HAVE ANY HISPANIC ACTORS WON AN OSCAR IN ANY ACTING CATEGORIES?

THE HISPANIC BLOG BY JESSICA MARIE GUTIERREZ

The Academy Awards were revealed as extremely white (94 percent), male (77 percent) and old (median age, 62), the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center issued a report indicating that Oscar winners seem to reflect the body.

The year 2002 was symbolic when Halle Berry and Denzel Washington won the top acting awards and Sidney Poitier was honored for lifetime achievement.

In the last ten years, there has not been a winner in the Best Actor or Best Actress category that has been Latino, Asian American, or Native American.

Javier Bardem is the first Spaniard to be nominated for an Oscar (Best Actor, 2000, for Before Night Falls, lost to Russell Crowe for Gladiator). In 2007, 2007, Bardem acted in No Country for Old Men, and played a sociopathic assassin, Anton Chigurh. For that role, he became the first Spanish actor and Spaniard to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He received his third Academy Award nomination, and second Best Actor nomination, for the film Biutiful.

In 2009, Penelope Cruz became the first Spanish-born actress to win an Oscar by taking the best supporting actress award for her role as tempestuous artist Maria Elena in Woody Allen’s romantic comedy “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.” She was also the first Spanish actress to receive a star at the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Oddly enough, Bardem began dating then co-star Penélope Cruz in 2007. According to the Associated Press, the two were married in July 2010 in the Bahamas. On September 14, 2010, it was announced that Cruz was four and a half months pregnant with their first child. The Hollywood Reporter quoted the Spanish magazine ¡Hola! that Cruz gave birth to a boy on January 22, 2011, three days before Bardem received his third Oscar nomination, for his role in Biutiful. The couple’s son is reportedly named Leo Encinas Cruz.

The Complete List of Latino Academy Award Winners:
1950 José Ferrer Best Actor Cyrano de Bergerac

in the trailer for Crisis (1950) (image taken from Wikipedia)
Ferrer was a Puerto Rican actor, as well as a theater and film director. He was the first Hispanic actor to win an Academy Award and the only one to win for a lead role.
~1952 Anthony Quinn won Best Supporting Actor for Viva Zapata!
~1956 Anthony Quinn won again for Best Supporting Actor in Lust for Life
Quinn is the first (and only) Mexican-born actor to win two Oscars in the same category
~1961 Rita Moreno West Side Story
Won Best Supporting Actress
~1991 Mercedes Ruehl The Fisher King won Best Supporting Actress and is the first Cuban-American to win an Academy Award
~2000 Benicio del Toro 2000 Best Supporting Actor Traffic
~2007 Javier Bardem won Best Supporting Actor for No Country for Old Men Bardem is the first Spanish (from Spain) actor to win an Academy Award for acting (male or female).
~Bardem is also the first Spanish actor to be nominated twice for acting (male or female).
~2008 Penélope Cruz Vicky Cristina Barcelona Won Best Supporting Actress and is the first Spanish female actor to win

STORY CONTINUED FROM SHOULD THE OSCARS BE DIVERSIFIED?

Oscar winners and nominees of color are less likely than their white peers to receive subsequent nominations. They also make fewer movies per year after their nominations than their Anglo peers do. Moreover, they are more likely to work in television, which is considered lower-status work. From 1990 through 2000, this increased and about 9 percent of the Oscar nominees in the top categories were people of color (Munoz 2002).

Furthermore, from 2002 through 2012, almost 20 percent of nominees were people of color, which is a notable increase.

According to the CSRC Latino Policy and Issues Brief March 2012, the authors’ recommendations:

-Diversify the Academy. Of the Academy’s 43 board of governors members only one is not anglo. A suggestion is to implement a diversity task force.

-Develop young talent of color. The paper states:

Each year Hollywood executives select unknown white male actors (such as Armie Hammer, Chris Hemsworth, and Andrew Garfield) and cast them in big-budget action films and prestige projects, grooming them to become the next Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise. Actors of color are routinely shut out of these game-changing roles.

-Diversify the ranks of Hollywood executives: Currently, there isn’t one minority who’s able to green-light major-studio projects.

Read the CSRC Latino Policy and Issues Brief March 2012 http://www.scribd.com/mobile/documents/82840623/download?commit=Download+Now&secret_password=
All photos were taken from Wire Image and Getty Images

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