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Feb
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Posted by maureen
February 25, 2007 |
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Love them or hate them the Oscars are the most prestigious awards anyone in the film business can win. They’ve been going since 1929. They’re called the Oscars after the golden statue which is given out to the winners. No one’s quite sure why the statue’s called Oscar, but it’s rumored to be because one of the Academy members thought the statue looked a bit like her Uncle Oscar, and it stuck.Here are some other facts that you may not know about the Oscars:
- The statues themselves (weighing 6 and three-quarter pounds and standing 13 and a half inches tall) were designed in 1928 by MGM art director Cedric Gibbons, who doodled the design during an early meeting of the Academy. Unemployed sculptor George Stanley was paid $500 to knock up the first batch.
- The biggest winner ever was Walt Disney, who picked up a whopping 26 Oscars from 64 nominations, plus another six special trophies.
- Only three films have even won all top five Oscars - Best Film, Actor, Actress, Director and Writing. They are: It Happened One Night,One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Silence of the Lambs
- The most Oscars ever won by a single film is 11. That’s happened three times, with Ben Hur, Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
- The highest number of nominations for one person is 12. Both Katharine Hepburn and Meryl Streep hold the record, even though Katharine Hepburn won 4 times, and Meryl has only won 2 times. The record for Oscars won by a man belongs to Jack Nicholson, with 3
- Longest acceptance speech: 5 minutes and 40 seconds when Greer Garson won in 1943 for Mrs. Miniver.
- Only actor with two posthumous nominations: James Dean for East of Eden and Giant
- First color movie to win the Best Picture Oscar: Gone With The Wind.
- Movies with the highest number of nominations: Titanic and All About Eve, with 14
- The shortest Oscar ceremony: The first one. The prizes were given in just five minutes.
- Price of an Oscar statue: 150 dollars
- The 1973 ceremony was disrupted by a streaker, Robert Opal, who burst onto the stage while David Niven was introducing Elizabeth Taylor. Despite Niven’s comments about Opal’s “shortcomings”, streaking only increased in popularity.
- Linda Hunt remains the only actress to win an Oscar for playing a man. She appeared as a male photographer, alongside Mel Gibson, in 1981’s The Year Of Living Dangerously.
- In 1998 Dame Judi Dench was the first time two actresses had been nominated for playing the same role - Dame Judi playing Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare In Love, and Cate Blanchett playing her in Elizabeth.
- The movie which won the most Oscars without winning Best Picture was Cabaret, which took eight awards in 1972.
- Only person who has won an Oscar, a Tony, an Emmy and a Grammy: Rita Moreno.
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