Actress Margaret Avery, best known for her performance opposite Whoopi Goldberg in Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple, attends the 2011 Governors Awards in the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland in Hollywood, on Saturday, November 12. [Photo: Matt Petit / ©A.M.P.A.S.] Actor James Earl Jones, currently appearing with Vanessa Redgrave in a stage production of Driving Miss Daisy in London, was a long-distance Honorary Oscar honoree; makeup artist Dick Smith (The Hunger, The Deer Hunter), however, was present at the ceremony to receive his Honorary Oscar. TV talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey was the recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Margaret Avery and Oprah Winfrey were both Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nominees for The Color Purple. They lost the Oscar to Anjelica Huston in John Huston’s Prizzi’s Honor. Avery created a stir at the time because of her Oscar ads.