Like Laurence Olivier, March had a rare protean quality to his acting that allowed him to assume almost any persona convincingly, from Robert Browning to William Jennings Bryan to Dr Jekyll - or Mr. Hyde. He received an Oscar nomination for the 4th Academy Awards in 1930 for "The Royal Family of Broadway", in which he played a role modeled on John Barrymore. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 5th Academy Awards in 1932 for "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (tied with Wallace Beery for "The Champ", although March accrued one more vote than Beery). This led to roles in a series of classic films based on stage hits and classic novels like "Design for Living" (1933) with Gary Cooper and Miriam Hopkins; "Death Takes a Holiday" (1934); "Les Misérables" (1935) with Charles Laughton; "Anna Karenina" (1935) with Greta Garbo; "Anthony Adverse" (1936) with Olivia de Havilland; and as the original Norman Maine in "A Star is Born" (1937) with Janet Gaynor, for which he received his third Academy Award nomination.