Honorary Oscars and Women Pt.2: Danielle Darrieux, Joan Fontaine, Barbra Streisand, Doris Day

Doris Day, Love Me or Leave Me

Honorary Oscars Bypass Women Pt.1: Greta Garbo, Mary Pickford, Sophia Loren, Deborah Kerr Exceptions

No, it wouldn’t. Even sticking only to the Academy’s Acting Branch‡, the ratio currently stands at 36 to 8, or about 4.5 to 1.

Anyone who has ever read my posts here at Alt Film Guide knows that I both despise and fear political correctness. But looking at the aforementioned figures, I’d say that (anti-female) sexism is the only plausible explanation for them, as one of the characteristics of male (or male-oriented) chauvinism is the perception that women’s issues — whether in life or on screen — are less relevant than those of men. Women in the film industry certainly haven’t been ignored because the members of the Academy’s Board of Governors have been unable to find qualified Honorary Award candidates.

Among the female film veterans — from Hollywood and elsewhere — with at least three decades in the business and who have yet to receive an Honorary Oscar for career achievement are actresses Danielle Darrieux (nearly eight decades in films), Doris Day, Michèle Morgan, Julie Andrews, Julie Christie, Joan Fontaine, Eleanor Parker, Eva Marie Saint, Joanne Woodward, Catherine Deneuve, Claire Bloom, Mia Farrow, Vanessa Redgrave, Marsha Hunt, and Liv Ullmann.

Also: Micheline Presle, Shirley MacLaine, Isabelle Huppert, Goldie Hawn, Shirley Temple, Deanna Durbin, Isabelle Adjani, Debbie Reynolds, Maureen O’Hara, Leslie Caron, Julie Harris, Susan Sarandon, Gena Rowlands, Claudia Cardinale, Bibi Andersson, Machiko Kyo, Faye Dunaway, and Angela Lansbury.

In addition to Gina Lollobrigida, Anouk Aimée, Ellen Burstyn, Sissy Spacek, Jane Alexander, Diane Keaton, Marsha Mason, Piper Laurie, Karen Black, Ann-Margret, Kim Novak, Dorothy Malone, Shirley Jones, Liza Minnelli, Valentina Cortese, Esther Williams, Jane Powell, Cicely Tyson, Carroll Baker, Samantha Eggar, Silvia Pinal, Debra Winger, and Sarah Miles.

Here are a few more: producers Margaret Ménégoz and Kathleen Kennedy; actress-directors Jeanne Moreau, Nicole Garcia, Monica Vitti, Barbra Streisand, and Lee Grant; directors Agnès Varda, Catherine Breillat, Barbara Hammer, and Lina Wertmüller; editor Anne V. Coates (Lawrence of Arabia, The Elephant Man); screenwriter Harriet Frank Jr (Hud, Norma Rae). There’s also six-time Oscar nominee Glenn Close, whose first film, George Roy Hill’s The World According to Garp, was released thirty years ago.

Some of those women won a single Oscar decades ago, e.g., Joan Fontaine’s was for the 1941 Alfred Hitchcock suspense drama Suspicion. Others have been nominated, but have never won, e.g., Eleanor Parker, Jane Alexander, and Lina Wertmüller, the first woman shortlisted for the Best Direction Oscar (for the 1976 arthouse import Seven Beauties). Some have never even been nominated, e.g., Isabelle Huppert, Agnès Varda, Danielle Darrieux, Mia Farrow, Maureen O’Hara.

Danielle Darrieux, Isabelle Huppert, 8 Women

Of the aforementioned non-honorees, Doris Day is a particularly interesting case. Nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for Michael Gordon’s 1959 comedy Pillow Talk, Day remains a recognizable "name" — clearly a consideration for the Board of Governors’ selection of many of the Academy’s past Honorary Oscar recipients, especially when the presentations took place during the actual Oscarcast.

According to one Academy insider, Day has indeed been considered for an Honorary Award. However, the "official" top female attraction at the domestic box office in the ’50s and ’60s has declined to show up at the ceremony. Hence, to this day Doris Day remains Honorary Oscarless.

Now, since Jean-Luc Godard didn’t bother picking up his Honorary Award in person at the Governors Awards in November 2010, while last November James Earl Jones was busy in London playing opposite Vanessa Redgrave in Driving Miss Daisy, I find it hard to understand why the Academy would be unwilling to honor Day in absentia as well. In any case, so far that hasn’t happened.

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