Calendar’s Big Oscars Issue : ‘So, Did It Change Your Life?’

Winning an acting Oscar is supposed to be a ticket to better roles in bigger movies for more money. But does it always work that way? We asked the age-old question of some past Oscar winners, and here, with some vintage photos from the Academy’s archives is what we found out. *

Celeste Holm, the 1947 best supporting actress for “Gentleman’s Agreement” (with ABC commentator Frances Scully):

I did not know when I signed with (20th Century Fox studio head) Darryl Zanuck that he hired me to be a threat to Betty Grable. Had I known this I would have said, “Forget it.” He had heard I was sexy and had been a great success on Broadway in “Oklahoma!” He had never seen it. And then I did two dreadful musicals. Then Moss Hart rescued me from oblivion by asking me to do “Gentleman’s Agreement.” Mr. Zanuck said, “She can’t do that, there is no comedy in it.” Moss Hart said, “I have known her for several years; she started in Shakespeare.” So they made me do the big emotional scene at the end as a screen test. It went just fine. Mr. Zanuck didn’t want me to wear the dress I wanted to wear; he wanted me to wear something I didn’t like. I had a feeling I was always bucking the management. Then I went and embarrassed them all by winning an Academy Award. I don’t think the Academy Award made as much difference in my life as it should have. Zanuck was always afraid I was going to come in and ask for more money and raise hell.

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Louis Gossett Jr., the 1982 best supporting actor for “An Officer and a Gentleman”:

In a way it did. What I expected was, of course, to be Wesley Snipes. But Hollywood wasn’t prepared for that. I got a lot of work on television; I got no work in movies. None. Thank God for television. Only now am I getting some kind of justice because I am in partnership with (the production company) Viacom. The glory I got was from my friends and peers who voted for me--that changed my life considerably. But as far as the industry was concerned, I did not get any work. I became quite bitter about it and almost destroyed myself. In the meantime, my life has been pretty good. I have two sons, and everything else is fine.

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Shirley Jones, the 1960 best supporting actress for “Elmer Gantry” (with Hugh Griffith):

Prior to that I had done the big musicals, which were great and wonderful. Then they stopped making musicals and my career in films was virtually over because I was so tied into being the musical heroine. (Hollywood) figured if you could sing you can’t act. Then I went into television. That was when all the big live dramatic TV shows were happening. Burt Lancaster saw me do “The Big Slide” with Red Skelton on “Playhouse 90.” I then got the role (in “Elmer Gantry”), and as it turned out, it was a wonderful turning point in my career, because after that, I went on to do a string of motion pictures where I didn’t have to sing. A lot of people say (the Oscar) is a jinx. It never was for me. I mean, I never went on to do great big things in movies after that--but at least it wasn’t the end of my career.

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Charlton Heston, the 1959 best actor for “Ben-Hur” (with wife Lydia at the Governors’ Ball)

It didn’t change my life. I had been a public person for some time, and that does change your life. I suppose winning an Academy Award does put you in a slightly different category. The best thing I can say is that it put me in a small club. Everyone who has won an award understands that it doesn’t mean you gave the best performance or wrote the best screenplay or directed the best film. This is why it remains the most important award to filmmakers--it represents the judgment of your peers. The most significant judgment is made in the nominations, not in the award. To be nominated as an actor for an Academy Award means that other actors thought you deserved it. I have given better performances than I did in “Ben-Hur,” but some of those performances were not widely seen.

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Ben Johnson, the 1971 best supporting actor for “The Last Picture Show” (with Richard Harrison and Sally Kellerman):

It seems like when you win one of those Oscars, everybody thinks you know something or you are a great pillar in the community or something. It does change a lot of people; they get to believing their publicity. I don’t think I am that great, so I just stayed the way I was. I have always been able to work when I wanted to. . . . I was in Mexico doing a picture (“The Train Robbers”) with Ann-Margret and John Wayne. They called me and said, “You better get up here.” There had never been a cowboy win one of those things, you know, so I didn’t prepare anything to say. But I did come to the Oscars, and I won. About the only thing I could say was “It couldn’t happen to a nicer fella.”

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Shelley Winters, the 1959 best supporting actress for “The Diary of Anne Frank” and the 1965 best supporting actress for “A Patch of Blue” (with Edmond O’Brien):

You know what it is good for now? Putting your pension checks in back of. That’s a joke. A bad joke. I made a great deal of money that I wouldn’t have made. Your salary goes up and it’s very important, especially at my age. The Screen Actors Guild takes like 20% out of your salary. Thank God. Now I am getting it (as a pension). I think something else happens. You begin to get prestigious scripts. For a while there, I got very interesting directors and very important directors sending me scripts. One of the things that bothers me is I was also nominated for “The Poseidon Adventure” and now when people discuss me for a role, it is Jewish. I did 50 other films in which I was WASPy. I brought my “Anne Frank” Oscar to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. I’m always glad I brought it there. All kinds of kids say now, “Oh, Shelley, we saw your Oscar at the Anne Frank House,” and some of them send me pictures they take. The gold started to wear off because kids used to pick it up and make speeches. Now they have it in a glass case.

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Sidney Poitier, the 1963 best actor for “Lilies of the Field” (with producer Sidney Skolsky):

So many wonderful things have happened that it would be, I think, unfair to just attribute them all to the Oscar. I cannot dissect my life and say this element was influenced by the winning of the Oscar. I think that I had had some wonderful experiences and terrific roles before the Oscar. But I would say that my career certainly grew and was sustained subsequently from the Oscar for some years.