The 25th annual Academy Awards show was first televised on NBC which continued to cover the event until 1960 when the ABC Network took over, televising the festivities through 1970, after which NBC resumed the broadcasts. ABC once again took over broadcast duties in 1976; it is under contract to do so through the year 2020. Bob
Hope is shown above hosting the first televised ceremony.
Billy Crystal is an actor, comedian writer/producer, and film director. He gained
prominence in the 1970s for playing Jodie Dallas on the ABC sitcom Soap and
became a popular film star during the late 1980s and 1990s, appearing in the
box office comedy successes When Harry Met Sally (1989), and City Slickers
(1991). He has hosted the Academy Awards eight times.
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s musical film The Sound of Music was directed by Robert Wise and starred Julie Andrews (above) and Christopher
Plummer. It won a total of five Academy Awards including Best Picture in 1965
and is one of the most popular musicals ever produced. The cast album was
nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year. The film ultimately
grossed over $158 million at the U.S. and Canada box office, and displaced
Gone With the Wind as the all-time champion.
Christopher Plummer from The Sound of Music
Eugene Allen “Gene” Hackman is a retired actor and a novelist.Nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two, Hackman has also won three Golden Globes and
two British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards in a career that spanned
four decades. He first came to fame in 1967 with his performance as Buck Barrow
in Bonnie and Clyde. His major subsequent films include his role as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in The French Connection (1970) Hooseriers (1986), Unforgiven (1992) and
his final film role before retirement was in Welcome to Mooseport (2004).
Gene Hackman, left, and Warren Beatty from Bonnie and Clyde
Kevin Michael Costner is an actor, singer, musician, producer, director, and businessman. He has won two Academy Awards, and two Golden Globe awards.. Costner’s roles include Lt. John J. Dunbar in the film Dances with Wolves (1990), Jim Garrison in JFK (1991), Ray Kinsella in Field of Dreams (1989), and Eliot Ness in The Untouchables (1987). Costner earned a B.A. in business from California State University, Fullerton, in 1978.
Kevin Costner singing with his band Kevin Costner and Modern West
