8 Hollywood Stars Who Didn't Accept Their Oscars

By the time Paul Newman was actually granted an Academy Award, he had given up hoping. As a result, Newman wasn't at the 59th Academy Awards ceremony when his number finally came up.

Ironically, the film that won him Best Actor was Martin Scorsese's The Color Of Money (1986), in which Newman mentored Tom Cruise's young pool hustler, reprising his role of Fast Eddie Felson from The Hustler (1961). He was also nominated for the original, which ultimately lost to Maximilian Schell for his performance in Judgment At Nuremberg.

Some controversy surrounded this conferral, as many believed that there were other parts far more deserving of the prize that year, and that the Fast Eddie character was merely a hollow recreation of an originally great role.

While each year has its naysayers (just look at Spike Lee's reaction to Green Book's Best Picture win at the 91st Awards), the furore around this award primarily stemmed from the belief that the Academy were conferring it on Newman out of necessity, in self-awareness of their failure to recognise his talent with an award in competition before.