The Worst Oscar Speeches In History

"She duly moaned about the lack of Hollywood representation for Native Americans, but it turns out she wasn't really a Native American! Talk about lack of representation!"

Musto,

Littlefeather's real name was Maria (or Marie) Cruz, but in Peter Manso's Brando biography, he says that she was in fact at least part Indian.

With that said, she was awful, and would have been much worse, had Howard Koch permitted her to read Brando's interminable speech.

Nicholas Stix

Anyone remember Dustin Hoffman's stuttering, rambling acceptance speech for RAIN MAN? Turns out the character was not that big of a stretch.

The worst is yet to come. Be patient and you will be rewarded.

What?! Roberto Begnini's crazed behavior and acceptance speech is my fave of all time! Come on, it was delightful. Anyone who says they didn't smile while watching it is a dirty liar.

I forgot to mention one of the visual effects artists who accepted for Avatar last year had a James Cameron moment directed at James Cameron by using a pun for the movie. Yes, he said, 'Jim, I see you.'

I guess Hilary Swank, because it was so unbelievable that she had to make a second oscar speech, while Jennifer Jason Leigh or Isabelle Huppert have never been nominated.

Can you imagine how pissed-off you'd have been had you been in the audience in 1943 when Greer Garson accepted her "Best Actress" award for "Mrs. Miniver"? According to several sources, her speech went on for over seven minutes---presenter Joan Fontaine actually pulled up a chair and sat down in the middle of it! And apparently, it was the last award of a VERY long evening and it was after 1AM. You wanna talk self-involved??

Alfred Hitchcock's complete acceptance speech: "Thank you."

And the night she won, Hattie had to sit in a separate part of the room because she was black!!!

Someone mentioned George Clooney, and not only did he say that about not winning Best Director, he went on something about the Academy Awards is in fact a place of tolerance citing Hattie McDaniel winning an Oscar (except the fact she still played the maid for the remainder of her career) blah, blah, blah. It was just so smug.

James Cameron ended the b.s. moment of silence by yelling, "Now let's go party!"

Yeah, Tom outed his teacher, who wasn't out!!!!

Speaking of pompous jerks, how about Tom Hank's condescending/patronizing self-righteous acceptance speech lecture for Philadelphia -- talk about being full of yourself.

The worst was Jonathan Demme's speech after he won Best Director for Silence of the Lambs. His rambling speech was made even worse by the fact he said "um" after every other word. By the, um, end of, um, the speech, um, I was, um, ready to, um, kill myself.

And Pia won a Golden Globe, for realz. I wonder what her speech for that was.

How about Pia Zadora in The Loney Lady when she won for best screenplay! She says, "I guess I'm not the only one who had to fuck my way to the top." I would love to hear Julia Roberts say that.

What about Rita Moreno's "I can't believe it. I leave you with that?" I mean, I love her to death (though Ruby Dee should have been nominated and won for "Raisin in the Sun") but she could have squeezed out a little gratitude.

I used to love Jack Lemmon until I saw a clip of his speech from 1973 for Save The Tiger. What a pompous jerk. Same deal with George Clooney. He was multi-nominated in one year but only won for supporting actor. The first thing he said when he came to the podium was something like "well I guess I won't be winning for best director." Ungrateful much?

If one could pinpoint the exact moment when Oscar accaptance speeches started to go downhill. It would be the Sacheen Littlefeather moment. After that people just felt entitled to share their dull, inarticulate, entitled selves with the world when a simple "Thank you to everyone who helped make this award possible." would suffice. The film clips of award ceremonies from the 40s, 50s, and 60s show people, even Rex Harrison, who truly knew how to be classy in public.

Benigni wins, by virtue of the fact that:

A) His appallingly stupid behavior that night was an utter embarassment to cinema, Italy and mankind.B) He was given the award for a rotten performance in one of the worst movies of the past 50 years.C) He followed-up his Oscar-winning performance by playing "Pinoccchio".(Only mitigating factor in this matter is the thankful fact that "Pinocchio" nailed shut his career, hopefully forever).

I liked Sally's speech. I really, really liked it!

No Sally Field?????

Julia kept telling the orchestra leader to "put down your stick, stick man." It was the worst.