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Oscar Week: Didja Know? Fun Random Oscar Facts!!

Let’s have some fun today, with some random fun Oscar facts. These are just fun little tidbits you may or may not already know, but will take you on a fun little trip down Oscar Lane. Join us in our forums HERE and tell us what you think!

Didja Know?

– The most Oscars awarded to any film were 11. There is a current three-way tie for that number; Ben Hur in 1959, Titanic in 1997 and The Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King (which won in every category it was nominated for) in 2003.

– The most Oscars to any film that didn’t win Best Picture: Cabaret won 8 Oscars in 1972, but lost Best Picture to The Godfather.

– The only silent film to win Best Picture was Wings in 1927.

– The only X-rated film to win Best Picture was Midnight Cowboy in 1969.

– The shortest film to win Best Picture was Marty in 1955.

– The longest film to win Best Picture was Gone With The Wind in 1939, which had a running time of 234 minutes. (That’s 3 hours and 54 minutes!)

– The last movie in black and white to win Best Picture was Schindler’s List in 1993. Before that was The Apartment in 1960.

– The most Oscars to any actor was 3, to Walter Brennan (all Best Supporting Actor) and Jack Nicholson (2 Best Actor, 1 Best Supporting Actor).

– The most Oscars to any actress was 4, to Katherine Hepburn (all Best Actress).

– The youngest Best Actor winner was Adrien Brody, at age 29, for The Pianist in 2002.

– The youngest Best Actress winner was Marlee Matlin, at age 21, for Children Of A Lesser God in 1986.

– The oldest Best Actor winner was Henry Fonda, at age 76, for On Golden Pond in 1981.

– The oldest Best Actress winner was Jessica Tandy, at age 80, for Driving Miss Daisy in 1989.

– The only performers to be nominated for playing the same character in two different films was Bing Crosby as Father O’Malley in Going My Way in 1944 and The Bells of Saint Mary’s in 1945; Peter O’Toole as King Henry II in Becket in 1964 and The Lion In Winter in 1968; Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in The Godfather in 1972 and The Godfather: Part II in 1974; Paul Newman as Fast Eddie Felson in The Hustler in 1961 and The Color Of Money in 1986; Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth I in Elizabeth in 1998 and Elizabeth: The Golden Age in 2007.

– The most nominations to any film was 14 for All About Eve in 1950 and Titanic in 1997.

– The most nominations to any individual was to Walt Disney, with 59 nominations.

– The only ties for major awards was for Best Actor in 1931 and that was between Wallace Beery in The Champ and Fredric March in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as well as for Best Actress in 1968 between Katharine Hepburn in The Lion In Winter and Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl.

– The Academy Awards have been postponed three times: in 1938 for one week due to floods, in 1968 for two days due to the funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr. and in 1981 for one day due to the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.

– Peter O’Toole has been nominated 8 times for Best Actor and has lost all 8 times. He did receive an honorary Oscar in 2003 but check out what he was nominated for and who he lost to:
– 1962: O’Toole was nominated for Lawrence of Arabia but was beaten by Gregory Peck for To Kill a Mockingbird
– 1964: O’Toole was nominated for Becket but was beaten by Rex Harrison for My Fair Lady
– 1968: O’Toole was nominated for The Lion in Winter but was beaten by Cliff Robertson for Charly
– 1969: O’Toole was nominated for Goodbye, Mr. Chips but was beaten by John Wayne for True Grit
– 1972: O’Toole was nominated for The Ruling Class but was beaten by Marlon Brando for The Godfather who declined the award
– 1980: O’Toole was nominated for The Stunt Man but was beaten by Robert De Niro for Raging Bull
– 1982: O’Toole was nominated for My Favorite Year but was beaten by Ben Kingsley for Gandhi
– 2006: O’Toole was nominated for Venus but was beaten by Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland

Join us tomorrow for another edition of Oscar Didja Know! Leave us a comment below and let us know what you think!

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Legendary Composer John Barry, Dead at 77

Musical Composer John Barry, who wrote the scores for more than a dozen James Bond Films and won 5 Oscars, has died. He was 77.

Although his work on the Bond Films is his most famous work, the English-born composer wrote a long list of movie scores, including for “Midnight Cowboy,” “Dances with Wolves,” Cotton Club,” “Peggy Sue Got Married,” and “Body Heat.” Barry was proud of his diversity in both action blockbusters, and the smaller, independent films.

He won two Oscars for “Born Free” in 1966, for best score and best song. He also earned statuettes for the scores to “The Lion in Winter” (1968), “Out of Africa” (1985) and “Dances with Wolves” (1990).

My all-time favorite however is not one of his most famous works, but I will admit to having it in my ‘classical’ playlist at home, from the film “Somewhere in Time.” (Yes, even this little rocker loves her classical music!) It is an elegant masterpiece that completely captured the emotions in this terrific movie.

[wpaudio url=”http://www.yakkityyaks.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/01-Somewhere-In-Time.mp3″ text=”John Barry – Somewhere In Time” dl=”0″ autoplay=”1″]

If you have not yet seen this little gem of a film, definitely do so. It’s an amazing piece of work, from the film to the music.

The Bond Films his most notable, he wrote music for “Goldfinger,” “From Russia with Love,” “Thunderball,” “You Only Live Twice,” “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” “Diamonds are Forever,” “The Man with the Golden Gun,” “Moonraker,” “Octopussy,” “A View to a Kill” and “The Living Daylights.”

Other films included “Robin and Marian,” “Somewhere in Time,” “The Cotton Club,” “Howard the Duck,” “Mary, Queen of Scots” and “Chaplin” in 1992.

Barry trained as a pianist, studied counterpoint with York cathedral organist Francis Jackson, and later took up the trumpet. He founded a jazz group, the John Barry Seven, in 1957.

The group teamed with singer Adam Faith, scoring hits with “What Do You Want?” and “Poor Me,” and Barry moved into film work when Faith was tapped to star in “Beat Girl” (titled “Living for Kicks” in the United States).

“The James Bond movies came because we were successful in the pop music world, with a couple of big instrumental hits. They thought I knew how to write instrumental hit music,” Barry said in an interview with The Associated Press in 1991.

In an interview in 2008 with The Irish Times, Barry said his success “was not that difficult.”

“If you hit the right formula, if you have an instinct for music, if you apply it, if you have the good fortune to meet with certain people who teach you well … I didn’t find it all that difficult,” he said.

R.I.P. John Barry. You were magical. I myself am looking forward to the Oscars paying tribute to this great man and his music.

He is survived by his wife Laurie, his four children and five grandchildren. A private funeral was planned, the family said.