Current:Home > MyThe Academy is replacing Hattie McDaniel's Oscar that has been missing for 50 years-InfoLens
The Academy is replacing Hattie McDaniel's Oscar that has been missing for 50 years
View Date:2024-12-23 10:57:02
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is sending Howard University a replacement Oscar for the groundbreaking actress Hattie McDaniel, whose original award has been missing for at least 50 years.
McDaniel was the first Black person to be nominated for and win an Oscar for her supporting role as Mammy in the 1939 film Gone With the Wind.
She went on to act in more than 300 movies, and shortly before her death from breast cancer in 1952, she asked that the Oscar be moved from her home to Howard University in Washington.
But the plaque, which preceded the gold statuettes and was given to supporting winners from 1936 to 1942, suddenly disappeared from the school's fine arts building.
"Hattie McDaniel was a groundbreaking artist who changed the course of cinema and impacted generations of performers who followed her," Academy Museum Director Jacqueline Stewart and Academy CEO Bill Kramer said in a Tuesday statement. "We are thrilled to present a replacement of Hattie McDaniel's Academy Award to Howard University."
Thomas Battle, the former director of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard, told NPR in 2009 that he believes the award went missing in the late 1960s or early 1970s, possibly during a period of student unrest.
"But unfortunately all of the principals who would have been involved at the university at that time — administrators and others — are no longer with us, and we have not been able to get the kind of direct information that we would like to be able to pursue this investigation further."
Denise Randle, who tracked the university's inventory of artifacts beginning in 1972, first said she thought it was thrown away. Then, she thought it must have been misplaced. Actress Karla Burns, who portrayed McDaniel in the one-woman show Hi-Hat, thought the plaque was stolen.
Nevertheless, the new, gifted plaque will be housed in Howard's Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts and be accompanied by a ceremony on Oct. 1, titled "Hattie's Come Home," honoring McDaniel's life and career.
"When I was a student in the College of Fine Arts at Howard University, in what was then called the Department of Drama, I would often sit and gaze in wonder at the Academy Award that had been presented to Ms. Hattie McDaniel," said Phylicia Rashad, the dean of the fine arts school and a Tony Award-winning actress. "I am overjoyed that this Academy Award is returning to what is now the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts at Howard University."
veryGood! (79)
Related
- What is best start in NBA history? Five teams ahead of Cavaliers' 13-0 record
- 'Friends' Thanksgiving episodes, definitively ranked, from Chandler in a box to Brad Pitt
- Former NFL Player Matt Ulrich Dead at 41
- Commercial fishing groups sue 13 US tire makers over rubber preservative that’s deadly to salmon
- Love Is Blind’s Chelsea Blackwell Reacts to Megan Fox’s Baby News
- When Caleb Williams cried after USC loss, what did you see? There's only one right answer.
- Special counsel David Weiss tells lawmakers he had full authority to pursue criminal charges against Hunter Biden
- North Carolina governor declares state of emergency as wildfires burn in mountains
- Bradley Cooper and Gigi Hadid Enjoy a Broadway Date Night and All that Jazz
- Grand Ole ... Cirque du Soleil? New show will celebrate Nashville's country music
Ranking
- Today Reveals Hoda Kotb's Replacement
- Ukraine takes credit for the car bomb killing of a Russia-backed official in Luhansk
- Alaska governor appoints Republican Thomas Baker to vacant state House seat
- 198-pound Burmese python fought 5 men before capture in Florida: It was more than a snake, it was a monster
- Massive dust storm reduces visibility, causes vehicle pileup on central California highway
- Tamera Mowry-Housley Pays Tribute to Late Niece Alaina Who Died in 2018 Mass Shooting
- Witnesses: small plane that crashed last month in Arizona, killing all 3 aboard, may have stalled
- You’ll Be Stoked to See Chase Stokes and Kelsea Ballerini’s Date Night on CMA Awards Red Carpet
Recommendation
-
'Full House' star Dave Coulier diagnosed with stage 3 cancer
-
198-pound Burmese python fought 5 men before capture in Florida: It was more than a snake, it was a monster
-
Princess Kate dons camouflage and drives armored vehicle in new military role: See photos
-
Here's how much you need to earn to afford a home in 97 U.S. cities
-
Chet Holmgren injury update: Oklahoma City Thunder star suffers hip fracture
-
Michigan RB Blake Corum: 'I don't have any businesses with Connor (Stalions)'
-
4 elections offices in Washington are evacuated due to suspicious envelopes, 2 containing fentanyl
-
National Zoo’s giant pandas fly home amid uncertainty about future panda exchanges