In 1959, Shelley Winters promised to donate her first Oscar (for “The Diary of Anne Frank”) to the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam after Otto Frank, Anne’s father and the family’s only survivor, visited the set and predicted she would win an Oscar.
Oscar Actors: Finch, Peter in Network–Peer Recognition
January 29, 2010 by
When Peter Finch's publicist first met her client, she asked him what his ambition was. Finch replied unequivocally that the only thing he really wanted was that when he died they would write on his tombstone: "He was a good actor." Finch's wish came true, though he didn't live to see it happen; his Oscar for Network was awarded posthumously.
Oscar Roles: Ruehl, Mercedes in The Fisher King
January 29, 2010 by
Mercedes Ruehl, who won a supporting Oscar for playing a video store owner who nurtures a burned-out radio talk-show host (Jeff Bridges) in “The Fisher King,” recollected that success has not come easily to her. However, “in light of the Oscar, all of these sort of doleful memories transform themselves into amusing and charming anecdotes for my memoirs.”
Oscar Roles: McCambridge, Mercedes in All the King’s Men
January 28, 2010 by
The Oscar literally changed Mercedes McCambridge’s life: her salary skyrocketed overnight, she got more publicity, more invitations to parties, and an active social life. All of these changes were “highly enjoyable fringe benefits, but, best of all, was the knowing that you earned it from your peers, that actors voted for your acting.”
Oscar Speeches: Cagney, James–Yankee Doodle Dandy
January 28, 2010 by
James Cagney, winner of the Best Actor Oscar for “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” believed that “praise from your peers generates a special kind of warmth.” “I’ve always maintained,” Cagney said in his Oscar acceptance speech, “that in this business, you are only as good as the fellow thinks you are.”
