How many awards … 2014 Oscars The Actors’ trivia and 3 dedications.

Covering the whole history of the Academy Awards would be darn difficult. At the very least, it couldn’t be done in a single post less it also doubled as a Master degree in cinema. Hoping to be here in the upcoming years, I chose to concentrate on the actors ( to one exception ) for 2014. For instance, did you know that the oldest winner, Henry Fonda, “finally” won for On Golden Pond in 1981 at the tender age of 76 years old after having been first nominated in 1940 for The Grapes of Wrath?
( Youngest was Adrian Brody at 29 for The Pianist )

Did you know that Charlie Chaplin never won despite a last nomination 1940 for The Great Dictator. This is important since Chaplin’s first film came out on Febraury 2nd 1914, a hundred years ago?

Did you know that Cary Grant, Mickey Rooney or James Dean ( despite two posthumous nominations for Giant -1956 & East of Eden – 1955 ) never won? Or for that matter that Peter Finch was the sole posthumous winner for Network in 1976?

Circa 1931-32 Wallace Berry & Fredric March both won, the only time this happened? ( In all truth ceremonies then covered 2 years! ).

You probably know that since last year, Daniel Day-Lewis is the record holder with 3 Best Actor Oscars. He only had to be nominated 5 times to become the best ever. but that allows us to tip our hats to the first of our 3 dedications for the year.
Peter O’Toole was nominated 8 times for Best Actor at the Oscars. He never won! Peter was a immensely gifted actor and all that saw him play in movies such as Becket ( Best screenplay and nominated for Best Picture 1964 ) or Lawrence of Arabia ( that won Best Picture/Director/Art/Cinematography/Original Score/Editing/& Sound ) think he was a winner? Peter died on December 14th 2013.

Philip Hoffman Seymour won Best Actor in 2005 for his role in Capote. He was a shining light of pure natural acting artistry for fans of cinema and yet … lost his most important role, the one we all play everyday and that is called life on February 2nd 2014?

Today, in France, Alain Resnais left us for good. He was not an actor but a director and he never won an Oscar. He was however know as an Actor’s director and those that made up his list are orphans tonight. He is however leaving us with a filmography of impressive magnitude and Cannes, Berlin, Venice, César awards as well as Vigo and Delluc prizes. He was 95 years old with a career begun in 1936. Since he was not American, you may not recognize film titles such as Hiroshima mon amour 19459 or My American Uncle 1980 or Smoking/No smoking. And yet, he
adapted the greatest novelists ( Duras, Semprùn ) to the big screen. But more than that, he made two movies that you could easily watch instead of the Awards if they get boring : Last Year in Marienbad 1961 , a pure marvel of moviemaking and Night and Fog 1955 a documentary on the Nazi concentration camp. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048434/

Which brings me to close on 2 remarks. First, no documentary ever won Best Picture! That is not only a shame but a blemish on the Academy’s reputation, a proof even of why to real aficionados of movies they will never rank as high as The Palmes or Bears or Lions. This may seem harsh but only differentiates between commercial prizes and artistic ones which may explain some of the things noted above?
And second, none of tonight’s nominees for Best Actor ever won. So that if for no other interest than novelty it might nonetheless be worth sticking around until the end. Good luck, Christian Bale, Bruce Dern, Leonardo DiCaprio, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Matthew McConaughey!

And good night Peter, Philip and Alain!

Tay.