1958 Academy Awards® Winners and History Separate Tables (1958) Actor: DAVID NIVEN in "Separate Tables", Tony Curtis in "The Defiant Ones" , Paul Newman in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" , Sidney Poitier in "The Defiant Ones" , Spencer Tracy in "The Old Man and the Sea" Actress: SUSAN HAYWARD in "I Want to Live", Deborah Kerr in "Separate Tables", Shirley MacLaine in "Some Came Running", Rosalind Russell in "Auntie Mame", Elizabeth Taylor in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" Supporting Actor: BURL IVES in "The Big Country", Theodore Bikel in "The Defiant Ones" , Lee J.

Cobb in "The Brothers Karamazov", Arthur Kennedy in "Some Came Running", Gig Young in "Teacher's Pet" Supporting Actress: WENDY HILLER in "Separate Tables", Peggy Cass in "Auntie Mame", Martha Hyer in "Some Came Running", Maureen Stapleton in "Lonelyhearts", Cara Williams in "The Defiant Ones" Director: VINCENTE MINNELLI for "Gigi", Richard Brooks for "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" , Stanley Kramer for "The Defiant Ones" , Mark Robson for "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness", Robert Wise for "I Want to Live!" This year's Oscars ceremony was hosted by Oscar-winner David Niven for Separate Tables. He was the only person to win an Oscar the same year he was a host. It was a momentous year when the eight Oscar record held by Meet Me In St. Louis (1944) .] Gigi remains one of the few films to win all the awards for which it had been nominated (in four or more categories), and is one of only eleven Best Picture winners in the Academy's first 82 years not to receive a single acting nomination.

It was highly unusual that none of the excellent cast, young Parisian ingenue Gigi (Leslie Caron), rich suitor and suave aristocrat Gaston (Louis Jourdan), Gigi's grandmother and ex-Chevalier lover (Hermione Gingold), or Gaston's charming but roguish uncle Honore (Maurice Chevalier), received acting nominations. However, the Frenchman Maurice Chevalier, known for his singing of Thank Heaven For Little Girls, was presented with an Honorary Oscar Award "for his contribution to the world of entertainment for more than half a century." Set in early 1900s Paris - it told the slightly distasteful story by French writer Colette of a young teen-aged Parisienne girl trained by a wealthy aunt at the turn of the century to become a courtesan (in the tradition of her family) to a wealthy suitor or "protector." She double-crossed her family by enchanting her proposed suitor and marrying him instead.

During the time of the smash Broadway hit My Fair Lady (that wouldn't be available for the screen for a number of years (until My Fair Lady (1964) ), the stage hit's composers Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe and costumer Cecil Beaton were hired by MGM to create a movie musical from the Broadway non-musical Gigi.

The other Best Picture nominees were the following: director Morton DaCosta's commercially-successful Auntie Mame (with six nominations and no wins) - a film based on Patrick Dennis' novel about a flamboyant, eccentric, and zesty Bohemian aunt director Richard Brooks' film adaptation of Tennessee William's play that was severely bowdlerized, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (with six nominations and no wins) about a greedy struggle for a patriarchal Southern family inheritance director Stanley Kramer's message film The Defiant Ones (with nine nominations and two wins - Best Story and Screenplay, and Best B/W Cinematography) about two escaped Southern prisoners chained together (one black and the other white) Delbert Mann's dramatic telling of Terence Rattigan's stage play Separate Tables (with seven nominations and two wins - Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress) about a group of guests at a British seaside hotel Three of the directors of the Best Picture nominees were also nominated for Best Director - Vincente Minnelli for Gigi, Richard Brooks for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof , and Stanley Kramer for The Defiant Ones .

Minnelli, with his second and last Best Director nomination, won his first Best Director Oscar for Gigi, although he had directed some of the greatest MGM musicals ever made ( Meet Me In St. Louis (1944) , The Pirate (1948), and The Band Wagon (1953)) and other great non-musicals (including Madame Bovary (1949), Father of the Bride (1950) , The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) , Lust for Life (1956), and Some Came Running (1958)). [Minnelli directed the only other Freed musical to win the Best Picture Oscar, An American In Paris (1951) , but he lost the Best Director award to George Stevens for A Place in the Sun (1951) .] The directors of Best Picture nominees Auntie Mame (Morton DaCosta) and Separate Tables (Delbert Mann) were not nominated.

Mark Robson was nominated as director of The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (the film's sole nomination), starring an un-nominated Ingrid Bergman as Gladys Aylward - an English missionary in 1930s China opposite Robert Donat in his last film, and Robert Wise was likewise nominated as Best Director for I Want to Live! (with six nominations and one win - Best Actress) about a prostitute framed for murder and sentenced to die in the gas chamber. The Best Actor category winner was David Niven (with his sole career nomination) in Separate Tables as a lonely, retired, war-braggart - British army Major Pollock in the fascinating character study set in a small English seaside hotel on England's south coast. The award was Niven's first and only Oscar after a twenty-three year-old film career. According to some sources, his performance - at 15 minutes, 38 seconds - was the shortest duration of a performance to win a lead acting Oscar. See also Anthony Hopkins' performance in The Silence of the Lambs (1991) .

The other Best Actor nominees were: Paul Newman (with his first nomination) for his role as athletic, but hobbled and troubled 'homosexual' Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Spencer Tracy (with his sixth nomination) as an old Cuban fisherman who battles a giant marlin in director John Sturges' The Old Man and the Sea (with three nominations and one win - Best Dramatic Score) the two co-stars of The Defiant Ones (their nominations presumably cancelled each other out) - Tony Curtis (with his sole nomination) as white convict John Jackson - Sidney Poitier (with his first of two career nominations) as black convict Noah Cullen Both were escaped, runaway chain-gang convicts who were shackled together for short-lived freedom and forced to realize they needed to help each other. [Poitier's nomination was the first for an African-American actor in either the Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor categories.] In the Best Actress category, all of the nominees had not yet won an Oscar. There were many nominees who had received multiple unsuccessful nominations in the past.

Susan Hayward had been in the running for a Best Actress Oscar for many years (in 1947, 1949, 1952, and 1955) - so it was fitting that she won for her fifth nominated performance in the bravura drama I Want to Live!, as prostitute/thief Barbara Graham, suspected as a murderess, convicted and sent to the gas chamber in San Quentin prison in 1953 after appeals and a long fight to spare her life.

The others were: Rosalind Russell with her fourth nomination for her title role in Auntie Mame (Russell had three prior nominations (in 1942, 1946 and 1947)), a recreation of her successful Broadway stage role Deborah Kerr with her fifth nomination (following four priors in 1949, 1953, 1956 and 1957) - she was nominated for Separate Tables as a shy, repressed, mousey, mother-dominated spinster named Sybil Railton-Bell who resides in the seaside hotel and still loves the phony David Niven Elizabeth Taylor (with her second of four consecutive nominations) for her role as sex-starved Maggie the Cat (and Paul Newman's wife) in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof [The 1958 death of Taylor's husband Mike Todd in a plane crash was expected to help her chances, but her very-public breakup of Eddie Fisher's marriage to Debbie Reynolds tarnished her public image] first-timer Shirley MacLaine who was nominated for her role as sexy floozy/factory worker Ginny Moorhead in director Vincente Minnelli's second film of the year, Some Came Running (with

 five nominations and no wins) - from James Jones' follow-up novel to From Here to Eternity (1953) .

In the Best Supporting Actor category, Burl Ives (with his sole nomination) won as western patriarch and scruffy rancher Rufus Hannassey, caught in the murderous water-rights dispute with Charlton Heston, Charles Bickford and Gregory Peck in director William Wyler's sweeping epic western The Big Country. [Burl Ives played two other patriarchs in the same year: "Big Daddy" in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof , a much better performance than the one he was nominated for, and as a New England farmer in Desire Under the Elms.] The other Best Supporting Actor nominees were: Arthur Kennedy (with his fifth and last un-successful Oscar attempt) for his role as Frank Hirsh (Frank Sinatra's brother) in Some Came Running Lee J. Cobb (with his second and last unsuccessful nomination) as the family patriarch - Fyodor Karamazov in director Richard Brooks' Hollywood version of Dostoyevsky's novel, The Brothers Karamazov (the film's sole nomination) Theodore Bikel (with his sole nomination) as Sheriff Man Muller in The Defiant Ones Gig Young (with his second of three career nominations) as psychologist Dr.

Hugo Pine (Doris Day's boyfriend and rival to Clark Gable) in director George Seaton's comedy Teacher's Pet (with two nominations and no wins) British stage actress Dame Wendy Hiller won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar as Miss Pat Cooper - the lonely, efficient proprietor of a seaside guest house/hotel (the Hotel Beauregard in Bournemouth, England) and the engaged-to-be married mistress of divorced writer Burt Lancaster (a resident who is also rekindling his former marriage with the arrival of his vain, aging ex-wife and fashion model Rita Hayworth) in Separate Tables. [It was Hiller's first Oscar win (her first nomination was for Pygmalion (1938) and she would later be nominated, her third and final nomination, for A Man for All Seasons (1966))].

The other Best Supporting Actress nominees included: Peggy Cass (with her sole nomination) as ugly and plain secretary Agnes Gooch who becomes pregnant in Auntie Mame Martha Hyer (with her sole nomination) as college teacher Gwen French (in love with co-star Frank Sinatra) in Some Came Running Maureen Stapleton (with her first of four career nominations in her film debut role) as cripple's wife Fay Doyle in director Vincent Donehue's Lonelyhearts (the film's sole nomination) Cara Williams (with her sole nomination) as the unnamed, lonely mother in The Defiant Ones In the Short Subject: Cartoon awards category, Warner Bros.' Knighty Knight Bugs brought Bugs Bunny his first Oscar and Friz Freleng his fourth Oscar. In the Oscar-winning Looney Tunes cartoon, a medieval court jester Bugs Bunny must recover the Singing Sword from the evil Black Knight (Yosemite Sam). Freleng's previous Oscar wins were for Tweety Pie (1947), Speedy Gonzalez (1955), and Birds Anonymous (1957).

Oscar Snubs and Omissions: Two films that towered over the Best Picture nominess, but did not receive many deserved nominations and awards (including Best Picture) were the following two classic film gems: Alfred Hitchcock's greatest suspense-thriller Vertigo (it had only two unsuccessful, minor nominations for Best Sound and Best Art Direction/Set Decoration) with the films' great un-nominated stars: James Stewart (as retired San Francisco detective John "Scottie" Ferguson afflicted with both acrophobia and necrophilia) in a perverse relationship with Kim Novak (in a complex dual role as Madeleine Elser/Judy Barton) who Scottie 'made over' to resemble his previous love Orson Welles' last noirish masterpiece about evil doings in a bordertown, Touch Of Evil (completely un-nominated), in which the director starred as obese, cigar-smoking, corrupt veteran police detective Hank Quinlan Another film, a complex drama titled Some Came Running, from this year's honored director Vincente Minnelli, had five (unsuccessful) nominations (Best Actress, Best Costume Design, Best Song, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress), the film didn't receive a Best Picture nomination - probably because it was pushed aside

 by Gigi.

Stanley Donen's sophisticated romantic comedy Indiscreet, with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman (now triumphantly back in Hollywood), lacked nominations. Although Alec Guinness won the Best Actor Oscar for The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957) in the previous year, he was un-nominated for another great role as unorthodox painter Gulley Jimson in this year's British comedy The Horse's Mouth. And while Spencer Tracy was nominated as Best Actor for The Old Man and the Sea this year, he was neglected for another role as political boss Frank Skeffington in John Ford's political drama The Last Hurrah (completely unnominated). And Rock Hudson was un-nominated for his performance as Burke Devlin in Douglas Sirk's excellent melodrama adapted from a Faulkner novel, The Tarnished Angels (also unnominated). Two actresses who should have been included in the list of Best Actress nominees were Ingrid Bergman for her role as American missionary-to-China Gladys Aylward in nominated director Mark Robson's The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, and Kim Stanley in her debut film as a self-destructive film star in The Goddess.

And one of the stars of the honored Gigi - Hermione Gingold - failed to be nominated for her supporting role as a mischievous witch in Bell, Book and Candle - a film that also starred James Stewart and Kim Novak, the major characters in Hitchcock's DAVID NIVEN DEAD AT 73 - WITTY ACTOR WON OSCAR - NYTimes.com DAVID NIVEN DEAD AT 73 DAVID NIVEN DEAD AT 73; WITTY ACTOR WON OSCAR By ERIC PACE Published: July 30, 1983 David Niven, the former British Army lieutenant whose debonair charm conquered Hollywood and helped make him an Academy Awardwinning star and a perennially popular character actor, died yesterday, a nephew reported. Mr. Niven was 73 years old. The cause of his death was not immediately disclosed, but he had been suffering from a debilitating neuro-muscular disorder, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which is also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. ''My uncle died peacefully and without pain,'' Michael Wrangdah said in Chateau d'Oex, Switzerland, where Mr. Niven died in his Alpine chalet.

''His last gesture a few minutes before he died had been to give the thumbs-up sign.'' Slim, witty and lighthearted, Mr. Niven crowned two urbane decades before the film cameras with his Academy Award as the best actor of 1958, which came for his performance as a fraudulent British major in the drama ''Separate Tables.'' Appeared in 'Wuthering Heights' He had important roles in many other films, including Samuel Goldwyn's ''Wuthering Heights'' (1939), in which he played the gentle husband of a restless Merle Oberon. And he starred as the adventurous Phileas Fogg in Michael Todd's ''Around the World in 80 Days'' (1956). Mr. Niven's other major films included ''Dawn Patrol'' (1938), ''Stairway to Heaven'' (1946), ''The Bishop's Wife'' (1947), ''Enchantment'' (1948), ''Court Martial'' (1955) and ''Where the Spies Are'' (1966). Mr.

Niven's film career began in the 1930's with work as an extra and in bit parts. It then ripened into solid featured roles in more than a score of pictures, including a part as a flirtatious major in ''Dodsworth'' (1936). But it was not until after service as a British Army officer during World War II, that Mr. Niven attained full stardom. Late in his career, Mr. Niven also gained success as an author. His best-selling volume of memoirs, ''The Moon's a Balloon,'' was praised in 1972 by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt in The New York Times for its ''racy wit and fine sense of the absurd.'' His 1975 nonfiction work, ''Bring on the Empty Horses,'' was praised by William F. Buckley Jr.

in The Times as ''a book about Hollywood and incidentally a masterful self-portrait.'' And his best-selling 1981 novel of Hollywood and wartime London, ''Go Slowly, Come Back Quickly,'' was praised in The Chicago Tribune for its ''wonderful anecdotes and escapades.'' Upper-Crust Background In an industry not known for traditional politesse, he sometimes astounded film critics by writing them thank-you notes after they had praised his work. Such mannerly flourishes sprang naturally from Mr. Niven's uppercrust background. He was born James David Graham Niven on March 1, 1910, in Kirriemuir, a market and linen-mill center in the Scottish Highlands. His father, William Edward Graham Niven, was a British officer who died in the Gallipoli campaign of World War I. His French mother, the former Henrietta Etta Degacher, later married Sir Thomas Comyn-Platt, a Conservative Party figure. The future movie star attended the Stowe School in Buckinghamshire and the Royal Military College at Sandhurst.

Commissioned a lieutenant in the British Army, he saw service on Malta before resigning from the Army in 1932 to seek his fortune across the Atlantic. First Film in 1935 His first film appearance of any consequence was in a minor part in the 1935 Samuel Goldwyn drama ''Splendor,'' starring Miriam Hopkins and Joel McCrea. He then had a minor part in ''Rose Marie'' (1936), which starred Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. In 1938, came what some film historians consider to be one of Mr. Niven's best earlier roles, an irrepressible but authentic-seeming airman in ''Dawn Patrol,'' which was a remake of an earlier World War I aviator movie. The following year, in ''Wuthering Heights,'' Mr. Niven won the praise of Frank S. Nugent, then film critic of The New York Times, for his ''dignified and poignant'' role as Merle Oberon's husband. Later that year, in the little remembered comedy, ''Bachelor Mother,'' he co-starred with Ginger Rogers and Charles Coburn. Back to the Army Before 1939 was out, Mr.

Niven returned to Britain and rejoined the British Army as a lieutenant. He served until 1945, seeing combat and rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel - with time out to appear in the war film ''The Way Ahead.'' For his war service, he was awarded the United States Legion of Merit. Back in civilian life, Mr. Niven starred as a pilot in the British romantic fantasy film, ''Stairway to Heaven'' (1946), made by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Bosley Crowther of The Times called his acting ''sensitive and real.'' In the comedy ''The Bishop's Wife'' (1947), Mr. Niven was overshadowed by Cary Grant, but he drew excellent notices, as he did also for his acting in the 1948 love story ''Enchantment.'' During this phase of his career, much of his work was in film comedies, including ''Happy Go Lovely'' (1951), ''The Lady Says No'' (1952), ''Island Rescue'' (1952) and ''The Moon is Blue'' (1953).

Appeared on Broadway 1 David Niven | Films | Movies | Cinema | Biography of this British actor - David Niven David Niven (Lt Col) (1910 - 1983) After his Goldwyn contract ended in 1949, Niven marked time with inconsequential movies before joining Dick Powell, Charles Boyer, and Ida Lupino to form Four Star, a television production company. Niven was finally able to choose strong dramatic roles for himself, becoming one of TV's first and most prolific stars, although his public still preferred him as a light comedian. The actor's film career also took an upswing in the '50s with starring performances in the controversial 'The Moon Is Blue' (1953), a harmless concoction which was denied a Production Code seal because the word "virgin" was bandied about, and the mammoth 'Around the World in 80 Days' (1956), in which Niven played his most famous role, erudite 19th century globetrotter Phileas Fogg.

When Laurence Olivier dropped out of the 1958 film ;Separate Tables', Niven stepped in to play an elderly, disgraced British military man. Although he was as flippant about the part as usual - telling an interviewer, "They gave me very good lines and then cut to Deborah Kerr while I was saying them" .. he won an Oscar for this performance. This perhaps sums up David Niven more than anything else you're likely to read. Niven continued his career as a high-priced, A-list actor well into the '60s. He played the amiable comic thief Sir Charles Lytton in 'The Pink Panther' (1963) and returned to television in the stylish "caper" series 'The Rogues' in 1964. He than played Sir James Bond in the 1967 version of 'Casino Royale'. He revisited his hobby of writing in the early '70s; an earlier novel, Round the Ragged Rocks, didn't sell very well, but gave him pleasure while working on it.

But two breezy autobiographies did better: The Moon's a Balloon (1972) and Bring on the Empty Horse (1975). Working alone, without help of a ghostwriter (as opposed to many celebrity authors), Niven was able to entertainingly transfer his charm and wit to the printed page (even if he seldom let the facts impede his storytelling). At the start of the 1980's he played a real military hero in Andrew V. McLaglens 'The Sea Wolves' with Gregory Peck and Roger Moore. A very unusual and enjoyable war time romp – the details of which will be found elsewhere on the website. In 1982, Niven discovered he was suffering from a neurological illness commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, which would prove fatal within a year. Courageously keeping up a front with his friends and the public, Niven continued making media appearances, although he was obviously deteriorating. While appearing in his last film, Curse of the Pink Panther (1983), the actor's speech became so slurred due to his illness that his lines were later dubbed by impressionist Rich Little.

Refusing all artificial life-support systems, Niven died in his Switzerland home later that year. Niven was unsure of how worthwhile his life had been, believing that perhaps he had not completed all that he wanted to achieve. But perhaps the legacy of leaving behind countless friends and family members who adored him should have been enough. In terms of a suitable epitaph a lovely story springs to mind. After his death journalists were trying to "dig up dirt" following the actor's death. They came back surprised and perhaps secretly pleased that none of them could find anyone who would have a bad word to say about David Niven. Quotes ‘Going to war was the only unselfish thing I have ever done for humanity’ ’I have a face that is a cross between two pounds of halibut and an explosion in an old clothes closet’ ‘I see my purpose in life as making the world a happier place to be in’ Autobiographies: Oscars fast facts Home » fastfacts » Oscars fast facts Oscars fast facts The shortest Oscar ceremony ever was the first, held in 1929; it lasted only about 15 minutes as all the winners had been announced three months earlier.

The longest Oscar awards ceremony was in 2000, running for 4 hours and 16 minutes – beating a previous record by 16 minutes. Bob Hope has hosted the Oscars 18 times; Billy Crystal is in second place with 8 times. Tom Hanks is the youngest recipient of the Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award, which he received in 2002 at age 45. Kate Winslet received four Oscar nominations before reaching the age of 30. Elizabeth Taylor received four Oscar nominations before reaching the age of 28. Gone with the Wind, at 3 hours and 56 minutes, was the longest film to have won a Best Picture Oscar; it was also the first film in color to win Best Picture. The 1968 movie, War and Peace, was the longest film (431 minutes) to an Academy Award – for best Foreign picture. Julia Phillips was the first female producer to win Best Picture award, for The Sting (1973). The first female to win the Best Director award was Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (2008).

Henry Fonda was first nominated for a Best Actor Oscar in 1941 for his role in The Grapes of Wrath but had to wait 41 years before he finally achieved a win in 1982 for his role in On Golden Pond. At 76, he is the oldest actor yet to have received the Best Actor award. The oldest actress to win an Oscar is Jessica Tandy – at 81 she won the Best Actress Oscar in 1990 for her performance in Driving Miss Daisy. Anthony Quinn’s performance as painter Paul Gaugin in Lust for Life (1956) is the shortest ever to win a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award, his second Oscar. He was on screen for only 8 minutes. (He won a similar award in 1952 playing opposite Marlon Brando in Elia Kazan’s Viva Zapata!) The shortest-ever winning performance for Best Supporting Actress belongs to Beatrice Straight, who won an Oscar in 1976 for her 5 minutes 40 seconds appearance as devastated wife Louise Schumacher in Network.

Dame Judi Dench won an Oscar in 1998 for less than 8 minutes of screen time playing Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love. The shortest-ever Best Actor Oscar-winning performance was awarded to David Niven in 1958, having appeared for only 15 minutes and 38 seconds in Separate Tables. The second-shortest winning appearance was made by Anthony Hopkins in 1992, for less than 16 minutes of screen time as Dr Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. In 1948, Jane Wyman won Best Actress award without uttering a word; she played the role of a deaf -mute person in the movie Johnny Belinda. The fewest lines actually spoken by an Oscar-winning actress won Patty Duke a Best Actress in a Supporting Role portraying the deaf and blind Helen Keller in the 1962 film The Miracle Worker. In the role she speaks only one word in the last scene: “Wah-wah” (for “water”).

In 1993, Holly Hunter won a Best Actress Oscar for her role as a deaf person in the movie The Piano but she narrated a few scenes and does speak (although her face is covered) in the last scene of the film. The films with the most Oscar wins are Ben-Hur, Titanic and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, each winning 11 Oscars from 12, 14 and 11 nominations respectively. See more in the lists of Oscar winners . In total, the Middle-earth series (The Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003) – and the The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey) won 17 Oscars out of 33 nominations. William Wyler has directed more actors to Academy Award success than any other, with 34 nominations and 14 wins. Jack Nicholson leads the Best Actor Academy Award category with wins from 11 nominations, followed by Laurence Olivier, nominated 10 times and receiving one Best Actor award, and then Spencer Tracy with nine nominations resulting in two awards.

Daniel Day-Lewis has won the most Best Actor awards, with 3 awards (1989, 2007, 2012). Meryl Streep had more Best Actress nominations than any other actress; 14 in total, leading to 3 awards. Katharine Hepburn received 12 nominations for Best Actress and won 4 Academy Awards. Shirley Temple is the youngest performer to receive an Academy Award; in 1934 she received a Special Award when she was only five years old. Groucho Marx was the oldest Academy Award winner – in 1973 he received a Honorary Award at the age of 83. The first posthumous Oscar winner was Sidney Howard, for the screenplay of Gone with the Wind. Mutiny on The Bounty (1935) was the only film to have had three nominees for Best Actor Oscars (Charles Laughton, Clark Gable and Franchot Tone) but won only the Best Picture award. The only tie for Best Actor was between Wallace Beery for The Champ and Fredric March for Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, in 1932.

The only films to win Best Picture and Best Song are Gigi, Going My Way and Titanic. The first animated film to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar was Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, in 1991. The award went to Silence of the Lambs but Beauty and the Beast won 2 Oscars: Best Original Score and Best Original Song. In 1937 Disney won a special Oscar for the first full-length animation: “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” Oscar families: Two families have three generations of Oscar winners in their ranks: The Huston family: Walter Huston won Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Treasure of Sierra Madre); John Huston won Best Director, The Treasure of Sierra Madre in 1948, and Anjlica Huston won Best Supporting Actress for her role in Prizzi’sHonorin 1985. The Hustons and the Coppolas are two families where the grandfather, father and daughter won Oscars.

The Coppola family: Carmine Coppola won Best Original Dramatic Score, The Godfather in 1974; Francis Ford Coppola won Best Original Screenplay for Patron (1970), Best Adapted Screenplay, The Godfather (1970), Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, The Godfather: Part II (1974), and Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation won for Best Original Screenplay in 2004; Nicholas Cage, Francis Ford Coppola’s nephew, won Best Actor for his role in Leaving Las Vegas, in 1995. The Minnelli family: Liza Minnelli is the only Oscar winner with two Oscar winning parents: her mother Judy Garland, received a honorary Oscar as Outstanding Juvenile Performer for The Wizard of Oz and her father, Vincente Minnelli, won Best Director for Best Picture, Gigi (1958). The Epstein family: The only twins to win Oscars are Julius J Epstein and Philip G Epstein, who shared the Best Screenplay award s with Howard Koch for Casablanca (1942).

12 actors to win an Oscar for playing a real person who was still alive at the evening of the Awards ceremony: Patty Duke playing Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker (1962) Spencer Tracy for playing Father Edward Flanagan in Boys Town (1938) Gary Cooper for playing Alvin C.

York in Sergeant York (1941) Jason Robards for playing Benjamin Bradlee in All the President’s Men (1976) Robert De Niro for playing Jake La Motta in Raging Bull (1980) Sissy Spacek for playing Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980) Susan Sarandon for playing Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking (1995) Geoffrey Rush for playing David Helfgott in Shine (1996) Julia Roberts for playing Erin Brockovich in Erin Brockovich (2000) Jim Broadbent for playing John Bayley in Iris (2001) Jennifer Connelly for playing Alicia Nash in Beautiful Mind (2001) Helen Mirren for playing Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006) The Academy Awards and Oscars are trademarks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Updated: March 2013 David Niven biography | birthday, trivia | Scottish Actor | Who2 David Niven Biography Writer For four decades David Niven was the very image of the urbane British gentleman in films like Raffles (1940), Around the World in 80 Days (19

56, based on the book by Jules Verne ) and The Pink Panther (1964, with Peter Sellers ).

Niven’s slender figure and even more slender mustache were well-known to film audiences around the world. Though he specialized in light comedy, Niven also handled drama in movies like Separate Tables (1958), for which he won a Oscar as Best Actor. In the 1970s Niven published two humorous autobiographies of his life in the movies, The Moon’s A Balloon (1971) and Bring On the Empty Horses (1975). Extra credit Niven served with the British commandos in World War II, leaving at war’s end with the rank of colonel… According to the BBC’s 2004 obituary of actor Peter Ustinov, Ustinov served as Niven’s batman (orderly) during World War II… Niven’s place of birth is uncertain. According to the official site of Niven’s estate, “Some say he was born in Belgrave Mansions, Grosvenor Gardens in London, while others assert that he was born in Kirriemuir in Scotland.” David Niven David Niven Primula Susan Rollo ( m. 1940; d.

1946) Hjördis Paulina Genberg Tersmeden ( m. 1948–83) Children James David Graham Niven (1 March 1910 – 29 July 1983) [1] [2] was an English actor and novelist. His many roles included Squadron Leader Peter Carter in A Matter of Life and Death , Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days , and Sir Charles Lytton, (“the Phantom”) in The Pink Panther . He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Separate Tables (1958). Born in London, Niven attended Heatherdown Preparatory School and Stowe before gaining a place at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst . After Sandhurst, he joined the British Army and was gazetted a second lieutenant in the Highland Light Infantry . Having developed an interest in acting , he left the Highland Light Infantry, travelled to Hollywood , and had several minor roles in film. He first appeared as an extra in the British film There Goes the Bride (1932).

From there, he hired an agent and had several small parts in films from 1933 to 1935, including a non-speaking part in MGM ‘s Mutiny on the Bounty . This brought him to wider attention within the film industry and he was spotted by Samuel Goldwyn . Upon the outbreak of the Second World War , Niven returned to Britain and rejoined the army, being recommissioned as a lieutenant . Niven resumed his acting career after his demobilisation , and was voted the second-most popular British actor in the 1945 Popularity Poll of British film stars. He appeared in A Matter of Life and Death (1946), The Bishop’s Wife (1947), and Enchantment (1948), all of which received critical acclaim. Niven later appeared in The Elusive Pimpernel (1950), The Toast of New Orleans (1950), Happy Go Lovely (1951), Happy Ever After (1954) and Carrington V.C.

(1955) before scoring a big success as Phileas Fogg in Michael Todd ‘s production of Around the World in 80 Days (1956). Niven appeared in nearly a hundred films, and many shows for television. He also began writing books, with considerable commercial success. In 1982 he appeared in Blake Edwards ‘ final “Pink Panther” films Trail of the Pink Panther and Curse of the Pink Panther , reprising his role as Sir Charles Lytton. Contents 10 External links Early life James David Graham Niven was born in Belgrave Mansions , London, to William Edward Graham Niven (1878–1915) and his wife, Henrietta Julia (née Degacher) Niven. [3] He was named David for his birth on St. David’s Day (1 March) . Niven often claimed that he was born in Kirriemuir , in the Scottish county of Angus in 1909, but his birth certificate shows this was not the case. [4] Henrietta was of French and British ancestry.

She was born in Wales , the daughter of army officer William Degacher (1841–1879) by his marriage to Julia Caroline Smith, the daughter of Lieutenant General James Webber Smith. Niven’s grandfather William Degacher was killed in the Battle of Isandlwana (1879), during the Zulu War . [5] [6] Born William Hitchcock, he and his brother Henry had followed the lead of their father, Walter Henry Hitchcock, in assuming their mother’s maiden name of Degacher in 1874. [7] William Niven, David’s father, was of Scottish descent; his paternal grandfather, David Graham Niven, (1811–1884) was from St. Martin’s, a village in Perthshire . William served in the Berkshire Yeomanry in the First World War and was killed during the Gallipoli Campaign on 21 August 1915. He was buried in Green Hill Cemetery , Turkey, in the Special Memorial Section in Plot F. 10. [8] Niven’s mother remarried, to Sir Thomas Comyn-Platt, in London in 1917.

Graham Lord , in Niv: The Authorised Biography of David Niven, suggested that Comyn-Platt and Mrs. Niven had been having an affair for some time before her husband’s death, and that Sir Thomas may well have been David Niven’s biological father, a supposition which has some support from her children. A reviewer of Lord’s book stated that Lord’s photographic evidence showing a strong physical resemblance between Niven and Comyn-Platt “would appear to confirm these theories, though photographs can often be misleading.” [9] David Niven had three older siblings: Margaret Joyce (born in Geneva , Switzerland , 5 January 1900 – 18 November 1981) [10] Henry Degacher (“Max”; born in Buckland , Berkshire , 29 June 1902 – March 1953) [10] Grizel Rosemary Graham [11] (born in Belgravia , Middlesex , 28 November 1906 – 28 January 2007).

[10] Education and army service Stowe School English private schools at the time of Niven’s boyhood were noted for their strict and sometimes brutal discipline. Niven suffered many instances of corporal punishment owing to his inclination for pranks, which finally led to his expulsion from Heatherdown Preparatory School at the age of 10½. This ended his chances for Eton College , a significant blow to his family. After failing to pass the naval entrance exam because of his difficulty with maths, Niven attended Stowe School , a newly created public school led by headmaster J.F. Roxburgh, who was unlike any of Niven’s previous headmasters. Thoughtful and kind, he addressed the boys by their first names, allowed them bicycles, and encouraged and nurtured their personal interests. Niven later wrote, “How he did this, I shall never know, but he made every single boy at that school feel that what he said and what he did were of real importance to the headmaster.” [12] He attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst , graduating in 1930 with a commission as a second lieutenant in the British Army .

[13] He did well at Sandhurst, which gave him the “officer and gentleman” bearing that was to be his trademark. He requested assignment to the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders or the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) , then jokingly wrote on the form, as his third choice, “anything but the Highland Light Infantry ” (because the HLI wore tartan trews rather than kilts ). He was assigned to the HLI, and his comment was known in the regiment. Thus, Niven did not enjoy his time in the army. He served with the HLI for two years in Malta and then for a few months in Dover . In Malta, he became friends with Roy Urquhart , future commander of the British 1st Airborne Division . [12] Niven grew tired of the peacetime army. Though promoted to lieutenant on 1 January 1933, [14] he saw no opportunity for further advancement. His ultimate decision to resign came after a lengthy lecture on machine guns , which was interfering with his plans for dinner with a particularly attractive young lady. At the end of the lecture, the speaker (a major general) asked if there were any questions.

Showing the typical rebelliousness of his early years, Niven asked, “Could you tell me the time, sir? I have to catch a train.” [12] After being placed under close-arrest for this act of insubordination, Niven finished a bottle of whisky with the officer who was guarding him: Rhoddy Rose (later Colonel R.L.C. Rose, DSO, MC). With Rose’s assistance, Niven was allowed to escape from a first-floor window. He then headed for America. While crossing the Atlantic , Niven resigned his commission by telegram on 6 September 1933. [15] Niven then moved to New York City , where he began an unsuccessful career in whisky sales, after which he had a stint in horse rodeo promotion in Atlantic City . After detours to Bermuda and Cuba , he arrived in Hollywood in 1934. Early film career When Niven presented himself at Central Casting , he learned that he needed a work permit to reside and work in the U.S. This meant that Niven had to leave the US, so he went to Mexico , where he worked as a “gun-man”, cleaning and polishing the rifles of visiting American hunters.

He received his resident alien visa from the American consulate when his birth certificate arrived from Britain . He returned to the United States and was accepted by Central Casting as “Anglo-Saxon Type No. 2,008.” His role in Mutiny on the Bounty brought him to the attention of independent film producer Samuel Goldwyn , who signed him to a contract and established his career. Niven appeared in 19 films in the next four years. He had supporting roles in several major films— Rose-Marie (1936), Dodsworth (1936), The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)—and leading roles in The Dawn Patrol (1938), Three Blind Mice (1938) and Wuthering Heights (1939), playing opposite such stars as Errol Flynn , Loretta Young and Laurence Olivier . In 1939 he co-starred with Ginger Rogers in the RKO comedy Bachelor Mother and starred as the eponymous gentleman safe-cracker in Raffles .

Niven joined what became known as the Hollywood Raj, a group of British actors in Hollywood which included Rex Harrison , Boris Karloff , Stan Laurel , Basil Rathbone , Ronald Colman , Leslie Howard , [16] and C. Aubrey Smith . According to his autobiography, Errol Flynn and he were firm friends and rented Rosalind Russell ‘s house at 601 North Linden Drive as a bachelor pad. Second World War After Britain declared war on Germany in 1939, Niven returned home and rejoined the British Army. He was alone among British stars in Hollywood in doing so; the British Embassy advised most actors to stay. [17] Niven was recommissioned as a lieutenant into the Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort’s Own) on 25 February 1940, [18] and was assigned to a motor training battalion. He wanted something more exciting, however, and transferred into the Commandos . He was assigned to a training base at Inverailort House in the Western Highlands . Niven later claimed credit for bringing future Major General Sir Robert E. Laycock to the Commandos.

Niven commanded “A” Squadron GHQ Liaison Regiment , better known as “Phantom”. He worked with the Army Film Unit. He acted in two films made during the war, The First of the Few (1942) and The Way Ahead (1944). Both were made with a view to winning support for the British war effort, especially in the United States. Niven’s Film Unit work included a small part in the deception operation that used minor actor M.E. Clifton James to impersonate General Sir Bernard Montgomery . During his work with the Film Unit, Peter Ustinov , though one of the script-writers, had to pose as Niven’s batman . (Ustinov also acted in The Way Ahead.) Niven explained in his autobiography that there was no military way that he, as a lieutenant-colonel , and Ustinov, who was only a private , could associate, other than as an officer and his subordinate, hence their strange “act”. Ustinov later appeared with Niven in Death on the Nile (1978). Niven took part in the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944, although he was sent to France several days after D-Day .

He served in the “ Phantom Signals Unit ,” which located and reported enemy positions, and kept rear commanders informed on changing battle lines. Niven was posted at one time to Chilham in Kent . He remained close-mouthed about the war, despite public interest in celebrities in combat and a reputation for storytelling. He once said: I will, however, tell you just one thing about the war, my first story and my last. I was asked by some American friends to search out the grave of their son near Bastogne . I found it where they told me I would, but it was among 27,000 others, and I told myself that here, Niven, were 27,000 reasons why you should keep your mouth shut after the war. He had particular scorn for those newspaper columnists covering the war who typed out self-glorifying and excessively florid prose about their meagre wartime experiences.

Niven stated, “Anyone who says a bullet sings past, hums past, flies, pings, or whines past, has never heard one—they go crack!” He gave a few details of his war experience in his autobiography, The Moon’s a Balloon : his private conversations with Winston Churchill , the bombing of London , and what it was like entering Germany with the occupation forces. Niven first met Churchill at a dinner party in February 1940. Churchill singled him out from the crowd and stated, “Young man, you did a fine thing to give up your film career to fight for your country. Mark you, had you not done so − it would have been despicable.” [12] A few stories have surfaced. About to lead his men into action, Niven eased their nervousness by telling them, “Look, you chaps only have to do this once.

But I’ll have to do it all over again in Hollywood with Errol Flynn!” Asked by suspicious American sentries during the Battle of the Bulge who had won the World Series in 1943 , he answered, “Haven’t the foggiest idea … but I did co-star with Ginger Rogers in Bachelor Mother!” On another occasion, asked how he felt about serving with the British Army in Europe, he allegedly said, “Well on the whole, I would rather be tickling Ginger Rogers ‘ tits.” Niven ended the war as a lieutenant-colonel . On his return to Hollywood after the war, he received the Legion of Merit , an American military decoration. Presented by Eisenhower himself, it honoured Niven’s work in setting up the BBC Allied Expeditionary Forces Programme , a radio news and entertainment station for the Allied forces. [19] [20] Postwar career Niven in the 1948 film Enchantment Niven resumed his career in 1946, now only in starring roles.

His films A Matter of Life and Death (1946), The Bishop’s Wife (1947) with Cary Grant , and Enchantment (1948) are all highly regarded. In 1950, he starred in The Elusive Pimpernel , which was made in Britain and which was to be distributed by Samuel Goldwyn. Goldwyn pulled out, and the film did not appear in the US for three years. Niven had a long, complex relationship with Goldwyn, who gave him his first start, but the dispute over The Elusive Pimpernel and Niven’s demands for more money led to a long estrangement between the two in the 1950s. [21] During this period, Niven was largely barred from the Hollywood studios. Between 1951 and 1956, he made 11 films, two of which were MGM productions and the rest were low-budget British or independent productions. However, Niven won a Golden Globe Award for his work in The Moon Is Blue (1953), produced and directed by Otto Preminger .

In 1955, Cornel Lucas photographed Niven while filming at the Rank Film Studio in Denham, Buckinghamshire . [22] A limited edition of British postage stamps was produced using one of Lucas’s images taken during this portrait sitting. Niven worked in television. He appeared several times on various short-drama shows, and was one of the “four stars” of the dramatic anthology series Four Star Playhouse, appearing in 33 episodes. The show was produced by Four Star Television , which was co-owned and founded by Niven, Dick Powell , and Charles Boyer . The show ended in 1955, but Four Star TV became a highly successful TV production company. Drawing of Niven commemorating his 1958 Oscar win for Separate Tables. Niven enjoyed success in 1956, when he starred as Phileas Fogg in producer Michael Todd’s Around the World in 80 Days . He won the 1958 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Major Pollock in Separate Tables , his only nomination for an Oscar.

Appearing on-screen for only 23 minutes in the film, this was the briefest performance ever to win a Best Actor Oscar, until Anthony Hopkins win for the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs , which is a little over 16 minutes. He was also a co-host of the 30th, 31st, and 46th Academy Awards ceremonies. After Niven had won the Academy Award, Goldwyn called with an invitation to his home. In Goldwyn’s drawing room, Niven noticed a picture of himself in uniform which he had sent to Goldwyn from Britain during the Second World War. In happier times with Goldwyn, he had observed this same picture sitting on Goldwyn’s piano. Now years later, the picture was still in exactly the same spot. As he was looking at the picture, Goldwyn’s wife Frances said, “Sam never took it down.” [12] With an Academy Award to his credit, Niven’s career continued to thrive. In 1959, he became the host of his own TV drama series, The David Niven Show , which ran for 13 episodes that summer.

He subsequently appeared in another 30 films, including The Guns of Navarone (1961) The Pink Panther (1963), Murder by Death (1976), Death on the Nile (1978), and The Sea Wolves (1980). From the trailer for The Toast of New Orleans (1950) In 1964, Boyer and he appeared in the Four Star series The Rogues . Niven played Alexander ‘Alec’ Fleming, one of a family of retired con-artists who now fleece villains in the interests of justice. This was his only recurring role on television. The Rogues ran for only one season, but won a Golden Globe award. In 1965, he starred in Where the Spies Are. In 1967, he appeared as James Bond 007 in Casino Royale . Niven had been Bond creator Ian Fleming ‘s first choice to play Bond in Dr. No . Casino Royale co-producer Charles K. Feldman said later that Fleming had written the book with Niven in mind, and therefore had sent a copy to Niven.

[23] Niven was the only James Bond actor mentioned by name in the text of a Fleming novel. In You Only Live Twice (chapter 14), the pearl diver Kissy Suzuki refers to Niven as “the only man she liked in Hollywood”, and the only person who “treated her honourably” there. While Niven was co-hosting the 46th Annual Oscars ceremony , a naked man appeared behind him, “streaking” across the stage . Niven responded “Isn’t it fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings?” [24] In 1974, he hosted David Niven’s World for London Weekend Television , which profiled contemporary adventurers such as hang gliders, motorcyclists, and mountain climbers: it ran for 21 episodes. In 1975, he narrated The Remarkable Rocket, a short animation based on a story by Oscar Wilde . In 1979, he appeared in Escape to Athena , which was produced by his son David, Jr.

In July 1982, Blake Edwards brought Niven back for cameo appearances in two final “Pink Panther” films (Trail of the Pink Panther and Curse of the Pink Panther), reprising his role as Sir Charles Lytton. By this time, Niven was having serious health problems. When the raw footage was reviewed, his voice was inaudible, and his lines had to be dubbed by Rich Little . Niven only learned of it from a newspaper report. This was his last film appearance. Writing Niven wrote four books. The first, Round the Rugged Rocks, (published simultaneously in the US under the title “Once Over Lightly”) was a novel that appeared in 1951 and was forgotten almost at once. In 1971, he published his autobiography, The Moon’s a Balloon , which was well received, selling over five million copies. He followed this with Bring On the Empty Horses in 1975, a collection of entertaining reminiscences from Hollywood’s “Golden Age” in the 1930s and ’40s.

It now appears that Niven recounted many incidents from a first-person perspective that actually happened to other people, especially Cary Grant, which he borrowed and embroidered. [4] In 1981 Niven published a second and much more successful novel, Go Slowly, Come Back Quickly, which was set during and after the Second World War, and which drew on his experiences during the war and in Hollywood. He was working on a third novel at the time of his death. Personal life While on leave in 1940, Niven met Primula “Primmie” Susan Rollo (18 February 1918, London – 21 May 1946), the daughter of London lawyer William H.C. Rollo. After a whirlwind romance, they married on 16 September. A son, David, Jr. , was born in December 1942 and a second son, James Graham Niven on 6 November 1945. Primmie died at age 28, only six weeks after the family moved to the U.S.

She fractured her skull after an accidental fall in the Beverly Hills, California home of Tyrone Power , while playing a game of “ sardines .” She had walked through a door believing it led to a closet, but instead, it led to a stone staircase to the basement. [25] [26] In 1948, Niven met Hjördis Paulina Tersmeden (née Genberg, 1919–1997), a divorced Swedish fashion model. He recounted their meeting: I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life—tall, slim, auburn hair, up-tilted nose, lovely mouth and the most enormous grey eyes I had ever seen. It really happened the way it does when written by the worst lady novelists … I goggled. I had difficulty swallowing and had champagne in my knees. [12] David Niven with his family at Copenhagen Airport (5 August 1958) In New York , Niven and Hjördis were next-door neighbours with Audrey Hepburn , who made her début on Broadway that season.

In 1960, while filming Please Don’t Eat the Daisies with Doris Day , Niven and Hjördis separated for a few weeks, but later reconciled. In 1960, Niven moved to Château-d’Œx near Gstaad in Switzerland for financial reasons, near to close friends in the country including Deborah Kerr , Peter Ustinov, and Noël Coward . [27] [28] Niven’s status as a tax exile in Switzerland is believed to have been one of the reasons why he never received a British honour. [29] Niven divided his time in the 1960s and ’70s between Château-d’Œx and Cap Ferrat on the Côte d’Azur in the south of France. [27] A 2009 biography of Niven contained assertions, based on information from his widow and a good friend of Niven’s, that he had had an affair with Princess Margaret , twenty years his junior. [30] Illness and death In 1980, Niven began experiencing fatigue, muscle weakness, and a warble in his voice.

His 1981 interviews on the talk shows of Michael Parkinson and Merv Griffin alarmed family and friends; viewers wondered if Niven had either been drinking or suffered a stroke. He blamed his slightly slurred voice on the shooting schedule on the film he had been making, Better Late Than Never . He was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or “Lou Gehrig’s disease” in the US and motor neurone disease (MND) in the UK) later that year. His final appearance in Hollywood was hosting the 1981 American Film Institute tribute to Fred Astaire . In February 1983, using a false name to avoid publicity, Niven was hospitalised for 10 days, ostensibly for a digestive problem. Afterwards, he returned to his chalet at Château-d’Œx . His condition continued to decline, but he refused to return to the hospital, and his family supported his decision. He died at his chalet from ALS on 29 July 1983 at age 73, the same day as his The Prisoner of Zenda and A Matter of Life and Death co-star Raymond Massey .

[31] [32] He was survived by his four children and his second wife. [33] Niven is buried in Château-d’Œx Cemetery in Château-d’Œx, Switzerland. [34] Legacy A Thanksgiving service for Niven was held at St Martin-in-the-Fields , London, on 27 October 1983. The congregation of 1,200 included Prince Michael of Kent , Margaret, Duchess of Argyll , Sir John Mills , Sir Richard Attenborough , Trevor Howard , Sir David Frost , Joanna Lumley , Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. , and Lord Olivier . [35] Biographer Graham Lord wrote, “the biggest wreath, worthy of a Mafia Godfather’s funeral, was delivered from the porters at London’s Heathrow Airport , along with a card that read: ‘To the finest gentleman who ever walked through these halls. He made a porter feel like a king.’” [36] In 1985, Niven was included in a series of British postage stamps , along with Sir Alfred Hitchcock , Sir Charlie Chaplin , Peter Sellers , and Vivien Leigh , to commemorate “British Film Year”.

[37] Filmography and other works Niven, David (1951). Round the Rugged Rocks. London: The Cresset Press. Niven, David (1971). The Moon’s a Balloon. London: Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 0-340-15817-4 [ Amazon-US | Amazon-UK ]. Niven, David (1975). Bring on the Empty Horses. Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 0-241-89273-2 [ Amazon-US | Amazon-UK ]. Niven, David (1981). Go Slowly, Come Back Quickly. Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 0-241-10690-7 [ Amazon-US | Amazon-UK ]. References ^ 12 Actors Who Earned Oscar Nods for Less Than 20 Minutes of Screen Time | Mental Floss 12 Actors Who Earned Oscar Nods for Less Than 20 Minutes of Screen Time YouTube Like us on Facebook You don’t have to log hours of screen time to make a big impression on an audience.

Here are a dozen actors who received Academy Award nominations for less than 20 minutes of time on the big screen. 1. ANTHONY HOPKINS // THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991) Screen time: 16 minutes Though the final tally varies as to exactly how much time Sir Anthony Hopkins spent on screen as Dr. Hannibal Lecter—some reports put it at 12 minutes, others say it’s just under 16 minutes—what’s not in dispute is the fact that Hopkins won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1992. 2. ANNE HATHAWAY // LES MISÉRABLES (2012) Screen time: 15 minutes In 2013, Anne Hathaway won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Les Misérables. Though she only appeared in a fraction of the film’s 158-minute running time, Hathaway truly committed to the role, losing 25 pounds and cutting off all of her hair to play the doomed Fantine. Her shining moment came with her show-stopping rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” (above). 3.

DAVID NIVEN // SEPARATE TABLES (1958) Screen time: 15 minutes, 38 seconds David Niven won his first and only Oscar for Delbert Mann’s Separate Tables, in which he plays Major Pollock, a war veteran whose hidden past comes to light when several tenants and guests converge on a seaside hotel in the off-season. 4. INGRID BERGMAN // MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (1974) Screen time: 14 minutes, 18 seconds In 1975, Ingrid Bergman won the only Oscar (out of six nominations) for Sidney Lumet’s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. More than five minutes of her brief appearance took place in one scene, an interrogation that was shot in one continuous take. 5. RUBY DEE // AMERICAN GANGSTER (2007) Screen time: 10 minutes In an illustrious career that spanned nearly 70 years, Ruby Dee made an indelible mark on Hollywood.

And in 2008, she was rewarded for her years of powerful performances with her first (and only) Oscar nomination for her brief yet memorable role playing Denzel Washington’s mother in Ridley Scott’s crime epic, American Gangster. 6. GLORIA GRAHAME // THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (1952) Screen time: 9 minutes, 32 seconds With a performance that clocks in at just under 10 minutes, Gloria Grahame was at one time the record-holder for Oscar-winner with the shortest amount of screen time. She won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her brief performance as Rosemary in The Bad and the Beautiful. Grahame would hold the record for almost 25 years until Beatrice Straight came along (more on that later). 7. JUDI DENCH // SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE (1998) Screen time: 8 minutes During the 71st Academy Awards, Dame Judi Dench won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for playing Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love.

Dench acknowledged the brevity of her role while accepting the statuette, joking that, "I feel for eight minutes on the screen, I should only get a little bit of him." Fun Fact: That same year, Cate Blanchett was nominated for Best Actress for playing the same character in Elizabeth. (Blanchett lost the award to Dench’s Shakespeare in Love co-star, Gwyneth Paltrow.) 8. VIOLA DAVIS // DOUBT (2008) Screen time: 8 minutes Again, accounts vary on the actual amount of screen time Viola Davis had in the big-screen adaptation of John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt; estimates range from five to eight minutes , but Davis made the most of every second, decimating the screen as the mother of a young boy who may or may not have been molested. She managed to hold her own opposite Meryl Streep (who earned a Best Actress nod for the role) and competed against her Doubt co-star Amy Adams for Best Supporting Actress in 2009. Ultimately, the award went to Penélope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona. 9.

ANTHONY QUINN // LUST FOR LIFE (1956) Screen time: 8 minutes Though it’s Kirk Douglas who got top billing in Lust for Life, Vincente Minnelli’s Vincent Van Gogh biopic, it’s Anthony Quinn who stole the screen—and won the 1957 Best Supporting Actor Oscar—for the eight minutes he spent playing Paul Gauguin. 10. NED BEATTY // NETWORK (1976) Screen time: 5 minutes, 53 seconds Ned Beatty’s one electrifying scene as corporate chairman Arthur Jensen in Network lasted less than six minutes, which was plenty of time to earn the actor his first (and so far only) Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actor. Beatty, in defending his position that no actor should ever turn down a role, joked that, "I worked a day on Network and got an Oscar nomination for it.” 11. BEATRICE STRAIGHT // NETWORK (1976) Screen time: 5 minutes, 40 seconds In 1977, Beatrice Straight snatched the record from Gloria Grahame to become the Oscar winner with the shortest amount of screen time.

During the 49th Academy Awards, Straight was named Best Supporting Actress for her brief-yet-powerful performance as Louise Schumacher, the jilted wife of William Holden’s character in Network. 12. HERMIONE BADDELEY // ROOM AT THE TOP (1959) YouTube Screen time: 2 minutes, 20 seconds Had Hermione Baddeley won the Oscar for her performance in Jack Clayton’s Room at the Top, she would have blown away every record; she earned a Best Supporting Actress nod in 1960 with just over two minutes of screen time. More from mental_floss... Oscars History: David Niven interrupted by streaker &#40;Video&#41; | abc7.com OTRC: Oscars History: David Niven interrupted by streaker (Video) none David Nevin is interupted at the 46th Academy Awards in 1974 by a streaking Robert Opel. (Oscar.com) OTRC OnTheRedCarpet.com Staff Throughout this Oscar season, we are looking back at some of the great moments in Academy Awards history.

At the 46th Oscars in 1974, actor David Niven was interrupted when introducing Elizabeth Taylor, who was set to present the Oscar for "Best Picture," when a streaker ran across the stage. The audience erupted into roaring laughter while Niven remained un-phased. The British actor deadpanned, "Well, ladies and gentlemen, that was almost bound to happen. But isn't it fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings?" The 46th Oscar ceremony was presided over by John Huston, Diana Ross, Burt Reynolds and David Niven. Niven, who is best known for portraying Phileas Fogg in "Around the World in 80 Days," won the 1958 Academy Award for "Best Actor" for his role in "Separate Tables." The streaker, Robert Opel, was a photographer and art gallery owner who snuck backstage after posing as a journalist, since he was once employed by The Advocate.

In 1978, Opel opened an art gallery in San Francisco devoted to gay male art called Fey-Way Studios, which brought fame to artists like Tom of Finland and Robert Mapplethorpe. He was murdered in 1979 during a robbery of the studio. Elizabeth Taylor eventually presented the "Best Picture" Academy Award to "The Sting," which was directed by George Roy Hill and starred Paul Newman and Robert Redford as two professional grifters. Enter the Ultimate Oscar Red Carpet Fan Experience Sweepstakes for a chance to win TWO bleacher tickets and a trip to this year's Oscars red carpet in Los Angeles.

Question: David Niven won his only Oscar for which film?
Answer: Separate Tables