The press release from AMPAS:
The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present Honorary Awards to Angela Lansbury, Steve Martin and Piero Tosi, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Angelina Jolie. All four awards will be presented at the Academy’s 5th Annual Governors Awards on Saturday, November 16, at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center®.
“The Governors Awards pay tribute to individuals who’ve made indelible contributions in their respective fields,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “We couldn’t be more excited for this year’s honorees and look forward to bringing their peers and colleagues together to celebrate their extraordinary achievements.”
Lansbury has received three Academy Award® nominations for her supporting performances on film – the first in her 1944 feature debut in “Gaslight,” followed by “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (1945) and “The Manchurian Candidate” (1962). Her numerous other credits include “The Long, Hot Summer,” “Blue Hawaii,” “The World of Henry Orient,” “Bedknobs and Broomsticks,” “Death on the Nile” and “Mr. Popper’s Penguins,” as well as voice work for the first animated feature to receive a Best Picture nomination, “Beauty and the Beast.”
Martin, who got his start in television, is a versatile actor, writer, comedian and musician who began to display the breadth of his big-screen talent as the screenwriter and star of the 1977 Oscar®-nominated short film “The Absent-Minded Waiter.” He wrote and starred in “The Jerk,” “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid,” “Three Amigos,” “Roxanne,” “L.A. Story,” “The Pink Panther” series and “Shopgirl,” which he adapted from his critically acclaimed book of the same name. His other acting credits include “All of Me,” “Parenthood,” “Father of the Bride” and “It’s Complicated.” He also is a three-time host of the Oscars®, most recently in 2010 with Alec Baldwin.
Tosi rose to prominence through his collaborations with Italian director Luchino Visconti on such films as “White Nights” and “Rocco and His Brothers,” and continued to work with him on several other features, including the Costume Design nominees “The Leopard,” “Death in Venice” and “Ludwig.” Tosi received two more nominations for his designs for “La Cage aux Folles” and “La Traviata.” His other notable credits include “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow,” a Foreign Language Film winner, and “Marriage Italian Style,” a Foreign Language Film nominee, both directed by Vittorio De Sica.
Jolie, who won an Oscar for her supporting performance in “Girl, Interrupted,” has been an impassioned advocate for humanitarian causes, traveling widely to promote organizations and social justice efforts such as the Prevent Sexual Violence Initiative. Staking out a career at the nexus of entertainment and philanthropy, Jolie has worked for a number of global advocacy groups including the Council on Foreign Relations and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), for which she was appointed Special Envoy of High Commissioner António Guterres in 2012 after twelve years of service. Her dedication to these causes has also shaped her work in films that tackle global humanitarian issues including “A Mighty Heart” and her feature film directorial debut “In the Land of Blood and Honey.”
The Honorary Award, an Oscar statuette, is given “to honor extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the Academy.”
The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, also an Oscar statuette, is given “to an individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry.”
What great choices all around.
Especially proud of the Angelina Jolie choice. Really good.
Gosh, the people over at CAA must be fuming. It makes me so happy that Angie is getting this award. The Huvane brothers, Aniston, Roberts, and Handler to name a few must be so pissed off. They absolutely loathe Angie, she got the last laugh. She got a prestigious award, the respect of her peers, the respect of people from around the world, and she got her man. Those things are something that the people I mentioned can only wish they can accomplish.
Really great choices this time around. No-one is complaining, it seems.
Very, very happy with their choices this year.
Lansbury and Tosi are great examples of artists who have been long overdue.
Congratulations!
Martin and Jolie – both are rather young to be recipients. But, as Steve50 pointed out above, who said you have to be old to get these awards? Point well taken.
Steve Martin’s performance in “All of Me” is classic comedy. He should have been nominated that year (he did win the New York Film Critics prize as best Actor) but was overlooked in 1984. They nominated Jeff Bridges in the lackluster “Starman” instead. Just another Academy fuck-up.
I can’t remember if it was on this site or not, but I said it was time to give Lansbury an honorary Oscar as she so much deserves. This news make me happy as hell. Martin is another great choice.
At times, with all the pre-meditated People magazine covers, it seems like Jolie uses her work just to counter-act her kinky, man-stealing wacko image. It seems like she truly is committed to her cause…but the Academy could’ve let more time pass before bestowing this award.
TOM – I think you are a few years too late with that comment. Yes, during her youth, Angelina has definitely done some things in the public eye that have raised many an eyebrow. Calling her a man stealer is so chauvinistic. TWO people fell in love with each other. It happens, and they are still together. She’s also adopted practically a country of children, works tirelessly for the UN and made a very private health scare and shared it with the public to raise awareness. She’s also, for good measure turned in some good performances on films and directed a fairly underrated one (in two languages). I’m surprised by the inclusion of Jolie, but once you think about all the things she has accomplished at a relatively young age, one realizes just how deserving she is.
It is odd though that the Oscars are honoring Angela before the Emmy Academy. I mean over 20 nods and no Emmy, come on !
She was great in Gaslight too with Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman. Interesting that the original Gaslight with Diana Wynyard was tried very hard to be held back from being released in America until the Bergman one came through, so they wouldn’t compete.
Wouldn’t have predicted Jolie, but ok. I can understand the choice. Delighted with Lansbury being selected. What a career!! And she’s still working!! Hoping the academy welcomes Day and Rowlands to the club soon.
Sadly, I don’t think they will ever break down and honor Doris Day.
They’d probably honor Jerry Lewis before her.
If anyone deserves an honorary award more than anybody else in Hollywood, it’s Doris Day.
Rex Reed, for what it’s worth, has been campaigning for her honorary Oscar for years . . . it’s all fallen on deaf ears. Unfortunately.
Rex Reed, for what it’s worth, has been campaigning for her honorary Oscar for years . . . it’s all fallen on deaf ears.
Rex Red campaigning for anything is probably counterproductive. He needs to shut up and see if that works out any better.
Jerry Lewis already have one.
Steve Martin’s been around a lot longer than Crystal, so I don’t think that’s a big surprise. Martin should also have been noted for his performance in Grand Canyon, which was a rare dramatic role for him, enabling him to play against type and give a strong and interesting performance
Woohoo for Angela! She killed it Manchurian Candidate, one of the best performances ever in my opinion. Great picks:)
With these popular choices, it would be a good year to put the honorary awards back in the show.
I don’t think there could be more deserving all-around entertainers than Angela Lansbury and Steve Martin. I love it when people are rewarded on actual merit. Kudos, Academy. You got it right with them. 🙂
Angelina is immensely deserving. I always knew she would win this (didn’t expect it so early), and always hoped that Lansbury would win hers as well. Now she’ll have an Oscar to go with her record five Tonys, so all she needs is a long-overdue honorary Emmy to reward her for her record number of losses. And she frankly should have won a Grammy for her part in the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack. No, I don’t think she was ever ripped off of an Oscar, unless an animated performance award was given, though I enjoyed her in The Long Hot Summer more than the actual winner that year (Wendy Hiller, Separate Tables). Patty Duke was simply unparalleled in The Miracle Worker, and that performance stands the test of time and shouldn’t be written off as “showy” (as if showiness is more often than not a bad things). But Lansbury has had a long and prolific career and has deserved this for years.
Steve Martin is multitalented and likable, so good for him. I’m surprised he gets it before Billy Crystal, though. Especially when you think of the multiple honorary Oscars they awarded Bob Hope over the years.
A good group, but I’m especially pleased for Angela Lansbury. When I was in music appreciation class in high school in SF, I had great seats to see her on tour with “Sweeney Todd.” She was amazing, of course. I’d love to get an opportunity to speak with her not only about her own work, but also about all of the great stars, now long gone, whom she knew.
Hard to believe that Tosi doesn’t have an Oscar and only five noms. He defined costume design in the 70s with his work for Visconti.
Agree on Lansbury and Martin, who should have statues already for Manchurian Candidate and All of Me.
And Jolie? Perfect and well-deserved. Whoever said you had to be old to get this? She’s the best example of a celebrity effectively using her star power for the betterment of all.
YAY to Angela Lansbury !! She was robbed of an Oscar for Manchurian Candidate. I think there has never been a more evil mother put to screen that her portrayal in that movie. Sadly Patty Duke had the more showy role as Helen Keller.
Angelina is the youngest recipient. She is in great company from Rosalind Russell to Audrey Hepburn!
Still have high hopes that one day GENA ROWLANDS will get the honor. A Women Under the Influence is a shattering performance, so sad she didn’t win that year. Would be a great way to honor the work she did with her groundbreaking husband, John Cassavetes.
I did not see Jolie coming AT ALL. But it makes perfect sense and it’s indeed even more deserving than the Oscar she already has.
She must be the youngest recipient ever – right?
SO, so happy for Angela Lansbury.
She should have won for The Manchurian Candidate.
Nominated for 3 Oscars.
Legendary on Broadway.
Iconic as Jessica Fletcher in Murder She Wrote.
Wonderful entertainer through the years. Well deserved. 🙂
I think Steve Martin is a terrific comedian-actor and writer,but does he equal to past honorary oscar comedians as Groucho Marx,Stan Laurel or even the great Charlie Chaplin?
Martin’s work is excellent,if irregular. “L.A. Story” is an almost perfect screenplay and a moving and fun performance. His dentist in “Little Shop of Horrors” is one of the best comic performances of all times. The times he has tried drama (“Grand Canyon”, “The Spanish Prisoner”) he proven his versatility. Plus, he’s one of the most intelligent and tasteful artists in Hollywood. I think it was high time, specially since he should have at least one competitive Oscar already…
Angela Lansbury should’ve won the Oscar for “The Manchurian Candidate”. It is still one of my favorite performances of all time.
They won’t put it back in the main show. It’s become a popular event, and allowing its own show means the recipients get more time and aren’t rushed off the stage. It would be great if it were televised or live-streamed on the Academy web site.
Right! At least a live-stream, though televised would be best.
I just hope they decide to either televise or do a webcast of this event.
Better still put in back in the show.
Very good choices. Lansbury’s been overdue for years, and Martin is a creative selection. Jolie’s award might seem like a cynical ploy to get Hollywood’s most glamorous couple to the Oscars, but it is greatly deserved.
I am soo happy for Angela. It’s about time.