In the 30-year existence of the Screen Actors Guild Awards, a total of 15 pairs and one trio of cast mates have directly challenged each other for the Best TV Movie/Miniseries Actor prize, with the latest dual nominees being Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser of “Black Bird.” These instances have resulted in eight wins, which is a far higher amount than in any of the other five solo TV categories. The first to triumph in one of these situations was Jack Lemmon (“Tuesdays with Morrie,” 2000; over Hank Azaria), while the most recent was Michael Douglas (“Behind the Candelabra,” 2014; over Matt Damon).
Lemmon, who had previously gone up against his “12 Angry Men” costar George C. Scott, is one of five men who has been involved in more than one of this category’s cast mate showdowns. As the first member of said group, he has since been followed by Al Pacino (“Angels in America,” 2004 and “You Don’t Know Jack,” 2011), Paul Giamatti (“John Adams,” 2009 and “Too Big to Fail,” 2012), Ed Harris (“Empire Falls,” 2006 and “Game Change,” 2013), and John Turturro (“The Bronx Is Burning,” 2008 and “The Night Of,” 2017).
This category’s 2013 and 2017 lineups are the only ones that have included multiple costar battles each. Harris and his “Game Change” cast mate Woody Harrelson were nominated against “Hatfields & McCoys” duo Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton, while Turturro and Riz Ahmed of “The Night Of” vied for the same trophy as Sterling K. Brown and Courtney B. Vance of “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.”
Scroll through our photo gallery to learn more about the 16 cases of dual nominations in this category.
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Jack Lemmon and George C. Scott (‘12 Angry Men,’ 1998)
Image Credit: MGM Characters: Juror #8 and Juror #3
Characters’ relationships: Fellow jurors
Result:
Both lost to Gary Sinise (“George Wallace”) -
Hank Azaria and Jack Lemmon (‘Tuesdays with Morrie,’ 2000)
Image Credit: ABC Characters: Mitch Albom and Morrie Schwartz
Characters’ relationship: Former student and professor
Result:
Lemmon won -
Alec Baldwin and Brian Cox (‘Nuremberg,’ 2001)
Image Credit: Warner Bros. Characters: Robert H. Jackson and Hermann Göring
Characters’ relationship: Chief of Counsel and defendant in the Nuremberg trials
Result:
Both lost to Brian Dennehy (“Death of a Salesman”) -
Justin Kirk, Al Pacino, and Jeffrey Wright (‘Angels in America,’ 2004)
Image Credit: HBO Characters: Prior Walter/Leatherman, Roy Cohn, and Belize/Mr. Lies/Homeless man/Angel Europa
Characters’ relationships: Friends (Prior and Belize); Patient and nurse (Roy and Belize)
Result:
Pacino won -
Ed Harris and Paul Newman (‘Empire Falls,’ 2006)
Image Credit: HBO Characters: Miles Roby and Max Roby
Characters’ relationship: Son and father
Result:
Newman won -
Thomas Haden Church and Robert Duvall (‘Broken Trail,’ 2007)
Image Credit: AMC Characters: Tom Harte and Prentice Ritter
Characters’ relationship: Nephew and uncle
Result:
Both lost to Jeremy Irons (“Elizabeth I”) -
Oliver Platt and John Turturro (‘The Bronx Is Burning,’ 2008)
Image Credit: ESPN Characters: George Steinbrenner and Billy Martin
Characters’ relationship: Owner and manager of the New York Yankees
Result:
Both lost to Kevin Kline (“As You Like It”) -
Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson (‘John Adams,’ 2009)
Image Credit: HBO Characters: John Adams and Benjamin Franklin
Characters’ relationship: Fellow American founding fathers
Result:
Giamatti won -
John Goodman and Al Pacino (‘You Don’t Know Jack,’ 2011)
Image Credit: HBO Characters: Neal Nicol and Jack Kevorkian
Characters’ relationship: Friends
Result:
Pacino won -
Paul Giamatti and James Woods (‘Too Big to Fail,’ 2012)
Image Credit: HBO Characters: Ben Bernanke and Richard S. Fuld Jr.
Characters’ relationship: Fellow financial chairmen
Result:
Giamatti won -
Woody Harrelson and Ed Harris (‘Game Change,’ 2013)
Image Credit: HBO Characters: Steve Shmidt and John McCain
Characters’ relationship: Presidential campaign strategist and candidate
Result:
Both lost to Kevin Costner (“Hatfields & McCoys”) -
Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton (‘Hatfields & McCoys,’ 2013)
Image Credit: History Channel Characters: Devil Anse Hatfield and Randolph McCoy
Characters’ relationship: Heads of feuding families
Result:
Costner won -
Matt Damon and Michael Douglas (‘Behind the Candelabra,’ 2014)
Image Credit: HBO Characters: Scott Thorson and Liberace
Characters’ relationship: Romantic partners
Result:
Douglas won -
Riz Ahmed and John Turturro (‘The Night Of,’ 2017)
Image Credit: HBO Characters: Nasir Khan and John Stone
Characters’ relationship: Defendant and lawyer
Result:
Both lost to Bryan Cranston (“All the Way”) -
Sterling K. Brown and Courtney B. Vance (‘The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,’ 2017)
Image Credit: FX Characters: Christopher Darden and Johnnie Cochran
Characters’ relationship: Prosecutor and defense attorney in the 1994 O.J. Simpson case
Result:
Both lost to Bryan Cranston (“All the Way”) -
Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser (‘Black Bird,’ 2023)
Image Credit: Apple TV+ Characters: Jimmy Keene and Larry Hall
Characters’ relationship: Prison inmates
Result:
Both lost to Sam Elliott (“1883”)
