10 Best Ways Actors Ever Received Awards

3. Ellen Burstyn Gets Martin Scorsese To Accept Her Best Actress Oscar, Tells Him To Thank Himself

BAFTA Jack Nicholson
AMPAS

The great Ellen Burstyn won the 1975 Best Actress Oscar for her performance in Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, but because Burstyn was performing the play Same Time, Next Year on Broadway at the time and didn't want to disappoint paying customers, she declined to appear at the awards ceremony.

Instead, she appointed director Scorsese to accept the award on her behalf, which is probably cool enough to earn Burstyn a spot on this list, but she went one further: she also told Scorsese to thank himself when he got on stage.

And so, when Burstyn won and Scorsese collected the award, he thanked Academy voters and the movie's cast and crew on Burstyn's behalf, before sheepishly thanking himself and walking off-stage with the award to the audience's amusement.

It's all extra poetic when you consider that Scorsese himself wouldn't win his own long overdue Oscar for another 32 years, when he finally snagged Best Director for The Departed in 2007.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.