The Honorary Oscar

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Reza
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Found this old article:

Honorary Oscars Bypass Women
by Andre Soares | Feb 13, 2007


At the 1936 Academy Awards ceremony, D. W. Griffith became the first individual to win an Honorary Award for his body of work. Seventy-one years and 77 (my count*) Honorary Oscar winners later, a mere eight women have been recognized for their cinematic oeuvre. The chosen 8 — 6 of them actresses, plus one actress-producer — are: Greta Garbo (at the 1955 ceremony), Lillian Gish (1971), actress-producer Mary Pickford (1976), editor Margaret Booth (1978), Barbara Stanwyck (1982), Myrna Loy (1991), Sophia Loren (1991), and Deborah Kerr (1994).

Considering the amount of female talent that has gone un-honored these past seven decades, I find it impossible not to believe that the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has a long-standing problem when it comes to recognizing women’s achievements on a par with those of men. In that regard, the Academy is as selectively near-sighted as the vast majority of film critics and historians — but that is no excuse.

Women, in fact, have fared no better at winning any of the Academy’s honorary prizes. To date, not a single woman has won the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, given out since 1937 to "creative producers whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production," or the Gordon E. Sawyer Award, given out since 1981 to "an individual in the motion picture industry whose technological contributions have brought credit to the industry."
True, the complete absence of women from the list of Thalberg Award winners could be explained by the fact that until quite recently precious few women have been involved in the production of Hollywood movies. (That said, Margaret Ménégoz, for one, has been quite busy for decades producing high-quality films overseas.) The same type of gender imbalance in the technical development of motion pictures may also explain the absence of female Sawyer Award winners.
But what about the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award? In the last 51 years, 32 individuals have been recognized for their "humanitarian efforts [that] have brought credit to the industry." Of these, only five have been women, four of them actresses: Martha Raye (at the 1969 ceremony), Rosalind Russell (1973), Elizabeth Taylor (1993), Audrey Hepburn (1993, right), and this year’s honoree, former Paramount chairman Sherry Lansing.

Are women then more self-absorbed than men? Or does the Academy’s Board of Governors believe that women’s deeds carry less importance than men’s deeds?
Now, I’m not arguing that the Academy should impose some sort of — however unofficial — quota system. That would be both unfair and unworkable, especially considering that throughout the decades men have kept a stranglehold in the industry’s top positions, both in front and behind the camera. As a consequence of this male dominance, it is to be expected that the Academy would honor many more males than females, as the male talent pool is much larger. But, going back to the career achievement Oscar, would that gap explain a male-female ratio of nearly 10 to 1?

No, it wouldn’t. Even sticking only to the acting branch, the ratio currently stands at 28† to 7, or 4 to 1.
Thus, sexism is the only plausible answer, for it is tied to the widespread prejudice that women’s issues — whether in life or on-screen — are less significant than those of men. Women certainly haven’t been ignored because Academy Board members have been unable to find qualified Honorary Award candidates.


Actresses Danielle Darrieux (more than 75 years of screen work, and still active), Doris Day, Lauren Bacall**, Michèle Morgan, Julie Andrews, Julie Christie, Shirley MacLaine, Catherine Deneuve, Jeanne Moreau, Liv Ullmann, Monica Vitti, Debbie Reynolds, Jennifer Jones, Joan Fontaine, Joanne Woodward, Micheline Presle, Jean Simmons, and Angela Lansbury.

Also, Mia Farrow, Vanessa Redgrave, Gina Lollobrigida, Eleanor Parker, Eva Marie Saint, Jane Wyman, Patricia Neal, Anouk Aimée, Annie Girardot, Barbra Streisand; directors Agnès Varda and Lina Wertmuller; editors Dede Allen and Anne V. Coates (who’s just received Bafta’s Academy Fellowship); and screenwriter Harriet Frank, Jr., are some of the female film veterans who still haven’t received an Honorary Oscar for their body of work.
Some of those women won a single Oscar decades ago; others have never won. Some have never even been nominated.

I did not include Olivia de Havilland, Elizabeth Taylor, Maggie Smith, Glenda Jackson, and Jane Fonda in the list above because each one of them has already won two best actress awards, while Thelma Schoonmaker has already won two best editing Oscars. Only someone like Elia Kazan — i.e., with friends in high Academy places — can have two Academy Award wins and still be allowed to get a third statuette for career achievement.
Among the distinguished female film professionals in Hollywood and elsewhere — some of whom dating back to the early days of cinema — who have gone to the Great Beyond without receiving the Academy’s career achievement Oscar are actresses Greer Garson, Claudette Colbert, Gloria Swanson, Audrey Hepburn, Rosalind Russell, Marlene Dietrich, Alida Valli, Simone Signoret, Joan Crawford, Anna Magnani, Susan Hayward, Dolores del Río, Norma Talmadge, Anne Baxter, Joan Bennett, Lilli Palmer, Constance Bennett, and Kay Francis.

Also, Ann Sheridan, Constance Talmadge, Irene Dunne, Colleen Moore, Betty Grable, Gene Tierney, Jean Arthur, Anne Bancroft, Judy Garland, Norma Shearer, Miriam Hopkins, Ginger Rogers, Anna Neagle, Pauline Frederick, Joan Blondell, Pola Negri, Mary Astor, Sylvia Sidney, Claire Trevor, Rita Hayworth, Paulette Goddard, Corinne Griffith, Alice Faye, Margaret Lockwood, Agnes Moorehead, Lucille Ball, Margaret Rutherford, and the first best actress Oscar winner, Janet Gaynor.
And more: pioneer director/screenwriter/actress Lois Weber, pioneer director/producer Alice Guy, actress/director Ida Lupino, director/editor Dorothy Arzner, editors Anne Bauchens and Barbara McLean; composer/screenwriter Betty Comden; and screenwriters Bess Meredyth, Jane Murfin, Jeanie Macpherson, Lenore J. Coffee, and Anita Loos.
(Once again, the list above doesn’t include women who throughout their careers received two or more Academy Awards in a particular category — e.g., actresses Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Ingrid Bergman, Helen Hayes, and Vivien Leigh; screenwriter Frances Marion; costume designer Edith Head.)

In the meantime, the Academy has recognized the body of work of numerous male actors — from Alec Guinness to Robert Redford, from Laurence Olivier to Eddie Cantor, from Danny Kaye to Sidney Poitier, from Edward G. Robinson to Groucho Marx, from Mickey Rooney to Henry Fonda, from Broncho Billy Anderson to Cary Grant.
In addition to male directors (from King Vidor to Satyajit Ray, from Jean Renoir to Blake Edwards, from Sidney Lumet to Akira Kurosawa), producers (Joseph M. Schenck, B. B. Kahane), studio heads (Louis B. Mayer, Hal Roach), animators (Chuck Jones, Walter Lantz), inventors (Lee De Forest, George Alfred Mitchell), composers (Alex North and this year’s Ennio Morricone), a choreographer (Michael Kidd), a stunt coordinator (Yakima Canutt), a cinematographer (Jack Cardiff), a short-film creator (Pete Smith), a screenwriter (Ernest Lehman), a film exhibitor (Sid Grauman), a film archivist (Henri Langlois), and even a censor (the infamous Joseph Breen).

Most — though definitely not all — male winners of career Honorary Oscars merited their statuettes because, whether or not you or I admire their acting or directorial skills, they hold an indelible place in motion picture history. But if gender-related prejudices haven’t played a role in the selection of honorees, why hasn’t the Academy been able to find more women deserving of that same recognition?

* I didn’t include the numerous special Oscars given to individuals for specific achievements (e.g., to William Cameron Menzies for his work with color in Gone with the Wind), or to those who provided "contributions" to the Academy (those Honorary Oscars were "Thank You" — not career — awards). In any case, with one exception — Onna White, who won for her choreography for Oliver! in 1968 — all other such Honorary winners were men. Miniature Oscars given to child stars were also left out.

† Several of those 28 actors also performed other cinematic duties, such as directing or producing films. But their Honorary Oscars were undeniably a direct result of their activities in front of the camera.

** Addendum, Sept. ‘09: Lauren Bacall has been named one of the recipients of the Academy’s 2009 Honorary Awards. More women will likely be recognized from now on because the Honorary Award has been moved to a separate ceremony at which the Academy’s Board of Governors may choose to honor up to four individuals per year.
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