Curious facts You definitely didn't know this about the Oscars

From taciturn acceptance speeches, big winners and unknown losers, multi-talents and garbage collectors: curious facts about the world's most important film award ceremony.

According to one anecdote, an employee and later director of the Film Academy once exclaimed: "He looks like my Uncle Oscar." But Bette Davis is also a possible namesake, as she is said to have compared the small, gilded knight to her husband Harmon Oscar Nelson.

The very first Oscar ever was won by a German: the actor Emil Jannings won it in 1929 for his roles in the silent films "The Way of All Flesh" and "His Last Command".

Who is now wondering: Back then, actors and actresses could still be honored for several films at once. Nothing has survived of Janning's acceptance speech, in contrast to Greer Garson:

The actress gave an almost seven-minute acceptance speech in 1942, saying, after all, this was a "once in a lifetime opportunity". After that, not only was the time limit introduced at the Oscars - Garson also never received the Oscar again, although she was nominated four times in the following years.

Was that the best acceptance speech ever? "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you": Gwyneth Paltrow thanked everyone 23 times in her 1999 Oscar speech while crying like a castle dog.

Actor Clark Gable, on the other hand, was at a loss for words: he only accepted his statuette with a "thank you" - just like Alfred Hitchcock in 1968, who was nominated six times for the directing Oscar. He never won. As consolation, there was the Honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement - no substitute for Hitchcock.

To solve the problem of long acceptance speeches, presenter Jimmy Kimmel promised a jet ski to the award winner who could keep it shortest. The winner was Mark Bridges, who "only" spent around 30 seconds thanking the winner of the costume design Oscar for "The Silk Thread". He did not keep the speedy vehicle, but donated it to a good cause.

The fact that the Academy denied him an Oscar for decades did not bother Jack Palance. When he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1992 for his role in "City Slickers", he countered questions about his age (73 at the time) with a memorable performance: the actor did four push-ups - on just one arm.

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British actress Joan Fontaine's words of thanks, on the other hand, were forgotten the moment her sister Olivia de Havilland burst onto the stage. She had also been nominated for an Oscar in 1942 and had fallen out with Fontaine. Now the loser rushed to be the first to congratulate her. But Fontaine did not grant her sister the consolation of being able to save face in front of an audience.

Only one family has managed to produce Oscar winners in three generations - the Hustons. Walter Huston won an Oscar in 1948 for his supporting role in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", his son John won the directing Oscar for the drama. In 1986, John's daughter Anjelica won an award for her supporting role in "The Honor of the Prizzis".

Success also runs in the family of Liza Minnelli: she is the only Oscar winner whose parents, Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli, also won an Academy Award.

Tom Hanks won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 1993 for his role as a lawyer suffering from Aids. The following year, he took home the award again as "Forrest Gump".

Only one actor before Hanks managed to defend his title: Spencer Tracy, who won in 1938 and 1939: at his first award ceremony, he was astonished when he received the Oscar - and it was engraved with "Dick Tracy", the name of a popular comic hero. He returned the award to have it corrected and made sure that from then on the small statues were only engraved after the award ceremony.

Two "literary" legends honored by two famous academies: George Bernard Shaw won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925 and the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1938 (based on his own novel "Pygmalion").

Bob Dylan won the Oscar for his song "Things Have Changed" in 2000 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016.

Laurence Olivier ("Hamlet") and Roberto Benigni ("Life is Beautiful") also won twice: they are the only artists to date to have won Best Actor awards for films they directed themselves.

"And the Oscar goes to ... 'La La Land'" - NOT! Laudator Warren Beatty had already declared the musical film the winner in the "Best Film" category in 2017 and had the overjoyed crew with him on stage when he was whistled back. The Academy had actually chosen "Moonlight" as the best film.

In the end, "La La Land" "only" won six Oscars. The musical also set a record: Previously, no film that had been nominated 14 times had not won "Best Picture".

Seven Oscar winners were awarded the "Golden Raspberry" for particularly bad acting performances: Roberto Benigni, Liza Minnelli, Laurence Olivier, Charlton Heston, Faye Dunaway, Halle Berry and Sandra Bullock. The latter proved her sense of humor: the actress collected her 2010 "Razzie" for "Crazy for Steve" in person.

Until 1961, the Academy presented the so-called "Juvenile Award", a special prize awarded irregularly to underage actors.

The first winner of the miniature Oscar is still the youngest winner of all time: Shirley Temple was just six years old when she accepted the trophy in 1934. James Ivory won the award for Best Adapted Screenplay for "Call Me By Your Name" in 2019. At 89, he can now call himself the oldest Oscar winner of all time.

At 23, Jennifer Lawrence was the youngest candidate to hold a bouquet of three Oscar nominations in her hands - for "Winter's Bone", "Silver Linings" (where she even won the award) and "American Hustle".

For her leading role in "Joy", she was shortlisted for the Oscar for the fourth time in 2016. Judi Dench, on the other hand, had to wait a long time: Actress Judi Dench only received her seven Oscar nominations after she had celebrated her 63rd birthday. For "Shakespeare In Love" (1998), she won the award for the only time to date - as "Best Supporting Actress".

Eight nominations, but still no Oscar: that is Glenn Close's disappointing record so far. This also makes her the actress who has been "overlooked" the most so far.

Close, but also all those who have been waiting in vain for an award for a long time, could ask Kevin O'Connell how to deal with Oscar defeats: the sound mixer had been nominated a total of 21 times since 1984 before finally winning his first Academy Award in 2017 for "Hacksaw Ridge".

Oscar ceremonyThis is how often these stars have gone away empty-handed

Even later recognized award winners and undisputed directing legends are not immune to a total flop at the Oscars: Steven Spielberg's 1986 southern drama "The Color Purple" came away empty-handed - despite eleven nominations.

In case Spielberg is looking for (winning) material again: Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" has already been nominated four times for "Best Film" - in various adaptations, including "Shakespeare In Love". Only the musical adaptation "West Side Story", whose story is also based on the theater classic, has ever won.

The man with the most Oscar trophies was William Fulgear in 2000: he fished 52 trophies wrapped in polystyrene and plastic out of a dumpster after they had been stolen.

For returning them, he not only received a 50,000 dollar finder's fee, but also an invitation to the awards ceremony and a few nice thank-you notes from the stars.

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