting, but he did produce the film 12 Years A Slave, which won Best Picture, an award that goes to him (and is technically shared with four other people.) Before Pitt, Jolie was married to Billy Bob Thornton from 2000 to 2003, and Thornton was an Oscar winner too. He snagged his in 1997 for his screenplay for Sling Blade. He was nominated for Best Actor for the film as well, but didn't win.
Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon
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Robbins and Sarandon were a legendary couple in the business. Never married, the two were together from 1988 to 2009, and have two children. The news of their breakup shocked Hollywood, but sometimes – no matter how talented you are – things don't work out. Robbins won an Oscar in 2004 for his performance in Mystic River, while Sarandon won a Best Actress Oscar for Dead Man Walking in 1996.
Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes
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In another story of a couple that unfortunately couldn't make it last, director Sam Mendes and his ex-wife Kate Winslet both have golden statues of naked, sword-wielding men on their mantles. Mendes won in 2000 for directing American Beauty while Kate Winslet won in 2009 for The Reader.
Frances McDormand and Joel Coen
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Actress Frances McDormand is a staple of Coen Bros. films, and it's not just because she's married to Joel Coen. She's appeared in five of their films, including Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Fargo, The Man Who Wasn't There and Burn After Reading. They've been married since 1984 – the year Blood Simple was released. They also adopted a son from Paraguay in 1994. McDormand won an Oscar for Fargo in 1997, the same year Coen won two Oscars for Fargo, one for directing and one for screenplay that he shared with his brother Ethan. Then, in 2008, he won three more Oscars, for directing, writing and producing No Country For Old Men.
James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow
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Cameron has been married five times. Currently, he's married to former actress Suzy Amis, but from 1989 to 1991, he was married to Zero Dark Thirty director Kathryn Bigelow. In 2010, both Cameron and Bigelow were nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards – Bigelow for The Hurt Locker and Cameron for Avatar. Bigelow won, making her the first female director to ever get the Oscar. That year, The Hurt Locker also won Best Picture, securing her a second Oscar as its producer. Cameron, however, has directed the two highest-grossing films in history – Titanic and Avatar - and has won three Oscars, for directing, producing and editing Titanic.
Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz
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Famously private about their relationship, Cruz and Bardem have been dating since 2007 when they met while shooting Vicky Cristina Barcelona. The two got married in 2010 and have two kids together. They are two of the most successful Spanish actors working in America, and have both been honored by the Academy. Bardem nabbed his Oscar for his astounding turn as the serial killer Anton Chigurh in No Country For Old Men in 2008, and Cruz won the next year for her performance in Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
Honorable Mentions
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Warren Beatty and Annette Bening: Beatty and Bening have been married since 1992. While Beatty won for Best Director in 1982 for Reds, Bening has been nominated four times but has yet to take home an award. So close!
Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise: Kidman and Cruise were married from 1990 to 2001. Kidman won in 2003 for The Hours, but Cruise – despite three nominations and being one of the biggest movie stars of the last two decades – has yet to have his name read off an Academy envelope.
Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise: Kidman and Cruise were married from 1990 to 2001. Kidman won in 2003 for The Hours, but Cruise – despite three nominations and being one of the biggest movie stars of the last two decades – has yet to have his name read off an Academy envelope.