MANY AN ACADEMY AWARD WINNER HAS
graced the cover of TIME over the years, from Charlie Chaplin and Helen Hayes to Julia Roberts and Russel Crowe. Here are some highlights from our coverage of the Oscars and the movies and stars who have won those coveted gold statuettes.
Organized in 1927 to promote mutual understanding between the various branches of the industry, the high-sounding Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences now exists mainly for an annual banquet at which its 700 members can gorge, guzzle and gratify their egomania by awarding prizes for meritorious cinema performances. Last month it looked as if this year's banquet might degenerate into an open brawl.
From Academy Awards
Mar. 11, 1935
Midway in producing G With the W, Producer Selznick decided he was in no hurry to get going. The novel was too fresh in people's minds, which meant that they would be critical of any picturization no matter how good. Selznick still had nobody to play Scarlett O'Hara, and for more than two years he maintained himself in this useful and exciting dilemma with tenacity and an astute sense of showmanship.
From G With the W
Dec. 25, 1939
The fact remains that Hollywood's taste buds, like those of any industry, are necessarily conditioned by earnings & profits. For these, the cinemoguls insist, glamor in the well-known shapes of male & female stars is basic, fundamental, utterly essential and sometimes colossal.... The trouble is: sex appeal has a way of being repealed by the passing years.
From Big Dig
Aug. 22, 1949
In Kate Hepburn's 24 years on stage and screen, her detractors have been many. Yet most of them have had to eat their words. The most damning thing ever said of her was in 1938, when Harry Brandt, a movie exhibitor, labeled Kate 'boxoffice poison.'
From The Hepburn Story
Sep. 1, 1952
Brando himself was even more of a shock. When he landed in town in 1950 to make The Men, Hollywood stood there with wide-open arms and a dazzling smile of welcome. But Brando, a sullen kid who went everywhere in blue jeans and a soiled T shirt, stubbornly resisted the town's professional charm.
From A Tiger in the Reeds
Oct. 11, 1954
Measured by his social impact, Walt Disney is one of the most influential men alive. He has pushed the bedtime stories of yesteryear, the myths that all former races of men teethed on, off the nursery shelf, or amalgamated them into a kind of mechanized folklore. ... The hand that rocks the cradle is Walt Disney's—and who can say what effect it is having on the world?
From Father Goose
Dec. 27, 1954
The stagehand told Bob Hope he had a minute and a half before it all started. 'Thank you,' replied Hope calmly. 'Shall I pull my pants up or just go on?' A minute and a half later, pants pulled up, the comedian-master of ceremonies walked onto the stage at Santa Monica's Civic Auditorium and, for the eleventh time in 13 years, did his valiant, 21-hour best to pull up that most intractable of TV shows, the annual 'Oscar' awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
From The Night the Stars Came Out
Apr. 16, 1965
Nicholson has through the years mastered the craft of acting with such thoroughness and skill that each role seems founded on some spontaneous intuition. It is his talent and pleasure never to let all the preparation and all the work he does for each role show. Nicholson shares that knack for apparently effortless deception with the very best screen actors.
From The Star with the Killer Smile
Aug. 12, 1974
Spielberg the director is supposed to be a movie machine, and if that is so, fine. We need more artisans with his acute eye and gift for camera placement and movement, lighting, editing and the care and feeding of actors. But he is also a compulsive teller of stories about himself as he once was and still is. Each new film he directs or oversees is like another chapter in the autobiography of a modern Peter Pan.
From "I Dream for a Living"
By Richard Corliss
Jul. 15, 1985
Forrest Gump, a romantic epic starring Tom Hanks as a slow but sweet-souled Alabama boy who lucks into nearly every headline event of the past 40 years, is the summer sensation: a popular hit and an instant cultural touchstone.
From The World According to Gump
By Richard Corliss
Aug. 1, 1994
Titanic is an attempt by a very large number of people to do something extraordinary. It was never a 'no brainer' piece of pop entertainment. Unlike most of the other big productions of the year, it is neither a sequel nor the launching point of a series of sequels. It is not based on a comic book. It was not designed to spawn a vast array of toys, merchandising, video games and theme-park attractions. It is an earnest and heartfelt work.
From Settling Accounts
By James Cameron
Dec. 8, 1997
Julia Roberts is America's Best movie star not because she is good in good movies--heck, Tom Hanks can do that--but because she is so popular in mediocre ones. ...People go to see Roberts despite her films, happy to pay for the privilege of being in her virtual presence.
From What Makes Her The Best
By Richard Corliss
Jul. 09, 2001
Where Hanks and Cruise insinuated their way into moviegoers' hearts by exuding amiability on-and offscreen, Crowe has pulled off a far more unlikely trick: he is one of the world's biggest stars and is frequently perceived as one of the world's biggest jerks.
From The Bold Man and The Sea
By Josh Tyrangiel
Nov. 10, 2003
Movie studios love a good fight, and a bad one too. But the Oscar battles have become trench warfare and dirty tricks. Consider the tactics: covert ops, propaganda sorties, whispered slurs and innuendo to members of the media, enough bile to fuel a Senate campaign.
From Inside The Oscar Wars
By Richard Corliss
Mar. 25, 2002
Win or lose[EM]whether Gonz‡lez I–‡rritu, del Toro and Cuar—n come away with a half-dozen Oscars or none[EM]their individual and collective eminence is great news for international cinema. And for Hollywood too. American movies are in their most artless, complacent period since, I don't know, ever. Somebody's got to shake the place up, and it might as well be the Mexicans.
From Brilliance Beyond the Border
By Richard Corliss
Feb. 01, 2007
It's remarkable how unremarkable it is that a gay person is hosting the Oscars. True, it's not as if we lack for gay people watching the Oscars, and DeGeneres did host the Emmys in 2001. But the Academy Awards is something else; with the Super Bowl and American Idol, it's one of our last three true mass-media rituals. Its host is the de facto M.C. of mainstream America.
From Yep, She's Mainstream
By James Poniewozik
Feb. 22, 2007
Frequently, the top Oscar has gone to films of social or political sentiment, from The Life of Emile Zola and Mrs. Miniver to Dances with Wolves and Braveheart. In 2005 the Christian right's attacks on the mercy-killing plot of Million Dollar Baby may have been the spur for the Oscars that went to the film and its star, Hilary Swank.
From The Attack of the Left-Wing Weepie
By Richard Corliss
Mar. 15, 2007
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