1970: John Mills, 'Ryan's Daughter'
Esteemed British actor John Mills took home the first award of the decade for a role with zero dialogue. In David Lean's epic, Mills played a mute, disabled village resident, a purely physical performance that relied on expressive gestures and presence.
His win felt like a nod to a classical, transformative style of acting, honoring a respected veteran of over 100 films who completely disappeared into a challenging part—a classic Oscar move.
1971: Ben Johnson, 'The Last Picture Show'
Representing the heart of Old Hollywood, former rodeo champion and stuntman Ben Johnson won for playing Sam the Lion, a wistful, honorable theater owner in Peter Bogdanovich’s elegy for a dying Texas town. Johnson was a John Ford regular, and his win was a tribute to the authentic, understated masculinity of the classic Western. His heartfelt, unpolished acceptance speech sealed the narrative: this was an award for a lifetime of quiet dignity on screen.
1972: Joel Grey, 'Cabaret'
In a seismic win, Joel Grey pirouetted past screen legends to claim a statue for reprising his Tony-winning stage role as the sinister, gender-bending Emcee. 'Cabaret' was a commercial and critical smash, and Grey’s performance was its corrupt, mesmerizing soul. The win was a major political statement from the Academy, endorsing a film that used the rise of Nazism as a backdrop for exploring sexual fluidity and moral decay, rewarding a performance that was pure, audacious theatricality.
1973: John Houseman, 'The Paper Chase'
In a true Hollywood surprise, veteran producer and Juilliard instructor John Houseman won an Oscar for his first major acting role at age 71. He played the imperious, brilliant, and terrifying Harvard Law professor Charles W. Kingsfield. Houseman was initially just a consultant on the film, but after other actors fell through, director James Bridges cast his mentor. The win was a victory for authenticity, celebrating a non-actor who perfectly embodied the role because, in many ways, he had lived it as a towering intellectual figure.
1974: Robert De Niro, 'The Godfather Part II'
Robert De Niro did the impossible: he took on a character already immortalized by Marlon Brando and made it his own. His portrayal of the young Vito Corleone, spoken almost entirely in a Sicilian dialect, earned him his first Oscar. The win was historic, marking the first time an actor won an Oscar for a non-English language performance. It cemented the new generation of intense, method-driven actors as a dominant force in Hollywood and proved the 'Godfather' saga was a cultural phenomenon.
1975: George Burns, 'The Sunshine Boys'
At 80 years old, legendary comedian George Burns won an Oscar for his first film role in 36 years. Playing a retired vaudevillian in 'The Sunshine Boys', Burns beat a field of New Hollywood darlings. The win was widely seen as a sentimental career award, a chance for the industry to honor a beloved icon. Burns' hilarious acceptance speech, where he quipped he would make a picture every 37 years, brought the house down and confirmed the win was as much about affection as performance.
1976: Jason Robards, 'All the President's Men'
Art imitated life when Jason Robards won for playing Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee in the definitive Watergate thriller. The film captured the paranoia and journalistic fervor of the era, and Robards' performance provided the story's moral anchor. He portrayed Bradlee with a gruff, no-nonsense authority that felt utterly real. The win was political with a capital 'P'—an endorsement of the press and the fourth estate in the immediate shadow of the Nixon scandal.
1977: Jason Robards, 'Julia'
Robards became one of the few actors to win back-to-back Oscars. Here, he played another real-life literary figure, Dashiell Hammett, the lover and mentor to playwright Lillian Hellman. The film was a prestige picture that garnered 11 nominations. While his screen time was limited, his presence was powerful, and the victory felt like a confirmation of his status as one of America's most respected actors, rewarding his gravitas during a period of great career success.
1978: Christopher Walken, 'The Deer Hunter'
Christopher Walken's haunting performance as a Pennsylvania steelworker psychologically destroyed by the Vietnam War was unforgettable. The film itself was deeply controversial, facing protests for its depiction of the Vietnamese. Walken’s win was a political flashpoint. It honored an actor’s total, harrowing commitment to a role while simultaneously rewarding a film that offered one of America’s first and most polarizing cinematic reckonings with the trauma of the war.
1979: Melvyn Douglas, 'Being There'
Closing out the decade, 78-year-old Melvyn Douglas won his second Oscar for playing a dying political kingmaker who mistakes a simple-minded gardener (Peter Sellers) for a brilliant sage. It was a capstone award for a Golden Age leading man who had transitioned into a celebrated character actor. The win had its own minor political footnote: Douglas declined to attend the ceremony, reportedly unwilling to compete against 8-year-old nominee Justin Henry from 'Kramer vs. Kramer'.
