Oscar's Queer Awards

The covid pandemic may have disrupted film production over the past year but is hasn’t disrupted the awards season where it seems that quotas, inclusion and diversity are more important than actual talent and achievement.

It isn’t generally known, especially by self-identified lgbt spokespeople, that there have been many lgbt winners and nominees of Oscars. There were more lgbt nominees in the ten years of the 1950s (132) than there were in the 25 years from 1994 to 2019 (126). Many of these nominees may not have been lgbt publicly, but then they didn’t have social media demanding that this part of their life should be made public. Most were openly lgbt to those they worked with and knew. There has only been two awards ceremonies where there weren’t any lgbt nominees – November 1933 (there were two ceremonies that year, the first being in April) and 1935. As the ceremony last weekend was the 93rd that means that there are had been at least 91 lgbt nominations in Oscar history.

Do you remember Sam Smith looking like a complete fool by declaring in front of the world to be the first openly lgbt Oscar winner in 2015 (probably the only thing Sam will ever be remembered for)? Thankfully, there were plenty of previous lgbt Oscar winners ready to put the record straight.

Of course, there were people who were deliberately secretive about their sexuality, but fewer than you might think. It is recognised that the film studio bosses deliberately suppressed news in the media about a film star’s sexuality. To cover up any scandal the news would have caused at that time the studios arranged for that person to get married. This attitude towards sexuality in the American cinema still prevails today, despite the deceptive appearance of there being a lot of out American actors and film-makers.

There are too many lgbt nominees and winners to list here (602 in total, held by 219 individuals), but an almost accurate list is available on Wikipedia. A handful of the names it lists are not verified as being lgbt, being based purely on unsubstantiated rumour or unreliable testimony. Some names that have been included which are based on rumour have other supporting evidence which supports their identification. There are also a few omissions and wrongly categorised names.

So, here are some of the more interesting and significant facts and figures about lgbt nominees and winners of Oscars.

Category with the most lgbt nominations, and category with the most lgbt winners
Best Art Direction (replaced with Best Production Design in 2012) received 20 lgbt nominations. Between 1941 and 1970 the category was subdivided into Colour and Black and White.

Best Art Direction: Colour received 67 nominations, and Best Art Direction: Black and White received 58. In total the Best Art Direction category has received 145 lgbt nominations. Of those 145 nominations, 28 won. Best Art Direction won 4 times, Best Art Direction: Colour won 13 times, and Best Art Direction: Black and White won 11 times.

Honorary Awards

Eight lgbt people were given honorary awards, and 1 was awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

Number of lgbt nominations for acting

Best Actor – 35 nominations (5 wins)

Best Actress – 32 nominations (10 wins)

Best Supporting Actor – 23 nominations (4 wins)

Best Supporting Actress – 14 nominations (5 wins)

First lgbt nomination, first lgbt acting nomination, first ever female nomination, and first female to receive more than one nomination, and first female to win all nominations received in one year.

Janet Gaynor (1906-1984) received three nominations as Best Actress at the very first awards ceremony in 1929 for her roles in “Seventh Heaven”, “Street Angel” and “Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans”. She won all three Oscars.

First lgbt male nominations

In 1934 there were two lgbt male nominees: George Cukor (1899-1983) as Best Director for “Little Women”; and Charles Laughton (1899-1962) as Best Actor as King Henry VIII in “The Private Life of Henry VIII”.

First male lgbt winner

Charles Laughton (1899-1962) for Best Actor in 1934 (above).

First non-acting lgbt nomination

George Cukor (1899-1983), nominated as Best Director in 1934 (above).

First non-acting lgbt winner, the most nominated lgbt non-actor, the most consecutive years with a nomination, and the lgbt person with the most Oscars

Edwin B. Willis (1893-1963) won Best Art Direction (Colour) for “Blossoms in the Dust” in 1942. He received a total of 32 nominations over 27 years with a further 7 wins. He was nominated every year between 1950 and 1958.

First female transgender nomination, first transgender person to be nominated twice

Angela Morley (1924-2009), nominated for Best Scoring: Original Song Score and Adaptation or Scoring in 1975 for “The Little Prince”. She was nominated in the same category in 1978 for “The Slipper and the Rose”.

First male transgender nomination

Yance Ford (b.1972), nominated for Best Documentary Feature in 2018 for “Strong Island”.

First transgender acting nomination (pre transition)

Elliott Page (b.1987), nominated as Best Actress in 2008 for playing the lead role in “Juno”.

First lgbt actor to play a non-lgbt character of the opposite sex

Linda Hunt (b.1945), nominated at Best Actress in 1983 for playing Billy Kwan in “The Year of Living Dangerously”.

First black lgbt acting nomination

Paul Winfield (1939-2004), nominated as Best Actor in 1973 for “Sounder”.

First black lgbt non-acting nomination

Lee Daniels (b.1959), nominated as Best Director in 2010 for “Precious”.

Lgbt actors with the most nominations

Katherine Hepburn (1907-2003) received 12 nominations, all for Best Actress. She won 4 times, and holds the record for the most Oscars won by any female actor.

Sir Laurence Olivier, Lord Olivier (1907-1989) received 13 nominations, though they include Best Director and Best Picture (“Hamlet”, 1949), and one honorary award. He also won 4 times.

First posthumous lgbt acting nomination

Jeanne Eagels (1890-1929), nominated in April 1930 as Best Actress for “The Letter”.

First posthumous lgbt male acting nomination, first lgbt actor to be nominated posthumously twice

James Dean (1931-1955), nominated in 1956 as Best Actor for “East of Eden”, and nominated in 1957 as Best Actor for “Giant”.

First posthumous lgbt non-acting nomination, first posthumous lgbt winner, most number of posthumous nominations

Howard Ashman (1950-1991) was nominated in 1992 as lyricist in the Best Original Song Category with three songs from “Beauty and the Beast”, “Be Our Guest”, “Belle” and the title song, which was the first posthumous win by an lgbt individual. Howard received his fourth posthumous nomination in 1993 in the same category with “Friend Like Me” from “Aladdin”.

Lgbt nominee with the lowest success rate

Many people were nominated once but did not win. Several with multiple nominations also did not win. Probably the most famous of these are songwriter Cole Porter (1891-1964) and actor Montgomery Clift (1920-1966), who each received 4 nominations but did not win. The lgbt person nominated the most without a win was Howard Bristol (1902-1971), who was nominated 9 times between 1942 and 1969 in all of the three Best Art Direction categories.

Film with the most lgbt nominees, and film with the most lgbt winners

In 1952 “An American in Paris” had 6 lgbt people among its 15 nominees in 8 categories. Five of those lgbt nominees won – 2 for Best Art Direction: Colour, and 3 for Best Costume Design: Colour.

Year with the most number of lgbt nominees, and the most lgbt winners

At the 1952 ceremony a total of 16 lgbt people received 20 nominations in 9 categories. Eight of those people won in 4 of the categories, including “An American in Paris” (above).

Lgbt people with the most multiple nominations in one year

There are 7 who have been nominated 3 times in one year. They include Janet Gaynor in 1929 (also the first lgbt multiple winner in one year, see above), Edwin B. Willis in 1954 (see above), and Howard Ashman in 1992 (all posthumous, see above). The others are:

Samuel M. Comer (1893-1974) in 1964 for Best Art Decoration on 3 different films,

Jacques Demy (1921-1990) in 1966 in 3 categories for “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg”,

Sir Elton John (b.1947) in 1995 for 3 songs from “The Lion King”, and

Henry Krieger (b.1945) in 2007 for 3 songs from “Dreamgirls”.

I think that’s enough statistics for now. If I get the time I’ll produce another list of interesting lgbt Oscar facts in the future, perhaps concentrating on music, design or production.