Joaquin Phoenix has finally taken home an Academy Award, and he has the Clown Prince of Crime to thank.
Phoenix won the Oscar for Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in Joker. This was Phoenix’s fourth Oscar nomination and first win, having previously been nominated for 2001’s Gladiator, 2006’s Walk the Line and 2013’s The Master.
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Phoenix has the distinction of being only the second actor to win an Oscar for playing a superhero character. The first? None other than Heath Ledger, who won a posthumous Best Supporting Actor award for his performance as Joker in 2008’s The Dark Knight. The Academy clearly love that Joker.
Joker was nominated for a total of 11 Academy Awards, but only took home one other Oscar, for Best Original Score. Phoenix also won big at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in January.
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Click here to see all the 2020 Oscar winners.
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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
Source: IGN.com Joaquin Phoenix Wins First Oscar for Joker