CULTURE

10 Celebrities You Totally Forgot Won Golden Globes

Including Twiggy and Borat.


Vogue 1967
Bert Stern

In its 76-year history, the Golden Globes has certainly garnered a reputation for doing things its own way, whatever critics and the rest of the awards show ilk have to say be damned. It’s been that way practically since the beginning. The very first Golden Globes celebrated the films of 1943, a year film trivia buffs might recognize as when Casablanca took home the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director. You wouldn’t know that, however, from looking at that year’s winner list of the Globes. Instead, the annual awards show of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association went big on honoring a film called The Song of Bernadette, a film that had perfectly fine contemporary reviews but is little remembered today.

Sometimes those upsets serve as record-correcting checks when, in retrospect, we realize maybe the Oscars and other awards got it wrong (they recognized Brokeback Mountain when the Oscars did not, for example). But other times they go down as “Hmm, isn’t that interesting?” answers to bar trivia question.

Here, 10 stars you probably forgot won a Golden Globe.

Marilyn Monroe for Some Like It Hot (1959)

Notable Name She Beat: Dorothy Dandridge for Porgy and Bess

Monroe did not go down in history for her critically acclaimed acting, necessarily. She was never even nominated for an Oscar. Yet, the Globes had more of a fondness for her, and she took home a trophy in the Musical/Comedy category upon her second nomination.

Ursula Andress for Dr. No (1964)

The Golden Globe Awards for New Star of the Year are remembered today as, at best, a footnote, and, at worst, a punchline. But it’s not like they always got it wrong. Too many legends actually did walk away with the award until it was retired (Shirley MacLaine, Warren Beatty, Jane Fonda, and Dustin Hoffman, to name a few), but the category did have some head-scratchers. No disrespect at all to Ursula Andress, as she definitely left a mark on the culture and found success in her native Sweden, but she walked away with the award for her role as the first Bond Girl despite having both her speaking voice and singing voice overdubbed by another performer.

Twiggy for The Boy Friend (1971)

Notable Name She Beat: Angela Lansbury for Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Imagine if Gigi Hadid, atop the modeling world as she is, suddenly announced she was quitting fashion to become a movie star instead. That’s basically what Twiggy did in 1970, and 18 months late she won not one, but two Golden Globes (both Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical and Best Newcomer). The movie that got her there was The Boy Friend, a trippy musical that switches back and forth between a theater troupe, the play they’re putting on, and wordless fantasy scenes about the dreams of the characters in the musical. Twiggy would go three years before her next film and never did find regular work in cinema. But it’s not like her acting talents were never recognized again. She did snag a Tony nomination back in the ’80s as well.

Desi Arnaz Jr. for Red Sky at Morning (1972)

Despite six nominations, Lucille Ball never won a Golden Globe in a competitive category (though, she did win the Lifetime Achievement Award eventually). No, the only member of her family with a competitive globe is her son, Desi Arnaz Jr., who won New Star of the Year trophy for his supporting role in this mostly otherwise forgotten drama. The New Star of the Year award would be discontinued about a decade later when Pia Zadora, perhaps most famous for winning a Golden Globe, won the award for Butterfly the same year she won a Razzie for Worst Actress. Public perception had it that her rich husband basically bought her the trophy by wining and dining HFPA members. Coincidently, Zadora’s next movie after Butterfly was a prison B movie costarring Arnaz Jr.

Paul Hogan For Crocodile Dundee (1986)

Notable Name He Beat: Matthew Broderick for Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

If you are around my age, you perhaps spent your childhood thinking Crocodile Dundee was an actual person and not a character played by an Australian man named Paul Hogan. In reality, not only does Hogan exist, but he won the Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy category and also scored an Oscar Nomination for co-writing the film as well.

Ron Perlman for Beauty and the Beast (1988)

Notable Names He Beat: Harry Hamlin and Corbin Bleu for L.A. Law

CBS’s television reboot of Beauty and the Beast seems to younger audiences like a weird ’80s fever dream you’re really not sure even happened. But it not only ran for three seasons but also won Ron Perlman a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Drama, beating out L.A. Law‘s male leads in the process.

Keri Russell for Felicity (1997)

Notable Names She Beat: Julianna Margulies for ER and Gillian Anderson for The X-Files

The Americans hive is still peeved Russell never won an Emmy for her role, and Sunday marks the last chance she has to win any major award for her efforts on that program. Perhaps it’s reassuring, then, that Russell already owns a trophy for Best Actress in a Drama Series. In what is still considered one of the biggest upsets in Globes history, Russell won for Felicity at the 56th Golden Globes.

Jim Carey for The Truman Show (1998) and Man on the Moon (1999)

Notable Names He Beat: Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan in 1998 and Robert De Niro for Analyze This in 1999.

Okay, given the fact that Hogan won for Crocodile Dundee, perhaps you’re not thinking it’s too much of a stretch for Carey to have won for Ace Ventura or Liar, Liar or something. There wasn’t as much category fraud in decades past, leaving the Comedy/Musical category more open to actual comedic actors. In actuality, Carey won his first Golden Globe on the drama side for The Truman Show (even though, as good as it is, you can make a very strong case that it’s a comedy). Then, exactly one year later, Carey won again in the Comedy/Musical category for his Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon, even if you could make the case that’s actually a drama. Incidentally, Carey wasn’t even nominated at the Oscars for either performance.

Sacha Baron Cohen for Borat (2006)

Notable Names He Beat: Johnny Depp for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Chiwetel Ejiofor for Kinky Beats

Jeez, this wasn’t that long ago, but it feels like decades ago, doesn’t it?

Chris Colfer for Glee (2010)

Notable Name He Beat: Christ Noth for The Good Wife

It was 2010, and Glee fever was sweeping the nation. The Globes got caught up in it, too, even awarding Colfer the trophy for Best Supporting Actor in Television. Remember, that supporting actor category at the Globes is for all television, including dramas, miniseries, and movies. It’s even more surprising considering Colfer never took home the Emmy.

Related: A Complete History of the Completely Insane Things That Have Happened at the Golden Globes