Tandy Now Has an Oscar to Go With Three Tony Awards : Backstage: The oldest person ever to win an Academy Award exults, Stone assesses why ‘Fourth of July’ lost, and the Zanucks praise ‘Miss Daisy’ director.

Backstage at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, an otherwise blase press corps burst into applause as they watched the 80-year-old Jessica Tandy win the Oscar for best actress for her role in “Driving Miss Daisy.”

Though she has won three of theater’s Tony Awards, this was her first Oscar nomination.

The British-born Tandy, who began her career on stage in 1927, said, “I have never thought of myself as a movie actress. I’ve never had a part in a movie before important enough to give me this chance. It’s the tiptop.”

When informed that she was the oldest person to win an Oscar, Tandy replied: “Well, good for me!”

She explained the appeal of “Driving Miss Daisy” by saying, “It’s about people and their relationships. The young can recognize the old people in their family and the old can say, ‘That’s like us.’ ”

The secret of her long-term marriage to actor Hume Cronyn? “I like him,” she said, professing to be closer to him now than ever before.

Oliver Stone, who was awarded his second Oscar for his second movie about Vietnam, “Born on the Fourth of July,” said, “It’s always good to win, but the first time is the sweetest.”

Asked why he thought “Fourth of July” didn’t win an Oscar for best picture, he said, “Possibly it Written by Times staff writer Sean Mitchell from reports by staff writers David Fox and Elaine Dutka.

peaked too soon.” He added, “It was long (2 1/2 hours) and it was political and made people angry.”

Asked to address the charges that the film took liberties with Ron Kovic’s real war and postwar experience, he said, “It was honest to the spirit of its time, but it was attacked by the right wing in this country--an ugly attack that said Ron Kovic did not shoot his own man. As a Vietnam vet, I can tell you that 15 to 20% of all casualties were from ‘friendly fire.’ ”

“ ‘Born ‘ is about 20 years of our life,” he continued, “and the right wing raised the question of our view of American history and said it didn’t exist. . . . All the old arguments from the ‘60s resurfaced, unfortunately. I had hoped we’d be able to go the ‘90s and put that behind us.”

When producer Richard Zanuck got backstage after accepting the best-picture Oscar for “Driving Miss Daisy,” he talked about the omission of Bruce Beresford from the best-director nominees: “It’s a bit bewildering. Bruce Beresford had his stamp on every frame of this picture. Why he wasn’t nominated was something we’ll never know.”

His co-producer, wife Lili Fini Zanuck, added, “Hopefully it will make it easier to get his next picture made.”

Daniel Day-Lewis, clearly the backstage favorite judging from the applause that greeted his victory, was beaming and nearly speechless when he arrived after accepting his Oscar for best actor for his role in “My Left Foot.”

The 32-year-old actor then answered criticism leveled at the film by disabled groups who felt a disabled actor should have been cast in the lead. “More than once, disabled actors have made it clear they don’t like the fact that I made this film,” he said. “And in the end they’re right--there’s no argument. But the film wouldn’t have been made with a disabled actor because of the hypocrisy involved and the difficulty of getting financing. I did it for a selfish reason: I wanted the film made.”

Day-Lewis added, “This is such an unimaginable event, it’s difficult to know what this moment is all about. Your ears are tuned into hearing anyone’s name but your own.” Asked if he ever thought of not acting anymore, he said, “Most days, yes.”

Denzel Washington, the former “St. Elsewhere” ensemble member who won the best supporting actor Oscar for his role as a proud and rebellious Union Army recruit in “Glory,” became one of only a handful of black performers ever to win an Oscar.

It was his second time up for the award, after first being nominated in 1987 for his role as South African anti-apartheid activist Steven Biko in “Cry Freedom.”

Asked what he thought about “Glory” and “Driving Miss Daisy” getting more attention from the film academy than Spike Lee’s daring exploration of racial tensions in “Do the Right Thing,” he said: “How do you figure it? I’ll just take the award and be happy.”

Of “Glory’s” story of the Civil War’s heretofore unheralded black 54th Infantry, Washington said: “It was a bit of history I didn’t know anything about. I was stunned that it wasn’t taught to me in school.”

Brenda Fricker, who won the best supporting actress Oscar for her role in “My Left Foot,” said she thinks she’s the first Irish actress to win the award. Backstage, she immediately put in a pitch for the Irish film industry: “I’d like to get some money back into Ireland,” she said. “Filmmaking is a small cottage industry there.”

Asked where she intended to put her statuette, Fricker said, “I have no mantelpiece. I ‘ll have to buy a new house.”

And how has her career profited? “Professionally, I think I jumped the queue a bit. Since the nomination, I’ve had so many offers I had to tell me agent to stop passing them along since I’m working on a project for the BBC.”

Anton Furst, the Briton who won for his art direction of “Batman,” alluded to the fact that the film was shut out of all but the technical categories: “I feel lucky . . . but very embarrassed to be here in front of Jack Nicholson or Tim Burton or the crew,” he said. “We were all involved in something quite extraordinary and we were the ones who got the award. It’s really quite embarrassing. Thanks to Tim--and to Jack for making my sets look so small.”

Written by Times Staff writer Sean Mitchell from reports by staff writers David Fox and Elaine Dutka.