Who is the only Oscar winner with two Oscar winning parents?
Liza Minnelli won an Oscar in 1972 for Cabaret. Her mother, Judy Garland had received an honorary Oscar as Outstanding Juvenile Performer for Wizard of Oz and
her father Vincente Minnelli won an Oscar for Best Director of the 1958 Best Picture winner Gigi.
What studio has won the most Oscars?
The top five are MGM which has 190, Paramount with 180, 20th Century Fox which has garnered 175, Warner Bros. is the proud recipient of 169 Oscars, while Columbia is a close fifth with 154.
What person had the most nominations in one year?
Well, several people have had 4, but Francis Ford Coppola remains the only person to garner 5 nominations in a single year. In 1974 he was nominated for Best Picture as producer of The Godfather: Part II and The Conversation, Best Director for The Godfather: Part II, Best Adapted Screenplay for The Godfather: Part II and Best Original Screenplay for The Conversation.
What director has directed the most actors to Academy Award nominations and wins?
This distinction is held by William Wyler, who has directed actors to 34 Academy Award nominations and 14 wins.
How does a person become a "seat filler" on the Oscar telecast? These people are standing and moving for most of the show, but how are they lucky enough to get the gig?
The answer: much harder than becoming a seatfiller at the Emmys or any other show. ABC employees get to be seat-fillers at the Oscars (as well as secretaries and other employees of the Academy.) The Emmys, CMAs DGA, SAG and all those other award shows use an organization called "Seat-Fillers" (located
at www.Seatfiller.com) which recruits volunteers for those things.
What was Robert Downey Jr. the first person to be nominated for Best Actor for?
Robert Downey Jr. was the first man to be nominated for playing another Best Actor nominee, he played the title character in 1991's Chaplin.
What three cities host the official screenings of nominated films?
New York, London and San Francisco. Official screenings are free if you present your Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences or Screen Actor's Guild card.
What is the common bond held by the Best Supporting Actress winners from 1978 - 1981?
Maggie Smith (California Suite, 1978), Meryl Streep (Kramer vs. Kramer, 1979), Mary Steenburgen (Melvin and Howard, 1980) and Maureen Stapleton (Reds,, 1981) all have the same initials (M.S.)
Who has the most nominations for Best Director without a single win?
That distinction is held by Clarence Brown who has 6 nominations and never won. A three way tie for second place exists between King Vidor, Alfred Hitchcock (who was eventually given an honorary award) and Robert Altman.
This year (2001), there are three African-American actors nominated for Oscars, has this ever happened before?
It has happened once before actually, in 1972 (and it's about damn time it happened again)! In 1972, Diana Ross was nominated for Best Actress for her performance in Lady Sings The Blues and Cicely Tyson was nominated for Sounder. In addition, Paul Winfield was nominated for Best Actor (also for Sounder). Of course none of them actually won, but it was still a first.
Who was the first Saturday Night Live player to be nominated for an Oscar?
Well, obsessive-compulsive person that I am, I'll answer much more than you asked. Six SNLers have been nominated for Oscars and they are:
George Coe (on SNL in 1975): Nominated Best Short Subject, Live Action Subjects
-The Dove, 1968 (before he was on SNL)
Randy Quaid (on SNL 1985-86): Nominated Best Supporting Actor-The Last Detail, 1973 (also before appearing on SNL)
Joan Cusack (on SNL 1985-86):Nominated Best Supporting Actress-Working Girl, 1988; Nominated Best Supporting Actress-In & Out, 1997
Dan Aykroyd (on SNL 1975-79): Nominated Best Supporting Actor-Driving Miss Daisy, 1989
Robert Downey Jr. (on SNL 1985-86): Nominated Best Leading Actor-Chaplin, 1992
Bill Murray (on SNL 1977-1980): Nominated Best Leading Actor-Lost in Translation, 2003
To date, no SNLer has won an Oscar
What four actors have each been nominated twice for playing the same character in two different movies?
Would you believe I got this question five times in one week? Apparently it was on Jeopardy, but only one of the answers was given. Bing Crosby received Oscar nominations for portraying Father Chuck O'Malley in Going My Way (1944) and The Bells Of St. Mary's (1945). Paul Newman was twice nominated as "Fast" Eddie Felson in The Hustler (1961) and The Color Of Money (1986). Peter O'Toole was nominated for playing King Henry II in Beckett (1964) and The Lion In Winter (1968). And finally, Al Pacino was nominated twice as Michael Corleone, for The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather: Part II (1974). Interestingly, Pacino and O'Toole never won for those roles. Crosby won for the former and Newman won for the latter. Alex Trebek, if you're thinking about retiring...well, e-mail me.
How long does a film have to be to be a film as opposed to a short film? What are the minimum and maximum lenghs for a short film?
According to Academy bylaws, a film must be "feature length", which is defined as longer then 40 minutes. With the exception of the new "Best Animated Feature" award, in which the film must be at least 70 minutes in length.
A short film must be no longer than 40 minutes including all credits. So the way I read the current rules, if you have an animated movie between 40 and 70 minutes in length, you're not eligible for either animation category, and since only one animated film (Beauty and the Beast) has ever been nominated for Best Picture, you can probably kiss an Oscar goodbye if your film doesn't meet the time requirements.
Who was the first person to present himself with an Oscar?
Walt Disney, in 1932. I've recently been reminded (by someone who didn't leave me an e-mail address with which to respond) that Irving Berlin duplicated the feat in 1942 when he presented himself with Best Original Song for "White Christmas" from the classic Holiday Inn.
I was just wondering if you knew of someone who has won 26 Oscars?
Walt Disney, the most for any single person (although it's fairly obvious that most of the time he was getting credit for some stuff done by other members of his studio). The person who probably earned the most Oscars would have to be Edith Head who won 8 for costume design, and had at least some input on everything that was done in the MGM costume department for years and years.
Who has hosted the awards ceremony the most times?
Bob Hope hosted the sucker an unmatched 18 times, Billy Crystal is a distant second, with 7.
Who was the first non-human to win an oscar?
At first I wanted to dismiss this question, but then I realized it had a (sort of) legitimate answer, Mickey Mouse was the first "non-human" to win an Oscar. (Is it me or is there a Disney theme to this page?) It's sort of a trick question, since he didn't actually win, but Walt won an honorary award for creating him in 1932. However, mickey-mouse.com claims that Mickey won, so we'll go with that.
Did John Lennon win an Oscar for best song if he did can you tell the name of the movie and what year?
Sort of. He won as part of a band that you may have heard of. The Beatles won an Oscar in 1970 for "Best Song Score" for the movie Let It Be, a documentary on the making of their last album.
What qualifies an actor as a leading actor vs. a supporting actor (or actress)?
There is really no set precedent on what makes you a leading or supporting actor or actress. Basically, you can't be nominated for both supporting and leading, and whichever one you get the required number of votes in first, is the one that you are nominated in.
What two movies have won every award they were nominated for?
Many movies have done it (The Matrix did it in 1999, but it was only nominated for 4 awards.) so I'll assume you are asking what movie has had the most nominations without a single loss. The answer to that is quite simple actually, Gigi in 1958, and The Last Emperor in 1987 both racked up 9 nominations, and 9 wins (though neither of them were nominated for any acting awards). SINCE ANSWERING THIS QUESTION: Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was nominated for, and won, 11 Academy Awards...the best clean sweep in history!
Who was the only person to win twice in one year for the same role, and have any two performers ever won for playing the same role?
In 1946, Harold Russell was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for the movie The Best Years Of Our Lives. Since the Academy's Board of Governors was afraid he wouldn't win, the gave him a Special Achievement Award for "bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans." It turned out he did win Best Supporting Actor, and remains the only man to win two Oscars for the same performance. To answer the second question, Marlon Brando won Best Actor in 1972 for his performance as Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather. In 1974, Robert De Niro won Best Supporting Actor for playing Corleone in The Godfather Part II. And to answer the question you didn't ask, the only times two people have been nominated for playing the same character in the same movie were: In 1997, Kate Winslet and Gloria Stuart were nominated (as Actress and Supporting Actress, respectively) for playing Rose DeWitt Bukater in Titanic, and in 2001 Judi Dench and Kate Winslet were both nominated for playing novelist Iris Murdoch in the movie Iris. None of the four actually won their award.
Who were the first father and son to both win Oscars?
Father Walter Huston, and his son John Huston both won in 1948 for Treasure Of The Sierra Madre, as Supporting Actor, and Director, respectively
What is the only X-Rated Movie to win best picture?
That would be "Midnight Cowboy", a 1969 movie starring Dustin Hoffman. It was originally rated X, but the rating was officially reduced to R when the PG-13 designation was invented in the 80's.
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