Father’s Day: 17 best Oscar-winning dad performances, ranked

17. LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL (1998)

Director: Roberto Benigni.  Writers:  Roberto Benigni, Vincenzo Cerami.  Starring Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giorgio Cantarini. 

Roberto Benigni won an Academy Award for Best Actor (plus accepted for Best Foreign Language Film) for his Holocaust-themed film in which he plays Guido, a Jewish bookstore owner, who is taken away to a Nazi concentration camp along with his young son Giosuè (Giorgio Cantarini).  In order to keep his son’s mind occupied while they are prisoners, Guido builds the tasks forced upon them into a game, giving Giosuè a final loving gift from his father.

16. A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN (1945)

Director: Elia Kazan.  Writers: Tess Slesinger, Frank Davis.  Starring Dorothy McGuire, James Dunn, Joan Blondell, Peggy Ann Garner.

In the great director Elia Kazan’s first film, James Dunn plays Johnny, the happy-go-lucky patriarch of an Irish-American family who, though idolized by his two children, has little interest in finding meaningful work, which results in a descent into alcoholism, much to the frustration of his hard-working wife Katie (Dorothy McGuire).  For his performance as Johnny, Dunn won the Oscar as the year’s Best Supporting Actor.

15. AFFLICTION (1998)

Writer/Director: Paul Schrader.  Starring Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek, James Coburn, Willem Dafoe. 

James Coburn, a long-time and very respected character actor, had worked with just about everyone of a certain age in Hollywood, so when he earned the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in Paul Schrader’s “Affliction,” there was much jubilation within the industry.  As usual, Coburn played a ne’er-do-well, this time as Glen, the father of small-town policeman Wade (Nick Nolte), who has issues with Glen, a drunk who beat Wade and his brother as kids, hoping to turn them into “real men.”

14. THE BIG COUNTRY (1958)

Director: William Wyler.  Writers: James R. Webb, Sy Bartlett, Robert Wilder.  Starring Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Charlton Heston, Carroll Baker, Burl Ives, Chuck Connors. 

William Wyler’s Western featured an Oscar-winning performance by singer Burl Ives, who, cast against type as ruthless rancher Rufus Hannassey, is determined to snag water rights from a rival rancher yet must deal with his bully of a son (Chuck Connors) who turns out to be a sniveling coward.  Audiences were intrigued as to how that nice Burl Ives who could be so mean, and Oscar voters were impressed as well.

13. LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (2006)

Directors: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris.  Writer: Michael Arndt.  Starring Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Abigail Breslin, Alan Arkin.

On his third Oscar nomination, Alan Arkin finally won the coveted statue as Edwin Hoover, an irascible misanthrope and the father of Richard (Greg Kinnear), whose daughter Olive (Oscar nominee Abigail Breslin) is an aspiring beauty queen, whom Edwin has decided to coach for her latest pageant.  Edwin has also been evicted from his nursing home for snorting heroin.  In Arkin’s hands, Edwin might not be a supportive father, but he’s an ideal grandfather.  Except for the heroin.

12. THE SUBJECT WAS ROSES (1968)

Director: Ulu Grosbard.  Writer: Frank D. Gilroy, based on his play.  Starring Patricia Neal, Jack Albertson, Martin Sheen.

Albertson reprised his Tony-winning role as John Cleary, a salesman who is having marital problems with his wife Nettie (Patricia Neal) when their son Timmy (Martin Sheen) returns home after World War II.  While he was once closer with his mother, Timmy finds himself being drawn to his father while still not wanting to come between them.  For his performance as John, Albertson won the Academy Award as the year’s Best Supporting Actor.

11. THE CHAMP (1931)

Director: King Vidor.  Writers: Frances Marion, Leonard Praskins.  Starring Wallace Beery,  Jackie Cooper, Irene Rich.

Wallace Beery shared the Best Actor prize with Fredric March (for “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”) for his role as Champ, a former heavyweight champion whose life is on the downside but who still wants to provide for his 8 year-old son Dink (Jackie Cooper).  Champ, however, realizes that he will not be able to properly provide for Dink, and so he makes the sacrifice to give Dink over to his real mother Linda (Irene Rich).  Dink, however, wants to stay with his father, and when Champ’s life is in danger, Dink utters the classic line, “I want the Champ!”

10. BEGINNERS (2010)

Writer/Director: Mike Mills.  Starring Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent. 

To this date, Christopher Plummer is still the oldest acting Oscar winner for his performance in Mike Mills’ semi-autobiographical film.  Plummer plays Hal, a widower who has an evolving relationship with his son Oliver (Ewan McGregor), who is stunned when, after decades of marriage with Oliver’s mother, Hal realizes that he is gay and must start to realize a completely new life.  Hal’s coming out which, after a period of processing the news, finds Oliver growing closer to his father.  A very different but very real father/son story.

9. THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946)

Director: William Wyler.  Writer: Robert E. Sherwood.  Starring Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Harold Russell. 

Fredric March earned his second Academy Award as Best Actor for his role as World War II veteran Al Stephenson, who struggles to keep a job after returning from the war.  He warns his adult daughter Peggy (Teresa Wright) not to romantically see his war colleague Fred (Dana Andrews).  What March does here is remarkable, trying to balance his own post-war experiences with how society has changed since his deployment.

8. MANCHESTER BY THE SEA (2016)

Writer/Director: Kenneth Lonergan, from a story by Matt Damon and John Krasinski.  Starring Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Lucas Hedges, Kyle Chandler. 

In his Oscar-winning role, Casey Affleck plays Lee, a neglectful dad whose behavior has tragic results for his family.  After moving away in shame, Lee returns to Manchester by the Sea when he is given the responsibility of being a father once again, this time caring for his late brother’s teenage son (Lucas Hedges).  Kenneth Lonergan’s script is about forgiveness and redemption — if you fail at being a dad the first time, sometimes life gives you another shot.

7. HUD (1963)

Director: Martin Ritt.  Writers: Irving Ravetch, Harriet Frank, Jr.  Starring Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Neal, Brandon deWilde.

Melvyn Douglas’ Homer Bannon is a highly-principled rancher, a trait that has somehow eluded his caddish son Hud (Paul Newman).  Though he loves his son very much, Homer realizes that he raised Hud in a way that made the young man selfish.  And when Hud returns home when the ranch is threatened, Homer realizes that there’s little he can now do to save his son’s soul.  For his performance as Homer, Douglas won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

6. THERE WILL BE BLOOD (2007)

Writer/Director: Paul Thomas Anderson.  Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Ciarán Hinds, Kevin J. O’Connor, Russell Harvard.

Now here’s a rotten father, brilliantly portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis in his Oscar-winning role.  As oil tycoon Daniel Plainview, Day-Lewis embodies the kind of father whose quest for oil superseded his parental responsibility.  He adopts one son (Russell Harvard) who becomes deaf while working on Daniel’s rig and falls for the scam of another man (Kevin J. O’Connor) who claims to be his son.  Father of the Year he definitely is not.

5. ON GOLDEN POND (1981)

Director: Mark Rydell.  Writer: Ernest Thompson, based on his play.  Starring Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn, Jane Fonda, Doug McKeon. 

Henry Fonda won his first Oscar for his final film role as Norman Thayer, a brittle old man who is deeply loved by his wife Ethel (Oscar winner Katharine Hepburn) but who is estranged from his only daughter Chelsea (his real-life daughter Jane) who joins them in their family vacation home.  Slowly, as truths are spoken, Norman’s emotional wall begins to crumble, and his fatherly instincts take over so that the Thayers can be a family again.

4. THE GODFATHER (1972)

Director: Francis Ford Coppola.  Writers: Francis Ford Coppola, Mario Puzo, from Puzo’s novel.  Starring Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, John Cazale, Talia Shire.

When most people think of “The Godfather,” they wouldn’t label it a family drama, but of course it truly is all about famiglia.  And that family wouldn’t be what it is without Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando, in his Oscar-winning performance) who, even as he was orchestrating the wedding reception of his daughter Connie (Talia Shire), he was conducting business behind closed doors with his sons (Al Pacino, James Caan, John Cazale).  Now that’s famiglia!

3. THE FATHER (2020)

Hopkins has racked up Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for his haunting portrayal of Anthony, a man grappling with dementia, and the effect the disease has on his relationship with his daughter Anne (Olivia Colman). Shown from Anthony’s perception of a world gone topsy-turvy, and his resulting mental anguish, “The Father” shows dementia in a way never before put on film. The critically acclaimed film received six Oscar nominations; in addition to Hopkins for Best Actor, Colman received a Supporting Actress nod and the film received a Best Picture bid.

2. KRAMER VS. KRAMER (1979)

Writer/Director: Robert Benton.  Starring Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Justin Henry, Jane Alexander. 

Dustin Hoffman won his first Academy Award as Ted Kramer, a workaholic whose world is turned upside down when his wife Joanna (Oscar winner Meryl Streep), tired of his focus only on his job, tells him she’s leaving him and that he must raise their young son (Justin Henry) on his own.  Suddenly Ted has to get to become acquainted with a son whom he barely knows, a connection that teaches Ted what it’s like to truly be a father.

1. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962)

Director: Robert Mulligan.  Writer: Horton Foote, based on the novel by Harper Lee.  Starring Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Philip Alford, Brock Peters, Robert Duvall.  

In one of the great Oscar-winning performances, Gregory Peck portrays small-town lawyer Atticus Finch, a widower who is raising two small children — Scout (Mary Badham) and Jem (Philip Alford).  When Atticus defends a black man charged with the rape of a white woman, Scout and Jem must endure the taunts of their racist classmates, so Atticus takes the time to teach them some very difficult life lessons about the nature of good and evil.