Wordless Winners
Four actors have won Academy Awards for playing characters that utter not a single word throughout the entire film. Jane Wyman won the Best Actress award for her portrayal of Belinda, a deaf mute, in Johnny Belinda (1948). Sir John Mills played the mute village idiot in Ryan's Daughter (1970), for which he won the Best Supporting Actor award. Holly Hunter won the Best Actress award for her portrayal of the mute Ada McGrath in The Piano (1993). Most recently, Jean Dujardin won Best Actor for his role in the silent black and white film, The Artist (2011).
