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Spotting close and extended families of a star in the entertainment industry is not a new phenomenon. From legacy families like the Kapoors to the new age stars like the Panday siblings, actors have given birth to actors. When working in the same field as your family, there is an added edge of competition. Winning the top spot, getting all the right accolades and fame before anyone else does, also becomes a matter of prestige. Hollywood is no stranger to legacy families and sibling pairs working together alongside each other or as contemporaries. There are several sibling pairs and families who have won an award, but there was one particular brother-sister duo who became the first sibling pair to win an Oscar each in the same year.
Who were the first pair of siblings to win an Oscar each in the same year?
Edith Norma Shearer, largely known as Norma Shearer, was a popular actress in the early 1900s. The actress was known for movie adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays like Romeo & Juliet, films like Marie Antoinette, A Free Soul, and many others. She was the first actress to have been nominated five times for the Best Actress Award at the Oscars. She was also the first Jewish woman to have won an Academy Award after winning the Best Actress Award at the 3rd Academy Awards in 1930 for Robert Z Leonard’s The Divorcee.
Her older brother, Douglas Shearer, was a sound designer in Hollywood. As fate would have it, he was also nominated at the 3rd Academy Awards for his work in the movie, The Big House, in the Best Sound category. He went on to win his first Academy Award for the same. In his career, he was nominated 21 times for the Academy Awards and won a total of seven times (including his first win). His contributions have been pivotal in enhancing sound design for films. He was also instrumental in creating a device that removes excess background noise. He is noted for his work in movies like The Wizard of Oz, Thirty Seconds over Tokyo, The Great Caruso, among others.
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Both siblings found fame with their projects under Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Studios. So, this is how Norma Shearer and Douglas Shearer became the first sibling pair in Hollywood to win an Oscar each in the same year.
Norma Shearer passed away in 1983 at the age of 80. She was one of those yesteryear actresses who were noted for breaking out of the stereotype of a soft and demure female character. Her characters were often depicted with a spunky personality, someone who is the life of the party. Douglas Shearer passed away in 1971 at the age of 71.
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