How good is your Oscars trivia knowledge? Try our quiz and find out
1.
When collecting his award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for City Slickers in 1992, 73-year-old Kirk Douglas performed one-armed press-ups to prove that older actors are still physically fit.
False
Everything is true except for the actor. It was Jack Palance.
2.
Shirley Temple was the youngest ever Oscar winner at age 6.
True (technically)
In 1935, 6-year-old Shirley Temple was awarded an honorary ‘juvenile’ Oscar – but the youngest winner in the standard competitive categories remains Tatum O’Neal, who won the Best Supporting Actress award for Paper Moon in 1974 at the age of 10.*
*Give yourself a point if you went with Tatum O’Neal
3.
Sir Charlie Chaplin received a 12-minute standing ovation when he was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1972.
True
Of course it’s true. It’s Charlie Chaplin. He was awarded two honorary Oscars but only won one for a competitive category – and it wasn’t acting or directing. He shared the Best Score award in 1973 for the re-released Limelight, which he wrote, produced, directed and starred in. Talk about hogging the – well – limelight.
4.
Donald Duck is the only animated Oscars host to date.
True
He appeared ‘pre-recorded’ as one of six hosts in 1958. He is also the only host ever to present the show naked from the waist down.
5.
The Oscars didn’t happen in 1944 or 1945 because of the war, but the films that the Academy would have chosen were privately given statuettes in 1946 and read out at the ceremony.
False
The Oscars ceremonies continued through the war, but from 1942 to 1945, the attendees were encouraged to dress down, proceeds from limited ticket sales to the public went to the Red Cross and the famous statuette was made of plaster.
6.
The only Oscar to win an Oscar was Oscar Homolka, who took home the Best Actor in a Supporting Role award for Remember Mama in 1948.
False
Lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, of the famous Rodgers and Hammerstein collaboration, who wrote Oklahoma, The King and I and The Sound of Music (as well as many more) is the actual only Oscar to win an Oscar.
He was awarded two statuettes for Best Original Song in 1942 and 1946.
7.
During his 2020 acceptance speech for Joker, vegan Joaquin Phoenix berated people for drinking milk.
True
He said –
“We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow, and when she gives birth, we steal her baby. We take her milk that’s intended for her calf, and we put it in our coffee and our cereal.”
8.
Midnight Cowboy is the only X-rated film to win the Best Picture Oscar.
True
The rating was changed to NC-17, but Midnight Cowboy remains the single adults-only film to have taken the award for Best Picture.
9.
Christopher Plummer was the oldest acting Oscar nominee at age 88 in 2018.
True
Although, at 90, John Williams‘ nomination for Best Original Score this year for Steven Spielberg‘s The Fabelmans makes him the oldest nominee across all categories.
10.
In 1929, German shepherd Rin Tin Tin was nominated for best actor for his role in Land of the Silver Fox – the only time an animal received a nomination. He was narrowly beaten by Emil Jennings for The Way of All Flesh.
False
Producer Daryl Zanuck opposed the creation of the Academy Awards, because they were devised to bribe industry professionals to stop unionising. He made up a fake nomination for Rin Tin Tin in a letter and the legend was born.
11.
Bob Hope, who holds the record for presenting the Oscars, hosted it more than the celebrities in 2nd and 3rd place combined.
True
Bob Hope – 19 times. Billy Crystal – 9 times. Johnny Carson – 5 times.
12.
Oscar winners are obliged to offer their statuettes to the Academy for $1 before selling them to anyone else.
True
It’s rule 10 in the list of Academy regulations, which states –
Award winners shall not sell or otherwise dispose of the Oscar statuette, nor permit it to be sold or disposed of by operation of law, without first offering to sell it to the Academy for the sum of $1.00. This provision shall apply also to the heirs and assigns of Academy Award winners who may acquire a statuette by gift or bequest.
13.
Walt Disney won eight Academy Awards for his 1937 animated classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
False
He was awarded one honorary Academy Award for the film, but they gave him one normal-sized statuette and seven small versions.
14.
As well as the informal ‘Oscar’, the golden statuette is named the Academy Award of Merit.
True
But he’ll always be Oscar to his friends.
15.
Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro are the only men to win Oscars for playing the same character.
False
It was true (after they both won Academy Awards for playing Vito Corleone from the Godfather trilogy) until 2020, when Joaquin Phoenix became the second actor – after Heath Ledger – to win an Oscar for playing The Joker.
16.
1939’s Wizard of Oz was the first colour film to take the Best Picture award.
False
It was pipped to the post by Gone With the Wind the same year.
17.
Cate Blanchett was the first person to win an Oscar for playing a real Oscar winner.
True.
Cate played 12-time Best Actress nominee and record-breaking four-time winner Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator in 2004.
18.
At the 2015 Academy Awards, Broadway star Idina Menzel introduced John Travolta as Glom Gazingo.
True
It was to playfully get her own back for the 2014 Oscars, when he accidentally introduced her as Adele Dazeem.
19.
The Academy couldn’t pick between Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand for Best Actress in 1969, so they both won.
True
Katharine Hepburn was nominated for The Lion in Winter, and Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl. They received 3,030 votes each.
20.
Meryl Streep has had more Oscar nominations than any other woman in the history of the awards.
False
With 17 nominations for Best Actress and four for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Meryl Streep is the most-nominated actress, but costumier Edith Head received a stunning 35 nominations and eight wins, including for Samson and Delilah, Roman Holiday and The Sting.
How did you do?
16 to 20 – You win the Oscar
11 to 15 – You win the BAFTA
6 to 10 – You win the Razzie
0 to 5 – You win the 25m Freestyle bronze award
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This cheesy moment between Sylvester Stallone and Muhammad Ali is how Oscars night should be
Image kalhh on Pixabay