27th Academy Awards

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27th Academy Awards
Date	30 March 1955
Site	RKO Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles, California
Host	Bob Hope Thelma Ritter (New York City)

The 27th Academy Awards honored the best in films of 1954.

The Best Picture winner (of producer Sam Spiegel), director Elia Kazan's semi-documentary, expose, and thriller, On The Waterfront (with twelve nominations and eight wins) matched two other films with eight wins - but they each had thirteen nominations:

Gone With The Wind (1939) From Here to Eternity (1953)

The low-budget, black and white Best Picture was filmed entirely on location in Hoboken and told the gritty story of New York dock workers, brutality, corruption, and embroilment with a gangster union boss. It provided an expose of union racketeering while showcasing the murder of an innocent longshoreman. Kazan and screenwriter Budd Schulberg justified their own naming of names (blacklisting-testimony against alleged Communists) as friendly witnesses before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the early 50s with the film's story of an heroic longshoreman informant Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) who stood alone and turned witness against the corrupt and intimidating union bosses and became a marked 'pigeon'. The film marked a comeback for Brando, who hadn't won a Best Actor Oscar - yet.

Contents 1 Winners 2 Best Picture 3 Direction 4 Acting 5 Writing 6 Honorary Oscars

[edit] Winners

[edit] Best Picture

On The Waterfront - Sam Spiegel, producer

[edit] Direction

• Achievement in Directing: Elia Kazan for On The Waterfront

[edit] Acting

• Best Actor: Marlon Brando and Best Supporting Actress: Eva Marie Saint in On The Waterfront
• Best Supporting Actor: Edmond O'Brein in The Barefoot Contessa
• Best Actress: Grace Kelly in The Country Girl

[edit] Writing

• Best Story and Screenplay: On The Waterfront by Budd Schulberg
• Best Motion Picture Story: Broken Lance by Philip Yordan
• Best Screenplay: The Country Girl by George Seaton

[edit] Honorary Oscars

To compensate for the fact that screen legend Greta Garbo had never received a competitive Best Actress Oscar, she was belatedly presented with a special Honorary statue "for her unforgettable screen performances" - thirteen years after her retirement from her last film, Two-Faced Woman. [Garbo had four career nominations for exceptional definitive roles including Anna Christie (1929-30) and Romance (1929-30), Camille (1936) and Ninotchka (1939).]

Another Honorary Award was presented to the versatile, red-haired comic Danny Kaye, for "his unique talents, his service to the Academy, the motion picture industry, and the American people." He never even received a nomination throughout his entire film career, that was marked by such great films as Wonder Man (1945), The Kid From Brooklyn (1946), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), Hans Christian Andersen (1952), Knock on Wood (1954), and The Court Jester (1956).