The 78th Academy Awards have come and gone and, as a show, it was okay but nothing to remember past March except that Crash derailed Brokeback Mountain to take the top prize.  Speaking of prizes, give a big round of applause to Kacie Seaman, winner of the Great Oscar Quiz and who only got two wrong answers out of the 15 regular questions.  If we could, we’d allow her to give an acceptance speech behind annoying music and then cut her off before she had time to thank her mother or agent or lawyer or dogsitter.

Anyway, here are the answers for all of those who were afraid, very afraid of trying to participate in the quiz.  Maybe next time you’ll give it a go and know that all the answers are somewhere on the Web.  You just have to dig.

The 2005 Great Oscar Quiz answers

1. What 2005 nominated actor appeared in a 1991 film that also featured an actor nominated in the same category?
ANSWER: In City Slickers, Jake Gyllenhaal played Billy Crystal’s son, and one-arm push-upper Jack Palance won Best Supporting Actor, playing a cowboy named Curly who was far from being gay though he liked redheads.  Carrot Top can be relieved both character and actor have passed on to the great movie range in the sky.

2. Which 1960 winner was Debbie Reynolds referring to when she said, “Hell, I even voted for her”?
ANSWER: Elizabeth Taylor, who won Best Actress for Butterfield 8 and who stole Reynolds’ ex-husband Eddie Fisher away from her.  Taylor would then leave Fisher for Richard Burton.

3. One of this year’s Best Picture nominees was filmed in black and white.  What was the last black and white film to win Best Picture?
ANSWER: Schindler’s List in 1993, winning a total of seven awards. The film did contain a little color — the girl in the red jacket, the ending march by Schindler’s grave —  but generally was considered a black & white film.  You have to go back to 1960 and Billy Wilder’s The Apartment for a film entirely in black & white.  Both answers would have been acceptable.

4. What star of NBC’s The West Wing performed a rendition of Proud Mary with Snow White (Eileen Bowman) on an Oscar telecast that came to epitomize the over-produced musical numbers that since have been curtailed, and what was the date on which the telecast took place?
ANSWER: Rob Lowe, March 29, 1989.

5. What 1975 winner was escorted to the ceremony by twin sons he or she had not seen since 1968?
ANSWER: Milos Forman, Best Director for One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.

6. What was the original category title for what is now Best Picture, used for the first three ceremonies beginning in 1927?
ANSWER: Production.  It was changed so members wouldn’t vote solely on size or logistics.

7. Walt Disney has the record for most nominations ever at 59, but what living individual (Oscar night categories only) has the most career nominations on his/her resume (45 and counting), including this year’s nominations?
ANSWER: Musical Score composer, John Williams, who failed to add another statuette this year, but I’m sure he’ll be back.

8. What presenter revealed to Joan Rivers on the red carpet before the 1994 awards that “I just got over excited in the car.”
ANSWER: Hugh Grant, escorted by his then girlfriend Elizabeth Hurley.

9. What 1946 Best Picture loser but now classic film was praised by a New York Daily News editorial saying, “It momentarily restored this reporter’s faith in human nature — quite some achievement after you’ve spent sometime in the newspaper game.”?
ANSWER: Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life, starring James Stewart and Donna Reed.

10. What was the only television film to be adapted to the big screen and win Best Picture?
ANSWER: Marty, 1955.

11. Who is the only Oscar to win an Oscar?
ANSWER: Oscar Hammerstein II for Best Song, 1941 and 1945.

12. What film holds the record for the most nominations without a single loss?
ANSWER: Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2003 at 11.

13. Who was the first Best Actor nominee to be nominated for portraying another Best Actor nominee?
ANSWER: Robert Downey Jr., nominated for Chaplin, playing Charlie Chaplin.

14. Who are the only twins to win Oscars together and for what film?
ANSWER: Julius and Philip Epstein, winning Best Screenplay for Casablanca.

15. Which 2005 double-nominated individual began his/her career on the TV sitcom One Day at a Time?
ANSWER: Paul Haggis, nominated for Director and Screenwriter for Crash.  He won for Best Original Screenplay and shared the Best Picture Oscar as a producer for Crash as well.

Tie-Breaker Questions

What Oscar-winning actor, presenting at the 1994 awards ceremony, was brought to the stage by the announcer saying he is, “Unique. Original.  His nationality is Actor.”?
ANSWER: Jack Nicholson.

Who will win Best Live Action Short Film?
a) Ausreisser (The Runaway)  
b) Cashback  
c) The Last Farm  
d) Our Time Is Up  
e) Six Shooter
ANSWER: Six Shooter

Rich Burlingham