Interesting Oscars facts

October 13, 2009 | In: Random interesting fact

The first actor to receive an Oscar posthumously was Peter Finch who died of a heart attack while leaving the Beverly Hills Hotel to do a pre-Oscar ceremony TV interview with Good Morning America.

The oscar statuettes were once made of plaster – during the war.

The biggest winner ever was Walt Disney, who picked up a whopping 26 Oscars from 64 nominations, plus another six special trophies.

The famous golden statuette, formally named the Academy Award of Merit, got its more popular moniker “Oscar” when Academy librarian Margaret Herrick said that it resembled her Uncle Oscar. Before this name stuck, other people had tried to call it “the golden trophy,” “the statue of merit,” and “the iron man.”

Midnight Cowboy was the only X-rated movie (for graphic sex scene) to ever win the Academy Award for Best Pictures.

A movie has to be at least 40 minutes long to be considered for a Best Picture award. The shortest movie that ever won was Marty, which took one hour and twenty-eight minutes.