Apologies, almost fifty years later, for the booing. Sacheen Littlefeather received the film awards on Monday from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science, the organization behind the Oscars.
Littlefeather is an actress and activist of Native American descent. She took the stage at the live-televised movie gala in March 1973. She did that on behalf of the absent Marlon Brando, who for his leading role in the mafia epic The Godfather won the Oscar for Best Actor.
Littlefeather was booed when she explained that Brando declined the award for the poor portrayal of Native Americans in movies and on television, as well as to draw attention to Wounded Knee, an important village for the Sioux people of South Dakota that was then home to some 200 people. activists was occupied.
Sorry for the fuss
In a letter made public on monday David Rubin, former president of the Academy, apologizes for the “unjustified” outcry that littlefeather, then 26, experienced after her short speech. Littlefeather was pleasantly surprised: “I never thought I’d live to see the day that I would hear this,” she told the Hollywood Reporter.
In 2020 Littlefeather told to the BBC that immediately after the speech she had to leave the stage with two guards. Those security guards came in handy, she said. Because backstage awaited her a very angry John Wayne, the American actor who played roles in so many westerns. “Wayne was furious with Marlon and furious with me,” Littlefeather said, saying he wanted to take her off the stage himself.
Reports emerged after the event that Littlefeather was not a real Native American was, but that she agreed to the speech to help her acting career. It was also widely speculated that she could be Brando’s mistress. Claims that, according to Littlefeather, were without foundation.