53rd Academy Awards

The 53rd Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 1980, were presented March 31, 1981. The ceremony was originally scheduled for the previous day, but was postponed due to the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.
Johnny Carson was the host. The year’s winner of acting categories marked the closest age span between the four winners, all of whom were under 40 when they won the award. Robert De Niro was aged 37 when awarded Best Actor, Sissy Spacek was aged 31 when awarded Best Actress, Timothy Hutton was aged 20 when awarded Best Supporting Actor, and Mary Steenburgen was aged 28 when awarded Best Supporting Actress. In addition, Hutton was the youngest ever Best Supporting Actor winner.

Best Supporting Actress nominee Eva Le Gallienne was born in 1899, which made her the last acting nomination to ever happen at the Oscars for someone born in the 19th century.

Here are the nominees and winners of the acting categories, as well as Best Picture and Best Director:

54th Academy Awards

The 54th Academy Awards were presented March 29, 1982. The ceremonies were presided over by Johnny Carson.

Chariots of Fire was the surprise winner (Reds was the favored nominee) of the Best Picture Oscar this year. It was the first time in 13 years that a British film won the Academy’s top honor. Next year’s winner, Gandhi, was also a British production.

Henry Fonda won his only competitive Oscar this year, as Best Actor for On Golden Pond. At 76 years of age, Fonda became the oldest winner in the Best Actor category in Academy history. The only other nomination he received in his career was Best Actor for his performance in The Grapes of Wrath 41 years ago – a record gap between acting nominations. His co-star, Katharine Hepburn, won her fourth Best Actress award that year, making it the most amount of Best Actress wins by any actress.

This year’s nominations also marked for the very first time that there’s three different films to be nominated for the “Top Five” Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay. The three films were On Golden Pond, Atlantic City and Reds. However, none of them winning the Best Picture prize, losing to Chariots of Fire. This also marked the first year that the award for Best Makeup was presented; the winner was Rick Baker for his work on An American Werewolf in London.

This year was the last year till the 2005 Oscars where all 5 picture nominations were also nominated for best director.

Here are the nominees and winners of the acting categories, as well as Best Picture and Best Director:

55th Academy Awards

The 55th Academy Awards were presented April 11, 1983. The ceremonies were presided over by Liza Minnelli, Dudley Moore, Richard Pryor, and Walter Matthau.

Louis Gossett, Jr. became the first African-American actor to win Best Supporting Actor for his performance as the tough and principled drill sergeant Emil Foley in An Officer and a Gentleman.

Here are the nominees and winners of the acting categories, as well as Best Picture and Best Director: