Getting nominated for theAcademy Awardsis a nearly impossible task and getting two is that much more difficult at such a young age, so the few who did inevitably leave a mark on film history. While he was not the first to define youth culture in the 1950s, nobody rose quite so far and so fast asJames Dean, who became one of the few actors to receive two consecutive nominations inhis remarkably short movie careerduring that decade. Only this year has an actor in their twenties been nominated twice in the Best Actor category, andTimothée Chalamethas proven himself perhaps more worthy than any other performer today. Unlike Dean, who lived fast and died young,Chalamet is set to have a long future ahead of him, and he has not been confined to history just yet.
James Dean Earned Two Oscar Nods in Two Years
As popular as he was, one could argue that James Dean was also the classic case of an actor being in the right place at the right time. Even still,the speed with which his career rose is nothing short of astonishingand something we are unlikely to see again. When he first entered the scene in 1955, his first film,East of Eden,gained vast attention due to his lead performance as Cal. Expressing a vulnerability that would come to define him, the role enhanced his image as the rebellious teenager, one he very muchembodied during his personal lifeas well.
Within months, Dean shot two movies andnearly starred in one moreuntil he suddenly lost his life in a car crash, perhaps fittingly caused by reckless speeding. As the most famous of his three films,Rebel Without a Causepremiered only a few weeks after his death and would forever cement his image, despite never being an awards darling that year. Instead,East of Edencontinued to earn praise,and it landed Dean the first posthumous Academy Award nominationfor Best Actor in a Leading Role. At the time of his death, Dean was only 24 and the nominations were announced in February, just a few weeks after he would have turned 25.
It’s Been 64 Years Since This Oscar Was Awarded — It’s Time To Bring It Back
This category deserves to be recognized again.
Having finished filming a few weeks before his death, Dean also appeared the next year inGiantas Jett Rink, an unlikable cowboy who strikes it rich and later becomes an oil tycoon. Perhaps because of just how radically different it was,this role remains his least known today, but it also displayed his range and diversity. The role was impactful enough that, combined with a separate nod for costarRock Hudson, Dean earneda second posthumous Oscar nominationfor Best Actor, becoming the only actor to do it twice. Just three actors have been nominated after their deaths since then, and the fact that Dean would have just turned 26 at the time leaves one to wonder what else he could have achieved if given the opportunity.
At 29, Timothée Chalamet Is Only Just Getting Started
In the early half of the 2010s, Timothee Chalamet became fortunate enough to have a small role inInterstellarand had several others, but it was not until 2017 that he earned major attention. That year, he starred withSaoirse RonaninLady Bird, making the start of a longtime collaboration withGreta Gerwigas his director. This itself was an important milestone, but it was soon overtaken by his performance inCall Me By Your Nameas a young college student in a relationship with an older man. With his groundbreaking performance,Chalamet was nominated for Best Lead Actor at 22, surpassing Dean as the third-youngest nominee in history and the youngest sinceMickey Rooneyin 1940.
Since then,Chalamet has experienced a meteoric rise to fame, gaining praise from critics with his work as an addict inBeautiful Boythe following year. The casual audience also soon took notice, withDune: Part Onebringing him to international fame. His roles,many of them Oscar caliber, also displayed his incredible diversity as an actor. In the span of twelve months, he charmed viewers with song and dance as the titular candy maker inWonka, reprised his role as Paul Atredias inDune: Part Two, and finally shocked many as Bob Dylan inA Complete Unknownat the end of 2024.
Today,Chalamet has earned another Best Actor nomination for playing Bob Dylan,singing and all, in the biopic.Whether or not he will win is an open question, but it’s almost beside the point here, as the fact that he has been nominated twice at 29 is a massive achievement in itself. Chalamet may be a heartthrob like Dean was for his generation, but his career is already more expensive and is not frozen in time by tragedy. Hopefully, he’ll have a chance to do what Dean never could and reach his full potential, one that might even rival the great classic actors like James Dean himself.
A Complete Unknown
