Martin Scorsese’s 1990 crime masterpiece “Goodfellas” is without doubt one of the best gangster motion pictures ever made and has the award shelf to show it. Nonetheless, regardless of its spectacular six Academy Award nominations, probably the most esteemed awards of the trade largely prevented the mob epic — aside from one explicit golden statuette.
Joe Pesci held the fort on the 1991 Academy Awards ceremony together with his Finest Actor in a Supporting Position Oscar win for his wonderful flip because the risky Tommy DeVito, the wildest card in a film full of untamed playing cards. He grew to become an Oscar-winning actor together with his signature cool intact. Nevertheless, not like his character — who, as his iconic “I am humorous how?” scene exhibits, is extraordinarily verbose at most occasions — the actor selected to maintain his speech brief and candy, uttering solely 5 phrases as he took the stage to obtain the golden statuette. “It is my privilege. Thanks,” Pesci mentioned 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 record of individuals to thank, and even the finest Oscar acceptance speeches can run so lengthy that the present has no selection however to hit the music and play them off the stage. Nevertheless, a number of winners have chosen a extra Spartan strategy, saying their extraordinarily brief piece and getting off the stage earlier than the orchestra may even dream of hitting the primary word.
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 Finest Supporting Actress award for “The Dangerous and the Stunning” with much more brevity. “Thanks very a lot,” she mentioned throughout her extraordinarily fast cease on the podium. William Holden’s Finest Actor speech for “Stalag 17” in 1954 was equally temporary: “Thanks. Thanks.”
By some means, 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 Finest Supporting Actress for “The Miracle Employee.” In 2009, director Louie Psihoyos did the identical in his Finest 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 just accept their Oscar with a easy “Thanks.”