John Wayne broke a huge Oscars record with one of his greatest western movies, but Henry Fonda broke it with one of his own best films a little more than a decade later. For most of his career, Wayne seemed like a very unlikely contender to win an Academy Award. He was the Old Hollywood equivalent of an action hero, like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Bruce Willis. He rarely challenged himself dramatically and almost exclusively played unwavering heroes in black-and-white tales of good versus evil.

https://screenrant.com/oscars-henry-fonda-best-actor-oldest-winner-record-john-wayne/