Everything you ever wanted to know about the Oscars

HERE ARE 80 FACTS to mark the 80th anniversary of the Academy Awards, from the past, present and, in a few cases, predicated on what happened at last night's ceremony. (For complete Oscar results, check out our Web site at

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1. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences became a legal corporation in May 1927; an awards committee set up a voting system in July 1928. The first award winners were announced in February 1929; the first ceremony was held three months later. Tickets cost $5.

2. The Academy Awards were first broadcast on radio in 1930.

3. The first television broadcast was in 1953. More than 90 million people watched.

4. Last year's Oscar telecast averaged 39.9 million viewers, up slightly from 2006's total.

5. Balloting in each category is restricted to members of the branch involved. But all members vote for best picture. As of last year, the Academy had 5,829 members.

6. The first color telecast was in 1966.

7. The actual name of the Oscar is Academy Award of Merit.

8. Each statuette is 13 1/2 inches tall and weighs 8 1/2 pounds.

9. The Oscar was designed by MGM art director Cedric Gibbons and sculpted by artist George Stanley.

10. The statue depicts a knight holding a sword, standing on a reel of film.

11. A total of 2,658 statues have been presented.

12. The first Oscar at the first ceremony in 1929 went to Emil Jannings for best actor in "The Last Command" and "The Way of the Flesh." No prints of the latter film are known to exist today.

13. Cinematographer Hal Mohr is the only write-in candidate to win, for 1935's "A Midsummer's Night's Dream."

14. The editing, song and score categories were added in 1934.

15. Awards for visual and sound effects, under the banner "special effects," were added in 1939. The first winner was "The Rains Came."

16. The feature documentary category was added in 1941. The first winner was "Churchill's Island."

17. Best foreign-language film became an official category in 1956. Before that, select foreign-language films, including "Shoeshine," "Rashomon" and "The Bicycle Thief," received honorary awards.

18. The ceremony was postponed three times: in 1938, because of flooding in Los Angeles; in 1968, after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.; and in 1981, after an assassination attempt on President Reagan.

19. Special achievement awards are conferred for an achievement for which there is no category. The last winner was John Lasseter of Pixar for "Toy Story" in 1996.

20. Best animated feature became a category in 2001. The first winner was "Shrek."

21. The only animated film nominated for best picture was "Beauty and the Beast," in 1992.

22. Walt Disney received a special Oscar in 1939 for "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

23. Four best-picture winners won an Oscar in every category for which they were nominated: 2003's "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," 1987's "The Last Emperor," 1958's "Gigi" and 1934's "It Happened One Night."

24. "The Turning Point" and "The Color Purple" hold the record for most nominations - 11 - without any wins.

25. The only actor to win two Oscars for the same film in the same year is Harold Russell, in 1947 for "The Best Years of Our Lives." He won for best supporting actor, and a special Oscar for bringing hope to disabled veterans.

26. The first movie in color to win for best picture was 1939's "Gone With the Wind."

27. When Hattie McDaniel became the first black person to win an Oscar, for playing a slave in "Gone With the Wind," she had to sit in a segregated part of the auditorium.

28. The Oscar that McDaniel won is missing. After her death, she willed it to Howard University, where it disappeared during civil disturbances at the college in the 1960s. The academy has refused to replace it.

29. Gene Kelly was reissued an Oscar after his was destroyed. Jack Lemmon got a new one after his old one rusted.

30. If Cate Blanchett wins supporting actress for playing Bob Dylan in "I'm Not There," she will be the second person to win an Oscar for playing a member of the opposite sex. The other is Linda Hunt, who won in 1983 for playing a male photographer for "The Year of Living Dangerously."

31. Blanchett, also nominated for best actress in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age," is the fifth person nominated twice for playing the same character. The others are Bing Crosby for "Going My Way" (1944) and "The Bells of St. Mary's" (1945); Paul Newman for "The Hustler" (1961) and "The Color of Money" (1986); Peter O'Toole in "Becket" (1964) and "The Lion in Winter" (1968); and Al Pacino in "The Godfather" (1972) and "The Godfather, Part II" (1974).

32. Liza Minnelli, best-actress winner for "Cabaret" in 1973, is the only winner whose parents - Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli - were both Oscar winners.

33. If Joel and Ethan Coen win for best director for "No Country for Old Men," it will be only the second time two directors have been honored for the same film. Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins shared the best director Oscar for "West Side Story."

34. The Coens could be the first nominees to win in four separate categories. Walt Disney won three for live-action, animated and documentary shorts and one for documentary feature in one year.

But the Coens would be the first to do it for the same film: producer, director, adapted screenplay and film editing. (The Coens are nominated under a pseudonym in the film editing category: Roderick Jaynes.)

35. The sealed envelope to prevent anyone finding out the winners was first used in 1940. Before that, newspapers often printed the winners before the ceremony.

36. Only three women have been nominated for best director: Lina Wertmuller, for "Seven Beauties" (1976); Jane Campion for "The Piano" (1993); and Sofia Coppola for "Lost in Translation" (2003). They all lost.

37. The only silent film to win an Oscar for best picture was 1927's "Wings."

38. The only actor to receive a nomination for best actor and best supporting actor for the same role was Barry Fitzgerald for playing an aging priest in "Going My Way" (1944).

39. The only X-rated film to win for best picture was "Midnight Cowboy," in 1970.

40. The only Oscar winner named Oscar was Oscar Hammerstein II.

41. If either "Into the Wild" nominee Hal Holbrook or "American Gangster" nominee Ruby Dee win, he or she would be the oldest Academy Award winner. Both are 83. To date, the oldest Oscar winner was Jessica Tandy, who was nearly 81 when she won for "Driving Miss Daisy."

42. There is some dispute on the shortest-ever nominated performance. Ruby Dee's screen time in "American Gangster" is an estimated 10 minutes. Some say the shortest Oscar-nominated performance is five minutes and 40 seconds by Beatrice Straight in "Network"; others clock that performance at 8 minutes. Sylvia Miles' performance in "Midnight Cowboy" has been reported as 6 minutes; Oscar winners Anthony Quinn in "Lust for Life" and Judi Dench in "Shakespeare in Love" gave performances estimated at 8 minutes.

43. The youngest Oscar winner, excluding special awards, was 10-year-old Tatum O'Neal, who won for best supporting actress for 1973's "Paper Moon."

44. George Bernard Shaw is the only person to win an Oscar, for his "Pygmalion" screenplay in 1939, and a Nobel Prize - for literature in 1925.

45. In 1938, ventriloquist Edgar Bergen received a special Oscar made of wood for his creation, puppet Charlie McCarthy.

46. The first foreign-language film nominated for best picture was "Grand Illusion," in 1939.

47. The only film to win for best picture without being nominated in any other category was 1932's "Grand Hotel."

48. The Beatles won an Oscar for the "Let It Be" song score in 1971 - after they broke up.

49. The only brother and sister to win Oscars were Lionel Barrymore for 1931's "A Free Soul" and Ethel Barrymore for 1944's "None But the Lonely Heart."

50. Bob Hope hosted the Oscar telecast 19 times, more than any other host.

51. This year's host, Jon Stewart, previously hosted in 2006.

52. The longest Oscar ceremony was four hours and 23 minutes, in 2002.

53. The shortest Oscar ceremony was 1 hour and 40 minutes, in 1959. Unless you count the very first in 1929, which lasted five minutes.

54. Only two people won Oscars acting in films they also directed: Roberto Benigni, for "Life Is Beautiful" (1997) and Laurence Olivier, for "Hamlet" (1948).

55. Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro are the only two actors to win Oscars for playing the same character in different films: Vito Corleone in "The Godfather" (1972) and "The Godfather, Part II" (1974), respectively.

56. Since 1980, only four movies that won best picture were also the top-grossing film of the year: "Rain Man" in 1988; "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" in 2003; "Titanic" in 1997; and "Forrest Gump" in 1994.

57. If "Atonement" wins for best picture this year, it would be only the fourth film to win the award without its director also being nominated. The others are "Grand Hotel" (1932), "Driving Miss Daisy" (1989), and "Wings" (1927).

58. 2006's "Dreamgirls" was the only film to lead in nominations - eight - without receiving a best picture nomination.

59. There have been two ties in the acting categories: in 1932, Wallace Beery for "The Champ" and Fredric March for "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"; and in 1969, Katharine Hepburn for "The Lion in Winter" and Barbra Streisand for "Funny Girl."

60. The longest best-picture winner was "Gone With the Wind," at 234 minutes.

61. The shortest best-picture winner was "Marty" at 91 minutes.

62. If Julie Christie wins for best actress for "Away From Her," she'll have the longest stretch between Oscar wins of any performer: 42 years. She last won in 1966 for "Darling."

63. The first posthumous Oscar went to Sidney Howard, for "Gone With the Wind" screenplay.

64. The youngest best-actor Oscar winner was Adrien Brody, 29, for 2002's "The Pianist."

65. The director with the most Oscars is John Ford, with four: for "The Informer" (1935), "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940), "How Green Was My Valley" (1941) and "The Quiet Man" (1952).

66. Meryl Streep is the most nominated performer, with 14 nominations. She won for "Sophie's Choice" (1982) and "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979).

67. The 10 nominations for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" were the most ever for a foreign-language film.

68. Peter O'Toole holds the record for most acting nominations - eight - without a win.

69. This year's Feb. 24 date for the ceremony is the earliest in history.

70. Fifty-nine films received nominations for this year's awards in 24 categories.

71. Best-picture nominees "No Country for Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood" each have eight nominations, more than any other film this year.

72. The red carpet at the Kodak Theatre, where the ceremony is held, is about 500 feet long.

73. The official Academy Awards Web site is Oscars.org. ABC's Oscar Web site is Oscar.com.

74. The first person to refuse the Oscar was screenwriter Dudley Nichols, for "The Informer" in 1935, for antagonism in the industry over union matters.

75. Maggie Smith is the only actress to win an Oscar for playing an Oscar nominee, in "California Suite."

76. The biggest loser in Oscar history is sound technician Kevin O'Connell. He has been nominated 19 times, most recently for "Apocalypto," without a win. He is nominated this year for best sound mixing for "Transformers."

77. In 1938, a stranger accepted the Oscar for ailing "In Old Chicago" actress Alice Brady. It was never recovered.

78. Charlie Chaplin won his only Oscar for the score for "Limelight" - in 1973, 20 years after the film was released. The movie was originally ineligible because it had not been shown in Los Angeles. He received an honorary Oscar in 1972.

79. The longest Oscar acceptance speech was Greer Garson in 1943, who won for "Mrs. Miniver." She reportedly spoke for seven minutes.

80. Today, Oscar winners are advised to keep their speeches to 45 seconds in length. *

Sources: about.com, madbeast.com, oscars.org, moviecitynews.com, imdb.com, Oscarworld.net, "Inside Oscar" by Damien Bona and Mason Wiley, "Inside Oscar 2" by Damien Bona.