Oscars for Direction - 1950s/1960s
Oscar and Academy Award History and Trivia for Classic Movie Buffs
The 1950s and 1960s saw several directing records set. It was also a period when several directing veterans affirmed their place in movie history and new trends began.
The Academy Awards for best director in the 1950s and 1960s saw several records set, as well as recognition for several deserving individuals. Here are some directing highlights and accompanying stories from those two decades.
Directing Firsts
- When Joseph L. Mankiewicz won best director and best screenplay awards in 1950 for All about Eve, he became the first man to win consecutive Oscars in the same categories. The previous year, Mankiewicz had won the same awards for A Letter to Three Wives.
- John Ford became the first, and only, director to win four Oscars when he took a trophy home for The Quiet Man in 1952. Strangely enough, although Ford is best remembered for his rugged Westerns, none of the four films are from that genre – the other three wins were for The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), and How Green Was My Valley (1941).
- Delbert Mann, in 1955, became the first director to win an Oscar in his movie directorial debut (Marty). Prior to this film, Mann had worked exclusively in television and returned primarily to his first love afterwards. Sam Mendes became the second director to accomplish this feat when he won the directing award for American Beauty (1999).
- An Academy first occurred when the 1961 best director Oscar actually went to two men: Robert Wise and choreographer Jerome Robbins for West Side Story. Wise won again four years later with The Sound of Music.
- The 1961 nominees included the first person nominated for best director based upon a foreign language film. This was Federico Fellini who was chosen for his La Dolce Vita. He lost to Wise and Robbins. The Italian director was nominated again in 1963 for 8 1/2.
Other Directorial Highlights
- William Wyler, in 1965, received his twelfth and final nomination as best director for The Collector, which is still the Academy record. His first nomination was in 1936 for Dodsworth and his three winning Oscars were for Mrs. Miniver (1942), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), and Ben-Hur (1959).
- Wyler was also the ultimate actor’s director. He directed the most Oscar nominated actors and actresses (34), with thirteen of them winning the award. His first winners were Walter Brennan (supporting actor, Come and Get It, 1936) and Bette Davis (best actress, Jezebel, 1938) and his last was Barbra Streisand (best actress, Funny Girl, 1968).
- In 1967, the Academy honored long-time director Alfred Hitchcock with the Irving G. Thalberg Award, given in recognition for a lifetime of quality work. Ironically, this innovative legend never won an Oscar for any of his individual works despite being nominated five times. His nominations were for: Rebecca (1940), Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), Rear Window (1954), and Psycho (1960).
- The 1960s saw an influx of foreign directors being nominated for Oscars. Of the fifty nominations that decade, nine went to men who lived and worked outside the United States. Besides the aforementioned Fellini, the list includes: Pietro Germi (1962, Italy), Michael Cacoyannis (1964, Greece), Hiroshi Teshigahara (1965, Japan), Claude Leloach (1966, France), Michaelangelo Antonioni (1966, Italy), Gillo Pontecorvo (1968, Italy), Franco Zeffirelli (1968, Italy), and Costa-Garvas (1969, Greece). Although none won best director, several of them won Oscars in other categories.
For more information on the Oscars see: Osborne, Robert, 75 Years of the Oscar. New York: Abbeville Press, 2003; The Official Academy Award Site; Oscar, Oscar
More Oscar Topics: Oscar Best Pictures - 1950s/1960s, Best Acting Oscars - 1950s/1960s, Recent Oscar Winners and Nominees
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