Buzz
Every year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honors achievements in filmmaking. This year, films like The Power of the Dog, Belfast, and CODA are competing for the prestigious statues known as "Oscars." A popular theory suggests that the statuette got its nickname when Academy librarian (and future Director) Margaret Herrick quipped in 1931 that the figure resembled her Uncle Oscar.
The phrase, originally shared by columnist Sidney Skolsky, caught on, and since then, both the ceremony and the awards have been commonly referred to as “The Oscars.”
So, has anyone named Oscar actually taken home an Oscar?
The answer is yes, though it's an extremely rare occurrence. In the 1940s, lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II won two Oscars for his contributions to 1941's Lady Be Good and 1945's State Fair. His Best Song wins were shared with Jerome Kern for Lady Be Good’s “The Last Time I Saw Paris” and Richard Rodgers for State Fair’s “It Might As Well Be Spring.”
The Rodgers and Hammerstein partnership was incredibly fruitful, producing beloved Broadway hits like Oklahoma!, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music. Oklahoma! earned a Pulitzer Prize Special Award and Citation in 1944, while South Pacific won a Pulitzer in the drama category. As for Tonys, Hammerstein accumulated plenty of those as well.
Other Oscars have been acknowledged by the Academy over time. In 1929, Oscar Lagerstrom was honored for his work in sound directing on Raffles, though back then, the Academy only listed film titles in the Sound Recording category and did not specify nominees. In 1948, Oscar Homolka received recognition for his supporting role in I Remember Mama. In 1951, Oscar Millard earned a nomination for his screenplay of The Frogmen.
No Oscar has been nominated for an Oscar since Oscar Brodney was nominated for writing 1954's The Glenn Miller Story, sharing the nomination with co-writer Valentine Davies.
Could anyone else join Hammerstein in this rare group of Oscar-winning Oscars? Possible candidates include respected actor Oscar Isaac, as well as Oscar Micheaux, the pioneering Black filmmaker from the 1920s through the 1940s, who some industry experts believe deserves a posthumous award.
For the time being, this particular piece of Oscar trivia is attributed to Oscar Hammerstein.
