Gone with the Wind won eight Academy Awards: Best Picture,
Actress (Vivien Leigh), Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel),
Art Direction (Lyle R. Wheeler), Color Cinematography (Ernest
Haller, Ray Rennahan), Directing (Victor Fleming), Film Editing
(Hal C. Kern, James E. Newcom) and Writing – Screenplay
(Sidney Howard).
Vivien Leigh during the 12th Academy Awards Oscar night.
David O. Selznick in 1940.
On February 29, 1940, Gone with the Wind is honored with eight
Oscars by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences. An epic Southern romance set during the hard times
of the Civil War, the movie swept the prestigious Best Picture,
Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, Art Direction, Film Editing,
and Actress categories.
However, the most momentous award that night undoubtedly
went to Hattie McDaniel for her portrayal of “Mammy,” the
housemaid and former enslaved woman.
McDaniel, who won the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award,
was the first African American actress or actor ever to be honored
with an Oscar.
Born in Wichita, Kansas, in 1895, McDaniel demonstrated her
talents as a singer and actress while growing up in Denver,
Colorado.
She left school while a teenager to become a performer in several traveling minstrel groups and in 1924 became one of the first
African American women to sing on U.S. radio. In 1952 McDaniel
died of breast cancer at the age of 57.
On February 19, 1992, 24-year-old recent film school graduate
John Singleton became the youngest and first Black film
director nominated for an Academy Award for his movie,
Boyz n the Hood.
The poignant coming-of-age drama set in gang-ridden South
Central Los Angeles brought inner-city realities to the screen
in a way not seen in Hollywood before. Its success created
opportunities for a generation of Black filmmakers to tell their
stories.
On April 17, 2019, Singleton suffered a stroke and was placed
under intensive care.
On April 25, it was reported that he was in a coma, and was
was removed from life support and he died on April 28 at the
age of 51 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Dozens of actors
and musicians paid tribute to him.
Schindler’s List, starring Liam Neeson in the true story of a
German businessman who saves the lives of more than a
thousand Polish Jews during the Holocaust, opens in
theaters.
The film was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and took
home seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best
Director.
It was the first Best Director win for Spielberg, who had been
nominated in the category for three of his earlier films: 1977’s
Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1981’s Raiders of the
Lost Ark and 1982’s E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.
Oskar Schindler (1908 – 1974)
Liam Neeson (72)
Ralph Fiennes as an evil Nazi officer.
Ben Kingsley and Liam Neeson
Steven Allan Spielberg
Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch)
(December 9, 1916 – February 5, 2020)
As an actor and philanthropist, Kirk Douglas received
an Academy Honorary Award for Lifetime Achievement
and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
As an author, he wrote ten novels and memoirs. After
barely surviving a helicopter crash in 1991 and then
suffering a stroke in 1996, he focused on renewing
his spiritual and religious life.
He lived with his second wife, producer Anne Buydens,
until his death in 2020. A centenarian, Douglas was one
of the last surviving stars of the film industry’s Golden
Age.
1960
