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Would Louise Beavers or Fredi Washington Had Won the Oscar?

posted 18 years ago by HarlowMGM
3 replies | jump to latest

I wonder if the Best Supporting Actress academy award was around in 1934 if either Louise Beavers or Fredi Washington would have won it. They didn't start giving awards to supporting players until 1936. I think they both would have been nominated and I think Louise would have won because she was the more established actress and hers was the more sympathetic part. It's interesting because if Louise would have won that would have taken away much of Hattie McDaniel's glory for winning in 1939 in GWTW (I think she would have STILL won) because Louise would have beat her to the punch of being the first African American to win an Oscar. And we might today be having a Louise Beavers stamp instead of a Hattie McDaniel one and books written about Louise and her life and career and she would be far more famous just because of that trophy. And perhaps Hattie wouldn't be quite as famous although she would undoubtably still be famous because GWTW was such a legendary film. Something to think about.

[–] drxcreatures 14 years ago

I think they would have been MUCH more famous.

http://www.cgonzales.net & http://www.drxcreatures.com

[–] WhoDo-YouDo 13 years ago

Yes, I'll have to agree with that, that this would have marked an historic behind the scenes Hollywood event, had the Supporting Actress category been established by 1934, and had the delightful Miss Beavers or Washington been nominated, etc.

Louise and Hattie had been up for many of the same roles before and after their most dramatically challenging roles (if we decide that IofL and GwtW mark their most challenging roles). So, perhaps Louise may have had the edge throughout the remainder of the 1930's and into the 1940's had she been handed a tentative Supporting Actress plaque (statuettes were not distributed until around 1943, after Teresa receives her plaque for MrsM).

But didn't Hattie and Louise pass exactly ten years apart to the day?
October 26, 1952
October 26, 1962

[–] HarlowMGM 8 years ago

And of course Louise replaced Hattie in the Beulah tv series once Hattie fell ill. In the same role one can fairly judge Hattie as the better actress but Louise was wonderful too. IOL proves Louise was a better dramatic actress than comedienne (she was too mild-mannered and gentle to be really funny), one wishes she had more roles this strong.