Everybody who loves movies loves the Oscars. The glamour, the excitement, the surprises and the snubs have fascinated film buffs for years. Many stories have come out of the Academy Awards.
Surprisingly, Woody Allen has achieved legendary status as the writer/director/actor who has gotten more Oscar nominations than anybody else in the movie industry (Walt Disney received 29 Oscars as producer and studio executive). With more than 20 nominations (his latest for the screenplay “Match Point”), Allen tops the list. His nominated films in various categories include “Hannah and Her Sisters,” “Mighty Aphrodite” and “Annie Hall.”
In several cases, some of Hollywood’s greatest directors also wrote and produced their films. Some of the names on the gold list for creators include Alfred Hitchcock (five nominations), George Cukor (five), Frank Capra (six), Fred Zinneman (seven), Billy Wilder (eight), and William Wyler (12). These men directed some of the all-time great films, such as “Psycho” (Hitchcock), which stopped people from taking showers; Wyler’s “Roman Holiday” starring La Jolla’s own Gregory Peck; Cukor’s “The Philadelphia Story,” which rejuvenated Katharine Hepburn’s faltering career; Zinneman’s “The Nun’s Story” with Audrey Hepburn and Peter Finch; and Wilder’s “Some Like it Hot,” filmed right here in Coronado at the Hotel Del with luscious Marilyn Monroe.
Being nominated for an acting award is a great honor, but winning is better. The all-time champ for the most nominations at 12 and the most wins (four) is Katharine Hepburn. She won for “Morning Glory” back in 1932 and followed it up with “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” in 1967,” The Lion in Winter” (68) and “On Golden Pond” (82). Chasing her closely is Bette Davis with 11 nominations and two wins (“Dangerous” 1935, and “Jezebel,” 1938). Davis should have won for “All About Eve” and “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” Following in the two great actresses’ footsteps is Meryl Streep, today’s Bette Davis with 10 nominations, Jane Fonda and Ingrid Bergman with seven, and Deborah Kerr with six. Loveable character actress Thelma Ritter holds the record with the most nominations for Best Supporting Actress at six without ever having a win.
The youngest actress to win a miniature honorary statuette was Shirley Temple in 1934. She was 5 but was not in competition. In 2006, she received a Life Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild, 59 years after she stopped making movies. Other moppet actors to receive miniature statuettes were Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Margaret O’Brien, Peggy Ann Garner, Claude Jarman Jr., Bobby Driscoll, Hayley Mills and Deanna Durban. Tatum O’Neal won a legitimate acting Oscar at age 9, making her the youngest actress to win. The oldest actress to win was Jessica Tandy for “Driving Miss Daisy”. She was 80 at the time. Beautiful Gloria Stuart was the oldest actress to be nominated (for “Titanic,” 1997) at the age of 87.
The men held up their end of the acting. The king of nominations is Jack Nicholson with 11, Laurence Olivier is second with 10 and Spencer Tracy had nine. British actor Olivier won for his acting in “Hamlet” in 1948 and subsequently won two Honorary Oscars and one for producer. The great MGM star Tracy picked up two awards, for “Captains Courageous” (1937) and “Boys Town” (1938). Other perennial contenders include actors Paul Newman, Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon and Marlon Brando, each with eight nominations, and seven-time nominees but never winners Peter O’Toole and Richard Burton.
When Peter Finch was being touted for his acting in “Network” (1976) he balked when the studio wanted to enter him into the Best Supporting Actor category. He won his case and was nominated and won the Oscar for Best Actor. Finch won the award posthumously after he died of a heart attack in the lobby of the Beverly Hills Hotel while promoting “Network.”
My picks for the Best of 2005:
BEST PICTURE: “Brokeback Mountain”
BEST DIRECTOR: Ang Lee, “Brokeback Mountain”
BEST ACTOR: Health Ledger, “Brokeback,” although I think Philip Seymour Hoffman may win for “Capote”
BEST ACTRESS: Felicity Huffman for “Transamerica,” although Reese Witherspoon may win for “Walk the Line”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Jake Gyllenhaal, “Brokeback,” but George Clooney (“Syriana”) and Paul Giamatti (“Cinderella Man”) are strong contenders
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Michelle Williams, “Brokeback,” but Rachel Weisz is probably the Academy’s choice
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: “Brokeback Mountain”
The 78th annual Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, March 5 and televised on ABC-TV.