MovieChat Forums > BUtterfield 8 (1960) Discussion > Elizabeth Taylor's Oscar?

Elizabeth Taylor's Oscar?

posted 21 years ago by diva_k13
53 replies | jump to latest

O.k maybe someone can explain this for me: Elizabeth Taylor won an Oscar for a movie that has been universally panned? I am confused. I always figured that logically, a person wins an Oscar with a movie that is a critical success. I haven't seen the movie but I am assuming that her acting must have been great...in order for her to win (I am trying not to believe that the Oscar judges would give someone an Oscar becasue an actor was near death's door)Any responses??....

[–] Stavroginandtonic 20 years ago

This movie was panned? I loved it! I just watched it (totally by accident, there was nothing else on and I was trying to fall asleep!) and absolutely adored it.

Very cool movie.

If I had a nickel for every cigarette your mom smoked, I'd be dead.-Donna Hayward

[–] 20 years ago

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[–] dcurry-1 20 years ago

I agree also. The movie wasn't a classic, but I liked it. The critics didn't like Liz & the movies. Liz made comments that came back to haunt her. This was her 4th consecutive nomination.

[–] numberone_1 20 years ago

It is true that Butterfield 8 was Elizabeth Taylor's 4th Oscar nomination and her first win. While she was excellent in the movie, some may argue that her win was a sympathy vote. Shortly before the Oscar ceremony, Elizabeth Taylor was rushed to a hospital where she underwent an emergency trachaeotomy, and her survival was uncertain. In Halliwell's Filmgoers Companion of 1983, Shirley MacLaine (nominated that year also for The Apartment) is quoted as (paraphrase following here) saying that when she heard about the emergency trachaeotomy, she cancelled her plane to the Academy Awards ceremony, figuring that she would not win given the medical emergency and the 4th consecutive nomination. The "powers that be" may have thought that Elizabeth Taylor was dying, and that she should be awarded an Academy Award in the event that she did not survive the operation.

Has anyone else heard this?

[–] dcurry-1 20 years ago

Shirley MacLaine was reported to have said "l lost to a tracheotomy", Debbie Reynolds said "Hell, I even voted for her". Shirley & Deborah Kerr ( The Sundowners) her 6th & last nomination were thought to have been her closest competitors.

[–] 20 years ago

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[–] piggysmalls 17 years ago

Emergency trachaeotomy for what reason? Why was she so close to death?

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] jojo-acapulco 16 years ago

I remember the movie, the reviews and the Oscar story very well. "Butterfield 8" was generally considered a rather shallow, silly film, but it was reasonably popular. During Academy voting Ms. Taylor developed pneumonia and rquired a tracheotomy. It was generally believed that she won on sympathy, and for her previous, actually good film, "Suddenly Last Summer" with Kathryn Hepburn and Montgomery Clift. The scar was quite visible when she accepted the Oscar for "BU-8"

[–] denis-38 15 years ago

The scar was quite obvious in "Cleopatra!"

BTW, she would later have an even more serious bout with pneumonia in 1990, it was almost a replay of her London illness, with the family at her bedside, Liz on life support, screaming headlines. But--after months in the hospital-- she recovered and went on to launch another fragrance, make a couple more movies and marry another man (Larry Fortensky.)

[–] denis-38 11 years ago

It was more than "reasonably" popular. Despite the reviews and Taylor's own honest comments, it was a very big hit, and pushed her to No.1 at the box-office.

Not only was the film trading on her tarnished image as a "home wrecker" but then she almost died. Who WOULDN'T rush to see it?

She's terrific in the early part of the film--an indication of her later, bawdy slatterns. But then the script has Gloria go all soft and "in love." Taylor tries her best, but except for the final confession about her childhood molestation, it is admirable but wasted effort.

It was simply her "time" to win. She'd already been a star for almost twenty years--the recent Oscar nominations and the drastic change in her image (which only made her more popular with movie-goers!) was an opportunity the Academy could not ignore.

[–] Mick1994 9 years ago

It reminds me of the 1992 Awards, when Al Pacino won Best Actor for Scent of a Woman, an award that should have gone to Denzel Washington for Malcolm X.

Favourite movie of all time: "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"

[–] dcurry-1 20 years ago

1958 was Susan Hayward's year. It was her 5th nomination. Liz was nominated for "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". She was still suffering from the outrage over the Eddie Fisher/Debbie Reynolds divorce. She wasn't nominated for a Golden Globe. In 1959 she won the Golden Globe (Suddenly Last Summer), Audrey Hepburn (The Nun's Story) won the New York Film Critics. Liz had a competitor in her co-star , Katherine Hepburn. The Oscar went to Simone Signoret (Room at The Top) in what was a surprise.

[–] 20 years ago

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[–] robertrosado 20 years ago

I always believed that MacLaine deserved the Oscar.

[–] tobby-1 20 years ago

That´s a typical Hollywood Story. Liz was nominated three times before (she was terrific in "Cat on a hot tinroof" and "Suddenly, last summer") and won the oscar for Butterfield 8. I think, that all the roumors, that she diddn´t deserve the Oacar, has to do with the fact, that she hated the film and said to everybody, who wanted to hear it. She was absolutly great in this trashy movie.

[–] JulianneM_TildaS_VanessaR 15 years ago

I reckon Melina Mercouri deserved it. She won Best actress at Cannes that year. though Shirley did win at Venice. And was the Hollywood starlet. Actually the "Hollywood starlet" was Liz Taylor.

Poor Deborah Kerr.

Though year, in most cases, the actress who win from Venice or Cannes or Berlin are hardly ever nominated. Rare case when 2 from 2 festivals are nominated together, and strange that neither won.

[–] crachelm 19 years ago

I haven't seen this movie yet, but I think that the Oscar 'Academy' overall, aren't all that great of judges, anyway, but I also heard that it was a sympathy vote.

[–] gue_gg_ila 19 years ago

I dont even think that MacLaine's performance is The Apartment was even worthy of The Best Leading actress nomination..it didn't at all impress me, I barely felt and kind of emotion came from Shirley, she was so plain but she is funny in the scene where she is asleep and the doctor is trying to wake her up and make her walk.

So I think Shirley got smoke on her brains to believe she was even Oscar worthy.

TI VOGLIO BENE

[–] Q-DD 19 years ago

I think Shirley MacLaine delivered a Great performance & deserved the Oscar More than Liz that year.

[–] aroth15 18 years ago

Shut up and Deal. (One of the best lines in all movie history)

Allen Roth
"I look up, I look down..."

[–] ohxmyxitzxkee 19 years ago

I rented the 'Butterfield 8' just to see why Elizabeth Taylor won her Oscar for. And from the first scene of the direction, Elizabeth was terrific. I didn't think of her as Elizabeth Taylor, I thought of her as a high class call girl who's falling in and out of love. Though, I thought some scenes in the film were kind of unnecessary because they didn't involve Elizabeth's character. But still, Elizabeth made this film all worth it for me because her performance was terrific. She deserved the Oscar!

[–] 19 years ago

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