OSCARGO

If Denzel Washington wins best actor for “The Hurricane” he’ll be the third actor to win in this category playing a boxer. Wallace Beery won best actor of 1931 playing a pugilist in “The Champ,” and Robert De Niro picked up best actor of 1980 for his role as Jake La Motta in “Raging Bull.”

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Six of the acting nominees--Russell Crowe, Michael Caine, Jude Law, Janet McTeer, Toni Collette and Samantha Morton--are non-Americans who play Americans. Strangely enough, American best actress nominee Julianne Moore plays a British woman in “The End of the Affair.”

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This year marks the second time in Oscar history that the Academy Awards will air on a Sunday. Over the past seven decades, the show has taken place 32 times on Mondays, 21 times on Tuesdays, eight on Wednesdays, six on Tuesdays, twice on Fridays and once on a Saturday.

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Best actor nominee Kevin Spacey (“American Beauty”) was expelled from Northridge Military Academy for throwing a tire at a classmate.

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Best supporting actor nominee Haley Joel Osment (“The Sixth Sense”) played Avery, the son of Candice Bergen on the CBS comedy series “Murphy Brown.”

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Hilary Swank is up for best actress for “Boys Don’t Cry” as a woman who decides to live her life as a man. Julie Andrews received a best actress nomination for 1982’s “Victor/Victoria,” playing a woman who masquerades as a man who is a female impersonator.

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Best actor nominee Richard Farnsworth (“The Straight Story”) made his first screen appearance as a stuntman-extra in 1938’s “The Adventures of Marco Polo.” He was also a stuntman and Montgomery Clift’s double in the 1948 western classic “Red River.” Farnsworth played a gladiator in Stanley Kubrick’s 1960 classic “Spartacus.” He received a best supporting Oscar nomination for his first real acting role in a movie, 1978’s “Comes a Horseman.”

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The Academy Awards are being held this year at the Shrine Auditorium. The first time the Oscars took place there was in 1947, when the drama “The Best Years of Our Lives” won the lion’s share of the awards, including best film, actor (Fredric March) and director (William Wyler).Producer-

director Mervyn LeRoy (“The Wizard of Oz”) produced the show.

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Michael Mann, who is nominated for best director, screenplay and as producer of “The Insider,” began his career writing for such TV shows as “Starsky & Hutch.”

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Best supporting actor nominee Jude Law (“The Talented Mr. Ripley”) was nominated for a Tony Award five years ago for the drama “Indiscretions,” also starring Kathleen Turner.

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Best supporting actor nominee Michael Clarke Duncan (“The Green Mile”) worked for Peoples Gas Co. in Chicago, as well as a bouncer and security guard before turning to acting. He played a bouncer in 1998’s “Bulworth.”

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Though best actor nominee Russell Crowe plays a scientist intent on letting the world know about the medical dangers of smoking in “The Insider,” Crowe has smoked since he was 10.

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Best foreign film nominee “All About My Mother” is the latest entry from Spain. The first Spanish film to be nominated in this category was 1958’s “La Venganza.” That drama lost to France’s comedy “Mon Uncle.”

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Best supporting nominee Tom Cruise (“Magnolia”) and best actor nominee Sean Penn (“Sweet and Lowdown”) appeared together in the 1981 hit “Taps.”

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Best actress nominee Julianne Moore (“The End of the Affair”) won the 1988 daytime Emmy for outstanding ingenue for her “As the World Turns” work.

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Rachel Portman, who is nominated for original score for “The Cider House Rules,” was the first woman to win for scoring three years ago for “Emma.”

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Best actor nominee Russell Crowe (“The Insider”) and supporting actress nominee Toni Collette (“The Sixth Sense”) appeared together in the 1991 Australian film “The Efficiency Expert.”

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Supporting actor nominee Michael Caine (“The Cider House Rules”) was born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite. He took the name Caine after seeing the 1954 film “The Caine Mutiny.”

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Supporting nominee Tom Cruise (“Magnolia”) enrolled at 14 in a Franciscan seminary to become a priest but dropped out a year later.

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Best supporting actress nominee Angelina Jolie played the role of Tosh in the 1982 film “Lookin’ to Get Out,” which starred her Oscar-winning father, Jon Voight.

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At 6-foot-1, Janet McTeer is the tallest best actress nominee (“Tumbleweeds”) this year.

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Best cinematography nominee Conrad L. Hall (“American Beauty”) received his first nomination in this category for 1965’s “Morituri.”