OSCARS LISTS: RECORDS AND CURIOSITIES...

Over the years since its inception in 1927/8, the Oscars awards ceremony has led to a number of curious records and coincidences, and even the occasional incident. Below are detailed just a few...

SWEEPING THE BOARD

• Three films share the record for the highest number of awards received: the 1952 epic BEN-HUR set the record by achieving 11 out of a possible 15 Oscar categories (nominated in 14 of them). Since then James Cameron's TITANIC (1997) and Peter Jackson's LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING (2003) have each won 11 out of a possible 17 Oscars (nominated in 12 and 11 categories respectively). This site includes a comparison of awards for the first two films. The film currently holding 4th place for total Oscar awards is the 1961 musical WEST SIDE STORY, which won 10 Oscars.

• TITANIC shares a different record for most nominations (14 out of 17 possible) - alongside Joseph L. Mankiewitz's ALL ABOUT EVE (winner of Best Film in 1950), nominated in 14 out of 15 possible at the time but going home with only six.

• The only film produced outside of America or Britain to have such sweeping success is Bernardo Bertolucci's 1987 Chinese/Italian co-production THE LAST EMPEROR, which won all nine of its nominated categories. However several U.S. produced films have had greater nominations ("Gone With The Wind", "From Here To Eternity", "Shakespeare In Love", "Forrest Gump" and "Chicago" sharing 13 nominations each).

• The most Oscar-successful British film to date is Richard Attenborough's epic bio-pic GANDHI, which achieved 8 awards for 1982, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor.

• A complete sweep of all five major Oscars (for Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor and Actress) has only occurred three times: for IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934), for ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (1975), and for SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991). The most recent films to come close by winning 4 of the top 5 awards were 1994's "Forrest Gump" (which had no Best Actress nomination) and 1999's "American Beauty" (which failed to win Best Actress award).

• 1964 was exceptional for being the one year that all four acting awards were won by non-Americans. Sweeping the board were three from England and one from Greece: REX HARRISON ( for "My Fair Lady"), PETER USTINOV ( for "Topkapi"), JULIE ANDREWS ( for "Mary Poppins") and LILA KEDROVA ( for "Zorba The Greek").

• Although the musical CABARET swept the 1972 Awards ceremony with eight Oscars, it failed to win Best Picture (which went to "The Godfather" instead). "Cabaret" therefore has the unfortunate distinction of having the most Oscar awards of any film without winning Best Picture.

• WARREN BEATTY (brother of Shirley MacLaine and recipient of a 1999 Honorary Thalberg Award) is the only person in Academy history to have been nominated as producer, as director, as writer and as actor all in the same film. Furthermore he has achieved this distinction twice: for "Heaven Can Wait" in 1978 (a remake of 1941's "Here Comes Mr.Jordan" rather than the 1943 "Heaven Can Wait") and for "Reds" in 1981 (for which he won the Best Director award).

  SINGLED OUT

• WALT DISNEY holds the record for the highest number of individual Oscars awarded... In his lifetime he received 20 Oscars, but he was posthumously awarded a further 6, making a total of 26. Of all the statuettes awarded him, the most famous "set" were an Oscar and seven miniature statuettes in 1938 for the film "Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs".

• A rather unique Oscar was awarded to JOSEPH FARNHAM in 1928 for "Best Title Writing". It was given at the very first Awards ceremony, when the first-ever soundtracked film "The Jazz Singer" also received a Special Oscar, and by the next year "talkies" had arrived in full - making further Awards for silent film titles completely redundant.

• PETER FINCH is the only person to have won the Acting Award posthumously. Sadly the British-Australian star of such films as "A Town Called Alice", "Far From The Madding Crowd" and "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" died soon after completing the film "Network", in which his role as a manic tv-presenter finally earned him the top male Oscar for 1976.

• The circumstances of MAGGIE SMITH's award for Best Supporting Actress in 1978 (for "California Suite") were somewhat unusual: in the film (a Neil Simon comedy set in a Hollywood hotel), she played an English actress nominated for an Oscar Award... a case of life someahet imitating art...

• Strangely, Maggie Smith was also the first of four women in succession to win Best Supporting Actress with the same initials ("M.S.")! From 1978-81 it went to Maggie Smith, then to Meryl Streep, then to Mary Steenbergen, then to Maureen Stapleton... The theme immediately continued in "reverse" fashion in 1982-3 for Best Leading Actress, being won by "M.S." (Meryl Streep) and then "S.M." (Shirley McLaine).

• The youngest person ever to receive an Oscar was the 5-year-old SHIRLEY TEMPLE in 1934, when she received an Honorary one (called a "Special Oscar" at the time) for achievements in several films. Otherwise the youngest person to win a competitive Academy Award is TATUM O'NEAL, who was 10 years old when she achieved Best Supporting Actress for 1973's "Paper Moon" (in which she starred alongside her father Ryan O'Neal).

• GEORGE BURNS was the oldest Oscar winner in a competitive category when he won the 1975 award for "The Sunshine Boys" at age 80, until at the 1989 awards 80-year old JESSICA TANDY won Best Actress for "Driving Miss Daisy". She later surpassed even that mark by receiving her second Oscar nomination in 1991 at age 82 (for "Fried Green Tomatoes"). However MYRNA LOY is the oldest female recipient of any Oscar, having been given an Honorary Award in 1990 when she was 85 years old. GROUCHO MARX is the oldest male recipient, having been given an Honorary Award in 1973 when he was 83 years old.

• The turn of the 70s/80s saw something of a revived interest in older actors, and the oldest group of acting winners in any one year occurred in the Awards for 1980: Henry Fonda (aged 77), John Gielgud (also 77), Katharine Hepburn (72) and Maureen Stapleton (56) had a combined average age of 70·5 years old.

• Forerunner of them all, CHARLES CHAPLIN (1889-1977), genius of over 100 silent screen comedy classics, was presented with a Special Oscar at the first Awards ceremony in 1927/8 for producing "The Circus" and continued making films for many years after, until receiving an Honorary Oscar in 1971. However the only Academy Award he ever won competitively was for music - with Best Original Dramatic Score (1952) for "Limelight".

  BEST FILMS
  The Winners List

• It is rare for the "top" Oscar to be awarded to anything other than an "epic" drama or war film, or a "feelgood" film touching on illness or disabilities (eg. Mrs.Miniver, The Lost Weekend, Marty, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Rainman, Forrest Gump, A Beautiful Mind).

• The 1998 winner SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE was the first "romantic comedy" to win Best Film since IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT 64 years earlier in 1934 (although some argue that Woody Allen's winning 1977 neurotic comedy ANNIE HALL comes close to being in the same category).

• DANCES WITH WOLVES (1990) was the first "western" for 60 years to win the Oscar for Best Film, despite it being the only American-invented film genre. The previous western winner was CIMARRON in 1930/1, and since 1990 the only other western to achieve the top award has been Clint Eastwood's UNFORGIVEN in 1992.

• An era of "musical" Best Films ended suddenly with OLIVER! in 1968, since when no musical (except for 2002's CHICAGO) has won the award. Yet in the previous decade from 1958-67 the top Oscar had also gone to four other musicals (Gigi, My Fair Lady, West Side Story, The Sound Of Music). Biggest victim of the apparent decline in musical appreciation was 1972's "Cabaret" (8 awards but not best Best Picture).

• David Lean's 1962 epic LAWRENCE OF ARABIA is unique in being the only film to win the Best Film award without containing a single female speaking role. In fact the only female featured in the entire film is a camel named Gladys!
  BEST FOREIGNERS
  The Winners List

• The 1987 Chinese/Italian co-production THE LAST EMPEROR by Bernardo Bertolucci is the only film produced outside of America or Britain to have received the ultimate award for Best Motion Picture. However it was not a foreign language film, and so was not nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.

• In 1998 ROBERTO BEGNINI (who won Best Actor and Best Foreign Film awards as the writer/director/star of "Life is Beautiful") became only the second person to have won an Oscar for acting in a foreign language film. SOPHIA LOREN, who presented Begnini with the award for Best Foreign Film, was the first: she won Best Actress in 1961 for her performance in "Two Women". Since then, MARION COTILLARD has become the third foreign language recipent, winning Best Actress for the 2007 French film "La Vie En Rose".

• Only six films have won both an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and other Academy Awards as well: The 1963 winner, Fellini's "8½" (Italian) also won an Oscar for Best Costume Design; "A MAN AND A WOMAN" (French, 1966) also won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar; Costa-Gavras's "Z" (French/Algerian) in 1969 also won for Film Editing; and Ingmar Bergman's "FANNY AND ALEXANDER" (Sweden, 1983) won 3 further Oscars for Cinematography, for Art Direction and for Costume Design. 1998's winner, "LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL" (Italian) also received the Best Actor award for Roberto Benigni and a music award for Best Original Dramatic Score. And most recently, Ang Lee's "CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON" (Taiwan, 2000) won 3 further Oscars for Cinematography, for Art Direction & Set Design, and for Original Music Score.

  DIRECTORS
  The Winners List

• JOHN FORD holds the record for most "Best Directing" awards - four in total, from 1935 (for "The Informer"), 1940 ("The Grapes Of Wrath"), 1941 ("How Green Was My Valley") and 1952 (for "The Quiet Man"). Intriguingly for the architect of the cinematic American west, none are Westerns. As for other achievers, only FRANK CAPRA and WILLIAM WYLER stand close with three awards each...

• JOSEPH L. MANKIEWICZ deserves a special mention for his efforts in Directing for 1949. He achieved Best Director in that year for "A Letter To Three Wives", but the film itself failed to achieve Best Picture - instead that honour went to "All The King's Men"... also directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz!

• MANKIEWICZ also went on to achieve a rare "follow-on" Oscar in the next year (1950) for directing "All About Eve", something that has otherwise only happened to JOHN FORD (in 1941 and 1942 for "The Grapes Of Wrath" and "How Green Was My Valley").

• ALFRED HITCHCOCK (the renowned "Master of Suspense") never won a single award for Best Director - not even when his film "Rebecca" (1940) was voted Best Motion Picture... Among the film profession, many (who ultimately also do the voting) found the Master difficult to work with...

• Another maverick, STANLEY KUBRICK (who died in 1999 and was responsible for such films as "Spartacus", "Paths Of Glory", "Dr.Strangelove", "A Clockwork Orange", "2001: A Space Oddysey" and "The Shining") never won a Best Director's award. Nor did did the influential but independent film-maker ROBERT ALTMAN (whose films included "Mash", "Nashville" and "Gosford Park"). And none of their films achieved Best Motion Picture either. Even MARTIN SCORSESE (whom many film critics call "the greatest American director alive today"...) spent many years in the "Oscar" wilderness until securing the 2006 "double" of Best Director and Best Film with "The Departed" (a film which curiously failed to attract any Best Actor/Actress nominations, let alone awards).

  MUSIC
  The Songwinners' List

• From 1934 until 1971, every award for Best Original Song went to a "Tin Pan Alley"-type ballad only (although most of the winning songs were and have remained classics). But after the start of popular rock'n'roll in the mid-1950s, still no rock, soul or blues song won the top award - not even an Elvis movie song - until ISAAC HAYES broke the mould with 1971's soul music "Theme From Shaft"".

• Since then, the awards have recognised other rhythmic song-styles but the preferred choice among Academy voters is still for laid-back or MOR songs with lyrics usually associated with romance. Only three songwriters have won the top award with uncompromising lyrics - the performing artists BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN with "Streets of Philadelphia" for 1993, BOB DYLAN with "Things Have Changed" for 2000, and EMINEM with "Lose Yourself" for 2002.

• The prolific popular songwriter RANDY NEWMAN was nominated for Best Original Song 13 times before finally winning at his 14th attempt with "If I Don't Have You" at the ceremony for 2001.

• At the other end of the musical scale, maestro composer and arranger JOHN WILLIAMS remains at the top of the music lists with five awards from 45 nominations (41 for Best Dramatic Score and four for Best Song). His works include the score of "Jaws" (1975), "Star Wars" (1977), "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" (1982) and "Schindler's List" (1993).

  COLOUR

• Throughout its first 73 years until March 2002, the Best Actor Oscar had only been won by a black man once: by SIDNEY POITIER for "The Lilies In The Field" in 1963. In the same period no black female had ever won Best Actress, despite the emergence of strong roles for coloured actors and actresses from the 1960s onwards.

• Meanwhile, only three black American actors had won the Best Supporting category, and all comparatively late on: LOUIS GOSSET Jr (1982), DENZIL WASHINGTON (1989) and CUBA GOODING Jr (1996); and in the female arena only WHOOPIE GOLDBERG (1990) had matched the singular achievement of Best Supporting Actress 51 years earlier by HATTIE McDANIEL (1939).

• Finally in 2002 the 74th Award show saw Afro-Americans win both top honours, and both in the same year - Best Actress for the first time, and Best Actor again at last: first HALLE BERRY (for her 2001 performance in "Monsters Ball") and then DENZIL WASHINGTON (for his portrayal of a bad cop in "Training Day"). Two years later JAMIE FOXX was nominated in both acting categories (the only person ever to have achieved this double) for his Leading Role in the biopic "Ray" (for which he won the Oscar) and his Supporting Role in "Collateral".

  ACTORS
  The Winners List

• Several actors have won 2 oscars in their careers, but only WALTER BRENNAN and JACK NICHOLSON have achieved a record 3 Oscars for Best Acting in Leading and/or Supporting roles.

• LAURENCE OLIVIER was nominated 11 times (10 for acting roles) during his career - a record only surpassed recently by JACK NICHOLSON with his 12th acting nomination in 2002.

• SPENCER TRACY was the only actor ever to achieve the Best Actor award two years in succession (in 1937 and 1938, for "Captains Courageous" and "Boys Town") - until TOM HANKS repeated the feat in 1993 and 1994 (for "Philadelphia" and "Forrest Gump")... The only other actor to achieve a near-similar "repeat" accolade is JASON ROBARDS, who won the award for Best Supporting Actor in both 1976 and 1977 (for "All The President's Men" and "Julia").

• BARRY FITZGERALD is the only person ever to have been nominated for the same role in both Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor categories, after his 1944 performance as a priest in "Going My Way". He ultimately won the award for Best Support, the Best Actor award going instead to the film's fellow priest and crooner BING CROSBY... Since then, the Academy's rules have been changed to prevent a nomination in both categories.

• Several people have been nominated for different portrayals of the same character (either in the same film or in different films), but MARLON BRANDO (for "The Godfather", 1972) and ROBERT DeNIRO (for "The Godfather II", 1974) are the only persons to have actually won Oscars for performances as the same character (being that of Don Corleone).

  ACTRESSES
  The Winners List

• KATHERINE HEPBURN achieved and still holds the record of four Oscars for Best Female Acting in a Leading and/or Supporting role. Nominated 12 times (and all for Leading Roles only) during a span of 48 years, her four Oscars were awarded for 1933 ("Morning Glory"), 1967 ("Guess Who's Coming To Dinner"), 1968 ("The Lion In Winter") and 1981 ("On Golden Pond").

• Among all other actresses only INGRID BERGMAN has approached close to Hepburn's unique feat, with 3 Oscars awarded for 1944 ("Gaslight"), 1956 ("Anastasia") and 1974 (with her Supporting Role in "Murder On The Orient Express"). Ingrid Bergman's tally is perhaps all the more remarkable considering that she was ostracised by the Hollywood community for several years after 1948 because of her married affair with Roberto Rossellini (Italian director of "Stromboli").

• LUISE RAYNER was the only actress ever to achieve the Best Actress award two years in succession (in 1936 and 1937, for "The Great Ziegfeld and "The Good Earth") - until KATHERINE HEPBURN did the "double" in 1967 (for "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner") and 1968 (for "The Lion In Winter"). Curiously Hepburn's "two-in-a-row" feat also happened to match the previous achievement of her partner SPENCER TRACY...

• Presently MERYL STREEP has just two Oscars (for a Supporting Role in 1979's "Kramer vs. Kramer" and a Leading Role in 1988's "Sophie's Choice"), but with her 12th acting nomination (and 10th in a leading role) for 1999's "Music Of The Heart" she equalled the record for most-nominated actress set in 1981 by Katherine Hepburn, and surpassed it with her 13th nomination for a Supporting Role in 2002's "Adaptation". She holds the record to the present day ("Doubt" in 2008 being her 15th nomination in 31 years).

  NON-WINNERS

• GERALDINE PAGE did share with Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole the record for most acting nominations without a win (seven), until her 8th nomination won her the 1985 Best Actress award for "The Trip To Bountiful".

• AL PACINO joined Burton and O'Toole for seven nominations without a win for a Support Role in 1992's "Glegarry Glen Ross" - but only for a few moments as the same year's Oscar ceremony went on to award him his only Oscar, for a Lead Role in "Scent Of A Woman" (his eighth nomination).

• In 2006 PETER O'TOOLE received a further eighth nomination (and like Kathering Hepburn, each time for a Leading Role only) for his part in "Venus", making him the most nominated person never to win a competitive Oscar.

• Close behind RICHARD BURTON's seven unsuccessful nominations, the actors ARTHUR KENNEDY and ALBERT FINNEY share five nominations without a win. Other famous actors who have never won an Oscar include CARY GRANT (versatile star of more than 70 romantic comedies and thrillers, he was nevertheless denied an Oscar throughout his career because he was one of the first actors to be contractually independent of the major studios), JAMES DEAN (who died in 1955 just after completing "Giant", his third film), STEVE McQUEEN (only ever nominated once for his 1966 Lead Role in ""The Sand Pebbles"), and HARRISON FORD (nominated just once for 1985's "Witness" despite starring in 6 of the top 10 highest grossing films by 1989 - the "Star Wars" trilogy and the "Indiana Jones" trilogy).

• Two actresses nominated six times without a win (Scottish rose DEBORAH KERR and gravel-voiced New Yorker THELMA RITTER) were almost joined by KATE WINSLET who finally won an award after being nominated a sixth time for her 2008 Leading performance in "The Reader". Other famous actresses who have never won a competitive Oscar include GRETA GARBO (who famously retired from movie-making in the 1940s to become a recluse), successful child-to-adult star JUDY GARLAND (who received a special juvenile award for 1939 however), and last but not least the biggest female screen icon of them all - MARILYN MONROE.

  TIED VOTES

• The 1968 Oscar awards ceremony was noteable for producing the only tie in votes for Best Actress, resulting in 3 female acting Oscar awards being presented. The tie for Best Actress occurred between KATHERINE HEPBURN (for "The Lion In Winter") and BARBARA STREISAND (for "Funny Girl").

• The only other tie in votes for acting occurred in the 1931/2 awards season (some five years before separate Oscars were created for supporting roles). The 1931/2 tie occurred between FREDERICK MARCH (for "Dr.Jekyll And Mr.Hyde") and WALLACE BEERY (for "The Champ").

  PROTESTS and REFUSALS

• Only two people have ever refused to accept an Academy Award. Both were Best Actors. GEORGE C. SCOTT refused his 1970 award for the title role in "Patton: Lust For Glory" because he detested the actual character of the man he had portrayed (although he had also stated in 1961 that he would never accept an Oscar award), and MARLON BRANDO refused his 1972 award for the title role in "The Godfather" as a means of publicising the cause of Native American Indians. In order to protest Hollywood's (and America's) poor treatment of Native Americans, Brando sent a woman who called herself SACHEEN LITTLEFEATHER to make a "refusal speech" on his behalf. In true Hollywood fashion however, she was later revealed as not a true Native American but just an actress playing the part of one...

• In contrast, VANESSA REDGRAVE used her acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress in 1977 (for "Julia") as a vehicle for speaking out live in favour of the Palestinian cause to millions of television viewers...

• In 1973 ROBERT OPAL briefly interrupted the awards ceremony by streaking naked across the stage while live on national television. Presenter DAVID NIVEN immediately remarked off-the-cuff in front of millions: "Just think, the only laugh that man will ever get is for stripping and showing off his shortcomings."

• In 1956 during the McCARTHY WITCH-HUNT PERIOD any nominee either declaring Communist Party membership or declining to testify before the Congressional Committee on Un-American Activities was declared to be ineligible for any Academy Award nomination. This rule only lasted for two years however, as many of the "blacklisted" performers and craftsmen continued to be nominated by their fellows in the industry. The strength of feeling aroused by this issue was echoed as late as 1998, when many actors and technicians refused to applaud the Honorary Oscar presented to veteran director ELIA KAZAN (who notoriously did testify to the Committee against many of his fellows).

  ACCEPTANCE SPEECHES

• Actress GREER GARSON holds the record for delivering the longest acceptance speeeeeech.... (for "Mrs Miniver in 1942). How long? Well, apparently the recommended time was 45 seconds per speech but Ms.Garson (known in the industry at the time as "the Queen of Hollywood") spoke for all of seven minutes!

• When JACK PALANCE stepped up to receive his Supporting Oscar in 1991 (for "City Slickers), the then-73-year-old actor celebrated by performing several one-armed press-ups onstage...

• In 1993 TOM HANKS unknowingly "outed" his gay high school drama coach live on national television by thanking him for his inspiration in his Best Actor speech (for the role of an Aids victim in "Philadelphia") - an incident that soon became the basis for a Kevin Kline film "In & Out".

 

INDEX +YRS

THE FILMS

FILMS +DIR

DIRECT'RS

NO-DOUBLE

WRITERS

ACTORS

ACTRESSES

SONGS

FOREIGN

SPECIALS

CURIOUS

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