Oldest Living Oscar Nominees

With the passing of Olivia de Havilland earlier this week, obviously we lost a film legend.  We also lost the answer to a lot of longevity questions when it comes to the Oscars.  De Havilland got her first nomination in 1939 for Best Supporting Actress (for Gone with the Wind), her first Best Actress nomination in 1941 for Hold Back the Dawn, and her first win for Best Actress in 1946 for To Each His Own.  This meant that de Havilland was the earliest (not to be confused with oldest, though she was that too) living Best Supporting Actress nominee, Best Actress nominee, and Best Actress winner.  With her death, I honestly didn't know the answer to who was next in line for these three titles (though I had a correct guess for Supporting Actress), and so I figured it was time to do some research, cause I don't let Oscar trivia questions go unanswered.  Below you will find for the directing and four acting categories who are chronologically the earliest (again, not oldest) living nominees and winners.

Best Actress

Nominee: Leslie Caron (1953) for Lili
--Runner-Up: Carroll Baker (1956) for Baby Doll
Winner: Joanne Woodward (1957) for The Three Faces of Eve
--Runner-Up: Sophia Loren (1961) for Two Women

As you can tell, de Havilland's death truly put an end to the 1940's in terms of Best Actress, as there were no nominees after her that are still with us until 1953 with Leslie Caron, who was nominated twice but never won (I feel like considering her place in especially Golden Age musicals, possibly alongside Mitzi Gaynor the only real figure left from that era's biggest films, that she should get an Honorary Oscar, and post-haste as she's 89).  Baker, who was just 25 when she was cited for Baby Doll, is next up, though you have to go to 1957 for a living winner with Joanne Woodward (who has been very ill health for quite some time now), and then Sophia Loren (who has another movie coming out later this year).

Best Actor

Nominee: Sidney Poitier (1958) for The Defiant Ones
--Runner-Up: Michael Caine (1966) for Alfie
Winner: Sidney Poitier (1963) for Lilies of the Field
--Runner-Up: Gene Hackman (1971) for The French Connection

Best Actor winners tend to be older than the other three categories, so it's not shocking to me that we have to go back further to find living recent winners here.  Technically Poitier is actually his own runner-up for Lilies of the Field, but I figured that wasn't fun to track so we're going with Michael Caine three years after Poitier's landmark win.  Unlike the Best Actress field, all of these men already have Oscars, though Caine is the only one that still works in film.

Best Supporting Actress

Nominee: Angela Lansbury (1944) for Gaslight
--Runner-Up: Ann Blyth (1945) for Mildred Pierce
Winner: Eva Marie Saint (1954) for On the Waterfront
--Runner-Up: Shirley Jones (1960) for Elmer Gantry

Scratch the above comment-Shirley Jones is also living and obviously in the same league as Caron & Gaynor in terms of classic Hollywood musicals (truly random aside, but I remember many years ago seeing an interview with Jones & her husband Marty Ingels where he let strangers that were there for a yard sale of some sort hold Shirley's Oscar-I can't have imagined this, but have never found the interview...any ideas internet?). Blyth actually ties Angela Lansbury for runner-up as Lansbury was nominated in 1945 for The Picture of Dorian Gray.  Up until quite recently Joan Lorring who was nominated that year for The Corn is Green was also alive (she died in 2014) and the other two women nominated that year both lived into the 1990's, so this field might have a record for longevity at the Oscars.

Best Supporting Actor

Nominee: Don Murray (1956) for Bus Stop
--Runner-Up: Russ Tamblyn (1957) for Peyton Place
Winner: George Chakiris (1961) for West Side Story
--Runner-Up: Joel Grey (1972) for Cabaret

There are no provisos here for runners-up.  Don Murray is not only one of the longest-lived Supporting Actors ever, he's also one of the rare ones to have been nominated for his screen debut.  Also, with Tamblyn alive, maybe I should stop pointing out a lack of classic actors from major Hollywood musicals not being alive, but that we should still consider Caron for an Honorary Oscar-who wouldn't want to watch her thank Fred and Gene in the same speech?  Looking ahead here, it's weird to think that just eight years behind Joel Grey is Timothy Hutton, who was so young when he won for Ordinary People that he's not even sixty yet.

Best Director

Nominee: Claude Lelouch (1966) for A Man and a Woman
--Runner-Up: Norman Jewison (1967) for In the Heat of the Night
Winner: William Friedkin (1971) for The French Connection
--Runner-Up: Francis Ford Coppola (1974) for The Godfather, Part II

Admit it-when I typed Coppola for Godfather II, at least half of you said "wait, what about the first one?" before you remembered Bob Fosse won that year for Cabaret.  Looking at this list, I had never put together that Lelouch was so young when he made A Man and a Woman (I loved this movie, and will surely have to see it again before we do the 1966 OVP, but when I saw it in college I found it intoxicating), being not even 30 when he was nominated for an Oscar for the film.  With the exception of Jewison (whose last film was 2003's The Statement with Michael Caine & Tilda Swinton), all three of these men have made movies in the past five years, though Coppola has threatened frequently to retire.

The Six Women Who Danced with Astaire & Kelly

There's nothing I love more than a well-designed trivia question, particularly one for movies or politics.  Occasionally, I come across a particular trivia question I want to share with everyone, even people who aren't really into said genre, because it feels so well-structured and so simple.  A few weeks ago, I was randomly in a Wikipedia hole because I was looking up a film starring Mitzi Gaynor, and suddenly after googling if Gaynor had ever starred with Fred Astaire (she hadn't, though she'd made Les Girls with Gene Kelly), I thought: how many women have danced with both Astaire & Kelly on the big screen?

You can find the answer on IMDB if you look hard enough, but I figured since they keep it just to a sentence and don't list out the actual pictures, I'd do the work for you and include the list of the six women who have danced with both on the big screen:

(Note: I counted only narrative, studio films here.  Documentaries are excluded, as are television specials or awards shows, as then the lineup would surely get longer)

1. Rita Hayworth

Danced with Gene Kelly: Cover Girl (1944)
Danced with Fred Astaire: You'll Never Get Rich (1941) and You Were Never Lovelier (1942)
Trivia Within the Trivia: During the filming of Cover Girl, Hayworth would elope with Orson Welles, oddly enough on the same day they filmed the wedding scene for the picture.  Kelly would reprise his role from Cover Girl in 1980's Xanadu (his final onscreen role), which may mark the longest gap an actor playing the same character has ever had between first and second films (can anyone think of a longer one?).
Who Had the Better Musical Number?: I unfortunately do not have the time to watch all of these movies (I will, eventually, though, as I've added a lot of them to my Netflix queue), so for each I'm going to go with pitting in YouTube the first dance number of each pair and see which one is better.  For Hayworth, it's "Put Me to Test" from Cover Girl versus "The Shorty George" from You Were Never Lovelier.  The Kelly number is classic, with both movie stars looking gorgeous in light green, but I loved the tap synchronicity of Astaire & Hayworth, both sporting spats and mixing multiple different dancing styles.

2. Judy Garland

Danced with Gene Kelly: For Me and My Gal (1942), The Pirate (1948) and Summer Stock (1950)
Danced with Fred Astaire:  Easter Parade (1948)
Trivia Within the Trivia: Garland also starred with both men in Ziegfeld Follies (1945), but didn't appear in any scenes with Kelly or Astaire.  That particular MGM film is far better known today as the only film (other than the That's Entertainment series) that had both Astaire and Kelly dancing with each other, to the tunes of George & Ira Gershwin.  Garland & Kelly also starred in Words and Music and Thousands Cheer, but it doesn't appear they danced together in either so I'm not counting them in the lineup (I haven't seen the picture, though, so if I'm wrong correct me below).
Who Had the Better Musical Number?: YouTube randomly selected "We're a Couple of Swells" from Easter Parade to compete against the title number from For Me and My Gal.  While the costuming of Easter Parade is priceless (Garland & Astaire dressed as swanky hobos), it's not really a killer dance number (Judy was a singer more than a dancer).  As a result, I prefer the slowly romantic number between a derby-wearing Kelly and Garland, tapping around a soda shop.

3. Vera-Ellen

Danced with Gene Kelly: Words and Music (1948) and On the Town (1949)
Danced with Fred Astaire: Three Little Words (1950) and The Belle of New York (1952)
Trivia Within the Trivia: Arguably the least-remembered of these six women today, Vera-Ellen may have been the best dancer of the bunch, and Astaire in particular admired her terribly.  She went to dance school as a child with Doris Day, the rare musical-comedy actress of this era who never appeared onscreen with Kelly or Astaire.
Who Had the Better Musical Number?: Astaire caught a bit of a lucky break here when "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" was #2 for the YouTube searches for Kelly, as that's one of my favorite Kelly numbers, but the search algorithm preferred 'When You Walk Down Main Street" from On the Town.  As a result, I'm going with Astaire's number, "Mr. and Mrs. Hoofer at Home" from Three Little Words, with Vera-Ellen in a shimmering lime green skirt dancing her through domestic strife.

4. Cyd Charisse

Danced with Gene Kelly: Singin' in the Rain (1952) and Brigadoon (1954)
Danced with Fred Astaire: The Band Wagon (1953) and Silk Stockings (1957)
Trivia Within the Trivia: Again, I haven't seen the film here (there's a lot being added to my Netflix queue this Tuesday), so while It's Always Fair Weather definitely stars Charisse & Kelly, but I'm seeing no indication that they actually dance together in the picture.
Who Had the Better Musical Number?: Kelly presumably gets the advantage of "Erotic Dance" from Singin in the Rain here, with Charisse's impossibly long legs extended to take out his hat (arguably the most iconic moment in the actress's career).  At least I figured it was an advantage until I saw "Girl Hunt Ballet" in The Band Wagon, where a gangster-bedecked Astaire romances Charisse in a flaming red cocktail gown.  I don't know that I've ever used the word "sexy" to describe Fred Astaire, but it fits like a glove here.  The closest pairing of the bunch, but I give the edge to Astaire's high-hoofing (how does someone jump on their knees like that in their fifties?!?)

5. Leslie Caron

Danced with Gene Kelly: An American in Paris (1951)
Danced with Fred Astaire: Daddy Long Legs (1955)
Trivia Within the Trivia: With the recent death of Debbie Reynolds, Caron is the only living person to have danced with both Astaire & Kelly onscreen (she is 87).  In 1988, she pulled off an unusual feat for a ballet dancer, doing a number with Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov (arguably the two most important male danzatores of the 20th Century) at the Paris Opera Ballet.
Who Had the Better Musical Number?: "Sluefoot" from Daddy Long Legs competes against the iconic ballet sequence in An American in Paris, and I can't take away two classic dance numbers from Kelly in the same article.  An easy win for the Best Picture winner, in the movie's best scene.

6. Debbie Reynolds

Danced with Gene Kelly: Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Danced with Fred Astaire: The Pleasure of His Company (1961)
Trivia Within the Trivia: By 1961, Astaire had largely retired from dancing onscreen (thinking he was too old), and wouldn't dance again on the big screen until 1968's Finian's Rainbow.  However, he gamely did a small dance with Reynolds during a party sequence in the film, and received a Golden Globe nomination for his troubles.
Who Had the Better Musical Number?: While it's a sweet scene, Reynolds & Astaire are simply dancing onscreen with each other, while "Good Morning" from Singin' in the Rain is one of the most impressive scenes in the history of the movies.  So, no contest for Kelly here.

35 Random Thoughts on the Tony Awards

This is not an optical illusion-Kelli O'Hara does indeed have a Tony

I'm sure all of us are both celebrating the Tonys (and the Triple Crown if you are so inclined) after last night, while still running agog about that scene on Game of Thrones, so instead of a cohesive take on last night's awards, I'm going to do a 35 thought rundown of what I was thinking during the night.

1. Is Something Rotten really just a Simpsons-style parody of a musical?  Or did we get the only number that it is like that?  Because I don't know if I would approve of that for a full musical, even if I liked this particular number.

2. The greatest mystery of the night: why was Dame Helen Mirren, arguably the biggest star to win all evening, also the first person to win a Tony Award?  Best Lead Actress should never be ahead of the supporting categories, and we ALL knew she'd win.  What's the deal?

3. Four handsome men tap-dancing out to end my speech would be something that would incentivize me to keep talking.

4. The Anna Chlumsky/Debra Messing matching dress thing was awesome and I wished they would have commented on it instead of just the awkward looks.  Also, this would NEVER happen at the finely-pruned Oscars.

5. What do you think Carey Mulligan and Patricia Clarkson talked about during the commercials?  Was it which one of them it's more surprising that she only has one Oscar nomination?

6. It took Alan Cumming 34 minutes to wear a dress...which is longer than I expected.

Orfeh and Andy Karl

7. Andy Karl, get out of my dreams and into my pants (it's the Tony Awards, you have to gay it up in the recap a little bit).

8. What role do you think NBC will find for now 2-time Tony Winner Christian Borle in The Wiz?

9. Is Taylor Schilling wearing a Rorschach test?

10. Annaleigh Ashford's speech was adorable.  I'd say this could help her in Hollywood, but I said the same thing about Nina Arianda a few years and that did squat.

11. Anna Wintour gets flowers, Chita Rivera gets a waltz, and Rita Wilson gets a dip while Tony Yazbeck adorably mimics Pharrell Williams from the Oscars a few years back...Broadway style.

12. Tommy Tune presents an award in honor of his Life Achivement Award since they didn't air his full-speech...hint, HINT Oscar.

13. Ashley Tisdale presenting to Vanessa Hudgens-ha!

14. I have a weirdly conflicted opinion about non-nominated musicals getting their own numbers during the show.  Partially this is good because as someone who doesn't live in NYC anymore I wouldn't get to see any part of Gigi even though I was curious (Victoria Clark, y'all), but mostly I think it's tacky for a show that relegates so many wspeeches to the commercials and pays little homage to the play categories.

Vanessa Hudgens

15. Do you think Leslie Caron is watching?

16. Joel and Jennifer Grey should have a reality TV show-I would watch that.

17. Uhh...the Fun Home/Phone Home bit was a little bit of a stretch.

18. Wait, Gigi and An American in Paris-why did they not get Leslie Caron to present?  I mean, if you get to call Marg Helgenberger a presentation-worthy celebrity...

19. It feels like Corey Stoll had a punchline but missed his cue.  Do they not have the presenters do a rehearsal at the Tony Awards, because for a crew that tries to get an audience to laugh eight days a week, it feels like a missed opportunity not to give them better material.

20. "Please recycle"..."Where are you?"..."that was the joke"...Ruthie Ann Miles was on fire winning for her Broadway debut.

21. Kristin Chenoweth's number was just...anyone want to fund a trip for me to go to NYC for a week?  I'll be ever so grateful!

22. Once again, a weird order for the awards-Best Play before Best Revival of a Play?  What's the deal?

Chita Rivera

23. Chita Rivera's number is going to be hard to top tonight.

24. Alan Cumming's weird recurring bit about Josh Groban was odd.  It would have made more sense to trumpet, say, someone who doesn't show up at every awards show he's asked, like Bradley Cooper, who is the biggest star in the room.  Speaking of...

25. L-O-V-E loved the bit where they talk about who would play the Broadway parts when they got to Hollywood.  Cooper getting his own role was the punchline, but the best bit was surely the pointed stares Alan Cumming and Kristin Chenoweth gave Harvey Weinstein.

26. I wonder whom Scott Rudin will email about his 17,000th Tony Award...is that a cheap joke?  Oh well, I'm sticking with it.

27. Nick Jonas has the personality of dry toast.  And let's be honest, if you subtract the body is not the hottest JoBro.

28. What is with the Tinkerbell interrupting Jennifer Lopez and the girl who looks like Kristen Stewart on Drag Race?

29. Bradley Cooper's mother-has she ever smiled?  Could someone find me evidence of this?

30. The Josh Groban fangirling seems especially inappropriate considering he was doing the In Memoriam segment...though the chorus of all of the Broadway singers in costume was cool.

31. Kelli O'Hara finally wins that damn Tony!  I am not like a wild Kelli O'Hara fan, but I got misty and sprung to my feet in applause-she's been waiting so long for this, and I was moved that the audience all knew it (the one standing ovation of the evening went to her).  She also knew just how to hit all of the bounces of her speech, including that great dance off-stage.

32. Even Kristin Chenoweth isn't believable as someone who is mad-she probably wanted O'Hara to win as well.

33. Neil Patrick Harris' locked box joke was funnier at the Tony Awards...and it only took 15 seconds.

34. Larry David was funny at the Tony Awards, going on a Seinfeld-esque rant, but he seems to be milking Seinfeld a lot these days (SNL did the same darn thing), so it's becoming less special.  They should have gotten Leslie Caron to present instead.

35. And finally-Jersey Boys?  Again?  Just end with Audra McDonald rapping every year instead.

OVP: Lili (1953)

Film: Lili (1953)
Stars: Leslie Caron, Mel Ferrer, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Kurt Kasznar
Director: Charles Walters
Oscar History: 6 nominations/1 win (Director, Actress-Leslie Caron, Cinematography, Art Direction, Adapted Screenplay, Original Score*)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

There are days when I wonder why I'm spending hours upon hours trudging through some occasionally dull films in pursuit of seeing all of the movies ever nominated for a feature-length, narrative Oscar (I've got a daunting 2237 to go, and that's not taking into account the nominees to come), but then I get a film like Lili to remind me: it's because I love the movies.

This charming film, which I knew very little about going in, was a perfect vehicle for the lovely as a primrose Ms. Leslie Caron.  Caron has always been a favorite of mine-I love the way that her voice lilts like a piano and the fact that behind that petite face and golden voice is a dancer who had the pins to go to toe-to-toe with Fred Astaire AND Gene Kelly.  It's this determination beneath an innocent exterior that fits perfectly with the down-on-her-luck Lili in the film.  In the opening scenes, it's clear that Lili wants work, and she's perfectly willing to wait tables and help around the circus to get it.  As the scenes progress, you think for a second that she'll fall in love with Jean-Pierre Aumont's caddish magician, but then you suddenly come across the bitter, but misunderstood Mel Ferrer, who is the circus owner, and in the most charming moment of the film, a master ventriloquist.

For, by far the most enchanting and beautiful moments of the film surround the puppets that Ferrer uses to exhibit the sensitive and kind-hearted man beneath his rough veneer.  In my favorite scene, it appears that Lili is going to climb the trapeze ladder and jump in a sea of heartsickness over her unrequited love for Aumont's magician and because she has failed as a waitress.  Instead of just swooping in to save her, Ferrer puts his puppets to work, and expresses his desire for her to stay through them.  I swear, it's one of those magical film moments where several minutes have flown by and you've been grinning the whole time.  Caron's complete devotion to these puppets, and the sweetness she brings to each of her relationships with them is just stunning.  I know some would call it easy or perhaps compare her to a blank canvass, but I find it endearing-she captures that last flicker of amazement we save for when Santa and the Tooth Fairy and all childhood fancies are gone, and the only fairy tale we still believe in is love and "happily ever after."

The film also gives two rather elaborate dream sequences, in which they show that they haven't forgotten that Caron is a dancer.  As being a hoofer of her quality wouldn't befit the girl-from-nowhere she's playing, it's in her dream sequences where she gets to show off her ballet skills, first lusting after Aumont and then Ferrer.  Though, how she couldn't go for Ferrer in the first place is anyone's guess-with those blue, sympathetic eyes and his bad boy misunderstood persona, Charles Walters has taken one out of the "Make John Smitten" playbook.  And also, as a side note-I believe this is the first time I've seen Zsa Zsa in an actual film, rather than just reruns of  What's My Line? and Johnny Carson-and while of course she's va-va-voom, when it comes to her acting chops, Anna Magnani she ain't.

1953, for me, is one of those high-watermark years at the Oscars, so I can't say with complete certainty that I'll be giving Lili an Oscar when I'm done with all of the nominees, even though I adored it so.  Perhaps its best shot was the one the Academy of yesteryear gave it-the score, so rich, but also playful (the film takes place in a circus, after all), is a delight.  The Art Direction and Cinematography are both top drawer, but they're also competing with Shane and The Robe, so they may be out of luck (I haven't seen The Robe, in full disclosure, but stills of the film bode strongly for it).  And in the Best Director and Screenplay categories, well, you just don't lightly take away trophies from From Here to Eternity, Roman Holiday, and, one of my all-time favorites, Shane.

Of course, what you're most interested in is the leading lady, I'm sure.  Caron had to contend with another actress making a huge splash that year, Ms. Audrey Hepburn as Princess Anne in Roman Holiday.  Of course, Deborah Kerr was literally making a splash in the gigantic soap opera From Here to Eternity-of the three, I'm still very partial to Hepburn, and it's going to be hard to dissuade me.  Hepburn's performance lights just as well as Caron's, but her character's evolution is more difficult, and she gets the advantage of getting to play a bittersweet ending, much harder than Caron's fly-into-his-arms final kiss.  Still to come in the field is Ava Gardner's sole nomination for Mogambo and the tragic Maggie McNamara in her film debut, The Moon is Blue.  Stay tuned...

But in the meantime, share your thoughts on Lili and her marvelously charming friends Carrot Top, Marguerite, Reynardo, and Golo the Giant-what'd you think of the film?  Where does it rank amidst the classics of 1953?  What are your thoughts on Leslie Caron, Movie Star?  And between Caron, Hepburn, Kerr, McNamara, and Gardner, who most deserves that shiny gold man on their mantlepiece?