--- description: Sooner or later, the "American Sniper" star will likely take the prize title: This Statistic Shows Bradley Cooper Could Win Best Actor image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte340252009c3ee50/6986865fe53aba33614d196c/476543967.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # This One Statistic Shows Why Bradley Cooper Could Win Best Actor at the Oscars  by [Daniel D'Addario](/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 19, 2015 2:00 PM CUT  arrives for the 2014 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Graydon Carter on March 2, 2014 in West Hollywood, California. arrives for the 2014 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Graydon Carter on March 2, 2014 in West Hollywood, California.Mark Sullivan / WireImage  by [Daniel D'Addario](/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 19, 2015 2:00 PM CUT Bradley Cooper made Oscar history this year. Though the _American Sniper_ star has gotten less press than perceived Best Actor frontrunners Michael Keaton (_Birdman_) and Eddie Redmayne (_The Theory of Everything_), he’s the one who joins only nine previous actors and eleven actresses who were Oscar-nominated three years in a row. This bodes well for Cooper at the Oscars—of the nine men who preceded him as three-years-running nominees, eight eventually won gold. It didn’t always happen right away: [This Academy list](http://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/act-consecutivenoms.pdf "undefined") of multiple consecutive nominees shows that Al Pacino’s consecutive nominations in the 1970s didn’t include his eventual Oscar-winning role in 1992’s _Scent of a Woman_, nor did Gregory Peck’s run include his victorious role in 1962’s _To Kill a Mockingbird_. But getting recognition from the Oscars three years in a row will, more often than not, result in Oscar gold. The only actor who didn’t convert three years of nominations into an eventual win was Richard Burton, considered among the most snubbed men in Oscar history; among women, Thelma Ritter, Deborah Kerr, and Glenn Close didn’t eventually scoop up a prize after three straight years of nods. (Close still has time!) In all, sixteen of the twenty previous three-time nominees won an Oscar, yielding eighty percent odds that Cooper will eventually win based solely on past precedent. Of course, history’s not everything. This year in particular, Cooper faces long odds, with Keaton and Redmayne each attracting serious praise and each having had more time to promote their films. (Cooper has been on Broadway, far from the Oscar-campaign circus.) If Cooper won, it’d be a memorable instance of a dark horse taking the lead. But the historical angle isn’t totally abstract, either: Three years’ worth of nominations clearly indicates that the Academy takes a performer very seriously and that they respond strongly to various aspects of the star’s persona; whatever happens with Cooper this year, it seems evident he’s begun the process of wearing the Academy down. After all, Cooper’s three Oscar-nominated roles, in 2012’s _Silver Linings Playbook_, 2013’s _American Hustle_, and last year’s _Sniper_, are all fairly different in tone, and each got the star recognized. It’s not hard at all to imagine that a voting body that’s placed him close to the action three years in a row will, sooner or later, give him the prize. His next prestige-bid film, by _Silver Linings Playbook_ director David O. Russell, is set for release Christmas 2015. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3712572/oscars-2015-bradley-cooper-american-sniper/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3712572/oscars-2015-bradley-cooper-american-sniper/"},"headline":"This One Statistic Shows Why Bradley Cooper Could Win Best Actor at the Oscars","datePublished":"2015-02-19T14:00:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:29:33.624Z","description":"Sooner or later, the American Sniper star will likely take the prize","url":"https://time.com/3712572/oscars-2015-bradley-cooper-american-sniper/","keywords":["movies","bradley cooper","American Sniper","eddie redmayne","the oscars","oscars 2015"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte340252009c3ee50/6986865fe53aba33614d196c/476543967.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel D'Addario","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte340252009c3ee50/6986865fe53aba33614d196c/476543967.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Bradley Cooper","caption":"2014 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Graydon Carter - Arrivals","creditText":"Mark Sullivan / WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3712572/oscars-2015-bradley-cooper-american-sniper/","name":"This One Statistic Shows Why Bradley Cooper Could Win Best Actor at the Oscars"}}]}] ```