Through the years, the Academy Awards have been peppered with shocking moments, jaw-dropping speeches and surprising snubs. Re-learn forgotten Oscar facts, and you’ll be ready to impress your friends with tons of movie trivia.
Rarest Wins
Even being nominated for an Oscar is a huge honor, as any film professional will tell you. So actually winning the award is a pretty big deal. But some winners have snagged an even rarer achievement by being completely one-of-a-kind.
The youngest person to ever win an Oscar did so in 1973. It was Tatum O’Neal, who took the statue for her Best Supporting Actress turn in “Paper Moon.” She was 10 at the time.
Only two performers have received Academy Award nominations for acting, writing, directing and producing: George Clooney and Warren Beatty.
The least-likeliest genre at the Oscars are suspense-thrillers. Only two have ever won: “Rebecca” in 1940 and “The Silence of the Lambs” in 1991.
Sequels don’t get much love during the Academy Awards. Only one has ever won the award: “The Godfather: Part II.”
Forgotten Facts
Oscar watchers today are used to seeing a revolving door of different hosts, but fans of the past probably remember one man better than all the rest: Bob Hope. He still holds the honor of hosting the Academy Awards more than any other performer, with a whopping 18 turns as emcee.
Today, the American Film Institute considers “Citizen Kane” to be the greatest movie ever made. But when writer/actor/director Orson Welles accepted the statute for Best Screenplay, he was booed by the in-house audience.
Two Martin Scorsese films hold a rather dubious Oscar honor. For many years, “Goodfellas” reigned as being the most profanity-laced film to be nominated in the history of the Awards (with 300 f-bombs). Scorsese has broken his own record with the Oscar nominated “Wolf of Wall Street,” which has more than 500 f-word occurrences.
Some actors go well over their time limit to talk on stage after winning, but one stretched the limit to its breaking point. Greer Garson holds the record for longest Oscar speech. Urban legend says it went on for 30 to 60 minutes, but the actual time is 5 minutes, 30 seconds. She won the Best Actress statue for “Mrs. Miniver.”
The shortest Oscar speech wasn’t clocked, but it was pretty short. Alfred Hitchcock simply said “thank you” when he won after much snubbing by the Academy Awards. William Holden, who won in 1953 for “Stalag 17,” also said a simple thank you before walking away.
