If you think of Meryl Streep as ancient and the oldest film youve ever seen is Spider-Man, this column probably isnt for you.
Were talking Oscars and such truly ancient figures as Katharine Hepburn, Ethel Barrymore and Walt Disney are bound to come up.
Speaking of ancient, Sundays broadcast (ABC, 6:30 p.m. MST) marks the 87th Academy Awards. Yikes! Im a year older than Streep and we were born in time for the 20th and 21st Academy Awards, respectively.
I remember when it was a rarity if someone other than Bob Hope hosted the TV Oscarcast.
If youve never heard of Bob Hope, this column probably isnt for you.
I considered doing this roundup of Oscars trivia as a quiz, but so much that I discovered is just so interesting and, yes, arcane that I decided to simply state the facts.
So lets start with Bob Hope for those of you who have heard of Bob Hope. He holds the record for hosting the Oscars and is likely to retain it forever. Hope held court 19 times! Six of those were co-hosting jobs, but still, amazing. (That includes the first coast-to-coast telecast in 1953 and the first color broadcast in 1966.)
Billy Crystal comes in second, having hosted the Oscars nine times. Johnny Carson is next, hosting five shows.
Who holds the record for the most Oscar wins? Walt Disney with 22.
Who holds the record for the most Oscar nominations? Walt Disney with 59.
Among filmmakers, John Ford is top dog, having won four directing Oscars for The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941) and The Quiet Man (1952). (Ford was nominated five times.)
And only two others have won three directing Oscars.
The first was Frank Capra for It Happened One Night (1934), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and You Cant Take It With You (1938). (Capra was nominated six times.)
And the second was William Wyler for Mrs. Miniver (1942), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) and Ben-Hur (1959).
Wyler also earned the most Best Director nominations with 12, a record that isnt likely to be duplicated any time soon. The next closest is eight nominations, held by Martin Scorsese and Billy Wilder, followed by Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen, David Lean and Fred Zinnemann, each with seven.
Only four women have been nominated as best director Lina Wertmuller for Seven Beauties (1976), Jane Campion for The Piano (1993), Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation (2003) and Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (2009).
And the only woman who has ever won a directing Oscar is Bigelow. (No women are nominated this year.)
But what youre really interested in is the actors, right?
Who has won the most acting Oscars? Katharine Hepburn, the only person to take home four (out of 12 nominations) all as Best Actress for Morning Glory (1933), Guess Whos Coming to Dinner (1968), The Lion in Winter (1969) and On Golden Pond (1982).
And only two actresses have won three Academy Awards.
The first was Ingrid Bergman (out of seven nominations), as Best Actress for Gaslight (1944) and Anastasia (1959), and as Best Supporting Actress for Murder On the Orient Express (1974).
Meryl Streep is the second with a Best Supporting Actress award for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), and two Oscars as Best Actress, for Sophies Choice (1982) and The Iron Lady (2011).
But Streep holds the record for acting nominations with 19. And since she is nominated in the supporting category for Into the Woods, its possible (if unlikely) that she could tie Hepburns record this year.
Among male actors, none has earned four and only three have earned three.
The first was Walter Brennan (out of four nominations), all three as Best Supporting Actor, for Come and Get It (1936), Kentucky (1938) and The Westerner (1940).
Jack Nicholson came next, with two as Best Actor for One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (1975) and As Good as It Gets (1997), and one as Best Supporting Actor, for Terms of Endearment (1983). (Nicholson has 12 nominations, the record number for men.)
And Daniel Day-Lewis is the only male actor with three Oscars in the Best Actor category (out of five nominations), for My Left Foot (1989), There Will Be Blood (2007) and Lincoln (2012).
Thirty-four other performers have each won two acting Oscars.
How many sets of siblings have won acting Oscars? Two: Brother and sister Lionel and Ethel Barrymore won in their respective supporting categories, Lionel for A Free Soul (1931) and Ethel for None But the Lonely Heart (1944), and sisters Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland both won Best Actress Oscars, Fontaine for Suspicion (1942) and de Havilland twice for The Heiress (1949) and To Each His Own (1947).
Among the Academys quirkier historical gems is Barry Fitzgerald receiving two nominations in 1944 for the same film, Going My Way. He was nominated as Best Actor and as Best Supporting Actor. Fitzgerald won in the latter category, but the situation merited a change in voting rules to prevent it from happening again.
Harold Russell, who wore prosthetic forearms with hooks for hands after being injured in a stateside explosive accident during World War II, was nominated as Best Supporting Actor for The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). But since no one thought hed win, he was awarded an Honorary Oscar early in the ceremony. But then he surprised everyone by also winning as Best Supporting Actor, making him the only person to glean two Oscars from one performance.
One of the Academys rules holds that for a film to become eligible for a nomination in any category, it must play in at least one commercial Los Angeles movie theater for a week before the end of the year. Charlie Chaplins 1952 film Limelight did not play in L.A. until 1972, which made it eligible, and it earned an Oscar nomination for Best Musical Score. And Chaplin (and two co-writers) won! This occurred a year after Chaplin was awarded an Honorary Oscar for his contributions to the industry.
Until 1989, those who read the nominations announced the winners by saying, And the winner is . But since 1989, the phrase has been, And the Oscar goes to . (Im sure all those humble nominees feel better about themselves since the change.)
The record length for an Oscars broadcast is four hours, 23 minutes, in 2002.
Hopefully, this Sundays event wont go quite that long.
Itll just feel like it.
Were talking Oscars and such truly ancient figures as Katharine Hepburn, Ethel Barrymore and Walt Disney are bound to come up.
Speaking of ancient, Sundays broadcast (ABC, 6:30 p.m. MST) marks the 87th Academy Awards. Yikes! Im a year older than Streep and we were born in time for the 20th and 21st Academy Awards, respectively.
I remember when it was a rarity if someone other than Bob Hope hosted the TV Oscarcast.
If youve never heard of Bob Hope, this column probably isnt for you.
I considered doing this roundup of Oscars trivia as a quiz, but so much that I discovered is just so interesting and, yes, arcane that I decided to simply state the facts.
So lets start with Bob Hope for those of you who have heard of Bob Hope. He holds the record for hosting the Oscars and is likely to retain it forever. Hope held court 19 times! Six of those were co-hosting jobs, but still, amazing. (That includes the first coast-to-coast telecast in 1953 and the first color broadcast in 1966.)
Billy Crystal comes in second, having hosted the Oscars nine times. Johnny Carson is next, hosting five shows.
Who holds the record for the most Oscar wins? Walt Disney with 22.
Who holds the record for the most Oscar nominations? Walt Disney with 59.
Among filmmakers, John Ford is top dog, having won four directing Oscars for The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941) and The Quiet Man (1952). (Ford was nominated five times.)
And only two others have won three directing Oscars.
The first was Frank Capra for It Happened One Night (1934), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and You Cant Take It With You (1938). (Capra was nominated six times.)
And the second was William Wyler for Mrs. Miniver (1942), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) and Ben-Hur (1959).
Wyler also earned the most Best Director nominations with 12, a record that isnt likely to be duplicated any time soon. The next closest is eight nominations, held by Martin Scorsese and Billy Wilder, followed by Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen, David Lean and Fred Zinnemann, each with seven.
Only four women have been nominated as best director Lina Wertmuller for Seven Beauties (1976), Jane Campion for The Piano (1993), Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation (2003) and Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (2009).
And the only woman who has ever won a directing Oscar is Bigelow. (No women are nominated this year.)
But what youre really interested in is the actors, right?
Who has won the most acting Oscars? Katharine Hepburn, the only person to take home four (out of 12 nominations) all as Best Actress for Morning Glory (1933), Guess Whos Coming to Dinner (1968), The Lion in Winter (1969) and On Golden Pond (1982).
And only two actresses have won three Academy Awards.
The first was Ingrid Bergman (out of seven nominations), as Best Actress for Gaslight (1944) and Anastasia (1959), and as Best Supporting Actress for Murder On the Orient Express (1974).
Meryl Streep is the second with a Best Supporting Actress award for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), and two Oscars as Best Actress, for Sophies Choice (1982) and The Iron Lady (2011).
But Streep holds the record for acting nominations with 19. And since she is nominated in the supporting category for Into the Woods, its possible (if unlikely) that she could tie Hepburns record this year.
Among male actors, none has earned four and only three have earned three.
The first was Walter Brennan (out of four nominations), all three as Best Supporting Actor, for Come and Get It (1936), Kentucky (1938) and The Westerner (1940).
Jack Nicholson came next, with two as Best Actor for One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (1975) and As Good as It Gets (1997), and one as Best Supporting Actor, for Terms of Endearment (1983). (Nicholson has 12 nominations, the record number for men.)
And Daniel Day-Lewis is the only male actor with three Oscars in the Best Actor category (out of five nominations), for My Left Foot (1989), There Will Be Blood (2007) and Lincoln (2012).
Thirty-four other performers have each won two acting Oscars.
How many sets of siblings have won acting Oscars? Two: Brother and sister Lionel and Ethel Barrymore won in their respective supporting categories, Lionel for A Free Soul (1931) and Ethel for None But the Lonely Heart (1944), and sisters Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland both won Best Actress Oscars, Fontaine for Suspicion (1942) and de Havilland twice for The Heiress (1949) and To Each His Own (1947).
Among the Academys quirkier historical gems is Barry Fitzgerald receiving two nominations in 1944 for the same film, Going My Way. He was nominated as Best Actor and as Best Supporting Actor. Fitzgerald won in the latter category, but the situation merited a change in voting rules to prevent it from happening again.
Harold Russell, who wore prosthetic forearms with hooks for hands after being injured in a stateside explosive accident during World War II, was nominated as Best Supporting Actor for The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). But since no one thought hed win, he was awarded an Honorary Oscar early in the ceremony. But then he surprised everyone by also winning as Best Supporting Actor, making him the only person to glean two Oscars from one performance.
One of the Academys rules holds that for a film to become eligible for a nomination in any category, it must play in at least one commercial Los Angeles movie theater for a week before the end of the year. Charlie Chaplins 1952 film Limelight did not play in L.A. until 1972, which made it eligible, and it earned an Oscar nomination for Best Musical Score. And Chaplin (and two co-writers) won! This occurred a year after Chaplin was awarded an Honorary Oscar for his contributions to the industry.
Until 1989, those who read the nominations announced the winners by saying, And the winner is . But since 1989, the phrase has been, And the Oscar goes to . (Im sure all those humble nominees feel better about themselves since the change.)
The record length for an Oscars broadcast is four hours, 23 minutes, in 2002.
Hopefully, this Sundays event wont go quite that long.
Itll just feel like it.
