7 Stars Who Said "No" to the Academy

 

The biggest night in Hollywood has to be the night the Academy Awards are given out. The night that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gives out its “Oscar” awards is a night of glitz, glamour and, throughout its history, political and artistic protest. If you are looking for the latest Hollywood news, for the weeks around the big night, most celebrity gossip and most celebrity news focuses on the red carpet before the event and then the awards ceremony itself.

Now, the Today Showandnbsp;has compiled a list of stars who were not as impressed with the award. Some went so far as to turn down their awards. It is not a common event but these people told Oscar, “No.”

1. Katherine Hepburn accepted her awards but never in person. The actress won four of the awards and was nominated for 12. She only showed up for one award ceremony. She appeared on stage, not to accept an award but to give one. In 1972, she presented the producer, and friend, Lawrence Weingarten with the Irving G. Thailberg Memorial Award. The actress said, “My prize is my work. I’m living proof that a person can wait 41 years to be unselfish.”
2. George C. Scott refused to accept the award. He had won the Best Actor award for his performance in “Patton.” Scott had already told the Academy, via telegram, moths before the award ceremony, that he would not accept the award and that he planned to be on his upstate New York farm, which is where he was when his name was called. At the time, he made the latest Hollywood news by saying, “The ceremonies are a two-hour meat parade, a public display with contrived suspense for economic reasons.”
3. Marlon Brando skipped the 1973 Academy Awards to protest the way the industry treated Native Americans. The actor was nominated and won the Best Actor award for his performance in “The Godfather.” He did not attend the ceremony but sent Sacheen Littlefeather, a civil rights activist, in his place to go up on stage and decline the honor. Littlefeather also gave a speech.
4. Elizabeth Taylor boycotted the ceremony out of loyalty to her husband, Richard Burton. In 1966, Burton and Taylor had both been nominated for awards for their work on “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf?” Everyone expected Burton to lose and because he had already been nominated for four other Oscars that he lost, both decided to boycott the gala event. Taylor won, she had won her first Oscar six years before that, this was for her work on “Butterfield 6.” The actress never thanked the Academy.
5. Paul Newman skipped the ceremony the one year he actually won. After being nominated and losing six different times between the years 1961 through 1982, he decided not to attend the big show in 1987 when he was again nominated for, “The Color of Money.”
6. Will and Jada Pinkett Smith orchestrated a Hollywood boycott of the awards ceremony when they learned no actors of color were nominated in 2016. This was the second year in a row that the Academy did not include any actors of color in their nominations. This made the latest Hollywood news all over and soon Spike Lee, Michael Moore, George Clooney and Lupita Nyong’o all joined in and spoke out on behalf on the cause and the Smiths.
7. Peter O’Toole almost turned down an honorary Oscar. Over the 50 years he had worked in Hollywood, the actor, made famous in “Lawrence of Arabia,” had been nominated eight times but had never won straight out. In 2003, the Academy wanted to give him an honorary award. He told the Academy, “I am still in the game and might win the lovely bugger outright. Would the Academy please defer the honor until I am 80?” The Academy responded by telling him that both Henry Fonda and Paul Newman won the award the old fashioned way within a few years of accepting an honorary award and changed his mind.

When you think of the latest Hollywood news, interesting Oscar trivia has to be right up there with the most intriguing. These stars all had their reasons for not wanting to take part in the Academy Awards’ glitz and glamour.