60th Academy Awards

The 60th Academy Awards were presented April 11, 1988 at the Shrine Civic Auditorium, Los Angeles. The ceremonies were presided over by Chevy Chase. This was the first ceremony to be held in the Shrine Auditorium since 1948 after nearly two decades at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Traffic caused major backup in and around the venue holding up some limos transporting several stars including nominees forcing them to leave their limousines and walk to the auditorium via no vehicle. In one instance, a then pregnant nominee Glenn Close was spotted frantically running across intersections. A segment in the show that was scheduled to feature stars from the past 59 best picture winners was cut from the ceremony due to the delay. Despite an impending strike which began a month earlier, much of the monologues and segments of for the ceremony were already written in anticipation for the strike.

The Last Emperor is an Academy Award-winning biopic about the life of Puyi, the last Emperor of China. The movie was written by Mark Peploe and Bernardo Bertolucci, directed by Bertolucci, and was released in 1987 by Columbia Pictures. Pǔyí is represented as the objectified plaything of powerful and mysterious forces, whether as an Emperor or as a war criminal.
The film stars John Lone as Puyi, with Joan Chen, Peter O'Toole, Ruocheng Ying, Victor Wong, Dennis Dun, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Maggie Han, Ric Young, Vivian Wu, and Chen Kaige. It was the first feature film to be authorized by the government of China to be filmed in the Forbidden City. The film won all nine Academy Awards for which it was nominated.

Bernardo Bertolucci won the Best Director award for the film. In 1962, at the age of 21, he directed his first feature film, La commare secca (1962) The film is a short murder mystery, following a prostitute's homicide. Bertolucci uses flashbacks to piece together the crime and the person who committed it. The film which shortly followed was his acclaimed Before the Revolution (Prima della rivoluzione, 1964). Last Tango in Paris (1972), starring Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider exemplified the new trend for Italian movies to attempt to make more money by employing foreign actors in starring roles: Last Tango included only one Italian actor, Massimo Girotti, in a main role. Bertolucci's 1900 (1976), starring Burt Lancaster, Donald Sutherland, Robert de Niro, and Gérard Depardieu, is often said to mark the point at which the Italian film industry's dependence on the international market began to contribute to the disintegration of its national identity, although the film itself is entirely focused on an Italian theme: it chronicles the lives of two men during the political turmoils that took place in Italy in the first half on the 20th century. The Conformist (1970) criticised Fascist ideology, touched upon the relationship between nationhood and nationalism, as well as issues of popular taste and collective memory, all amid an international plot by Mussolini to assassinate a professor of politics in Paris, France. The 1987 epic The Last Emperor (recently re-released at an extended 219 minutes) allowed Bertolucci to influence politics both through his characters and through the act of making the film itself. He was granted unprecedented permission to film in the Forbidden City of Beijing, and the film's central character Pu Yi undergoes a decade-long communist re-education under Mao which takes him from the peacock colours of the palace to the grey suit worn by his contemporaries to live out his life as a gardener.

Michael Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. Douglas's first television exposure was that of Karl Malden's young college educated partner, Insp. Steve Keller in the popular 1970s crime drama, The Streets of San Francisco, a role he played from 1972 to 1976. Douglas is a two-time Academy Award winner, first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the son of celebrated American actor Kirk Douglas and Bermudian actress Diana Dill. Having a famous father opened many doors to Michael that would have been closed to other young Hollywood hopefuls. Douglas starred in the long-running TV series The Streets of San Francisco from 1972 to 1976. He received an Academy Award as producer for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975. Although Douglas was a capable actor on Streets, his career was somewhat stagnant after the series, and he only appeared in occasional movies which were usually less than popular His fortunes changed when he starred in the 1984 romantic adventure comedy Romancing the Stone. The film was followed a year later in 1985 by a sequel, The Jewel of the Nile. In 1987, Douglas starred playing in Fatal Attraction with Glenn Close and the film became a world-wide hit. In 1988, Douglas received an Academy Award for acting in the leading role of Wall Street which would lead to many roles playing characters much like Gordon Gekko. Douglas later starred as Mister Rose a successful lawyer similar to this character's personality in The War of the Roses, which featured previous co-stars Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito. In 1989 he starred in the hit international police crime drama Black Rain opposite Andy Garcia and Kate Capshaw and was directed by acclaimed filmmaker Ridley Scott. In 1992, Douglas revived his slick, worldly character when he appeared alongside Sharon Stone in the film Basic Instinct. The movie was a huge hit, and sparked controversy over its depictions of bisexuality and lesbianism. Then in 1994 Douglas and Demi Moore starred in the hit movie Disclosure focusing on the hot topic of sexual harassment but from the man's perspective. Douglas's skill at character acting continued to make him one of the most sought-after actors in Hollywood and commands a hefty sum for his roles. After the commercial failure of It Runs in the Family (2003), Douglas did not star in a movie for three years, until The Sentinel in 2006. Douglas married Diandra Luker on March 20, 1977. They had one son, Cameron (born December 13, 1978). In 2000, after 23 years of marriage, Diandra divorced Douglas. Douglas married Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones on November 18, 2000; they were both born on September 25, though 25 years apart. They have two children, Dylan Michael (born August 8, 2000) and Carys Zeta (born April 20, 2003).

Cher is an American singer, actress, songwriter, author and entertainer. Among her many accomplishments in music, television and film, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, a Cannes Film Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and Billboard Music Awards, among others. Cher first rose to prominence in 1965 as one half of the pop/rock duo Sonny & Cher. She became a television star in the 1970s and a film actress in the 1980s. In 1987, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the romantic comedy Moonstruck. In 1982, at 36, Cher landed her first major role in a Broadway production of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. Her performance was critically praised, and she was later cast in the film version, which was directed by acclaimed Hollywood director Robert Altman. She was next cast alongside Meryl Streep and Kurt Russell in the critically hailed drama Silkwood (1983) in which her character was a lesbian. She received her first Academy Award nomination, as Best Supporting Actress. She later won the Golden Globe Award as Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama for her performance. Cher's next film was a starring role in the acclaimed Mask (1985), directed by Peter Bogdanovich. The film also starred Eric Stoltz, Laura Dern, Estelle Getty and Sam Elliott, and it was considered her first critical and commercial success as a leading actress. For her role as a mother of a severely disfigured boy, Cher won the Best Actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1987, she starred in three films: the thriller Suspect with Dennis Quaid; the dark comedy/fantasy film The Witches of Eastwick with Jack Nicholson, Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer; and the romantic comedy Moonstruck with Nicolas Cage and Olympia Dukakis. For Moonstruck, directed by Norman Jewison, she won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Actress, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy, and the Favorite Film Actress award at the People’s Choice Awards. In the early 1960s Cher had a relationship with the actor Warren Beatty. Sonny & Cher first met in 1962. Though they had claimed to be married as early as 1963, and exchanged rings in Tijuana, Mexico, it is believed that they weren’t legally married until an impromptu ceremony in Las Vegas in 1969. Their first and only child is Chastity Sun Bono born March 4, 1969. Cher married her second husband, rock star Gregg Allman, in 1975. They later separated and were divorced in 1977. Their son is Elijah Blue Allman of the band Deadsy, who was born in 1976.

Sean Connery is a Scottish actor and producer who is perhaps best known as the first actor to portray James Bond in cinema, starring in seven Bond films. In 1988 he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Untouchables. Connery is known for retaining his Scottish accent in films, regardless of the nationality of the character played, and for his rugged good looks. He has repeatedly been named as one of the most attractive men alive by various magazines, though he is older than most sex symbols. Connery's breakthrough came in the role of secret agent James Bond. He acted in seven Bond films, six produced by EON, followed by an unofficial Warner Brothers Thunderball-remake: These include Dr. No (1962), From Russia With Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and Never Say Never Again (1983) (unofficial). Apart from The Man Who Would Be King, most of Connery's successes in the next decade were as part of ensemble casts in films such as Murder on the Orient Express and A Bridge Too Far (in which he acted in a scene opposite Sir Laurence Olivier). His portrayal of Berber chieftain Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli in John Milius's The Wind and the Lion (1975) gained him considerable acclaim from critics and audiences and showed his range as an actor. Following the successful European production The Name of the Rose (1986), for which he won a BAFTA award, Connery's interest in more credible material was revived. That same year, a supporting role in Highlander showcased his ability to play older mentors to younger leads, which would become a recurring role in many of his later films. The following year, his acclaimed performance as a hard-nosed cop in The Untouchables (1987) earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Subsequent box-office hits such as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) (in which he played Dr. Henry Jones, the father of Harrison Ford, actually only 12 years his junior), The Hunt for Red October (1990), (he was not the original actor for the film, and when that actor left the film, the producer/director who were good friends with Connery, called him in desperation and he agreed to do the movie out of friendship with two weeks notice, the media reported.) The Russia House (1990), The Rock (1996), and Entrapment (1999) re-established him as an actor capable of playing major parts. Just Cause (1995) drew attention to some of the issues surrounding race and the death penalty in America and controversially, serves as an endorsement for the practice.In more recent years, Connery's filmography has included several box office and critical disappointments such as The Avengers (1998), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) and First Knight (1995), but he also received positive reviews for films including Finding Forrester (2000). Connery was married to the Australian-born actress Diane Cilento from 1962 until 1973 (he was her second husband). They have one son, Jason Connery (born January 11, 1963), who was educated at Millfield School in Somerset, England, and the rigourous Gordonstoun boarding school in Scotland, before going on to become an actor. In 1975, Sean Connery married French artist Micheline Roquebrune, who is the grandmother of French television journalist Stéphanie Renouvin. He has one grandchild from his son Jason's marriage to actress Mia Sara, a grandson named Dashiell Quinn Connery.

Olympia Dukakis won as Best Supporting Actress for Moonstruck. Dukakis has starred in films, including Steel Magnolias, Mr. Holland's Opus, The Thing About My Folks, and Moonstruck, for which she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. She also played the role of Anna Madrigal in the Tales of the City television mini-series, which garnered her an Emmy Award nomination, she also appeared on Search for Tomorrow as Dr. Barbara Moreno, who romanced Stu Bergman. Recent films include 3 Needles, The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines, In the Land of Women, and Away From Her. Dukakis has been married to actor Louis Zorich since 1962, with whom she has three children.

Babette's Feast is an Academy Award winning 1987 Danish movie. It was produced by Just Betzer, Bo Christensen, and Benni Korzen. Its screenplay was written by Gabriel Axel, who was also the director. It is based on a story by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), who also wrote Out of Africa, which inspired the 1985 Academy Award winning film. Babette's Feast won the 1988 Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards; the other nominees were Asignatura aprobada of Spain, Au revoir, les enfants of France, La Famiglia of Italy and Ofelas of Norway. It also won a BAFTA Film Award for Best Film Not in the English Language and was nominated for a Golden Globe award for Best Foreign Language Film.

"(I've Had) The Time of My Life" is a song composed by Franke Previte, John DeNicola, and Donald Markowitz. It was recorded by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes, after having been selected to be the finale song for the 1987 film Dirty Dancing by choreographer Kenny Ortega and his assistant Miranda Garrison (who also played Vivian in the film).

59th Academy Awards

The 59th Academy Awards were presented March 30, 1987 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. The ceremonies were hosted by Chevy Chase, Goldie Hawn, and Paul Hogan. The Academy awards show was broadcast on the ABC network at the same time as CBS network broadcast of the 1987 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament championship game between Indiana and Syracuse. Chevy Chase quipped later in the evening, "Is the game over yet?" The show would subsequently be scheduled around the tournament broadcast by moving it later in April for two years.

Platoon is an Academy Award winning 1986 Vietnam War film written and directed by Oliver Stone and starring Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Forest Whitaker, Kevin Dillon Keith David, John C. McGinley and Johnny Depp. The story is drawn from Stone's experiences as an Army combat infantryman in Vietnam and was written by him upon his return as a counter to the vision of the war portrayed in John Wayne's The Green Berets. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1986. Platoon was filmed on the island of Luzon in the Philippines between March and May of 1986. The production of the film on a scheduled date was almost cancelled due to the political upheaval in the country with then dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Oliver Stone won as Best Director. He has made three films about Vietnam —Platoon (1986), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), and Heaven & Earth (1993). He has called these films a trilogy, though they each deal with different aspects of the war. Platoon is a semi-autobiographical film about Stone's experience in combat. Born on the Fourth of July is based on the autobiography of Ron Kovic. Heaven & Earth is derived from the memoir When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, the true story of Le Ly Hayslip, a Vietnamese girl whose life is drastically affected by the war. During this same period, Stone directed Wall Street (1987), which earned Michael Douglas an Academy Award for Best Actor, Talk Radio (1988), and The Doors (1991), starring Val Kilmer. Stone has won three Academy Awards. His first "Oscar" was for Best Adapted Screenplay for Midnight Express (1978). He won Academy Awards for Directing Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July. A distinctive feature of Oliver Stone's films is the use of many different cameras and film formats, from VHS to 8 mm film to 70 mm film. He sometimes uses several formats in a single scene, as in JFK (1991) and Natural Born Killers (1994). In the past decade, Stone has directed U-Turn (1997), which he describes as a small film that he would enjoy seeing as a teenager, Any Given Sunday (1999), a film about power struggles within and surrounding an American football team, and Alexander (2004), a biographical film about Alexander the Great. After Alexander, Stone went on to direct World Trade Center, which centered on two Port Authority Police Department (PAPD) cops during the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Paul Newman is an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Cannes Award, and Emmy Award-winning American actor and film director. He is also the founder of Newman's Own, a food company from which Newman donates all profits and royalties to charity. Newman made his Broadway theater debut in the original production of William Inge's Picnic with Kim Stanley. He later appeared in the original Broadway productions of The Desperate Hours and Sweet Bird of Youth with Geraldine Page. He would later star in the film version of Sweet Bird of Youth, which also starred Page. His first movie, The Silver Chalice (1954) has been described by Newman himself as the "worst movie of the entire 1950s decade," but he rebounded with acclaimed roles in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), as boxer Rocky Graziano, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) opposite Elizabeth Taylor and The Young Philadelphians (1959) with Barbara Rush and Robert Vaughn. Newman appeared in a screen test with James Dean for East of Eden (1955). Newman was testing for the role of Aron Trask, Dean was testing for the role of Aron's older brother Cal Trask (although Newman is older than Dean). Dean won the part of Cal, while the role Newman was up for went to Dick Davalos. The same year Newman would co-star with Eva Marie Saint and Frank Sinatra in a live - and color - television broadcast of the Thornton Wilder stage play Our Town. In 2003 Newman would act in a remake of Our Town, taking on Sinatra's role as the stage manager. Newman starred in Exodus (1960), The Hustler (1961), Hud (1963), Harper (1966), Cool Hand Luke (1967), The Towering Inferno (1974), Slap Shot (1977) and The Verdict (1982). He teamed with fellow actor Robert Redford and director George Roy Hill for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973). He appeared with his wife, Joanne Woodward, in the feature films The Long, Hot Summer (1958), Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!, (1958), From the Terrace (1960), Paris Blues (1961), A New Kind of Love (1963), Winning (1969), WUSA (1970), The Drowning Pool (1975), Harry & Son (1984) and Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (1990). He won the Oscar for Best Actor for The Color of Money. In addition to starring in and directing Harry & Son, Newman also directed four feature films (in which he did not act) starring Woodward. They were Rachel, Rachel (1968), based on Margaret Laurence's A Jest of God, the screen version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972), the television screen version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Shadow Box (1980) and a screen version of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (1987). Newman announced that he would entirely retire from acting on May 25, 2007. He stated that he doesn't feel he can continue acting on the level that he would want to. Detached from Hollywood, Newman makes his home in Westport, Connecticut with his wife Joanne Woodward. He has married twice. His first marriage was to Jackie Witte, and lasted from 1949 to 1958. Together they had a son, Scott, born in 1950, and two daughters, Susan Kendall (1953) and Stephanie. Scott Newman died in 1978 from an accidental drug overdose. He had appeared in such films as The Towering Inferno as a fireman, and in the 1977 film Fraternity Row. Newman married Joanne Woodward on January 29, 1958. They have three daughters — Elinor Teresa (1959), Melissa Steward (1961), and Claire "Clea" Olivia (1965). Newman directed his daughter Elinor (stage name Nell Potts) in the central role alongside her mother in the film The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds.

Marlee Matlin is an Academy Award-winning American actress who is almost completely deaf. Her film debut, 1986's Children of a Lesser God, brought her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama and an Academy Award for Best Actress (at age 21, the youngest actress ever to win in that category). Matlin was nominated for a Golden Globe award for her work as the lead female role in the television series Reasonable Doubts (1991–1993) and was nominated for an Emmy Award for a guest appearance in Picket Fences. She became a regular on the series during its final season. Matlin had recurring roles in Picket Fences, The West Wing, and Blue's Clues. Other television appearances include Seinfeld ("The Lip Reader"),The Outer Limits ("The Message"), ER, Desperate Housewives, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Matlin married law enforcement officer Kevin Grandalski on August 29, 1993. They have four children: Sarah Rose, born 1996; Brandon, born 2000; Tyler, born 2002; and Isabella Jane, born 2003.

Michael Caine, this year's winner of the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, is a double Academy Award-winning English film actor. After several minor roles, Caine came into the public eye as an upper-class British army officer in the 1964 film Zulu. This proved paradoxical, as Caine was to become notable for using a regional accent, rather than the received pronunciation hitherto considered proper for film actors. Zulu was closely followed by two of his best-known roles: the spy Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File (1965), and the woman-chasing title character in Alfie (1966). He went on to play Palmer in a further four films, Funeral in Berlin (1966), Billion-Dollar Brain (1967), Bullet to Beijing (1995) and Midnight in St. Petersburg (1995). Caine made his first movie in the United States in 1966, after an invitation from Shirley MacLaine to play opposite her in Gambit. After ending the 1960s with the equally iconic The Italian Job, with Noel Coward, and a solid role as an RAF fighter pilot, Squadron Leader Canfield, in the all-star cast of Battle of Britain (1969), Caine entered the 1970s with Get Carter, a British gangster film. Caine was busy throughout the 1970s, with successes including Sleuth (1972), opposite Sir Laurence Olivier and The Man Who Would Be King (1975), costarring Sean Connery. By the end of the decade, he had moved to the U.S., but his choice of roles was beginning to be criticised. Caine was averaging two films a year, but these included such failures as The Swarm (1978), Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979), The Island (1980) and The Hand (1981). Although Caine also took better roles, including a BAFTA-winning turn in Educating Rita (1983) and an Oscar-winning one in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), he continued to appear in notorious duds like Jaws: The Revenge (1987) and Bullseye! (1990). The 1990s were a lean time for Caine, as he found good parts harder to come by. His early '90s output included playing Ebenezer Scrooge in the whimsical Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), a villain in the Steven Seagal flop On Deadly Ground (1994), two straight to video Harry Palmer sequels and a few television movies. However, Caine's reputation as a pop icon was still intact, thanks to his roles in films such as The Italian Job and Get Carter. His performance in 1998's Little Voice was seen as something of a return to form, and won him a Golden Globe Award. Better parts followed, including The Cider House Rules (1999), for which he won his second Oscar, Last Orders(2001), The Quiet American (2002) and others which helped rehabilitate his reputation.Caine has been Oscar-nominated six times, winning his first Academy Award for the 1986 film Hannah and Her Sisters, and his second in 1999 for The Cider House Rules, in both cases as a supporting actorCaine is one of only two actors to be nominated for an Academy Award for acting (either lead or supporting) in every decade since the 1960s. The other is Jack Nicholson. He was married to actress Patricia Haines from 1955 to 1958; they had one daughter, Dominique. Caine has been married to actress and model Shakira Baksh since January 8, 1973; they have a daughter, Natasha.

Dianne Wiest is a double Academy Award-winning, Golden Globe Award-winning, Emmy Award-winning and BAFTA-nominated American actress. She has enjoyed a successful career on stage, television, and film, and has received several awards in her career.Once her film career took off with her work in Woody Allen's films, Wiest was available to the stage less frequently. Under Allen's direction, Wiest won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986). She followed her Academy Award success with performances in The Lost Boys (1987) and Bright Lights, Big City (1988) before starring with Steve Martin, Mary Steenburgen, Jason Robards, Keanu Reeves and Martha Plimpton in Ron Howard's Parenthood, for which she received her second Oscar nomination. In 1990, Wiest starred in Edward Scissorhands. She returned to Woody Allen in 1994 for Bullets Over Broadway, a comedy set in 1920s New York City, winning her second Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Helen Sinclair, a boozy, glamorous, and neurotic star of the stage. She appeared in the film Practical Magic (1998) and the television mini-series The 10th Kingdom (2000). From 2000 to 2002, Wiest portrayed Nora Lewin in the long-running NBC crime drama Law & Order. Wiest has never married but has two adopted children born 1987 and 1991.

The Assault (Dutch: De Aanslag) is a 1986 film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Harry Mulisch. The film was directed and produced by Fons Rademakers. The main character is played by both Derek de Lint (in the present) and Marc van Uchelen (as a youth), whereas Monique van de Ven plays two different roles, one in the present (his wife) and one in the past (a woman who participated in the assault and whom he meets later the same night in a dark police cell).The film won the 1986 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and the Golden Space Needle of the Seattle International Film Festival.

"Take My Breath Away" is the name of a love song from the film Top Gun, written by Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock, performed by the band Berlin. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song in 1987.

58th Academy Awards

The 58th Academy Awards were held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on March 24th 1986 and honored film achievements of 1985. The hosts were Alan Alda, Jane Fonda and Robin Williams. During the ceremony actress Sarah Cunningham, wife of actor John Randolph, suffered an asthma attack in the lobby and died. Twelve people were nominated for Best Original Score for The Color Purple, the most ever nominated for a single award. They lost to John Barry for Out of Africa.

Out of Africa is a 1985 film based loosely on the autobiographical book by Isak Dinesen (pseudonym of Karen Blixen) published in 1937, as well as Dinesen's Shadows on the Grass and other sources. The movie received 28 film awards, including seven Academy Awards (Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Original Score, Art Direction, Sound) and three Golden Globes (Best Picture, Supporting Actor, Original Score). The book describes events during 1914–1931 concerning European settlers and the native people in the bush country of Kenya (British East Africa), from seaside Mombasa to Nairobi, from Mount Kenya to Kilimanjaro, as told from the lyrical, poetic viewpoint of Danish Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke. The book was continually in print during the 20th Century, reprinted by many publishers. The film was adapted by Kurt Luedtke and directed by Sydney Pollack. It starred Meryl Streep, Robert Redford (as Denys), Klaus Maria Brandauer (as Baron Blixen), Michael Kitchen (as Berkeley Cole), Malick Bowens (as Farah), Stephen Kinyanjui (as Chief), Michael Gough (Delamere), Suzanna Hamilton (as Felicity who is based on famous aviatrix Beryl Markham), and supermodel Iman (in a cameo role as Mariammo).

Sydney Pollack is an Academy Award-winning American film director, producer and actor. He has directed over 21 films and 10 television shows, acted in over 30 films or shows, and produced over 44 films. Pollack is best known for directing films Out of Africa (Best Director Oscar, 1985), Tootsie (1982), Three Days of the Condor (1975), The Way We Were and Jeremiah Johnson (1972), along with newer films The Interpreter (2005), Sabrina (1995 film), The Firm (1993) and Havana. He has appeared in over 15 films, including The Interpreter (2005), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Husbands and Wives (1992), The Player and The Electric Horseman (1979). Most recently he appeared opposite George Clooney in Michael Clayton (2007). Pollack has been married to Claire Griswold, a former student of his, since 1958. They had three children,Rachel Pollack, Rebecca Pollack and Steven Pollack (who died in a plane crash in 1993).

The Best Actor award went to William Hurt. Hurt appeared first on stage, only later turning to film. His first major role was in the sci-fi hit Altered States (1980) which gave him wide recognition for playing an emotionally obsessed scientist. He received the Best Male Performance Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Actor for Kiss of the Spider Woman in 1985. He received three additional nominations, one for Children of a Lesser God (1986), one for Broadcast News (1987) and one for A History Of Violence (2005). Often cast as an intellectual, Hurt has put this to good use in many films like Lost in Space and The Big Chill, but he is also effective in other kinds of roles like I Love You to Death, and David Cronenberg's psychological drama A History of Violence (2005), wherein, with less than 10 minutes of screen time, he plays the creepy mob boss Richie Cusack. That same year, Hurt could be seen as a mysterious government operative in Stephen Gaghan's ensemble drama about the politics of Big Oil, Syriana. He recently appeared in Sean Penn's critically acclaimed film Into the Wild, the true story of Christopher McCandless and his life changing adventures. He has a daughter with actress Sandrine Bonnaire and a son, Alex, with Sandra Jennings. He was previously married to Mary Beth Hurt from 1971 to 1982 and lived with Marlee Matlin for a period of time in 1986. Hurt has two sons, named Sam and William Hurt, from his 1989-92 marriage to Heidi Henderson.

Geraldine Page was an Academy Award, Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated American actress. Although starring in at least two dozen feature films, she is primarily known for her celebrated work in the American theater. Page gave celebrated performances in films as well as her work on Broadway. Her film debut was in Out of the Night (1947). Her role in Hondo, garnered her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In all, despite her relatively small filmography, Page received eight Academy Award nominations. She finally won the Oscar for Best Actress in 1986 for a wonderful performance in The Trip to Bountiful, which was based on a play by Horton Foote. Had she not won for Trip to Bountiful, she would have held the record for most nominations without a single win. When she won, she received a standing ovation from the audience at the ceremony. She was surprised by her win (she openly talked about being a seven-time Oscar loser), and took a while to get to the stage to accept the award because she had taken off her shoes while sitting in the audience. She had not expected to win, and her feet were sore. Her other notable screen roles include Academy Award-nominated performances in Tennessee Williams' Summer and Smoke (1961); Sweet Bird of Youth (1962); Toys in the Attic(1963) and Woody Allen's Interiors (1978). She also appeared in quirky and eccentric roles such as calculating murderer of old ladies in What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (1969); a repressed schoolmistress in the Clint Eastwood film The Beguiled (1971); a charismatic evangelist (modeled after Aimee Semple McPherson) in The Day of the Locust (1975); and as Sister Walburga in Nasty Habits (1977). Page was married to violinist Alexander Schneider from 1954 to 1957. In 1963 she married actor Rip Torn, who was 7 years younger than Page. They remained married until her death. Page and Torn had three children, a daughter (actress Angelica Torn) and twin sons (actor Tony Torn, and Northern Arizona University professor Jon Torn). Page, who also suffered from kidney disease, died of a heart attack in 1987 aged 62.

The Best Supporting Actor award was won by Don Ameche. After the release of two 1970 comedies, The Boatniks and Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came?, Ameche was absent from theatrical films for the next 13 years. His only appearance in cinema during that time was in F For Fake, Orson Welles' documentary on hoaxes, when 20th Century-Fox mistakenly sent Welles newsreel footage of Ameche misidentified as footage of Howard Hughes. Ameche and fellow veteran actor Ralph Bellamy were eventually cast in John Landis' Trading Places in 1983, playing rich brothers intent on ruining an innocent man for the sake of a one-dollar bet. Ameche's next role, in Cocoon (1985), won him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He continued working for the rest of his life (including a role in the sequel, Cocoon: The Return). His last films were Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993) and Corrina, Corrina (1994), completed only days before his death. Ameche was married to Honore Prendergast from 1932 until her death in 1986. They had six children. Ameche died on December 6, 1993, of prostate cancer.

Anjelica Huston is an Academy Award- and Golden Globe Award-winning American actress and former fashion model. Huston won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for her performance in 1985's Prizzi's Honor. She later was nominated in 1990 and 1991 for her acting in Enemies, a Love Story and The Grifters respectively. Among her roles, she starred as Morticia Addams in The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993), receiving Golden Globe nominations for both. She is the the daughter of film director John Huston (1906-1987) and his fourth wife, a prima ballerina Enrica Soma (1930-1969). Two of Huston's first movies, Sinful Davey (1969) and A Walk with Love and Death (1969) were directed by her father. She would lose her mother in a car accident the same year; her father remarried Celeste Shane three years later. She appeared in only a few films over the next decade, moving to United States and pursuing a successful career in modeling. Huston would again retreat to familiar roots, taking on small roles in films in the early Eighties; one in which she would star alongside Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange in Bob Rafelson's The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) and Frances (1982) which would also star Jessica Lange. Huston landed her big role, winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Maerose Prizzi in Prizzi's Honor (1985), a film directed by her father, John Huston and starring opposite Jack Nicholson and Kathleen Turner. Huston collaborated with her father again in The Dead, a film for which she was awarded an Independent Spirit Award. It was John Huston's final film before passing away from emphysema in 1987. Huston was nominated for another Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Tamara Broder in Enemies, a Love Story (1989) and another for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her role as Lily Dillon in The Grifters (1990). She received three Saturn Award nominations for one of her most memorable roles, The Grand High Witch in The Witches (1990). Later she received nominations for her role as Morticia Addams in Addams Family Values (1993) and for her role as Baroness Rodmilla de Ghent in Ever After (1998). Huston lived with Jack Nicholson from 1973 to 1989. She married sculptor Robert Graham Jr. in 1992.

The Official Story (Spanish: La historia oficial) (1985) is a Argentine drama film directed by Luis Puenzo and written by Puenzo and Aída Bortnik. It has also been released as The Official Version in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. The film features Norma Aleandro, Héctor Alterio, among others. The film is about a couple in Buenos Aires with an adopted child. The mother comes to realize that her daughter may be the child of a desaparecido, that is, a victim of the disappearances that occurred during Argentina's Dirty War in the 1970s. The film won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

"Say You, Say Me" is a song recorded by Lionel Richie. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on December 21 in 1985. The Academy Award winning song was featured on the soundtrack of the movie White Nights featuring Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines. However, the song is not available on the movie soundtrack album.

57th Academy Award

The 57th Academy Awards were presented March 25, 1985 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. The ceremonies were presided over by Jack Lemmon.

Amadeus is a 1984 drama film directed by Miloš Forman. Based on Peter Shaffer's stage play Amadeus, the film is based very loosely on the lives of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, two composers who lived in Vienna, Austria, during the latter half of the 18th century. The film was nominated for 53 awards and received 40, including eight Academy Awards, four BAFTA Awards, 4 Golden Globes, and a DGA Award. In 1998, Amadeus was ranked the 53rd best American movie by the American Film Institute on its AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies list. In the decade since, its reputation has somewhat diminished and the movie was dropped off the AFI's 10th anniversary edition of the list in 2007. In 1985, the film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, including a rare double nomination for Best Actor – Hulce and Abraham were each nominated for their portrayals of Mozart and Salieri. The movie won eight Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Abraham), Best Director (Forman), Costume Design (Theodor Pistek), Adapted Screenplay (Shaffer), Art Direction, Best Makeup, and Best Sound. The film was nominated for but did not win Oscars for Best Cinematography and Best Editing.

F Murray Abraham won as Best Actor. Abraham can be seen as one of the undercover cops along with Al Pacino in the film 'Serpico'. Prior to his acclaimed role in Amadeus, Abraham was perhaps best known to audiences as a talking leaf in a series of television commercials for Fruit of the Loom underwear. Abraham won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Antonio Salieri in Amadeus (1984). After Amadeus he has mainly focused on classical theatre, and has starred in many Shakespearean productions such as Othello and Richard III, as well as many other plays by the likes of Samuel Beckett and Gilbert and Sullivan. Abraham has been married to Kate Hannan since 1962; they have two children.

Sally Field won her second Oscar as Best Actress for her role in Places in the Heart and Milos Forman his second Best Director Oscar for Amadeus. The Best Supporting Actor award went to Haing S. Ngor, a Cambodian American physician, actor and author who is best known for winning the 1985 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the movie The Killing Fields, in which he portrayed journalist and refugee Dith Pran in 1970s Cambodia, under the rule of the Khmer Rouge. Ngor, despite having no previous acting experience, was cast as Dith Pran in The Killing Fields, a role for which he later won three awards, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Ngor also appeared in other movies and TV shows, most memorably in Oliver Stone's Heaven & Earth and the Vanishing Son miniseries. He also guest-starred in an episode of Miami Vice called "The Savage / Duty and Honor". On February 25, 1996, Ngor was shot to death outside his home in Chinatown, which is located in downtown Los Angeles. Charged with the murder were three reputed members of the "Oriental Lazy Boyz" street gang who had a prior history of snatching purses and jewelry.

Peggy Ashcroft won the Best Supporting Actress award. Ashcroft's film and television appearances were rare but memorable. One of her earliest film roles was the minor part of the crofter's wife in the Robert Donat version of The Thirty-Nine Steps. In 1937, she appeared in a 30 minute excerpt of Twelfth Night on the BBC Television Service, alongside Greer Garson, the first known instance of a Shakespeare play being performed on television. Possibly her best known celluloid role was that of Mrs Moore in the 1984 film A Passage to India — a role for which she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. To this day, Ashcroft remains the oldest person ever to win this award; she was 77 at the time. Although Ashcroft did not appear in person at the telecast to accept the Oscar, Angela Lansbury accepted it on her behalf. She was married three times, first to Rupert Hart-Davis (from 1929-33), and then to Theodore Komisarjevsky (1934). She had two children with her last husband, Jeremy Hutchinson, whom she married in 1940 and divorced in 1965. Ashcroft died in London of a stroke in June 1991, aged 83.

Dangerous Moves is a 1984 French language film about chess, directed by Richard Dembo and starring Michel Piccoli and Alexandre Arbatt. Its original French title is La diagonale du fou ("The Fool's Diagonal", referring to the chess piece called the bishop in English but the fool in French). The film was a co-production between companies in France and Switzerland. It tells the story of two very different men competing in the World Chess Championship Games. One is a 52-year-old Soviet Jew who has been a chess master for the past 12 years, and the other is a 35-year-old genius who defected to the West several years earlier. The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1984; it was submitted by the Swiss government, and gave that nation its first Oscar win.

"I Just Called to Say I Love You" is a song written, produced, and performed by Stevie Wonder as part of the soundtrack to the 1984 film The Woman in Red. The midtempo ballad expresses how simply calling someone to tell them you love them can make even the most unremarkable day of your life magical. It is one of Wonder's most simplistic, jingly and sentimental songs, and, with its quintessentially mid-80s synthesizers and drum machines, is a far cry from his more organic and experimental 1970s material. For those reasons it was savaged by critics upon its release. However, the public were seduced by its simple charms, making it one of Wonder's most successful singles to date. The song was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks from October 13, 1984 and also became Wonder's first solo UK number-one hit, staying at the top for six weeks. It also became his tenth number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. It also won a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

56th Academy Awards

The 56th Academy Awards were presented April 9, 1984 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. The ceremonies were presided over by Johnny Carson, for the fifth and last time.

Terms of Endearment is a 1983 American drama film and romantic comedy adapted by James L. Brooks from the novel by Larry McMurtry. Actor Jack Nicholson's character, astronaut Garrett Breedlove, does not appear in the novel. The part was created for Burt Reynolds, but he was already committed to another film, so it was handed to James Garner. Garner quarrelled with the director over differing interpretations. The part then went to Harrison Ford who turned it down because he didn't like the age difference between himself and Shirley MacLaine. The role wound up going to Nicholson. Louise Fletcher and Sissy Spacek were the original choices for the mother and daughter roles. The movie tells the story of a mother/daughter relationship and both women's inconclusive search for love. The movie won five Academy Awards, including the one for Best Picture and it was the second Oscar win for Nicholson, this time as Best Supporting Actor.

The director, James L Brooks was the winner of the Best Director Oscar. He is best known for producing American television programs such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Simpsons (in which he created miscellaneous characters, including the Bouvier family), Rhoda and Taxi. His best-known film is Terms of Endearment, for which he received three Academy Awards in 1984, as the films producer and scriptwriter as well as the director. Brooks later started his own film and television production company, Gracie Films, in 1984. Gracie Films would produce the television series The Tracey Ullman Show and its spin-off, The Simpsons as well as the animated series The Critic. Gracie Films' notable film productions were Jerry Maguire, As Good as It Gets, Big, Bottle Rocket and Broadcast News.

The Best Actor award went to Robert Duvall. He is best known for his roles in The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Apocalypse Now, THX 1138, Tender Mercies, Lonesome Dove, and The Apostle. Duvall's screen debut was as Boo Radley in the critically acclaimed To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). Duvall later played the notorious malefactor Ned Pepper in True Grit (1969), and Major Frank Burns in the film version of MASH (1970), but his breakout role was that of Tom Hagen in The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974). He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in A Civil Action and for his role as Lt. Colonel Kilgore in Apocalypse Now (1979). He won Oscar's Best Actor in Tender Mercies (1983). His line "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" from Apocalypse Now is now regarded as iconic in cinema history. He directed the critically acclaimed The Apostle, about a preacher on the run from the law, and Assassination Tango (2002), a thriller about one of his favorite hobbies, tango. Duvall portrayed General Robert E. Lee in Gods and Generals in 2003 and is actually a relative of the Confederate general. He has stated in several forums, including CBS Sunday Morning, that his favorite role was that of Augustus "Gus" McCrae in Lonesome Dove. He has been married four times, the first to Barbara Benjamin, from 1964 until 1975. He then married Gail Youngs (1982–1986) and Sharon Brophy (1991–1996). Duvall married Luciana Pedraza in 2005. He met Pedraza on a street in Buenos Aires, Argentina. They were both born on January 5, but Duvall is 41 years older. They have been together since 1997.

Shirley MacLaine is an Academy Award-winning American film and theatre actress, well-known not only for her acting, but for her devotion to her belief in reincarnation and extraterrestrials. She is also the writer of a large number of autobiographical works and the older sister of Warren Beatty. Her first film was the Alfred Hitchcock film The Trouble with Harry in 1955, which won her the Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actress. In 1958, she took part in Hot Spell and Around the World in Eighty Days. At the same time, she starred in Some Came Running; this film gave her her first Academy Award nomination - one of the film's five Oscar nods - and a Golden Globe nomination.She got her second nomination two years later for The Apartment, in which she starred alongside Jack Lemmon. This film won 5 Oscars, including Best Director for Billy Wilder. She was nominated for Irma la Douce (1963), once again reunited with Wilder and Lemmon. In 1977 she was once again nominated for The Turning Point, as was her co-star Anne Bancroft. In 1983, she finally won her first Oscar as Best Actress for Terms of Endearment. After she won an Oscar, she starred in other major films, like Steel Magnolias with Julia Roberts. She made her feature-film directorial debut in the quirky film Bruno. As of 2004, she is the only actress to win a Golden Globe for Best Actress (Drama) without getting an Oscar nomination for the same performance, for Madame Sousatzka (1988). MacLaine was married to businessman Steve Parker until they divorced in 1982. They had a daughter, Sachi Parker (born 1956).

Linda Hunt is an American film, stage and television actress. She is perhaps best known for her Academy Award-winning role in 1983's The Year of Living Dangerously. Hunt's film debut occurred in 1980 in Robert Altman's musical comedy Popeye. In 1982 she won the Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for her role as the male Chinese-Australian dwarf Billy Kwan in the film The Year of Living Dangerously. She is still the only person ever to win an Oscar for playing a character of the opposite sex.

Fanny and Alexander is a 1982, Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning Swedish film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. It was originally conceived as a four part TV movie which spanned 312 minutes. A version lasting only 188 minutes was created later for cinematic release. Along with The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries, Fanny and Alexander is considered by many to be one of Bergman's best films. He intended the film to be his last feature, although he wrote several screenplays afterward and directed a number of TV specials. Bergman was nominated for both Directing and Writing Original Screenplay but was not awarded, thus ending his last chance of ever receiving a personal Oscar for a film. The movie won the Best Foreign Language Film award.

"Flashdance... What a Feeling" is an Academy Award winning song from the 1983 film Flashdance which was performed by Irene Cara. In addition to topping the Billboard Hot 100 and earning a platinum record in 1983, "Flashdance... What a Feeling" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song in 1984. Despite the title, the word "Flashdance" is never used in the lyrics.In March 2007, the United World Chart ranked "Flashdance... What a Feeling" as the twenty-second most successful song in music history. The song was also rated on the list as the fourth most successful song by a solo female artist, behind Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On", Whitney Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You", and Cher's "Believe".

55th Academy Awards

The 55th Academy Awards were presented April 11, 1983 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. The ceremonies were presided over by Liza Minnelli, Dudley Moore, Richard Pryor, and Walter Matthau.

Gandhi is a multi-award-winning biopic film about the life of Mahatma Gandhi, who was leader of the nonviolent resistance movement against British colonial rule in India during the first half of the 20th century. The film was directed by Richard Attenborough and stars Ben Kingsley as Gandhi; both won Academy Awards for their work on the film. It was an international co-production between production companies in India and the UK. The film premiered in New Delhi on November 30, 1982.

The film's director, Richard Attenborough, also won as Best Director. Attenborough has won two Academy Awards, BAFTA and three Golden Globes. He is the older brother of naturalist filmmaker, Sir David Attenborough. Attenborough's film career began in 1942 as a deserting sailor in In Which We Serve, a role which would help to type-cast him for many years as spy or coward in films like London Belongs to Me (1948), Morning Departure (1950), and his breakthrough role as a psychopathic young gangster in the film of Graham Greene's novel Brighton Rock (1947). Early in his stage career, Attenborough starred in the London West End production of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, which went on to become one of the world's longest running stage productions. Both he and his wife were among the original cast members of the production, which opened in 1952 and as of 2007 is still running.In 1967 and 1968, he won back-to-back Golden Globe Awards in the category of Best Supporting Actor, the first time for The Sand Pebbles starring Steve McQueen, and the second time for Doctor Dolittle starring Rex Harrison. He would win another Golden Globe for Best Director, for Gandhi, in 1983. Six years prior to Gandhi he played the ruthless General Outram in Indian director Satyajit Ray's period piece The Chess Players. He has never been nominated for an Academy Award in an acting category. He took no acting roles following his appearance in Otto Preminger's version of The Human Factor in 1979, until his appearance as the eccentric developer John Hammond in Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park in 1993. The following year he starred in the remake of Miracle on 34th Street as Kris Kringle. Since then he has made occasional appearances in supporting roles including the 1998 historical drama Elizabeth as Sir William Cecil. His feature film directorial debut was the all-star screen version of the hit musical Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), and his acting appearances became more sporadic - the most notable being his portrayal of serial killer John Christie in 10 Rillington Place (1971). He later directed two epic period films: Young Winston (1972), based on the early life of Winston Churchill, and A Bridge Too Far (1977), an all-star account of Operation Market Garden in World War II. He won the 1982 Academy Awarf for Directing for his historical epic, Gandhi, a project he had been attempting to get made for many years. As the film's producer, he also won the Academy Award for Best Picture. His most recent films as director and producer include Chaplin (1992) starring Robert Downey, Jr. as Charlie Chaplin and Shadowlands (1993), based on the relationship between C.S. Lewis and Joy Gresham. Both films starred Anthony Hopkins, who also appeared in three other films for Attenborough: Young Winston, A Bridge Too Far and the thriller Magic (1978). Attenborough also directed the screen version of the musical A Chorus Line (1985); and the apartheid drama Cry Freedom based on the experiences of Donald Woods. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Director for both films. His most recent film as director was another biographical film, Grey Owl (1999), starring Pierce Brosnan. Attenborough has been married to English actress Sheila Sim since 1945. They had three children. In December 2004, his elder daughter, Jane Holland, as well as her daughter, Lucy, and her mother-in-law, also named Jane, were killed in the tsunami caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.

Ben Kingsley, CBE, is a British actor. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Mohandas Gandhi in Richard Attenborough's 1982 film Gandhi, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor and the Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actor. Kingsley's first film role was a supporting turn in Fear Is the Key, released in 1972. Kingsley continued starring in bit roles in both film and television, including a bit part on the soap opera Coronation Street and regular appearances as a defence counsel in the long-running British legal programme Crown Court. He found fame only years later, starring as Mohandas Gandhi in the Academy Award-winning film Gandhi in 1982, his best-known role to date. The audience also agreed with the critics, and Gandhi was a box-office success. Kingsley won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal. Kingsley has since appeared in a variety of roles. His credits included the films Turtle Diary, Maurice, Pascali's Island, Without a Clue (as Dr. Watson alongside Michael Caine's Sherlock Holmes), Suspect Zero, Bugsy--which led to an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Sneakers, Dave, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Schindler's List, Silas Marner, Death and the Maiden, Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story, Sexy Beast, for which he received another Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and House of Sand and Fog, which led to yet another Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Kingsley had four children as of the summer of 2007: Thomas Bhanji and Jasmine Bhanji by actress Angela Morant, and Edmund Kingsley and Ferdinand Kingsley, both of whom became actors, by theatrical director Alison Sutcliffe. In 2005 he divorced German-born Alexandra Christmann, after pictures of her kissing another lover surfaced on the internet. On September 3, 2007, Kingsley married Daniela Barbosa de Carneiro, a Brazilian actress, in North Leigh, Oxfordshire.

Louis Gossett, Jr. is an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Academy Award winning American actor. After leaving the New York Knicks, Gossett stepped into the world of cinema in the Sidney Poitier vehicle A Raisin in the Sun in 1961. Since his film debut, Gossett has continued working. He has starred in numerous film productions such as The Deep, An Officer and a Gentleman, Jaws 3-D (as SeaWorld manager Calvin Bouchard), Enemy Mine, the Iron Eagle series, Toy Soldiers and The Punisher. His role as Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley in the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman (opposite Richard Gere) showcased his talent and garnered him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 1986, he starred in another role as a military man in the film Iron Eagle. It was followed by three sequels.

Jessica Lange is a two-time Academy Award-winning American actress.In 1976, Dino De Laurentiis cast her in his motion picture remake King Kong, which started and almost ended her career. Although, the King Kong remake was a top moneymaker for Paramount Pictures, film critics were not kind to the film. The unfavorable reviews were devastating but critics took notice when she made an impressive turn in Bob Rafelson's remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981).Her performance in her next film, Frances (1982), in which she portrayed actress Frances Farmer, was highly lauded and earned her a nomination for Academy Award for Best Actress. She received two nominations that year, the other as Supporting Actress in the comedy Tootsie (1982), for which she won. She continued giving impressive performances through the 80s and 90s in films such as Sweet Dreams (1984) (playing country/western singer Patsy Cline), Music Box (1989), Men Don't Leave (1990), and Blue Sky (1994) for which she won the Best Actress Academy Award. Lange was married to photographer Paco Grande from 1970-1981. Since 1982, she has lived with playwright/actor Sam Shepard. She has three children, Alexandra (born 1981) with dancer/actor Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Hannah Jane (born 1985) and Walker Samuel (born 1987) with Shepard. Lange currently lives in New York City.

Begin the Beguine is a 1982 Spanish film about a man who returns to his homeland after many years. Its original Spanish title is Volver a empezar, which means Starting Again; the English language title refers to the song "Begin the Beguine" by Cole Porter. The film won the 1982 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and was the first Spanish film to do so.

"Up Where We Belong" is a song from the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman. Written by Jack Nitzsche and Buffy Sainte-Marie, with lyrics by Will Jennings, it was performed by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes."'Up Where We Belong" won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1983. It also won the BAFTA Film Awards for Best Original Song in 1984. Cocker and Warnes also won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1983 for their rendition of this song.

54th Academy Awards

The 54th Academy Awards were presented March 29, 1982 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. The ceremonies were presided over by Johnny Carson.

Chariots of Fire is a British film released in 1981. Written by Colin Welland and directed by Hugh Hudson, it is based on the true story of British athletes preparing for and competing in the 1924 Summer Olympics. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four, including Best Picture. The title is a quotation from the hymn Jerusalem which is a setting of a poem by William Blake. The film's working title was "Running" until Welland saw the scene with the singing of the hymn and decided to change the title.Although the film is a period piece, set in the 1920's, the original soundtrack composed by Vangelis uses a modern, 1980's electronic sound with a strong use of synthesizer and piano among other instruments. This was a bold and significant departure from earlier period films which employed sweeping orchestral instrumentals. Vangelis was rewarded with an Academy Award for his work. The title theme of the film has become iconic and has been used in subsequent films and television shows during slow-motion.

The Best Director award went to Warren Beatty for Reds. Beatty's sister, three years his elder, is the talented and multi-award winning actress and writer Shirley MacLaine. He made his film debut under Elia Kazan's direction and opposite Natalie Wood in Splendor in the Grass (1961). The film was a box office success and Beatty was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in the category Best Motion Picture Actor - Drama. Subsequently he appeared in several films which went relatively unnoticed. Then, at age 30, he achieved critical acclaim and power as a producer and star of Bonnie and Clyde (1967) which was nominated for 10 Academy Awards. Subsequent Beatty films include McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), The Parallax View (1974), Shampoo (1975), and Heaven Can Wait (1978). The last film gave him box-office power he hadn't had since Bonnie and Clyde. He used this to make Reds (1981), an historical epic about famed Communist journalist John Reed in the Russian October Revolution. It won Academy Awards for Best Director (Beatty), Best Cinematography, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Maureen Stapleton). In 1990 he bounced back when he produced, directed and starred in the title role as the comic strip character Dick Tracy in the film of the same name. The film was one of the highest grossers of the year and was also the highest grossing film in Beatty's career at that point. However he did not manage to repeat the box office success of Dick Tracy in his subsequent films. He went on to star as the real-life gangster Bugsy Siegel in the biopic Bugsy (1991) opposite Annette Bening, whom he married in 1992. He starred opposite Bening once again in Love Affair (1994). Both films failed to do well. His next film which he wrote, produced, directed and starred in was the political satire Bullworth (1998) which was critically appreciated but also failed to do well at the box office. In 2001 he appeared in his last film, Town and Country, which became the second-largest money loser of any movie ever made. In 1992 he married Annette Bening, his co-star in the gangster film Bugsy. They have four children: Kathlyn (b. 1992), Benjamin (b. 1994), Isabel (b. 1996) and Ella Corinne (b. 2000).

Henry Fonda was a highly acclaimed Academy Award-winning American film and stage actor, best known for his roles as plain-speaking idealists. Fonda's subtle, naturalistic acting style preceded by many years the popularization of Method acting. Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor, and made his Hollywood debut in 1935. Fonda's career gained momentum after his Academy Award-nominated performance in 1940s The Grapes of Wrath, an adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel about an Oklahoma family who moved west during the Dust Bowl. Throughout six decades in Hollywood, Fonda cultivated a strong, appealing screen image in such classics as The Ox-Bow Incident, Mister Roberts, and 12 Angry Men. Later, Fonda moved toward both more challenging, darker epics as Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West (portraying a villain who kills, among others, a child and a cripple) and lighter roles in family comedies like Yours, Mine and Ours with Lucille Ball. He was the patriarch of a family of famous actors, including daughter Jane Fonda, son Peter Fonda, granddaughter Bridget Fonda, and grandson Troy Garity; his family and close friends called him "Hank". In 1999, he was named the sixth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute. Fonda's film career blossomed as he costarred with Sylvia Sidney and Fred MacMurray in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936), the first Technicolor movie filmed outdoors. He also starred with ex-wife Margaret Sullavan in ‘’The Moon’s Our Home’’, and a short re-kindling of their relationship led to a brief consideration of re-marriage. Sullavan then married Fonda’s agent Leland Hayward and Fonda married socialite Frances Seymour Brokaw, who had little interest in the movies or the theater. Fonda got the nod for the lead role in You Only Live Once (1937), also costarring Sidney, and directed by Fritz Lang. Fonda’s first child Jane Fonda was born on December 21, 1937. A critical success opposite Bette Davis, who had picked Fonda, in the film Jezebel (1938) was followed by the title role in Young Mr. Lincoln and his first collaboration with director John Ford. Fonda's successes led Ford to recruit him to play "Tom Joad" in the film version of John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath (1940), but a reluctant Darryl Zanuck, who preferred Tyrone Power, insisted on Fonda's signing a seven-year contract with the studio, Twentieth Century-Fox. Fonda agreed, and was ultimately nominated for an Academy Award for his work in the 1940 film, which many consider to be his finest role, but his friend James Stewart won the Best Actor award for his role in The Philadelphia Story. Second child Peter Fonda was born in 1940. Fonda played Wyatt Earp in John Ford’s My Darling Clementine (1946) and appeared in the film Fort Apache (1948) as a rigid Army colonel, along with John Wayne and Shirley Temple in her first adult role. Fonda did seven post-war films then his contract with Fox expired.He starred in the 1955 film version of Mister Roberts opposite James Cagney, William Powell and Jack Lemmon, continuing a pattern of bringing his acclaimed stage roles to life on the big screen. On the set of Mister Roberts, Fonda came to blows with John Ford and vowed never to work for him again. He never did Fonda followed Mr. Roberts with Paramount Pictures's production of the Leo Tolstoy epic War and Peace, in which Fonda played Pierre Bezukhov opposite Audrey Hepburn, and which took two years to shoot. Fonda worked with Alfred Hitchcock in 1956, playing a man falsely accused of murder in The Wrong Man, an unusual though not successful effort by Hitchcock based on an actual crime and filmed on location in black and white.In 1957, Fonda made his first foray into production with 12 Angry Men, based on a teleplay and a script by Reginald Rose and directed by Sidney Lumet. The low budget production was completed in only seventeen days of filming mostly in one claustraphobic jury room and had a strong cast including Jack Klugman, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam, and E. G. Marshall. The intense film about twelve jurors deciding the fate of a young man accused of murder was well-received by critics worldwide. Fonda shared the Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations with co-producer Reginald Rose and won the 1958 BAFTA Award for Best Actor for his performance as "Juror #8”, who with logic and persistence eventually sways all the jurors to an acquittal.After western movies The Tin Star (1957) and Warlock (1959), Fonda returned to the production seat for the NBC western television series The Deputy (1959–1961), in which he also starred. Around this time, his fourth troubled marriage was coming to an end. The 1960s saw Fonda perform in a number of war and western epics, including 1962's The Longest Day and How the West Was Won, 1965's In Harm's Way and Battle of the Bulge. In the Cold War suspense film Fail-Safe (1964), Fonda played the resolute President of the United States who tries to avert a nuclear holocaust through tense negotiations with the Soviets who see an attack coming their way.He appeared against type as the villain "Frank" in 1968's Once Upon a Time in the West. After initially turning down the role, he was convinced to accept it by actor Eli Wallach and director Sergio Leone, who flew from Italy to the United States to persuade him to take the part. In 1970, Fonda appeared in three films, the most successful of these ventures being The Cheyenne Social Club. The other two films were Too Late the Hero, in which Fonda played a secondary role, and There Was a Crooked Man, about Paris Pitman Jr. (played by Kirk Douglas) trying to escape from an Arizona prison. After the unsuccessful Hollywood melodrama, Ash Wednesday, he filmed three Italian productions released in 1973 and 1974. The most successful of these, My Name Is Nobody, presented Fonda in a rare comedic performance as an old gunslinger whose plans to retire are dampened by a "fan" of sorts.Fonda finished the 1970s in a number of disaster films. The first of these was the 1977 Italian killer octopus thriller Tentacoli (Tentacles) and the mediocre Rollercoaster, in which Fonda appeared with Richard Widmark and a young Helen Hunt. He performed once again with Widmark, Olivia de Havilland, Fred MacMurray, and José Ferrer in the killer bee action film The Swarm. He also acted in the global disaster film Meteor, with Sean Connery, Natalie Wood and Karl Malden, and then the Canadian production City on Fire, which also featured Shelley Winters and Ava Gardner. Fonda had a small role with his son, Peter, in 1979's Wanda Nevada, with Brooke Shields. 1981's On Golden Pond, the film adaptation of Ernest Thompson's play, marked one final professional and personal triumph for Fonda. Directed by Mark Rydell, the project provided unprecedented collaborations between Fonda and Katharine Hepburn, and between Fonda and Fonda's daughter, Jane. The elder Fonda played an emotionally brittle and distant father who becomes more accessible at the end of his life. With eleven Academy Award nominations, the film earned nearly $120 million at the box office, becoming an unexpected blockbuster. In addition to wins for Hepburn (Best Actress), and Thompson (Screenplay), On Golden Pond brought Fonda his only Oscar for Best Actor (it also earned him a Golden Globe Best Actor award). Fonda was by that point too ill too attend the ceremony, and Jane Fonda accepted on his behalf.Henry Fonda was married five times. His marriage to Margaret Sullavan in 1931 soon ended in separation, which was finalized in a 1933 divorce. In 1936, he married Frances Ford Seymour. They had two children, Peter and Jane. In 1950, Seymour committed suicide. Fonda married Susan Blanchard, the stepdaughter of Oscar Hammerstein II, in 1950. Together, they adopted a daughter, Amy (born 1953), but divorced three years later. In 1957 Fonda married Italian Countess Afdera Franchetti. They remained married until 1961. Soon after Fonda married Shirlee Mae Adams, and remained with her until his death in 1982. Fonda died at his Los Angeles home on August 12, 1982, at the age of 77 from heart disease.

Katharine Hepbrun won her fourth Oscar for On Golden Pond. The Best Supporting Actor award went to John Gielgud for Arthur. Although he began to appear in British films as early as 1924, making his debut in the silent movie Who Is the Man?, he would not make an impact in the medium until the last decades of his life. His early film roles were sporadic and included the lead in Alfred Hitchcock's Secret Agent (1936), Benjamin Disraeli in The Prime Minister (1940), Cassius in Julius Caesar (1953), BAFTA Award for Best British Actor), George, Duke of Clarence to Olivier's Richard III (1955), and Henry IV to Orson Welles' Falstaff in Chimes at Midnight (1966). But he lost his aversion to filming in the late 1960s, and by the 1980s and 1990s he had thrown himself into the medium with a vengeance, so much so that it was jokingly said that he was prepared to do almost anything for his art. He won an Academy Award for his supporting role as a sardonic butler in the 1981 comedy Arthur, starring Dudley Moore, a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Providence (1977), a BAFTA Award for Murder on the Orient Express (1974), and his performances in The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968), The Elephant Man (1981), and Shine (1996) were critically acclaimed. In 1991, Gielgud was able to satisfy his life's ambition by immortalizing his Prospero on screen in the film Prospero's Books. Gielgud was one of the few people who has won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award. Gielgud's final onscreen appearance in a major release motion picture was as Pope Paul IV in Elizabeth which was released in 1998. Longtime lover Martin Hensler, 30 years his junior, died just a few months before Sir John did in 2000.

The Best Supporting Actress award went to Maureen Stapleton for Reds. Stepping in because Anna Magnani refused the role due to her limited English, Stapleton won a Tony Award for her role in Tennessee Williams' The Rose Tattoo in 1951. (Magnani's English improved, however, and she was able to play the role in the film version, winning an Oscar.) Stapleton's film career, though limited, brought her immediate success, with her debut in Lonelyhearts (1958) earning a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She appeared in the 1963 film version of Bye Bye Birdie, in the role of Mama Mae Peterson, with Dick Van Dyke, Janet Leigh, Paul Lynde and Ann-Margret. She was nominated again for an Oscar for Airport (1970) and Woody Allen's Interiors (1978). She won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Reds (1981), directed by Warren Beatty, in which she portrayed the Lithuanian-born anarchist, Emma Goldman. Stapleton won a 1968 Emmy Award for her performance in Among the Paths of Eden. She was nominated for the television version of All the King's Men (1959), Queen of the Stardust Ballroom (1975), and The Gathering (1977). Her more recent appearances included Johnny Dangerously (1984), Cocoon (1985) and its sequel Cocoon: The Return (1988). Stapleton's first husband was Max Allentuck, and her second husband was playwright David Rayfiel, from whom she divorced. She had a son, Daniel, and a daughter, Katherine, by her first husband and later was a devoted grandmother. Her daughter, Katherine Allentuck, garnered good reviews for her single movie role, that of "Aggie" in Summer of '42 (Stapleton herself also had a minor, uncredited role in the film as the protagonist's mother). In 2006, Maureen Stapleton, who was a heavy smoker, died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at her home in Lenox, Massachusetts, at the age of 80.

Mephisto is the title of a 1981 film adaptation of Klaus Mann's novel of the same name, directed by István Szabó, and starring Klaus Maria Brandauer as Hendrik Höfgen. The film was a co-production between companies in West Germany, Hungary and Austria. The film adapts the story of Mephistopheles and Doctor Faustus by having the main character Hendrik Höfgen abandon his conscience and continue to act and ingratiate himself with the Nazi Party and so keep and improve his job and social position. Both the film and Mann's 1936 novel mirror the career of Mann's brother-in-law, Gustaf Gründgens, who is considered by many to have supported the Nazi Party and abandoned his previous political views for personal gain rather than conscience. Mephisto was awarded the 1981 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film; the film was submitted to the Academy by Hungary.

"Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)", performed by Christopher Cross, is the theme song from the 1981 film Arthur starring Dudley Moore and Liza Minnelli. The song was written in collaboration between Cross, pop music composer Burt Bacharach, and his frequent writing partner Carole Bayer Sager. A fourth writing credit goes to Minnelli's ex-husband and Australian songwriter Peter Allen, also a frequent collaborator with Bayer Sager; the line "When you get caught between the moon and New York City" from the chorus is taken from an unreleased song they had previously written together. The song won the 1981 Academy Award for Best Original Song. The award was presented by singer Bette Midler, who, in her presentation of the nominated songs, called the song " 'That Song About the Moon and New York City,' also known as 'Four on a Song,' " referring to the four songwriters.