Movies

First Time's a Charm: 10 Actors Who Won an Oscar For Their Debut

First Time's a Charm: 10 Actors Who Won an Oscar For Their Debut
Image credit: Legion-Media

The road to an Oscar may be long and hard, and some actors spend their entire careers without ever coming close to the coveted golden statuette.

Every once in a while, however, an actor comes along with such undeniable talent that the academy has no choice but to recognize their performance right away.

And while it's a rare occurrence, the Oscars have seen examples of actors winning an award for their big screen debut, something that 99% of other actors can only dream of.

Here are 10 actors who won Oscars for their big screen debuts:

Although this list includes a number of iconic stars who used their early Oscar wins perfectly to launch long and successful careers, some of the performers mentioned above failed to use their wins in any meaningful way, with Haing S. Ngor being the prime example.

It seems that an actor winning an Oscar so early in his career actually hurt his prospects of rising to the top, as there was simply no reason for him to try to take on more difficult roles.

An early win can be both a curse and a gift, and it's up to the actor to try to earn more gold statuettes to cement themselves as the best of the best, or simply use a win to land more roles and bigger paychecks.

The Oscars 2024 will be held Sunday, March 10, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The event is to start at 7 p.m. EST.