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

Danielle Darrieux in Max Ophüls' La Ronde (top); Darrieux, Isabelle Huppert in François Ozon's 8 Women (bottom)

Honorary Oscars Bypass Women: Part I

Among the female film veterans with more than three decades of screen work and who have yet to receive an Honorary Oscar for career achievement are actresses Danielle Darrieux (nearly eight decades in films, and still active), Doris Day, Michèle Morgan, Julie Andrews, Julie Christie, Joan Fontaine, Eleanor Parker, Eva Marie Saint,Joanne Woodward, Catherine Deneuve, Claire Bloom, Jeanne Moreau, Marsha Hunt, and Liv Ullmann.

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

In addition to Mia Farrow, Vanessa Redgrave, 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, and Sarah Miles; actress-directors Barbra Streisand and Lee Grant; directors Agnès Varda and Lina Wertmüller; editor Anne V. Coates (Lawrence of Arabia, The Elephant Man); and screenwriter Harriet Frank Jr (Hud, Norma Rae).

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 without ever winning, e.g., Lina Wertmüller, the first woman shortlisted for the Best Direction Oscar. Some have never even been nominated, e.g., Isabelle Huppert, Agnès Varda, Danielle Darrieux, Mia Farrow, Maureen O'Hara.

I did not include Olivia de Havilland, Elizabeth Taylor, Maggie Smith, Glenda Jackson, Luise Rainer, Jane Fonda, Meryl Streep, Sally Field, Jodie Foster, and Jessica Lange on the list above because each one of them has already won two acting awards (and at 48 Foster would surely be deemed too young), while Thelma Schoonmaker and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala have already won two Oscars for, respectively, film editing and screenwriting. Barbra Streisand, I should note, has also won two Oscars; the second one, however, was as co-composer of the song "Evergreen" from A Star Is Born.

Only someone like Elia Kazan — i.e., with friends in high Academy places — can have two Academy Award wins in a specific category and still be allowed to get a third statuette for career achievement.

Of the aforementioned non-honorees, Doris Day (above, in Love Me or Leave Me) is a particularly interesting case. Nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for the 1959 comedy Pillow Talk, Day remains a recognizable "name" — clearly a consideration for many of the Academy's Honorary Oscars, especially when the presentations took place during the 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 1950s and 1960s declined to show up at the ceremony. Hence, Doris Day remains Honorary Oscarless.

Now, considering that Jean-Luc Godard didn't bother to receive his Honorary Award in person last November, I can't see why the Academy shouldn't honor Day in absentia as well.

On the next page is a long list of movie women who died without having received an Oscar for their body of work.