Timothée Chalamet Becomes Youngest 2-Time Best Actor Oscar Nominee Since James Dean

Timothée Chalamet earned his second Best Actor Oscar nomination for playing a young Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s musical biopic, “A Complete Unknown,” on Thursday.

The Oscar nom stepped the 29-year-old actor into one of the most rarefied clubs in Academy Award history: Men who’ve received two leading actor nominations before they’ve turned 30.

On Thursday, film historian Mark Harris on his Bluesky account noted Chalamet had become the first to nab two best actor nominations from the Academy before turning 30, but only after following James Dean.

The Hollywood icon, who died in a car crash in 1955 when he was 24, that same year received an Oscar nomination as the young hero in Elia Kazan’s screen version of John Steinbeck’s novel East of Eden.

Dean got a second posthumous nom for 1956’s Giant movie. He had been driving in his Porsche Spyder when he got into a head-on collision on a California highway, causing his untimely death.

Dean also died a month before the release of his most memorable movie, Rebel Without a Cause, where he played disaffected, suburban teenager Jim in Nicholas Ray‘s gneration defining film.

Chalamet earned his first best actor nomination for 2017’s “Call Me By Your Name” at 22, he was the third-youngest nominee ever in that category, after Rooney and Jackie Cooper, who was nominated for the 1931 comedy “Skippy” when he was 9 years old.

The Oscar nom for his role in Luca Guadagnino’s coming-of-age drama came when Chalamet was just 22, made him the youngest person in 80 years to be nominated for best actor at the time.

Mickey Rooney was also only 19 when he was nominated for Babes in Arms in 1940.

At the same time, Chalamet remains the first person since the 1990s to become a multiple-nominee in the Academy Awards‘ annual best actor competition.