Oscar Obscurities

For your consideration, just in time for tonight’s 72nd annual Academy Awards, here are a few little-known tidbits about the Oscars that I accidentally discovered while searching through a dumpster to see if I could find a few more of those stolen Oscars so I could get a piece of that $50,000 reward that they finally gave to Willie Fulgear, this year’s winner of the Irving Thalberg Reclamation and Sanitation Award.

* “Cimarron,” “Cavalcade,” “The Life of Emile Zola,” “Around the World in 80 Days” and “Oliver!” have all been Oscar winners for Best Picture, which is particularly remarkable inasmuch as no living human being in the state of California or, for that matter, on the face of Earth, has ever seen “Cimarron,” “Cavalcade,” “The Life of Emile Zola,” “Around the World in 80 Days” or “Oliver!”

* The 1935 awards for Best Actor (which went to Victor McLaglen) and Best Director (which went to John Ford) were given for their work in a picture called “The Informer,” which, if I recall my cinema history correctly, was the true story of a man who leaked top-secret documentation to the press proving conclusively that cigarette smoking was good for you, this being the 1930s and all.

* On that fateful night in 1943 when “Casablanca” was announced as the winner for Best Picture, shortly after Paul Lukas took the Best Actor honors for “Watch on the Rhine,” virtually everybody seated in the audience turned to the person in the next seat and said, “You know, 50 or 60 years from now, people are still going to be talking about how great ‘Watch on the Rhine’ is.”

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* Warren Beatty, whose character died in “Bonnie and Clyde,” died in “McCabe and Mrs. Miller,” died in “Reds,” died in “The Parallax View,” died in “Bugsy,” died in “Bulworth” and died in “Heaven Can Wait,” will be honored at tonight’s ceremonies for all of his lifetime achievements when not dying.

* Yul Brynner (1956), Vivien Leigh (1939, 1951), Marlon Brando (1972), Ben Kingsley (1982), William Hurt (1985), John Gielgud (1981) and Peter Finch (1976) are just a few of the many gifted individuals who won Academy Awards for their performances who probably wouldn’t win one today because some pain in the rear would be protesting that they were ethnically or politically incorrect to be playing these roles in the first place, taking roles away from deserving ethnically and politically correct actors and actresses who might or might not be able to act.

* Oscars in the 1990s were presented to Kathy Bates for “Misery,” to Joe Pesci for “Goodfellas,” to Gene Hackman for “Unforgiven,” to Anthony Hopkins for “Silence of the Lambs” and to Kevin Spacey for “The Usual Suspects,” clear proof that the best way to get ahead in Hollywood is to get yourself a part as a twisted, depraved, ruthless, homicidal, really creepy lunatic.

* Few people remember this today, but “The Best Years of Our Lives” weren’t.

* “Erin Brockovich” could eventually join Oscar-nominated pictures such as “Annie Hall,” “Mildred Pierce,” “Jezebel,” “Mrs. Miniver,” “Mr. Roberts,” “Sgt. York,” “Norma Rae,” “Marty,” “Gigi,” “Hud,” “Harry and Tonto,” “Melvin and Howard” and “Kramer vs. Kramer” as movies that tried and tried and tried, but absolutely could not think of a title.

* Say what you will about Meryl Streep and all of her great performances, but don’t you think that the Oscar-winning Best Actress performances of Patty Duke (“The Miracle Worker”), Holly Hunter (“The Piano”) and Marlee Matlin (“Children of a Lesser God”) speak for themselves?

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“The Cider House Rules” has a chance to become the first cider movie to pick up an award, previous Oscar winners such as Ray Milland, Lee Marvin and Nicolas Cage all having gotten drunk on much harder stuff.

* Only one film that won Best Picture since 1977 has inspired a sequel. That would be “Terms of Endearment” (1983), which didn’t let a little thing like Debra Winger’s character dying keep us from getting to see what happened next. So far, no plans for “Gandhi II,” “Amadeus II,” “Schindler’s List Returns” or “Out of Africa: The Out Years” have been announced.

* According to an unofficial survey, a majority of the audience members at tonight’s 72nd annual Academy Awards will be cheering for the 79th annual Richard Farnsworth.

* It hasn’t been announced until now, but an honorary Oscar is expected to be presented this evening to the first Academy member in the audience who can understand a single word that Roberto Benigni says.

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Mike Downey’s column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Write to him at Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053. E-mail: mike.downey@latimes.com.