March Madness Preview #2: 1960s "Oscar's Sweethearts"

The Sweet Sixteen

Round Three of the 2013 Favorite Classic Movie Actress Tournament is complete and the Sweet Sixteen is set. The final results for the 1960s era by bracket:

"Song and Dance"
#7 Shirley Jones defeated #1 Natalie Wood 34-26.
"All-American Girls"
#1 Anne Bancroft 33 defeated #6 Paula Prentiss 33-22
"The British Invasion"
#7 Diana Rigg defeated #1 Julie Andrews 48-21
"A Foreign Affair"
#1 Catherine Deneuve defeated #6 Romy Schneider 34-30

The Round Four pairings by decade:

1930s
Barbara Stanwyck versus Greta Garbo
Carole Lombard versus Joan Blondell

1940s
Bette Davis versus Judy Garland
Rita Hayworth versus Gene Tierney

1950s
Audrey Hepburn versus Doris Day
Grace Kelly versus Ava Gardner

and here at the Monkey, with a couple of #7 seeds against a couple of #1 seeds, the 1960s pairings:

Anne Bancroft versus Shirley Jones

Catherine Deneuve versus Diana Rigg

Voting starts now and runs until Saturday evening. Gentlemen, start your engines!

Favorites, Cinderellas—And A Tie

The second round of the 2013 Favorite Classic Movie Actress Tournament is complete—well, almost—and among the winners are a mixture of favorites and Cinderellas. Here at the Monkey, each quarter-final round in the 1960s bracket includes a #1 seed and either a #6 or a #7 seed. The other eras produced similar results, with favorites such as Carole Lombard and Audrey Hepburn and longshots such as Eleanor Powell advancing.

And the 1940s era produced the first tie in the three-year history of the tournament, with Lauren Bacall and Ida Lupino deadlocked after three full days of voting. Desiree is hosting a today-only tiebreaker to determine the winner: "Which performance with co-star Humphrey Bogart did you like more? Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not or Ida Lupino in They Drive By Night." Click here to get your vote on.

Meanwhile, the rest of the tournament continues with round three.

Here at the Monkey, you have four matches to vote on:

"Song and Dance"
#1 Natalie Wood versus #7 Shirley Jones

"All-American Girls"
#1 Anne Bancroft versus #6 Paula Prentiss

"The British Invasion"
#1 Julie Andrews versus #7 Diana Rigg

"A Foreign Affair"
#1 Catherine Deneuve versus #6 Romy Schneider

Monty of All Good Things is hosting the 1930s bracket (click here).
Kristen of Journeys in Classic Film is hosting the 1950s bracket (click here).

Round Two Continues (Results And More Voting)

More round two voting starts tonight and continues until Saturday evening. Let's get right to the match-ups:

"The British Invasion"
#1 Julie Andrews versus #4 Maggie Smith

#6 Angela Lansbury versus #7 Diana Rigg

"All-American Girls"
#1 Anne Bancroft versus #4 Patricia Neal

#6 Paula Prentiss versus #7 Tuesday Weld

And how about the results of the rest of round two here at the Monkey:
Natalie Wood beat Ann-Margret 31-17
Shirley Jones beat Liza Minneli 34-18
Catherine Deneuve beat Claudia Cardinale 27-20
Romy Schneider beat Liv Ullman 29-28

Monty of All Good Things is hosting the 1930s bracket (click here).
Desiree of Rosalind Russell: Dazzling Star is hosting the 1940s bracket (click here).
Kristen of Journey in Classic Film is hosting the 1950s bracket (click here).

Sneak Preview: 2013 Favorite Classic Movie Actress Tournament: The 1960s Bracket #5

Voting starts March 3rd.

Anne Bancroft

Birth Name: Anna Maria Louise Italiano
Tourney Bracket and Seeding: "All-American Girls" #1
Birth Date: September 17, 1931
Birthplace: The Bronx, New York City, New York
Height: 5' 6½"
Academy Awards: 5 nominations, 1 win (actress, The Miracle Worker)
Signature Role: Annie Sullivan (The Miracle Worker)

versus

Julie Harris

Birth Name: Julie Anne Harris
Tourney Bracket and Seeding: "All-American Girls" #8
Birth Date: December 2, 1925
Birthplace: Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan
Academy Awards: 1 nomination
Signature Role: Eleanor "Nell" Lance (The Haunting)

with the winner to take on the winner of

Patricia Neal

Birth Name: Patricia Louise Neal
Tourney Bracket and Seeding: "All-American Girls" #4
Birth Date: January 20, 1926
Birthplace: Packard, Kentucky
Height: 5' 8"
Academy Awards: 2 nominations, 1 win (actress, Hud)
Signature Role: Alma Brown (Hud)

versus

Geraldine Page

Birth Name: Geraldine Sue Page
Tourney Bracket and Seeding: "All-American Girls" #5
Birth Date: November 22, 1924
Birthplace: Kirksville, Missouri
Height: 5' 8"
Academy Awards: 8 nominations, 1 win (actress, The Trip to Bountiful)
Signature Role: Mrs. Carrie Watts (The Trip to Bountiful)

Note: Of all the actresses in the 1960s bracket, Geraldine Page received the most Oscar nominations—and yet she might be the least known of the bunch.

2013 Favorite Classic Movie Actress Tournament: Anne Bancroft

The Katie-Bar-The-Door Awards (1967)

Strother Martin may be the first winner of a Katie-Bar-The-Door Award to also appear as a guest star on the television show Lost in Space (on that show's first episode broadcast in color, no less).

You may better remember him for this iconic scene from Cool Hand Luke.



Postscript: Actually, I did a bit of research and it turns out that Mercedes McCambridge, who not only won the Katie Award for best supporting actress of 1949 for All the King's Men, but the Oscar as well, was in an episode of Lost in Space several months before Strother Martin. Jeepers!

By the way, there's another Lost in Space alumnus on the list of Katie (and Oscar) nominees in 1967—Michael J. Pollard, who provided memorable support in Bonnie and Clyde.

And you thought Lost in Space was just another load of television crap! Au contraire, Will Robinson!

PICTURE (Drama)
winner: Bonnie and Clyde (prod. Warren Beatty)
nominees: Cool Hand Luke (prod. Gordon Carroll); In Cold Blood (prod. Richard Brooks); In the Heat of the Night (prod. Walter Mirisch); Point Blank (prod. Judd Bernard and Robert Chartoff)

PICTURE (Comedy/Musical)
winner: The Graduate (prod. Lawrence Turman)
nominees: The Dirty Dozen (prod. Kenneth Hyman); El Dorado (prod. Howard Hawks); The Jungle Book (prod. Walt Disney); Two for the Road (prod. Stanley Donen)

PICTURE (Foreign Language)
winner: Belle de jour (prod. Raymond Hakim and Robert Hakim)
nominees: Jôi-uchi: Hairyô tsuma shimatsu (Samurai Rebellion) (prod. Toshirô Mifune and Tomoyuki Tanaka); Koroshi no rakuin (Branded to Kill) (prod. Kaneo Iwai and Takiko Mizunoe); Mouchette (prod. Anatole Dauman); Play Time (prod. Bernard Maurice); Le samouraï (prod. Raymond Borderie and Eugène Lépicier); Voyna i mir (War and Peace) (prod. Mosfilm)

ACTOR (Drama)
winner: Sidney Poitier (In the Heat of the Night)
nominees: Warren Beatty (Bonnie and Clyde); Alain Delon (Le samouraï); Lee Marvin (Point Blank); Paul Newman (Cool Hand Luke); Rod Steiger (In the Heat of the Night)

ACTOR (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Dustin Hoffman (The Graduate)
nominees: Albert Finney (Two for the Road); Lee Marvin (The Dirty Dozen); Robert Morse (How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying); Spencer Tracy (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner)

ACTRESS (Drama)
winner: Catherine Deneuve (Belle de jour)
nominees: Faye Dunaway (Bonnie and Clyde); Edith Evans (The Whisperers); Audrey Hepburn (Wait Until Dark)

ACTRESS (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Anne Bancroft (The Graduate)
nominees: Audrey Hepburn (Two for the Road); Vanessa Redgrave (Camelot)

DIRECTOR (Drama)
winner: Arthur Penn (Bonnie and Clyde)
nominees: John Boorman (Point Blank); Robert Bresson (Mouchette); Richard Brooks (In Cold Blood); Luis Buñuel (Belle de jour); Masaki Kobayashi (Jôi-uchi: Hairyô tsuma shimatsu a.k.a. Samurai Rebellion); Jean-Pierre Melville (Le samouraï); Seijun Suzuki (Koroshi no rakuin a.k.a. Branded to Kill)

DIRECTOR (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Mike Nichols (The Graduate)
nominees: Robert Aldrich (The Dirty Dozen); Stanley Donen (Two for the Road); Howard Hawks (El Dorado); Jacques Tati (Play Time)

SUPPORTING ACTOR
winner: Strother Martin (Cool Hand Luke)
nominees: Alan Arkin (Wait Until Dark); John Cassavetes (The Dirty Dozen); Peter Cook and Dudley Moore (Bedazzled); Gene Hackman (Bonnie and Clyde); Murray Hamilton (The Graduate); George Kennedy (Cool Hand Luke); Warren Oates (In the Heat of the Night); Michael J. Pollard (Bonnie and Clyde)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
winner: Angie Dickinson (Point Blank)
nominees: Lee Grant (In the Heat of the Night); Julie Harris (Reflections In A Golden Eye); Mildred Natwick (Barefoot in the Park); Estelle Parsons (Bonnie and Clyde); Katharine Ross (The Graduate)

SCREENPLAY
winner: Calder Willingham and Buck Henry from the novel by Charles Webb (The Graduate)
nominees: Luis Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carrière, from the novel by Joseph Kessel (Belle de jour); David Newman and Robert Benton (Bonnie and Clyde)

SPECIAL AWARDS
"Mrs. Robinson" (The Graduate) music and lyrics by Paul Simon (Song)

Today's Oscar Trivia #11

Any Regrets? Many times in film history, actors and actresses have turned down parts that went on to earn the eventual taker an Oscar nomination. Doris Day famously turned down a role in which 1967 satire that brought a nomination to Anne Bancroft?

Brother and Sister Acts Who are the only brother and sister to each win an acting Oscar? (Hint: His was for the 1931 A Free Soul, hers for the 1944 None But The Lonely Heart.)

You can check out TCM's entire "31 Days of Oscar" schedule here.