Martin Scorsese’s 1990 crime masterpiece “Goodfellas” is likely one of the best gangster films ever made and has the award shelf to show it. Nonetheless, regardless of its spectacular six Academy Award nominations, essentially the most esteemed awards of the business largely prevented the mob epic — apart from one explicit golden statuette.
Joe Pesci held the fort on the 1991 Academy Awards ceremony along with his Greatest Actor in a Supporting Position Oscar win for his superb flip because the unstable Tommy DeVito, the wildest card in a film full of untamed playing cards. He grew to become an Oscar-winning actor along with his signature cool intact. Nonetheless, in contrast to his character — who, as his iconic “I am humorous how?” scene reveals, is extraordinarily verbose at most instances — the actor selected to maintain his speech quick and candy, uttering solely 5 phrases as he took the stage to obtain the golden statuette. “It is my privilege. Thanks,” Pesci stated earlier than exiting the stage.
A number of Oscar winners have managed to be even briefer than Pesci
As everybody who’s ever watched an Academy Awards ceremony is aware of nicely, the winners typically have a borderline comically lengthy listing of individuals to thank, and even the greatest Oscar acceptance speeches can run so lengthy that the present has no alternative however to hit the music and play them off the stage. Nonetheless, a number of winners have chosen a extra Spartan strategy, saying their extraordinarily quick piece and getting off the stage earlier than the orchestra may even dream of hitting the primary observe.
Curiously sufficient, Joe Pesci’s five-word acceptance speech is much from the shortest Oscar speech in historical past. In 1968, Alfred Hitchcock tied him whereas accepting the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. “Thanks … very a lot certainly,” was all of the filmmaker needed to say. In 1953, Gloria Grahame accepted her Greatest Supporting Actress award for “The Unhealthy and the Stunning” with much more brevity. “Thanks very a lot,” she stated throughout her extraordinarily fast cease on the podium. William Holden’s Greatest Actor speech for “Stalag 17” in 1954 was equally temporary: “Thanks. Thanks.”
Someway, two winners have managed to condense their speech into solely two phrases: “Thanks.” This easy acceptance was first delivered by Patty Duke in 1963 as she collected her Oscar for Greatest Supporting Actress for “The Miracle Employee.” In 2009, director Louie Psihoyos did the identical in his Greatest Documentary Oscar speech for “The Cove” — though largely as a result of the doc’s producer Fisher Stevens ate up on a regular basis allotted to their speech and Psihoyos received the mic simply when the orchestra began enjoying. Nonetheless, whatever the circumstances, Duke and Psihoyos will rule this explicit roost till somebody decides to simply accept their Oscar with a easy “Thanks.”
