08 What ethnic actors have won/been nominated for Academy Awards?
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This article is from the rec.arts.movies.current-films FAQ, by Evelyn C. Leeper evelynleeper@geocities.com with numerous contributions by others.
08 What ethnic actors have won/been nominated for Academy Awards?
(This question seem to come up every year at Oscar time.)
"Actors of ethnic extraction other than European/Mediterranean who have
been nominated for Academy Awards" (so we don't start quibbling over Omar
Sharif). I'm not a big fan of groupings by race, but it has its educational
values in a situation like this, showing Hollywood's record in honoring
minority contributions. In borderline cases, we have gone by the "as
generally perceived" standard--thus no Ben Kingsley, who seems thoroughly
British despite the fact that his father was Gujrati, and none of the many
American actors who proudly say they're "part Indian" when they mean 1/16 or
1/32. With that ponderous preamble out of the way, here's the list:
BLACK
Hattie McDaniel 1939 supp Gone with the Wind WON
Dorothy Dandridge 1954 lead Carmen Jones
Sidney Poitier 1958 lead The Defiant Ones
1963 lead Lilies of the Field WON
Juanita Moore 1959 supp Imitiation of Life
Beah Richards 1967 supp Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Rupert Crosse 1969 supp The Reivers
James Earl Jones 1970 lead The Great White Hope
Paul Winfield 1972 lead Sounder
Cicely Tyson 1972 lead Sounder
Diana Ross 1972 lead Lady Sings the Blues
Diahann Carroll 1974 lead Claudine
Howard E. Rollins Jr 1981 supp Ragtime
Louis Gossett Jr. 1982 supp An Officer and a Gentleman WON
Alfre Woodard 1983 supp Cross Creek
Adolph Caesar 1984 supp A Soldier's Story
Whoopi Goldberg 1985 lead The Color Purple
1991 supp Ghost WON
Margaret Avery 1985 supp The Color Purple
Oprah Winfrey 1985 supp The Color Purple
Dexter Gordon 1986 lead Round Midnight
Morgan Freeman 1987 supp Street Smart
1989 lead Driving Miss Daisy
1994 lead The Shawshank Redemption
Denzel Washington 1987 supp Cry Freedom
1989 supp Glory WON
1992 lead Malcolm X
Jaye Davidson 1992 supp The Crying Game
Laurence Fishburne 1993 lead What's Love Got to Do with It?
Angela Bassett 1993 lead What's Love Got to Do with It?
Samuel L. Jackson 1994 supp Pulp Fiction
Cuba Gooding, Jr. 1996 supp Jerry Maguire WON
Marianne Jean-Baptiste 1996 supp Secrets & Lies
Denzel Washington 2000 lead The Hurricane
Michael Clarke Duncan 2000 supp The Green Mile
ASIAN (including Polynesian)
Miyoshi Umeki 1957 supp Sayonara WON
Sessue Hayakawa 1957 supp The Bridge on the River Kwai
Mako 1966 supp The Sand Pebbles
Jocelyn LaGarde 1966 supp Hawai`i
Haing S. Ngor 1984 supp The Killing Fields WON
Noriyuki "Pat" Morita 1984 supp The Karate Kid
[whatever your term is for] PRE-EUROPEAN NORTH AMERICAN
Anthony Quinn 1952 lead Viva Zapata WON
Anthony Quinn 1956 supp Lust for Life WON
Chief Dan George 1970 supp Little Big Man (Squamish)
Graham Greene 1991 supp Dances with Wolves (Oneida (Iroquois))
HISPANIC
Rita Moreno 1961 supp West Side Story WON
Norma Aleandro 1987 supp Gaby--A True Story
Andy Garcia 1991 supp The Godfather Part III
Rosie Perez 1993 supp Fearless
Fernanda Montenegro 1999 supp Central Station
Note that John Singleton is now the first black to be nominated as
best director (1991, BOYZ N THE HOOD).
(Although Anthony Quinn is often listed as Hispanic, comments by
him about his ancestry on "The Actors Studio" lead me to list him
as "Pre-European North American." I will not entertain arguments about
whether Montenegro is Hispanic or not--there are at least several
definitions that would include her, and I'll fall back on "generally
perceived.")
[Thanks to Jon Conrad, conrad@sun.acs.udel.edu, for bulk of this answer.
John Cawley, johnmike@news.delphi.com, maintains a list of Native American
actors and their tribes.]
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