8 Hollywood Stars Who Didn't Accept Their Oscars
4. George C Scott Thought Award Shows Were "A Two-Hour Meat Parade"
A face many of us know best from Stanley Kubrick's classic Cold War satire, Dr Strangelove (1964), George C Scott was a powerhouse of an actor, with a dominating presence and signature gravelly voice.
Scott's name was no stranger to the Academy's roster, and he received nominations as Best Supporting Actor for Anatomy of a Murder (1959) and Paul Newman classic The Hustler (1961), as well as for Best Actor in Patton (1970) and The Hospital (1971).
To say Scott had a turbulent relationship with the Academy, however, might be an understatement. He not only rejected his awards, but rejected the very premise of awards in the first place, believing that his performance in one movie could simply not be compared to a different actor's performance in a different movie.
In this vein, he asked the Academy to remove his name from their nominations list for The Hustler, and they took the hint and kept their distance -- at least until his undeniably award-worthy turn in Patton. Nonetheless, when Scott won for Patton, nobody was shocked when he turned down the golden statue. But it did make him the first ever Best Actor awardee to refuse it.