The 40th Academy Awards were held on April 10, 1968, to honor film achievements of 1967. Originally scheduled for April 8, the awards were postponed to two days later due to the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.[1] Bob Hope was once again the host of the ceremony.

40th Academy Awards
Official poster with original date
DateApril 10, 1968
SiteSanta Monica Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica, California
Hosted byBob Hope
Produced byArthur Freed
Directed byRichard Dunlap
Highlights
Best PictureIn the Heat of the Night
Most awardsIn the Heat of the Night (5)
Most nominationsBonnie and Clyde and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (10)
TV in the United States
NetworkABC

This year, due to the waning popularity of black-and-white films, Best Cinematography, Art Direction, and Costume Design, previously divided into separate awards for color and monochrome films, were merged into single categories. This was the first Oscars since 1948 to feature clips from the Best Picture nominees.

This year marked the first of two times that three different films were nominated for the "Big Five" Oscars (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay): Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. While all three won major Oscars, Best Picture was awarded to Norman Jewison's thriller/mystery film, In the Heat of the Night. The same thing happened again at the ceremony for films from 1981 where the Best Picture winner was not one of the three films with "Big Five" nominations.

The Graduate became the seventh film to win Best Director and nothing else, and the last until the 94th Academy Awards. For the first time since the introduction of the Academy Award for Best Costume Design in 1948, Edith Head did not receive a nomination, after tallying 30 nominations and 7 wins over the previous 18 years.

Due to an all-out push by Academy President Gregory Peck, 18 of the 20 acting nominees were present at the ceremony.[1] Only Katharine Hepburn and the late Spencer Tracy, who was nominated posthumously, were missing. Edith Evans was the last performer born in the 1880s to receive an acting nomination (Best Actress, for her role in The Whisperers).

Winners and nominees

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Rod Steiger, Best Actor winner
Katharine Hepburn, Best Actress winner
George Kennedy, Best Supporting Actor winner
Estelle Parsons, Best Supporting Actress winner
Elmer Bernstein, Best Original Score winner

Nominations were announced on February 19, 1968. Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface and indicated with a double dagger (‡).[2]

Best Picture Best Director
Best Actor Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor Best Supporting Actress
Best Story and Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
Best Foreign Language Film Best Documentary Feature
Best Documentary Short Subject Best Live Action Short Subject
Best Short Subject – Cartoons Best Original Music Score
Best Original Song Score or Adaptation Score Best Song
Best Costume Design Best Art Direction
Best Cinematography Best Sound
Best Sound Effects Best Film Editing
Best Special Visual Effects

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award

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Gregory Peck

Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award

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Alfred Hitchcock

Honorary Oscar

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Arthur Freed was presented for distinguished service to the Academy and the production of six top-rated Awards telecasts.

Trivia

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  • This was the last Oscars broadcast by network radio in the US. The ABC radio network (which had just split into four separate services) carried the ceremony over the ABC Entertainment network.
  • Of the 20 performers nominated in the acting categories only two didn't attend: Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Hepburn, whose award for Best Actress was accepted by George Cukor, was in France filming The Lion in Winter, and Tracy, whose nomination was posthumous as he had died ten months before the ceremony occurred.
  • There was no Governor's Ball.
  • Prior to the two-day postponement, four African-American stars who were scheduled to take part in the ceremony: Sidney Poitier, Sammy Davis Jr., Louis Armstrong, and Diahann Carroll, announced they were withdrawing in mourning for Dr. King. Prior to the postponement, Jack Lemmon was announced as a replacement for Poitier, and Shirley Jones for Davis, but once the event was delayed, the original quartet returned.
  • Alfred Hitchcock's acceptance speech is on record as one of the shortest in Academy Awards history: "Thank you very much indeed". This is one word longer than William Holden's acceptance speech for Stalag 17 at the 26th Academy Awards, which was simply "Thank you ... thank you."
  • This was the only year in which two films (Bonnie and Clyde and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner) received nominations in all four acting categories.
  • Legendary film composer John Williams received his first nomination for scoring Valley of the Dolls. He would go on to receive 50 more nominations, winning 5.
  • Edith Evans was the last performer born in the 1880s to receive an acting nomination (Best Actress, for her role in The Whisperers).

Multiple nominations and awards

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Presenters and performers

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The following individuals, listed in order of appearance, presented awards or performed musical numbers.

Presenters

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Name Role
Hank Simms Announcer for the 40th Academy Awards
Gregory Peck (AMPAS President) Gave opening remarks welcoming guests to the awards ceremony
Bill Miller Explained the eligibility and voting rules to the public
Carol Channing Presenter of the award for Best Sound
Patty Duke Presenter of the award for Best Supporting Actor
Dustin Hoffman
Katharine Ross
Presenters of the award for Best Cinematography
Macdonald Carey
Diahann Carroll
Presenters of the Short Subjects Awards
Robert Morse
Barbara Rush
Presenters of the Documentary Awards
Eva Marie Saint Presenter of the award for Best Costume Design
Bob Hope (host) Presenter of the Honorary Award to Arthur Freed
Natalie Wood Presenter of the award for Best Special Visual Effects
Richard Crenna
Elke Sommer
Presenters of the award for Best Sound Effects
Walter Matthau Presenter of the award for Best Supporting Actress
Edith Evans Presenter of the award for Best Film Editing
Rosalind Russell Presenter of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Gregory Peck
Danny Kaye Presenter of the award for Best Foreign Language Film
Rock Hudson
Shirley Jones
Presenters of the award for Best Art Direction
Bob Hope Presenter of the Academy Awards' history montage
Angie Dickinson
Gene Kelly
Presenters of the Music Awards
Barbra Streisand Presenter of the award for Best Song
Sammy Davis Jr. Accepted Leslie Bricusse's award on his behalf
Robert Wise Presenter of the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award
Leslie Caron Presenter of the award for Best Director
Claire Bloom
Rod Steiger
Presenters of the Writing Awards
Audrey Hepburn Presenter of the award for Best Actor
Sidney Poitier Presenter of the award for Best Actress
Julie Andrews Presenter of the award for Best Picture

Performers

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Name Role Performed
Elmer Bernstein Musical arranger and conductor Orchestral
Louis Armstrong Performer "The Bare Necessities" from The Jungle Book
Lainie Kazan Performer "The Eyes of Love" from Banning
Sérgio Mendes
Brasil '66
Performer "The Look of Love" from Casino Royale
Sammy Davis Jr. Performer "Talk to the Animals" from Doctor Dolittle
Angela Lansbury Performer "Thoroughly Modern Millie" from Thoroughly Modern Millie[3]
Academy Awards Orchestra Performers "Hooray for Hollywood/There's No Business like Show Business" (orchestral) during the closing credits

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Wallechinsky, David; Wallace, Irving (1975). The People's Almanac. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc. p. 844. ISBN 0-385-04060-1.
  2. ^ "The 40th Academy Awards (1968) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Archived from the original on November 3, 2014. Retrieved November 10, 2011.
  3. ^ Angela Lansbury performing "Thoroughly Modern Millie" on show on YouTube
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