Shakespeare References in The Academy Awards Handbook

The Academy Awards Handbook, written by John Harkness, is essentially a list of Oscar winners, but also contains some thoughts on each of the awards ceremonies from the beginning up through 1994 (when that god-awful Forrest Gump won Best Picture). So the Shakespeare references are actually references to film versions, not to the plays. So I’ll just go through the years, and include the relevant films.

From 1935

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream – nominated for best picture
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream – winner for cinematography (Hal Mohr)
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream – winner for editing (Ralph Dawson)

In the notes for that year, John Harkness writes: “Write-in votes were again allowed, which led Jack Warner to circulate a memo to Academy members at Warner Brothers asking them to ignore the nominations when necessary and vote a solid Warner Brothers ticket. It worked. Hal Mohr, the cinematographer of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, became the only write-in winner in Oscar history” (p. 41).

From 1936

• Romeo And Juliet – nominated for best picture
• Romeo And Juliet – nominated for lead actress (Norma Shearer)
• Romeo And Juliet – nominated for supporting actor (Basil Rathbone)

From 1946

• Henry V – nominated for best picture
• Henry V – nominated for lead actor (Laurence Olivier)
• Henry V – winner of honorary Oscar, to Laurence Olivier

From 1948

• Hamlet – winner of best picture
• Hamlet – nominated for director (Laurence Olivier)
• Hamlet – winner for lead actor (Laurence Olivier)
• Hamlet – nominated for supporting actress (Jean Simmons)
• Hamlet – winner for art direction for a black and white film (Roger K. Furse)
• Hamlet – winner for costume design for a black and white film (Roger K. Furse)

In the notes on this year, John Harkness writes: “Although no campaign was mounted for Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet, even after Sir Larry had won the New York Film Critics prize as the best actor, that didn’t stop the nominations and another moment of that curious Hollywood schizophrenia that combines rampant Anglophilia with rabid Anglophobia, as Hamlet picked up six nominations and The Red Shoes grabbed five” (p. 102).

There is also a photo of Laurence Olivier from the film.

From 1951

In the notes for this year, John Harkness writes: “‘The only honest way to find the best actor would be to let everybody play Hamlet and let the best man win. Of course, you’d get some pretty funny Hamlets that way.’ So spoke Humphrey Bogart, campaigning for his Oscar nomination for The African Queen” (p. 114).

From 1953

• Julius Caesar – nominated for best picture
• Julius Caesar – nominated for lead actor (Marlon Brando)
• Julius Caesar – winner for art direction for a black and white film (Cedric Gibbons and Edward Carfagno)
• The Merry Wives Of Windsor Overture – winner for one-reel short subject film

From 1954

In a section of Oscar trivia included in the pages on this year, John Harkness writes of instances in which actors are nominated for playing the same character in different movies. One example is: “Henry V: Laurence Olivier (1944) and Kenneth Branagh (1989) – both also nominated for directing” (p. 130).

From 1956

• Richard III – nominated for lead actor (Laurence Olivier)

From 1961

• West Side Story – winner of best picture (adaptation of Romeo And Juliet)
• West Side Story – winner for directors (Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins)
• West Side Story – winner for supporting actor (George Chakiris)
• West Side Story – winner for supporting actress (Rita Moreno)
• West Side Story – winner for cinematography for a color film (Daniel P. Fapp)
• West Side Story – winner for editing (Thomas Stanford)
• West Side Story – winner for best score for a musical (Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal)
• West Side Story – winner for art direction for a color film (Boris Leven)
• West Side Story – winner for costume design for a color film (Irene Sharaff)
• West Side Story – winner for sound

In the notes for this year, John Harkness writes: “West Side Story becomes the last double-digit Oscar winner, and becomes the only film with two directors ever to win best director. While there have been several occasions where people who have never met shared Oscars in the writing categories – where writer B rewrote writer A’s script and both of them got credit – Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins shared the directing Oscar after Wise fired Robbins, whom he felt took far too long dealing with the dancers after Wise had the cameras ready to roll. When the two directors came to the podium, each was conspicuous in his absence from the other’s thank you speech” (p. 164).

From 1965

• Othello – nominated for lead actor (Laurence Olivier)
• Othello – nominated for supporting actor (Frank Finlay)
• Othello – nominated for supporting actress (Joyce Redman)
• Othello – nominated for supporting actress (Maggie Smith)

 From 1968

• Romeo And Juliet – nominated for best picture
• Romeo And Juliet – nominated for director (Franco Zeffirelli)
• Romeo And Juliet – winner for cinematography (Pasqualino De Santis)
• Romeo And Juliet – winner for costume design (Danilo Donati)

From 1983

• The Dresser – nominated for best picture (related to King Lear)
• The Dresser – nominated for director (Peter Yates)
• The Dresser – nominated for lead actor (Tom Courtenay)
• The Dresser – nominated for lead actor (Albert Finney)
• To Be Or Not To Be – nominated for supporting actor (Charles Durning) (related to Hamlet) 

From 1985

• Ran – nominated for director (Akira Kurosawa) (adaptation of King Lear)
• Ran – winner for costume design (Emi Wada)

From 1989

• Henry V – nominated for director (Kenneth Branagh)
• Henry V – nominated for lead actor (Kenneth Branagh)
• Henry V – winner for costume design (Phillis Dalton)

The Academy Awards Handbook was originally published in 1994 by Pinnacle Books. The edition I read was the updated 1996 edition.