As the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has done in the past, this year, the body that hands out the Oscars every year will use the Honorary Oscars to right wrongs. One of those wrongs will be finally giving the Queen of Technicolor, Maureen O’Hara, her due.
O’Hara has been working in Hollywood since 1939, when she starred alongside Charles Laughton in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. She is best known for her string of films with John Ford and John Wayne, including the classic The Quiet Man and Rio Grande. She also starred in the 1941 Best Picture winner, Ford’s How Green Was My Valley. O’Hara became known as the Queen of Technicolor thanks to swashbucklers like The Black Swan and Sinbad the Sailor, proving that she could be an action star alongside Tyrone Power and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
O’Hara is now 94 and appeared at the TCM Classic Film Festival earlier this year. She appeared as lively as ever, joking with the audience and host Robert Osborne. Her appearance at the Governors Awards will surely be entertaining.
Up next is Harry Belafonte, who will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Belafonte is best known for his music, but also made several films and was at the forefront of the Civil Rights movement. He is also a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and has worked for several causes around the world.
The other two honorees are giants of international cinema. Hayao Miyazaki, the mind behind the Oscar-winning Spirited Away, will receive an honorary Oscar for his work. He is also the co-founder of Studio Ghibli.
Lastly, French writer Jean-Claude Carriere will also receive an award. Fans of French cinema certainly know his name. He is a four-time Oscar nominee, having worked with acclaimed directors Volker Schlondorff, Jean-Luc Godard and Andrzej Wajda. He is best known for his working with Luis Bunuel for two decades. He won an Oscar back in 1962 for co-writing Pierre Etaix’s hilarious short Happy Anniversary.
The Governors Awards is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 8. We can only hope that these winners will get more than a short mention during the next Oscars telecast. (Also, Doris Day was left off again!)
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