56th Academy Awards

The 56th Academy Awards were presented April 9, 1984. Johnny Carson was once again the host.

The Best Supporting Actress winner this year was unique. 4′ 9″ Linda Hunt (Now on NCIS: Los Angeles) won the award for her role as Billy Kwan – a male Chinese-Australian photographer – in Peter Weir’s The Year of Living Dangerously, making her the first actor to win an Oscar for playing a character of the opposite sex.

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

57th Academy Awards

The 57th Academy Awards were presented March 25, 1985. Jack Lemmon was the host.

This ceremony is best-remembered for perhaps the most quoted and famous Academy Award acceptance speech ever. Upon winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Places in the Heart, Sally Field exclaimed, “The first time I didn’t feel it, but this time I feel it, and I can’t deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!” (often misquoted as “you really like me!”)

The winner of Best Supporting Actor was also significant. Haing S. Ngor, a Cambodian surgeon who survived the horrors of the Khmer Rouge, won the award for his performance as Dith Pran in Roland Joffé’s The Killing Fields, despite having no previous acting experience. Ngor and Harold Russell are the only two non-professional actors to win Academy Awards for acting.

77 year-old Peggy Ashcroft won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in A Passage to India, making her the oldest winner in that category.

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

58th Academy Awards

The 58th Academy Awards were held on March 24, 1986. They were hosted by Alan Alda, Jane Fonda, Robin Williams. The ceremony was watched by 38.93 million viewers, tying the 78th Academy Awards as the third-lowest rated telecast since 1966. The 80th Academy Awards still holds the distinction of the least watched ceremony of 31.76 million.

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

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