There are some stars who've showed up onscreen for just a handful of minutes, yet still managed
to snag acting's most prestigious prize.
Often, these are supporting actors who steal the spotlight in a few seconds, but at least
one leading man won his Best Actor award for barely any scenes at all.
Some popular films stand the test of time, while others fade into obscurity.
Sadly, Shampoo falls into the latter category.
This 1975 satire tells the story of a hairdresser, played by Warren Beatty, who's juggling multiple
women while trying to open his own salon.
The movie was a major hit at the time, raking in nearly $50 million at the box office.
It also impressed the members of the Academy, as it nabbed four Oscar nominations.
However, the only one to go home with the gold was Lee Grant, an actress who was on
screen for just around 18 minutes.
Grant won the Oscar for playing Felicia, a lonely housewife who's trying to keep her
adulterous husband's attention while conducting her own affair with Beatty.
Felicia is whiny, wealthy, well-dressed, and simultaneously lustful and lonely.
Even though she's only onscreen for about 17 percent of the film, it was enough to impress
the Academy.
This was Grant's third shot at Oscar gold, after getting nominations for Detective Story
and The Landlord, and she finally won the prize that night.
Sadly, despite her award-winning performance, it seems Shampoo has been scrubbed clean out
of the pop culture consciousness.
The Silence of the Lambs isn't your typical award-winning film, but it shattered all Oscar
expectations by becoming the first proper horror movie to win the Best Picture Oscar.
It was released in February 1991, and 13 months later, it somehow crushed all the more award-friendly
films released during Oscar season.
Most importantly, it's one of only three films that have won the big five Oscars: Best Picture,
Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress, and Best Actor.
Crazier still, that Best Actor award went to a man who was in the film for a mere 16
minutes… but every second he's onscreen is absolutely electric.
Anthony Hopkins beat the likes of Robert De Niro and Robin Williams to win the Oscar for
his turn as the sophisticated psychopath, Hannibal Lecter.
Years later, people still talk about his performance and quote some of his most iconic lines:
"I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti."
From the moment he appears on screen, Hopkins radiates pure evil.
While he rarely raises his voice, he commands every scene he's in, and with his unblinking
eyes and perfect posture, he totally unnerves audiences.
Sure, Hopkins only shows up for 14 percent of the film, but every death-rattling, bone-chilling
moment is worth its weight in Oscar gold.
"Yeah...that was good.
Pity about poor Katherine, though.
Tick tock tick tock tick tock."
After earning a Best Actress nomination for Rachel Getting Married, Anne Hathaway got
her second shot at Oscar gold with Les Miserables, an epic musical set in 19th-century France.
Hathaway shows up for a mere 15 minutes in a movie that runs nearly three hours long,
but while she only appears in nine percent of the film, she won the Oscar for Best Supporting
Actress.
Hathaway threw herself into the part completely, losing a shocking 25 pounds and cutting all
her hair off.
She even went so far as to study prostitution, and hearing the sad stories of modern-day
sex workers took a major toll.
Then there's the performance itself.
Whenever Hathaway opens her mouth, she's singing at the top of her lungs, and on top of hitting
all those crazy notes, she's also acting her heart out.
She's desperate and lost and trying to survive.
She's angry and hyperventilating and falling apart.
Once again, she's doing all of this while singing, and her rendition of "I Dreamed a
Dream" is absolutely devastating.
In short, she definitely deserved that award for breaking our hearts in just 15 short minutes.
In the '80s and early '90s, Kim Basinger found frequent work in films like Never Say Never
Again, The Natural, and Tim Burton's Batman.
But in 1995, she took a break from acting for a couple of years until director Curtis
Hanson tracked her down.
Hanson was adapting James Ellroy's neo-noir novel L.A. Confidential, and he thought Basinger
would be perfect for the part of Lynne Bracken, a hooker sex worker with a heart of gold who
also looks a lot like Hollywood legend Veronica Lake.
Originally, Basinger wasn't interested in the part, as she was sick of playing characters
defined by their sex appeal.
But Hanson convinced her to take the role, and Basinger made Lynne Bracken more than
just a blonde bombshell.
Even though Basinger is only in the film for 15 minutes, she makes the most of her limited
time, sharing intimate moments with Russell Crowe and telling off Guy Pearce with a powerful
monologue.
"I see Bud because he doesn't know how to disguise who he is.
I see Bud for all the ways he's different from you."
It was a standout performance that caught the attention of the Academy and earned the
star an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
During the 2000s, Woody Allen kept himself busy, directing at least one movie every single
year.
Almost all of those films have been completely forgotten by time.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona has pretty much suffered the same fate as the rest of Allen's films
from that era, but there is one little detail that's saved the movie from total obscurity:
it features an Oscar-winning performance from Penelope Cruz.
In fact, Cruz won a truckload of awards for her turn as María Elena, the fiery and suicidal
ex-wife of a womanizing artist.
She only shows up for 15 minutes, but she crushes it in every single one of her scenes.
Whether she's defiantly speaking Spanish, wildly trying to shoot Javier Bardem, or making
out with Scarlett Johansson, Cruz is the star of the show.
Even though she was up against some major competition from the likes of Amy Adams and
Viola Davis, it should come as no surprise that Penelope cruised to victory thanks to
those stunning moments.
Alan Arkin is one of those actors who should've won an Oscar long before he finally did.
The man was nominated twice, and he had plenty of other powerful performances in other films
as well.
Thankfully, Arkin got his well-deserved trophy at the 79th Academy Awards for his performance
in Little Miss Sunshine.
In a movie filled with amazing actors, Arkin stands out as the larger-than-life Edwin Hoover.
He's a dirty old man with a foul mouth, a fondness for drug use, and an incredibly grumpy
disposition.
But while Arkin earns plenty of laughs with colorful language, he also tugs on the old
heartstrings in scenes like the one when he tells his tearful granddaughter that she'll
never be a loser so long as she tries to accomplish her dreams.
"You know what a loser is?
A real loser is someone so afraid of not winning, they don't even try."
Even though he's only in the film for a scant 14 minutes, he proved he was definitely a
winner when he snagged that Oscar.
1976 was an incredible year for film and an even better one for supporting actors.
Network, Marathon Man, and Rocky all featured powerful supporting actor performances, but
when the votes were all tallied up, the little gold statuette actually went to Jason Robards
for his commanding turn in All the President's Men.
Compared to his competitors, Robards' performance as Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee is incredibly
understated.
He's a prickly perfectionist, an editor who drives his reporters hard and callously edits
their work.
But the man's heart is in the right place.
Sure, he's brash, but he just wants a solid story, reporting that'll withstand the scrutiny
of everybody from Joe Schmoe to the president of the United States.
"I can't do the reporting for my reporters which means I have to trust them.
And I hate trusting anybody."
Robards is only on screen for about 14 minutes, but that was more than enough to impress the
Academy.
They say good things come to those who wait, and that's especially true for Jack Palance.
The Hollywood veteran was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 1952 for his performance
as a murderous husband in Sudden Fear.
Sadly, Palance didn't win that year, but he got a second chance in 1953, earning another
nomination for his work as a black-clad gunslinger in Shane.
But once again, Palance was robbed of Oscar glory, and he would have to wait nearly 40
more years before getting that gold.
Palance would finally get his due thanks to his performance in City Slickers, a 1991 comedy
that follows three city dwellers who spend a vacation at a dude ranch.
During their quest to become cowboys, they meet a grizzled old ranch hand by the name
of Curly Washburn.
"Did you see that guy?
That's the toughest man I've ever seen in my life."
Palance is only on screen for around 12 minutes, but his tough-as-nails performance would nab
him that Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
"This man owes you an apology."
Judi Dench is perhaps the most British woman who's ever lived.
Everything about her just radiates nobility.
So it's no wonder that Dench won an Oscar for her performance as Queen Elizabeth I in
Shakespeare in Love.
Even though she's only onscreen for three scenes, it's a role she was born to play.
Whenever she stands, every knee bows.
She's commanding and demanding.
Her humor is biting, and her words cut to the bone.
"What do you love so much?"
"Your majesty…"
"Speak up girl, I know who I am."
But beneath that powdered, powerful exterior, there's a woman with a love for theater and
a sympathy for our star-crossed lovers, William Shakespeare and Viola.
Alternately hilarious and powerful, Dench only appears in only eight minutes of the
film, but she owns all of them.
A complicated royal and a deus ex machina rolled into one, Dench's Queen Elizabeth is
worthy of both allegiance and awards.
"I thought you were here because you had none."
In 1976, director Sidney Lumet created one of the darkest, most brilliant satires ever
put to film: Network.
The film holds up with incredible performances, but Beatrice Straight made Academy Award history
by winning Best Supporting Actress with just five minutes of screen time.
Straight plays Louise, the jilted wife of a TV executive.
When her husband confesses to having an affair with a younger woman, Louise gives a hell-and-brimstone
sermon that no preacher will ever match.
"I'm your wife dammit, and if you can't work up a Winter passion for me then the least
I require is respect and allegiance!"
Both embarrassed and filled with righteous anger, she lays into her husband hard, ripping
him apart for his philandering before breaking down and admitting how much he's hurting her.
And as icing on the acting cake, she ends the scene actually feeling sorry for her husband,
knowing that his new affair will just leave him feeling a lot of grief.
All in all, Straight only shows up in Network for five minutes and 40 seconds.
To this day, no one has beaten Straight's incredible record, and chances are good she'll
hold onto that honor for a long, long time.
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