As we approach the 84th Academy Awards, the nominees for Best Oscar Trivia are...
Most Surprising Loser
Nominated six times, director Alfred Hitchcock never won an Oscar.
Most Astonishing Winner
The most votes for Best Actor at the very first Oscars in 1929 went to... Rin Tin Tin. The Academy covered this up and gave the Oscar to German actor Emil Jannings.
Acting Disabled -- GREAT! Being Disabled -- Not So Much
Only two Oscar winners who played impaired characters actually were: deaf 1986 Best Actress winner Marlee Matlin in Children of a Lesser God and handless 1946 Best Supporting Actor Harold Russell in The Best Years of Our Lives.
Ladies Who Play Ladies of The Night
Oscar smiles on women who portray hookers. The eleventh and latest was Charlize Theron in Monster (2003).
The Oscar Winner Who Never Was
When the 1957 Oscar for Best Motion Picture Story was awarded to Robert Rich for The Brave One, Mr. Rich was not there to accept it. He had a good excuse -- he did not exist. "Robert Rich" was actually the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo.
All That Glitters is Not Oscar
Like an aging actor buried under makeup, the golden Oscar is only gold-plated. The rest of him is made of britannium (fancy-talk for tin). During World War II, Oscar was cast in plaster to free up its metal for the battlefield -- which must have worked, because our side won.
Oscariffic!
In 1934, It Happened One Night became the first movie to win best picture, director (Frank Capra), actor (Clark Gable), actress (Claudette Colbert), and screenwriter (Robert Riskin).
When Oscar Wept
Heath Ledger's 2008 Oscar for his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight was not the first won by an actor posthumously. That sad distinction goes to Peter Finch for Network (1976).
Numerologist Alert!
The movie with the longest title to ever win an Oscar was The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003. The shortest: Gigi in 1958.
Most Oscar'ed Movie Maker
Walt Disney, with 22 statuettes.
Dumbest Thing Ever Said About an Oscar Winner
When Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win a Best Director Oscar for The Hurt Locker in 2009, a friend of nominee James Cameron explained his loss thusly: "Jim didn't have breasts." Even more amazing, this comment was made by another woman: Sigourney Weaver.
A Duet of Trios
Only twice have Oscar nominations gone to every picture in a trilogy: The Lord of the Rings and The Godfather. Yes, Godfather III was nominated despite being so bad it convinced Sofia Coppola to get out of acting.
Oscar Over There
The country with the most foreign film winners: Italy, with 13.
The First Oscar Category to Become Extinct
Best Writing - Titles, awarded in 1928. Talkies came in soon after and title writers went the way of court jesters.
Most Controversial Oscar
When Elia Kazan was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Oscar in 1999, most of the audience stayed in their seats to protest his cooperation with the blacklist decades earlier (camera angles hid this fact from the viewers).
Brevity is the Soul of Oscar Part I
The shortest Oscar-winning performance ever was the five minutes and 40 seconds of supporting work turned in by Beatrice Straight in Network.
Brevity is the Soul of Oscar Part II
The shortest Oscar acceptance speech ever: "Thank you," courtesy of William Holden, Best Actor for his work in Stalag 17 (1953).
The Lowest Rated Oscar Broadcast Ever
The 2008 broadcast hosted by John Stewart. Was it because the winning picture was the grim No Country for Old Men? Probably not, because...
The Highest Rated Oscar Broadcast Ever
...was the 1970 edition, which boasted the even grimmer Best Picture winner Midnight Cowboy.
The Longest Oscar Broadcast Ever
The excruciating four hours and 23 minutes of the 2002 ceremonies. May this year's be shorter. MUCH shorter.
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