Misery earned Kathy Bates the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Rob Reiner directed the 1990 film adaptation of Stephen King's 1987 novel. Bates plays Annie Wilkes, a former nurse and obsessive fan who rescues the injured novelist Paul Sheldon after a car accident and holds him captive in her isolated home.
At the 63rd Academy Awards, Bates won Best Actress for her performance. Misery remains the only film adaptation of a Stephen King work to give an actor an Oscar in a leading acting category. The film also received a nomination for Best Makeup.
A common mix-up is associating Bates's Oscar with Dolores Claiborne, another King adaptation in which she starred. Bates was nominated for that 1995 film, but her win came for Misery. James Caan played Paul Sheldon in the 1990 movie.