2016 Oscars: Secrets & Scandals Of This Year’s Nominees!

The 2016 Academy Awards will honor achievements in motion pictures — but some of this year's nominees deserve to win just for surviving their own twisted pasts. Some other stars up for Oscars have thrown some award-worthy tantrums. Take a look at the secret lives of the actors and actresses who bring a lot of baggage to the biggest night in showbiz....

JENNIFER JASON LEIGH: ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE — "THE HATEFUL EIGHT" This veteran actress is basking in the glow of her first-ever Oscar nomination for playing Old West criminal Daisy Domergue — but that glow hides a brutal past. Jennifer’s dad, actor Vic Morrow, neglected her for years. Then he only left her a measly $100 in his will!

Jennifer's dad — the “Combat!” star who was decapitated in a freak on-set helicopter accident in 1982 — seemed to care more about his dog, Macho. He left orders for Jennifer’s older sister, Carrie Ann, to take care of the pooch with her $600,000 inheritance. “I didn’t expect to be left a thing,” Jennifer said at the time. “But I’m feeling pain, guilt and rage.” Jennifer, 54, went on to star in films like “Backdraft” and “Single White Female,” but she never got the chance to mend fences with her distant dad. “That’s the real tragedy,” she said.

LEONARDO DiCAPRIO: ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE — "THE REVENANT" This year's favorite for Best Actor nabbed his fourth Oscar nomination playing betrayed Hugh Glass, who is viciously mauled by a grizzly bear in “The Revenant.” But the 41-year-old star has been attacked and bloodied in real life, too! At a Hollywood party in 2005, the womanizing heartthrob was slashed in the face and neck by a crazed former model wielding a broken beer bottle! She narrowly missed hitting a vital artery!

Leo needed 17 stitches and extensive reconstructive surgery. “It was a horrific attack,” said an eyewitness. The assailant, Aretha Wilson, was jailed for two years and deported to her native Canada. Meanwhile, readers of The National ENQUIRER know that incident didn't slow down Leo's dalliances with the ladies!

MARK RUFFALO: ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE — "SPOTLIGHT" Mark, 48, earned his third Best Supporting Actor nomination for the role of reporter Michael Rezendes — but 15 years ago, a horrible health crisis had him convinced that his career was OVER! A grueling 10-hour surgery to remove a rare, non-cancerous brain tumor in 2001 paralyzed the left side of his face! “I had a 12 percent chance the nerve would be severed and destroyed,” Mark recalls — adding that he thought he "was never going to act again.”

“It was absolute hell,” Mark confessed, spending a year waiting for movement to return. Hell then returned with the 2008 death of his beloved younger brother, Scott, 39, who was murdered by a gunshot to the head at a Beverly Hills condo. The crime is still unsolved. “You never get over it; you just get used to it,” Mark said.

BRYAN CRANSTON: ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE — "TRUMBO" The 59-year-old actor nailed his first Best Actor nod by playing the blacklisted screenwriting legend Dalton Trumbo. Bryan, however, owes his career to a pair of hot pants! His father abandoned the family when Bryan was just 11, and things went downhill from there. “I lost the mother to alcoholism,” says the star, who plays a writer blacklisted in Hollywood during the 1950s Communist witch hunts. “Our house went into foreclosure.”

As a kid, the “Breaking Bad” actor wanted to be a cop — but a flash of skin in an acting class changed his life. “On my very first day, there was this girl, wearing only a tube top and hot pants. From that moment on, I was done with police work. I changed the course of my life based on the libido of an 18-year-old boy.”

RACHEL McADAMS: ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE — "SPOTLIGHT" Insiders told The ENQUIRER that Rachel, 37, would be a much bigger star if she didn't have such a lousy reputation. Her Oscar-nominated turn as reporter Sacha Pfeiffer might finally be the fix for years of backstage gossip about her being difficult to work with! Hailed 10 years ago as “the next Julia Roberts,” Rachel's star dimmed as she ruffled her co-stars’ feathers.

Spies on set reported that Ryan Gosling didn't want to work with Rachel on “The Notebook” — which became a breakout hit for both of the leads. More sources reported that Rachel riled up Keanu Reeves when she quit their sci-fi drama “Passengers.” “Truthfully, I never really wanted to be a big movie star,” Rachel says. Too late now!

CHRISTIAN BALE: ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE — "THE BIG SHORT" He already has an Oscar, but Christian also boasts one of the shortest tempers in Hollywood! Bale — who earned his third Oscar nod playing hedge-fund manager Michael Burry — was arrested in 2008 for allegedly pushing his mother and his sister during a confrontation in a hotel. No charges were filed, but he hasn’t spoken to them since!

Christian also launched into a shockingly foul-mouthed tirade on the set of “Terminator Salvation.” And former publicist Harrison Cheung said the British star was so difficult, “my therapist described my condition as post-traumatic stress disorder!”

BRIE LARSON: ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE — "ROOM" Brie's had a huge year after winning acclaim for her role in “Room.” She stars as Joy, a mom who creates a fantasy world for her 5-year-old son while they’re imprisoned in a shed. Shockingly, the role was actually much like Brie’s own childhood!

When her parents split, 8-year-old Brie and her younger sister, Milaine, moved into one small room with their mother. “The bed came out the wall,” said Larson, 26. “We each had three articles of clothing. We were living off instant noodles.” But her memories are positive. Her mom “created a strong imaginative world for me and my sister.”

LADY GAGA: BEST ORIGINAL SONG — "THE HUNTING GROUND" The pop diva has already faced some controversy over her Oscar nomination, as hit songwriter Linda Perry implied that Lady Gaga didn't really have much to do with writing "Until It Happens To You." It wasn't long, however, before Linda apologized. Controversy is nothing new to Gaga, though — with The ENQUIRER covering reports of her enjoying a lusty three-way lesbian romp with fiancé Taylor Kinney and one of his bisexual costars from "Chicago Fire."

"Chicago Fire" star Monica Raymund, 29, announced her bisexuality around the time she split from her husband of three years. She went to social media in February 2014 to inform her followers that she was “so proud to be Bi.” “Taylor loves Gaga, and he loves Monica,” dished a spy on the set. “The three of them have cuddled together for the cameras, and Gaga recently posted a photo of the three of them hugging!” Another source told The ENQUIRER: “I heard the three of them have had a ménage à trois!”