J'Accuse

There was a game we used to play back in my school days called "Dead Movie Stars", and, contrary to what you might think, the idea of the game was not to think of dead movie stars but to think of movie stars from a certain era like the 1920's or 1930's who were still alive, the point being the more famous the star the better. Anyways, I was sitting in traffic today playing the game in my head and I realized it was getting harder and harder to think of movie stars of yesteryear who are still around.

For example, back when I was a kid there were still quite a few stars from the 1920's around like Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin, but I can't think of any who are still alive today. Things get a little better in the 1930's, but now that Katherine Hepburn is gone the pickings are a lot thinner. A few major ones I came up with were:

Shirley Temple
Mickey Rooney
Olivia De Havilland
Jackie Cooper

When I moved on to the forties, the pickings were still pretty slim. I could only come up with three.

Deborah Kerr
Van Johnson
Elizabeth Taylor

I know there must be more, but I can't think of any.

Finally, when I got to the fifties, things started getting a lot easier.

Paul Newman
Joanne Woodward
Ernest Borgnine
Tony Curtis
Charlton Heston
etc...

And then, while I was thinking of the fifties, Richard Widmark suddenly came to mind, and I remembered something that has bothered me for a long time now. That is, I wonder how many people out there are aware that Richard Widmark has never won an Acadamy award, and in fact was nominated only once. I mean when you think back on all the movies he made, and some really good ones I might add, it seems incredible to me that he has never won an oscar.

It was bugging me the entire ride home, so I decided to fire up the old computer and surf on over to the Internet Movie Database to look up his biography, where I got the biggest shocker of all. Here I was at the IMDB, THE online source for movie facts and reviews, THE resource for all things movie related, THE place to go for information on your favorite movies and movie stars, and all they could manage for Richard Widmark was one short, sketchy little paragraph and no picture. Think about it. Richard Widmark, one of the greatest movie stars of all time, and the IMDB doesn't even think he rates a picture. Incredible.

And then I started to get a little irate the way older folk do sometimes when they see their cherished icons fade away into obscurity. It seems the movie fans of today just don't care to remember Tommy Udo in 'Kiss of Death' or Skip McCoy in 'Pickup on South Street'. They've never seen 'The Bedford Incident' or 'Madigan'? Movies like that and movie stars like Richard Widmark are just too quaint and old-fashioned for the sophisticated tastes of today's audiences.

Well, if that's the way it is, then that's the way it is, but I still have to wonder if the Acadamy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences doesn't owe their old stars at least a little bit of gratitude and recognition. Why, for example, hasn't the Acadamy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ever awarded Richard Widmark a lifetime achievement award? Isn't that an award to honor those who've had outstanding careers and yet were somehow overlooked in the past? Isn't that why Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr were both given their honorary awards? Why is it that previous oscar winners such as Sidney Poitier and Elia Kazan have both won special oscars while someone like Richard Widmark continues to be overlooked? Hell, Elia Kazan already had two prior oscars when they gave him his lifetime achievement award, and Richard Widmark doesn't even have one.

It got my dander up and so I've decided to write a letter to the AMPAS to give them a piece of my mind. I've also decided to send letters to Martin Scorcese and Steven Spielberg and anyone else I think might be in a position to get something done. Not that I think that anyone will read them or care, but it seems like a just cause and, well, what have I got to lose.

And given that Richard Widmark must be around 90 years old, or so, I think it would be especially nice to see him get an award while he is still alive.