Actors Who Took Extreme Measures in Hopes of Winning the Oscar

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When it comes to guessing any given year's Oscars crop, the category of actors who undergo physical extremes is a good place to start.

Dating back to 1980 when Robert De Niro bulked up 60 pounds to play boxer Jake La Motta in Raging Bull, decades of Oscar-nominated and -winning roles have belonged to actors who have physically transformed themselves onscreen.

This year, Leonardo DiCaprio, who, heading into the 2016 Academy Awards had been nominated five times but has never won, went to method-acting extremes by eating raw bison and enduring hypothermic conditions in real life, just as his character, Hugh Glass, did in Oscar frontrunner The Revenant.

From packing on pounds to shedding bodyweight, deglamorizing and method acting, a slew of Hollywood heavyweights have become known for their intense commitments to creating memorable self-transforming characters.

Here are 10 movie transformations that involved some of the most unusual, often life-threatening, tactics from actors who were chasing Hollywood's highest honor, the Academy Award.