Wareham’s Geena Davis Won Her Only Oscar Same Year as ‘Beetlejuice’

The highly anticipated sequel to 1988's Beetlejuice, 36 years in the making, hits theaters on September 6, 2024.

Despite playing central roles in the original as husband-and-wife ghosts, Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin will not appear in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Perhaps Barbara and Adam Maitland have moved on from haunting their old Connecticut farmhouse to another realm.

The Tim Burton-directed film, featuring Michael Keaton in the title role, was a box-office hit and has become a Halloween favorite for millions since, but another movie released the same year earned Wareham's Davis an Academy Award.

Although the sequel is coming out in time for Halloween, Beetlejuice came out in March of 1988 -- not exactly Spooky Season. Nevertheless, the creepy comedy spooked and charmed audiences and won over critics, including Roger Ebert, who wrote the movie was "well-played" by Davis.

"Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis, as the young couple, seem so giddy, so heedlessly in love, that they project an infectious good cheer," Ebert wrote.

READ MORE: See Wareham's Geena Davis in a Vintage '80s Summer Music Ad

Glowing reviews aside, Davis didn't win any awards for playing the woman who dies in a car crash and, with her also-dead husband, haunts the new owners of her house.

The award came for a film released in December of 1988, The Accidental Tourist. Davis played quirky dog trainer Muriel Pritchett in the romantic drama. She gets involved with a travel writer played by William Hurt.

Davis won Best Supporting Actress at the 1989 Oscars, beating out Joan Cusack and Sigourney Weaver for Working Girl, Francis McDormand for Mississippi Burning and Michelle Pfeiffer for Dangerous Liaisons. 

Davis grew up in Wareham and graduated from Wareham High School in 1974. A skilled archer, she hit a bullseye in the entertainment world as an actress. She was also nominated for an Oscar in 1992 for Thelma and Louise and a Primetime Emmy for Commander in Chief, an ABC drama on which she played the first female president.

That's just for starters. Davis has won or been nominated for many other honors over the years.