Six Looney Toon Characters Who Have Won Oscars
John Goodman doesn’t have an Oscar, but you know who does? That sprinting little stereotype Speedy Gonzales. Glenn Close doesn’t have an Oscar either, but that horny skunk Pepé Le Pew sure does. Because the original Looney Tunes cartoons were theatrical shorts long before they were replayed on television, dozens were nominated for Academy Awards and five actually won Best Short Subject (Cartoon), which means six of the major characters were awarded for their Oscar-worthy performances.
Here are all six Looney Tunes characters that were worthy of the gold, unlike those slackers John Goodman and Glenn Close.
1 Oscar: Bugs Bunny
Despite being far and away the most popular Looney Tunes character, Bugs Bunny only has one Oscar, which he was awarded for the 1958 short Knighty Knight Bugs, set during the days of King Arthur. In it, Bugs is King Arthur’s court jester and is tasked with retrieving “The Singing Sword” from the dreaded Black Knight (Yosemite Sam). In truth, while Knighty Knight Bugs is a solid Looney Tunes short with funny olde-England set gags, it’s not nearly as memorable as cartoons like What’s Opera Doc and Baseball Bugs. Still, it gave Bugs his lone Oscar, which is more than Daffy Duck can say (a fact that’s sure to ruffle some bird feathers).
1 Oscar: Yosemite Sam
Because he co-starred in Knighty Knight Bugs, Yosemite Sam can also be considered an Oscar-winner. While that statement might seem absurd to some, it really isn’t. After all, Leonardo DiCaprio won an Oscar for sleeping inside a dead animal carcass in The Revenant, but in this short, Yosemite Sam is flattened by a drawbridge, catapulted into a brick wall and blasted by a fire-breathing dragon. No way Mr. Hollywood DiCaprio would put up with all of that.
1 Oscar: Pepé Le Pew
Kevin Spacey isn’t the only cancelled creep who has won an Academy Award, as Pepé Le Pew got his 46 years before Spacey did his. The 1949 cartoon For Scent-imental Reasons is generally considered one of Pepé Le Pew’s best shorts; it’s full of funny gags about him hornily pursuing Penelope, a black cat who accidentally gets a stripe painted on her back, making Pepé think she’s a skunk. The special thing about this short, however, is that the tables get turned on Pepé at the end. When some paint covers up Pepé’s stripes, Penelope goes after him, thinking he’s a cat.
As far as love stories go, this isn’t The Notebook. Then again, The Notebook never won an Oscar.
1 Oscar: Speedy Gonzales
The 1955 short Speedy Gonzales was the second to ever feature the character, and it includes his first face-off with Sylvester. In it, a Mexican villager mouse reaches out to Speedy to take down “El Gringo Pussycat,” which Speedy does with ease. While some of Speedy’s attributes might have aged poorly over the years, the character was, and remains, a bona-fide hit and winning an Oscar for his second cartoon sure didn’t hurt.
2 Oscars: Tweety Bird
The very first Looney Tunes short to win an Oscar was 1947’s Tweetie Pie, a classic Tweety and Sylvester cartoon that excellently employs both characters in their standard chase setup. A decade later, the duo would win another Oscar together for Birds Anonymous, which took their classic format and gave it an innovative twist. In it, Sylvester joins an Alcoholics Anonymous-like support group called “Birds Anonymous,” in which he tries to overcome his addiction of pursuing birds. In the end, he gives into his addiction, prompting Tweety to say, “Once a bad ol’ puddy tat, always a bad ol’ puddy tat.” (Just try writing a single line as iconic as that, Quentin Tarantino.)
3 Oscars: Sylvester
Between 1947’s Tweety Pie, 1955’s Speedy Gonzales and 1957’s Birds Anonymous Sylvester became the single-most decorated Looney Tunes character with three whole Oscars under his non-existent belt. That’s one more than Tom Hanks and Robert De Niro have ever received and the same number Meryl Streep has won over her career. It really makes one wonder why people don’t go on and on about Sylvester’s acting the same way they do about Streep.
