Movie Film Trivia

[Roobs321]

Top 5 earliest surviving acting Oscar wins (at present):

1954
Eva Marie Saint (BSA On the Waterfront)

1960
Shirley Jones (BSA Elmer Gantry)

1961
Sophia Loren (BA Two Women)
George Chakiris (BSA West Side Story)
Rita Moreno (BSA West Side Story)

along with Schell in BA (Judgment at Nuremberg) that youthful 1961 lineup were an average age of just under 30 at the time of their Oscar wins. Schell the oldest at 31. And unusually ethnically diverse as well to go with it. Those 3 are also the last surviving acting nominees from that year after Piper Laurie (BSA The Hustler) passed a year ago.

for the record if you’re wondering, in Best Actor it’s currently Hackman in 1971 (French Connection).

 

[emuboy]

Top 5 earliest surviving acting Oscar wins (at present):

1954
Eva Marie Saint (BSA On the Waterfront)

1960
Shirley Jones (BSA Elmer Gantry)

1961
Sophia Loren (BA Two Women)
George Chakiris (BSA West Side Story)
Rita Moreno (BSA West Side Story)

along with Schell in BA (Judgment at Nuremberg) that youthful 1961 lineup were an average age of just under 30 at the time of their Oscar wins. Schell the oldest at 31.

for the record if you’re wondering, in Best Actor it’s currently Hackman in 1971 (French Connection).

At age 94, Shirley Jones has already outlived two of her five on-screen kids in 'The Partridge Family'. These are David Cassidy - in real life Shirley Jones' stepson - who played eldest son Keith and died in 2017 at age 67; and Suzanne Crough who played daughter Tracy and despite being the youngest of the cast was the first of the kids to die at age 54 in 2015.

 

[Roobs321]

At age 94, Shirley Jones has already outlived two of her five on-screen kids in 'The Partridge Family'. These are David Cassidy - in real life Shirley Jones' stepson - who played eldest son Keith and died in 2017 at age 67; and Suzanne Crough who played daughter Tracy and despite being the youngest of the cast was the first of the kids to die at age 54 in 2015.

and to that, apparently Chakiris appeared in the final ep of The Partridge Family as Shirley’s high school sweetheart and their kiss goodbye was the final scene of the series. She obviously presented him the Oscar as the previous year’s winner in her respective category as listed above.

 

[Roobs321]

all the semi-famous Shirley actress contemporaries of that period appear to have lived long lives (as well as in other lines of work and entertainment such as Bassey (87*))

Shirley’s Abicair (94*), Booth (94), Palmer (91), MacLaine (90*), Bonne (90*), Jones (90*), Cain (89*), Dynevor (89), Bell Cole (89), Eaton (87*), Anne Field (87), Douglas (86), Temple (85) and Knight (83).

Charlotte Bronte’s novel is often pointed to as when it began shifting towards a female given name, simultaneously the Shirley Letters during the California Gold Rush, then I’d imagine Anne of Green Gables being a massive success helped (still surname and male given name there though), and a few bumps since then like Temple brought it to a pitch. So by the 50s/60s there was a wave of celebrity entertainers with that name.

 

[spinynorman]

Paul Morrissey died aged 86 overnight. He collaborated with Andy Warhol on a lot of Warhol’s films, but after Warhol was shot and became increasingly reclusive Morrissey increasingly had more creative control on the films. Many of the stars in the films he made (particularly the trilogy of Flesh, Trash and Heat) are more famous as the names Lou Reed mentions in Walk on the Wild Side.

Morrissey and Warhol fell out after Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula were alternatively released as Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein and Andy Warhol’s Dracula despite Warhol having no say over the films. Warhol had been looking for new talent to take under his wing, and had recently seen Pink Flamingos and extended the offer to John Waters. Waters saw Morrissey’s conundrum and didn’t overly want Andy Warhol’s Female Trouble to be a thing and declined the offer.

 

[spinynorman]

Steven Spielberg bought the Rosebud sled from Citizen Kane for $55,000 in 1982. Orson Welles commented to his frequent collaborator Gary Graver, “If I knew people would spend this much money, I would’ve just made sleds.”