11 actors who won Oscars for playing historical figures: from Julia Roberts’ Erin Brockovich to Jamie Foxx’s Ray Charles and Meryl Streep’s Margaret Thatcher
- Barbra Streisand claimed a career-defining Academy Award back in 1969 for playing Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, while Rami Malek’s Freddie Mercury earned a trophy for Bohemian Rhapsody
- Away from the big screen, Olivia Colman and Gillian Anderson have both bagged Emmys for their roles as Queen Elizabeth and Thatcher in Netflix’s The Crown
No role can make or break an actor’s career quite like playing a real-life figure.
Don’t believe us? From Julia Roberts’ Erin Brockovich to Jamie Foxx’s Ray Charles and Meryl Streep’s Margaret Thatcher, here’s 11 Oscar-winning screen turns from the last five decades that more than did their famous subjects justice – plus a couple recent of bonus mentions from a certain series called The Crown …
Barbra Streisand for playing Fanny Brice in Funny Girl
In the musical Funny Girl, Streisand played Fanny Brice, a vaudeville actress who became a famous Broadway star. Brice was known for her acting, singing and comedy – all of which Streisand brought to the biopic.
“Since Fanny herself cannot be brought back, the next best thing is to get Barbra Streisand to sing and strut and go through comic routines à la Brice,” The New York Times wrote. “Miss Streisand is well on her way to becoming a splendid entertainer in her own right, and in Funny Girl she goes as far as any performer can toward recalling the laughter and joy that were Fanny Brice.”
Ben Kingsley for playing Mahatma Gandhi in Gandhi
In case you didn’t learn this at school, then Mahatma Gandhi was an activist who fought for civil rights, India’s independence and religious freedom by practising non-violent protests. In the 1982 movie, Kingsley portrayed the activist during his work in South Africa and up until his famous hunger strike.
Julia Roberts for the title role in Erin Brockovich