Canadian Brendan Fraser Win an Oscar for Best Actor at the 95th Academy Awards

Brendan Fraser became the first Canadian to win an Oscar for Best Actor on Sunday night at the 95th Acadamy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Fraser, 54, won the award for his performance in “The Whale,” in which he played a reclusive professor trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter.

Throughout much of the awards season, the Canadian-American dual citizen was considered one of the front-runners for the award, for which he also won a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Critics’ Choice Movie Award.

The actor accepted the industry’s highest honor on Sunday with an emotional acceptance speech.

“I started in this business 30 years ago, and things didn’t come easy for me,” he said on stage at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre, accepting his first Oscar after defeating fellow nominees Austin Butler, Colin Farrell, Bill Nighy, and Paul Mescal.

“I’m grateful to Darren Aronofsky for throwing me a creative lifeline and bringing me aboard the good ship, ‘The Whale,'” he said of the film’s director.

Brendan Fraser was born to Canadian parents in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father, Peter, was a former journalist who relocated his family to the United States to work as a Canadian foreign service officer for the Government Office of Tourism.

Fraser’s uncle, trap shooter George Genereux, was the only Canadian to win a gold medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics.

Because of Peter’s work, Fraser and his family moved every few years. Fraser first discovered theatre and fell in love with acting in London, England. Fraser began performing in his early teens in Seattle before moving to Toronto to attend Upper Canada College.

He returned to Seattle to study at the Cornish College of the Arts. Fraser got his first break while still in college, playing in the 1991 coming-of-age drama “Dogfight.”

His career took off after that, with roles in “Airheads,” “George of the Jungle,” “Gods and Monsters,” and the well-known “The Mummy” franchise.

However, “The Whale” was Fraser’s first major role in a decade. The Canadian Walk of Fame inductee has been open about his experiences as a father and his shifting career goals.

“In recent years, when I was a little more hesitant to step forward — having a life with kids and the oldest son with special needs, another kid who’s going to be a senior now, and another one who’s (learning) to drive and picking up a guitar — I think it just gave me a sense of purpose that I don’t know that I would have appreciated as a younger man,” he said in an interview with The Canadian Press during the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.

Some have referred to Fraser’s triumphant return to Hollywood as a triumphant comeback. While the term “comeback” does not bother the actor, he prefers “reintroduction.”

“It’s an opportunity to reintroduce myself to an industry that I do not believe has forgotten about me,” he told The Associated Press. “I’ve just never traveled that far.”

Everything Everywhere All at Once emerged as the evening’s big winner, earning seven total Oscars — including one for Best Picture — after going from a relatively unknown specialty release from A24 to an awards season juggernaut. Its seven Oscars are the most for the Best Picture winner in 14 years, surpassing Slumdog Millionaire’s eight in 2008.

The German war film All Quiet on the Western Front, which finished the evening with four overall wins, trailed Everything Everywhere’s Oscar haul.

Best Picture

All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Banshees of Inisherin
Elvis
WINNER: Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans
Tár
Top Gun: Maverick
Triangle of Sadness
Women Talking

Best Director

Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
WINNER: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans
Todd Field, Tár
Ruben Östlund, Triangle of Sadness

Best Actor

Austin Butler, Elvis
Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
WINNER: Brendan Fraser, The Whale
Paul Mescal, Aftersun
Bill Nighy, Living

Best Actress

Best Supporting Actor

Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin
Brian Tyree Henry, Causeway
Judd Hirsch, The Fabelmans
Barry Keoghan, The Banshees of Inisherin
WINNER: Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once

Best Supporting Actress

Angela Bassett, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Hong Chau, The Whale
Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin
WINNER: Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All at Once