Oscar Awards: Interesting facts and trivia

With Oscars 2015, also known as The 87th Academy Awards, just around the corner, we bring to you some interesting facts and trivia about the annual American awards...

The name 'Oscar': The statuette of the Academy Awards is better known as 'Oscar'. However, the origin of the name is uncertain. Among the couple of stories explaining the origin of the nickname, one popular story goes that the librarian and eventual executive director of the Academy, Margaret Herrick, remarked that the statuette resembled her Uncle Oscar. The nickname was officially adopted by the Academy only in 1939, though Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky used it in a piece referring to Katharine Hepburn’s first Best Actress win in 1934.

The Oscar statuette: Weighing 8.5 pounds and standing 13.5 inches in height, the coveted Oscar statuette is made of gold-plated britannium. However, between 1942 and the end of World War II, the statuettes were made of plaster to conserve metal. Winners of these statuettes got the actual trophy after the war. The only Oscar statuette ever made of wood was presented to Edgar Bergen in 1938 for his ventriloquist dummy Charlie McCarthy.

Eligibility: If a film is to be considered for an Oscar nomination, it must meet certain criteria. It must be 40 minutes long; on 35mm or 70mm film, or 24-frame or 48-frame progressive scan Digital Cinema format at a minimum resolution of 2048 by 1080 pixels. According to Academy rules, it must be screened for paid admission in Los Angeles for at least seven days. This was the reason why Charlie Chaplin’s 1952 film Limelight won an Oscar only in 1972, only after it played in Los Angeles.

Revision of the winning phrase: Till the year 1989, the winners were declared with the phrase, 'And the winner is...' In 1989 at the 61st Academy Awards, this phrase was replaced by 'And the Oscar goes to...'

Winners are not owners of the statuette: Oscar winners upon being presented with their award, must sign an agreement stating that if they wish to sell their statuettes they must first offer them to the Academy for $1. If they refuse, they cannot keep their trophy. The rule has been in effect since 1950, which means that older statues do sometimes appear on the open market. Interestingly, Steven Speilberg bought Bette Davis' Oscar for $578,000 in 2001 and donated it back to the Academy and Michael Jackson paid over a million for David Selznick's award in 1999. Steven Spielberg also bought Clark Gable's 1934 Best Actor Oscar for It Happened One Night, for the bargain price of $550,000 in 1996.

The Awards televised first time: On March 19, 1953, the Academy Awards ceremony was telecast for the first time across the United States and Canada. Thirteen years later, on April 18, 1966, the Academy Awards were broadcast in colour for the first time. Both of these ceremonies were hosted by Bob Hope.

The hosts: The list of hosts for the Academy Awards ceremony includes such prestigious names as Will Rogers, Frank Capra, Jack Benny, Fred Astaire, Jack Lemmon, and David Letterman.

However, one man has dominated Academy Award history. Bob Hope hosted 18 Academy Award ceremonies.

Billy Crystal, who has hosted the ceremonies nine times, ranks second as the host with the most.

Johnny Carson comes in third after hosting five Academy Award ceremonies.

Oscar speeches: The Oscars also became somewhat notorious for overly long and emotional acceptance speeches. In 2002, the ceremony ran an astounding four hours and twenty-three minutes owing to the lengthy speeches. Since then, the Academy enacted the 45-second rule, where speeches longer than 45 seconds will be cut off by the orchestra.


The longest acceptance speech ever given at an Academy Awards ceremony was by Greer Garson, when she accepted her award for Best Actress in 1942's Mrs. Miniver. It's uncertain exactly how long she spoke - most sources agree it was somewhere between 5 and a half and 7 minutes.


The record for shortest speech is shared by William Holden and renowned director Alfred Hitchcock. They both simply said, "Thank you."

Most Oscar Awards: Walt Disney holds the record for winning the most number of Oscars by an individual. He has walked off the stage 26 times with the golden statuette, of the 64 times that he was nominated.

The actress with the most number of Academy Awards for Best Actress is Katharine Hepburn, who won four of the golden statuettes.

Whereas Daniel Day-Lewis is the actor who won the most number of Oscars for Best Actor. He won three Oscars for Best Actor for the films Lincoln, There Will Be Blood and My Left Foot.

The three movies that won the most number of Oscars are Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003), Titanic (1997) and Ben-Hur (1959). Each of these movies won 11 statuettes.

The director with the most Oscar wins is John Ford, who won for The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley, The Quiet Man and The Informer.

Most nominations: Meryl Streep holds the record for the most number of nominations (17) for acting, including three wins (two for Best Actress, one for Best Supporting Actress).

Jack Nicholson holds the record for male actors, with 12 nominations, including three wins (twice for Best Actor, once for Best Supporting Actor.)

Woody Allen has the most number of nominations (14) for writing.

Two movies have tied for the most Oscar nominations, Titanic and 1951 film All About Eve. Both films received 14 nominations.

Youngest winners: The youngest person to ever receive an Oscar was 5-year-old Shirley Temple in the year 1934, though it was an honorary one.

The youngest actress to win a standard Oscar was Tatum O'Neal, who was 10-year-old when she won the Best Supporting Actress award for Paper Moon in 1974.

Oldest winners: Christopher Plummer became the oldest person to win an Oscar, when he won for Best Supporting Actor in 2012 for his performance in Beginners, at age of 82.

The oldest actor to win the Oscar for Best Actor was Henry Fonda, for On Golden Pond in 1982. He was 76.

The oldest actor to be nominated for an Oscar was Gloria Stewart, who was 87 when she was nominated for her role as aged Rose in 1997's Titanic.

Clint Eastwood is the oldest person to win Best Director for 2004 film Million Dollar Baby, at the age of 74.

The firsts: Emil Jannings, a Swiss-born German/Austrian actor, was the first Oscar recipient and the only German actor ever honoured with the Academy Award for Best Actor, at the 1929 ceremony.

Sidney Poitier was the first Black actor to win the Best Actor award for Lilies of the Field (1963).

Halle Berry was the first Black actress to win Best Actress for Monster's Ball (2001).

Kathryn Bigelow was the first woman to win Best Director for The Hurt Locker (2008).

Gone With the Wind (1939) was the first movie filmed in colour to win the Best Picture award.

They refused the Oscar: Three people have refused the honour in the history of Oscars. The very first person to refuse an Oscar was Dudley Nichols, who had won Best Screenplay for The Informer (1935). He boycotted the Academy Awards ceremony because of ongoing conflicts between the Academy and the Writer's Guild.

George C Scott refused the honour of Best Actor for his dramatic portrayal of the World War II general in Patton (1970), stating that the awards ceremony was a "a two-hour meat parade."

Marlon Brando also refused his award for Best Actor for The Godfather (1972). Brando, who said he refused the award because of the discrimination toward Native Americans by the US and Hollywood, sent a woman supposedly named, Sacheen Littlefeather, to collect his award. It turned out later that the woman was really an actress named, Maria Cruz.

Several nominations, no win: Kevin O’Connell, a sound re-recording engineer has had 20 nominations so far, but is yet to win a single statue. O’Connell’s last nomination came in 2007 for his work on Transformers.

Two films hold the record for the most Oscar nominations without winning one. The Turning Point (1977) and The Color Purple (1985) both got 11 Oscar nominations each, but did not win a single Academy Award.

The only sequel to ever win a Best Picture Oscar was The Godfather II in 1974. Also,

The only Academy Award winner who won but was never officially nominated was Hal Mohr for Best Cinematography for A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935). Mohr was the first and only person to win via a write-in vote.

Big five winners: Only three films have won the 'Big Five' (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay)- It Happened One Night (1934), One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and The Silence of The Lambs (1991).

The family victory: Two families have three generations of Oscar winners.

The Hustons - Walter Huston, Best Supporting Actor (1948); Walter's son John Huston, Best Director and Best Screenplay (1948); John's daughter Angelica Huston, Best Supporting Actress (1985).

The Coppolas - Carmine Coppola, Best Music (1974); Carmine's son Francis Ford Coppola, Best Writing (1970, 1972, 1974), Best Director (1974) and Best Picture (1974); Francis' daughter Sophia Coppola, Best Writing (2003).

The only Oscar to win an Oscar: Oscar Hammerstein II won the Oscar for his song, 'The last time I saw Paris', in the movie Lady Be Good (1941).

The streaker: During the Academy Awards ceremony held on April 2, 1974, a man named Robert Opal ran across the stage naked, flashing the peace sign. David Niven had been on stage to introduce the Best Picture category when the streaker ran behind him. Thinking quickly on his feet, Niven remarked, "The only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping ... and showing his shortcomings."