1962 Academy Awards® Winners and History
Actor:
GREGORY PECK for
"Lawrence                   of Arabia"
Actress:
ANNE BANCROFT in "The Miracle Worker", Bette Davis                 in "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" ,                 Katharine Hepburn in "Long Day's Journey Into Night",                 Geraldine Page in "Sweet Bird of Youth," Lee Remick                 in "Days of Wine and Roses"
Supporting Actor:
ED BEGLEY in "Sweet Bird of Youth", Victor Buono in "What                   Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" , Telly Savalas in "Birdman                 of Alcatraz", Omar Sharif in
"Lawrence                   of Arabia" , Terence Stamp in "Billy Budd"
Supporting Actress:
PATTY DUKE in "The Miracle Worker", Mary Badham in
"To                   Kill a Mockingbird" , Shirley Knight in "Sweet Bird                 of Youth", Angela Lansbury in "The                   Manchurian Candidate" , Thelma Ritter in "Birdman                 of Alcatraz"
Director:
DAVID LEAN for
"Lawrence                   of Arabia" , Pietro Germi for "Divorce - Italian                 Style", Robert Mulligan for
"To                   Kill a Mockingbird" , Arthur Penn for "The Miracle                 Worker", Frank Perry for "David and Lisa"
At                   the height of his directorial career, British director David                   Lean (and producer Sam Spiegel) repeated their collaborative                   victory of five years earlier (as director and producer of
The                     Bridge On The River Kwai (1957) - a seven Oscar winner)                   in 1962. Their new, monumental historical film,
Lawrence                     of Arabia , with ten nominations and seven Oscars, was                   a blockbuster and deserving Best Film winner. The over three-hour                   long spectacle/epic of desert pageantry about the adventures                   of British officer and Arabian desert guerrilla leader T. E.                   Lawrence (1888-1935) who led the Arab revolt against the Turks                   in 1917, was derived from Robert Bolt's screenplay. [This was                   the first of four British-made films that won the top                   Best Picture Oscar in the decade of the 1960s. The other three                   were Tom Jones (1963), A Man For All Seasons (1966),                   and Oliver! (1968).]
The 1962 Best Picture winner's seven awards included                   Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Art                   Direction, Best Sound, Best Film Editing, and Best Musical                   Score. Naturally, one of its Oscars was for the photography                   of its magnificent locale - the desert. It remains the only Best                   Picture winner to have credited roles for actors of only one                   gender. There was not a single female speaking role - except                   for a camel named Gladys!
It was Spiegel's third Oscar for Best                   Picture (earlier wins for the producer were for
On                     The Waterfront (1954) and
The                       Bridge On The River Kwai (1957) ). From the 1951 Academy                   Awards through to the present, according to the Academy's rules,                   the Best Picture nomination went to the individual producer(s)                   credited on the film, not to the production company or studio                   that produced the film. Note: Spiegel became (and remains)                   the only producer to have his name - and his name                   only - associated with three Best Picture Oscars, due to this                   Oscar win.
The other Best Picture nominees included:
Darryl F. Zanuck's 20th Century Fox epic                     production based on Cornelius Ryan's book, The Longest                       Day (with five nominations and two wins), another star-studded,                     documentary-style action/war film about the preparations                     and events of the Normandy/D-Day Allied landings on June                     6, 1944 (which fully deserved its two awards for Special                     Effects and Black and White Cinematography)
director Morton Da Costa's version of Meredith                     Wilson's The Music Man (with six nominations and one                     win - Best Musical Score Adaptation) - a rousing, joyous                     film set in the turn-of-the-century small town of River City                     in Iowa
director Lewis Milestone's film Mutiny                     on the Bounty (with seven nominations - no acting nominations                     among them, and no wins) - featuring Marlon Brando as Fletcher                     Christian and Trevor Howard as cold-hearted Captain Bligh                     - a second and inferior re-make of the 1935 Best Picture                     winner
Horton Foote's adaptation of Harper Lee's                     autobiographical tale of a childhood in a southern town in                     director Robert Mulligan's film,
To                       Kill a Mockingbird (with eight nominations and three                     wins - Best Actor, Best Screenplay, and Best B/W Art/Set                     Direction)
Three of the five Best Picture nominees - Warner                   Bros.' The Music Man, MGM's Mutiny on the Bounty,                   and Fox's The Longest Day - were not nominated                   in the Writing, Directing, or Acting categories.
There were five strong Best Actor nominees, with                   the winner being a sentimental, long-overdue favorite - Gregory                   Peck won for his role as a thoughtful, soft-spoken, ethical                   small-town Alabama lawyer/widower of 1932 named Atticus Finch                   who defends a wrongly-accused black man of rape in director-nominated                   Robert Mulligan's
To                     Kill a Mockingbird . (This was Peck's sole Oscar win in a long career which accumulated five Oscar nominations.                   With his win, he became the first California-born actor                   to ever win.)
Another Best Actor nominee was the critically-favored                   Best Picture's main star, Irish-born stage actor Peter O'Toole                   as British military hero T. E. Lawrence, the mysterious, complex                   and often remote leader of Arab troops/Bedouins on the Allied                   side against the Turks, who helped British Gen. Allenby destroy                   the infamous Ottoman Empire. [It was O'Toole's first major                   film and first nomination out of a total of eight Oscar                   nominations. His seven other nominations include Becket                     (1964), The Lion in Winter (1968), Goodbye, Mr.                       Chips (1969), The Ruling Class (1972), The Stunt                         Man (1980), My Favorite Year (1982), and Venus                           (2006). Coincidentally. O'Toole also has the distinctive                   record of being nominated twice for the same role as King Henry                   II in Becket (1964) and The Lion in Winter (1968).                   O'Toole's long string of losses was also experienced by actor                   Richard Burton (who was nominated and lost seven times for                   his roles in My Cousin Rachel (1952), The Robe (1953), Becket                     (1964), The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1965), Anne                       of the Thousand Days (1969), Equus (1977), and
Who's                     Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) ).]
Other Best Actor nominees included:
first-time nominee Marcello Mastroianni as                     Ferdinando - a Sicilian count who wishes to murder his unattractive                     wife so that he can legally re-marry in the comical farce                     by Pietro Germi, the director-nominated Divorce-Italian                       Style. [Mastroianni would end up with more Oscar nominations                     for his foreign language roles - three - than any other actor.                     His other two nominated films include A Special Day (1977),                     and Dark Eyes (1987). His nomination in 1962 was seen                     as an "apology" for being un-nominated the previous year for his most memorable                     career role as gossip columnist Marcello Rubini in Fellini's                     Best Director-nominated La Dolce Vita (1961).]
Burt Lancaster (with his third of four career                     nominations) for the role of imprisoned, convicted murderer                     and bird expert Robert Stroud in director John Frankenheimer's Birdman                       of Alcatraz (with four nominations and no wins). [Lancaster's                     other career nominations were for From                       Here to Eternity (1953) , his sole career win for Elmer                         Gantry (1960) two years earlier, and later for Atlantic                       City (1981).]
Jack Lemmon (with his fourth of eight nominations                     and his third Best Actor nomination), for his first serious,                     dramatic role, was competing as alcoholic advertising man                     Joe Clay in director Blake Edwards' Days of Wine and Roses (with five nominations and one                     win - Best Song)
Four of the Best Actress nominees were in non-sober                   roles as either alcoholics or drug addicts. The winner in the                   Best Actress category was Anne Bancroft, who re-created her                   stage role as wild and rebellious seven year-old Helen Keller's                   half-blind teacher/mentor Annie Sullivan in Arthur Penn's film The                     Miracle Worker (with five nominations and two wins - Best                   Actress and Best Supporting Actress). It was generally acknowledged                   that the most gripping scene in the film was when Bancroft                   finally had young Patty Duke as Helen Keller utter the word                   'water.' [This would prove to be Bancroft's sole Oscar                   win out of five nominations for roles in the following films: The                     Pumpkin Eater (1964),
The                       Graduate (1967) , The Turning Point (1977), and Agnes                     of God (1985).]
The other Best Actress nominees included:
two-time Oscar winner Bette Davis (with her                     tenth and final Oscar nomination) for her over-the-top                     playing of the title role as a grotesque, demented child                     star grown old in director Robert Aldrich's campy horror                     film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (with                     five nominations and one win - Best B/W Costume Design).                     If Davis had won, she would have been the first three-time Best Actress winner. (Her Baby Jane co-star Joan Crawford                     was disappointed that she had not been nominated - but was                     able to deliver the acceptance speech for an absent Anne                     Bancroft.)
Lee Remick (with her sole career nomination)                     as Jack Lemmon's co-dependent alcoholic wife Kirsten Arnesen                     in Days of Wine and Roses
one-time Oscar winner Katharine Hepburn (with                     her ninth of twelve career nominations) in one of her greatest                     performances as the tormented, morphine-addicted mother Mary                     Tyrone in the re-working of Eugene O'Neill's play Long                       Day's Journey Into Night (the film's sole nomination)
Geraldine Page (with her third of eight career                     nominations) as Alexandra Del Lago - an aging, declining                     movie star opposite co-star Paul Newman in director Nicolas                     Roeg's Sweet Bird of Youth (with three nominations                     and one win - Best Supporting Actor)
The Best Supporting Actor award was denied to                   favored front-runner Egyptian-born Omar Sharif (with his sole                   career nomination, in a debut appearance in his first English-language                   film) as Lawrence's handsome Arab friend Sherif Ali in
Lawrence                     of Arabia . The surprise upset winner was Ed Begley                   (with his sole nomination) as a corrupt political redneck boss                   named 'Boss' Finley who avenges the seduction of his innocent                   daughter (Shirley Knight) by Paul Newman in Sweet Bird of                     Youth. Other competitors included:
Victor Buono (with his sole career nomination                     in his debut film) as Edwin Flagg, a pianist who accompanies                     'Baby Jane' in making a comeback in What                       Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Telly Savalas (with his sole Oscar                     nomination) for the role of Lancaster's fellow Alcatraz convict                     Feto Gomez in Birdman of Alcatraz
British actor Terence Stamp (with his sole                     Oscar nomination in his film debut) in the title role as                     the innocent, naive foretopman Billy Budd in the Peter Ustinov-directed Billy                       Budd (the film's sole nomination), from Herman Melville's                     seafaring story
Anne Bancroft's 16 year-old co-star from The                   Miracle Worker, Patty Duke (with her sole career nomination                   in her first film) was nominated and won the Best                   Supporting Actress Oscar for her believable rendering of                   the undisciplined, deaf/dumb/blind child Helen Keller. Both                   Bancroft and Duke were repeating their roles from the Broadway                   production. [Until 10 year-old Tatum O'Neal's win in Paper                     Moon (1973) as Addie Loggins, Duke was the youngest person                   to win a competitive Oscar award. Nonetheless, Duke was the first minor                   (under age 18) to win a competitive Oscar.] She defeated                   another child actress - and sister of Hollywood director                   John Badham - nine year-old Mary Badham (with her sole career                   nomination) as tomboy Scout, Peck's daughter in
To                     Kill a Mockingbird . [Badham is the youngest nominee                   for the Best Supporting Actress award in Academy history.]
Other Best Supporting Actress nominees included:
Shirley Knight (with her second and last unsuccessful                     nomination) as Ed Begley's daughter Heavenly Finley (Paul                     Newman's childhood sweetheart) in Sweet Bird of Youth
37 year old Angela Lansbury (with her third                     and last unsuccessful career nomination) in possibly her greatest career                     role as the conniving mother of a Korean War hero - and brainwashed                     assassin - (34 year old Laurence Harvey) in The                       Manchurian Candidate
Thelma Ritter (with the last of her six unsuccessful                     nominations) as Stroud's (Burt Lancaster) overly-protective                     mother Elizabeth who never gives up on getting her son out                     of prison in Birdman of Alcatraz
Oscar Snubs and Omissions:
Other potential Best Picture nominees which were                   nudged out, without nominations, included Jules and Jim,                   one of director John Ford's last Westerns - The Man Who                     Shot Liberty Valance (with only one nomination for                   Edith Head's costume design), and John Frankenheimer's excellent                   political thriller The Manchurian Candidate (with                   two unsuccessful nominations for Best Supporting Actress and                   Film Editing). And while The Miracle Worker was not nominated                   as Best Picture it probably should have been to be consistent                   - it received nominations for director Arthur Penn, and the                   major female acting awards went to its two stars Anne Bancroft                   and Patty Duke. Stanley Kubrick's audacious film Lolita was                   entirely neglected by the Academy - its director and actors                   (James Mason, teenage Sue Lyon, Shelley Winters, and Peter                   Sellers) were denied well-deserved nominations.
What Ever Happened to                   Baby Jane? (with five nominations and one win for                   Best Costume Design) was also denied a Best Picture nomination,                   as was Sweet Bird of Youth (with three significant                   acting nominations, and one win in the Best Supporting                   Actor category). Bette Davis' bitter rival in What                     Ever Happened to Baby Jane? , Joan Crawford, was                   un-nominated.
The psychological drama David and Lisa received                   only two nominations: Best Adapted Screenplay (Eleanor Perry)                   and Best Director (Frank Perry), and went un-nominated as Best                   Picture. Although Through a Glass Darkly (Sw.)                   brought Ingmar Bergman his second Best Foreign Film Oscar win                   the previous year, it was missing from the Best Picture nominees                   this year, and received only one nomination: Best Writing,                   Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen.
One of Sam Peckinpah's greatest films - Ride                   the High Country - was nomination-less, with veteran                   actors Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott in farewell roles as                   two former lawmen. And Sidney Lumet's filmed version of Eugene                   O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night was ignored                   in the Best Director category and nominee Katharine Hepburn's                   three co-stars - Jason Robards (as alcoholic James Tyrone,                   Jr.,), Ralph Richardson, and Dean Stockwell, weren't nominated                   for their compelling acting performances.
Robert Preston's remarkable portrayal of charismatic                   con-man Professor Harold Hill (a recreation of his own Broadway                   stage performance) who encouraged the townsfolk to invest in                   a children's marching band in Best Picture-nominated The                     Music Man was not nominated in the Best Actor category.                   [Preston's sole career Oscar nomination would come 20                   years later with a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Victor/Victoria                     (1982).] Co-star Paul Ford was also denied a supporting                   nomination as Mayor Shinn in The Music Man. Kirk Douglas                   was also not among the actor nominees for his performance as                   out-of-sync cowboy Jack Burns in writer Dalton Trumbo's Lonely                     Are the Brave.
Except for its sole unsuccessful nomination for                   Best Screenplay (Vladimir Nabokov), Lee Marvin (as Liberty                   Valance - a caricature that preceded his similar Oscar-winning role in Cat Ballou (1965)), Andy Devine (as Link Appleyard),                   John Wayne (as Tom Doniphon), and James Stewart (as Ransom                   Stoddard) were ignored in Ford's much-praised The Man Who                     Shot Liberty Valance.
Other roles without nominations included Robert                   Duvall in
To                     Kill a Mockingbird as the shy recluse Boo Radley, Frank                   Sinatra as Korean War platoon member and nightmare-suffering                   Maj. Bennett Marco in The Manchurian                     Candidate , Buddy Ebsen as Audrey Hepburn's long-lost                   husband in Breakfast at Tiffany's, Robert Ryan as the                   brutal master-at-arms John Claggart in Billy Budd, Ralph                   Richardson as self-deluded actor James Tyrone in Long Day's                     Journey Into Night, and Rosalind Russell as Natalie Wood's                   Mama Rose Hovick in Gypsy.