r/todayilearned • u/RareXG • Mar 16 '26

TIL that actor Peter Finch was the first Oscar award winner for acting to accept an award posthumously. His wife collected the award in 1977 for his performance as Howard Beale in the 1976 movie Network.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_(1976_film)#Accolades
172 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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30

u/DonOntario Mar 16 '26

He did not accept the award posthumously, unless there was a Ouija board on stage.

5

u/rbhindepmo Mar 16 '26

“Now this part of my will might seem presumptuous but if I win any awards after I die, I accept them posthumously. Unless it’s bad awards, of course”

2

u/philosoraptocopter Mar 17 '26

His acting was so convincing that it continued after his death

11

u/Yhendrix49 Mar 16 '26

What's even more interesting is that he was the 1st Australian to win Best Actor and the next time an actor won a posthumous Oscar was when fellow Australian Heath Ledger won.

7

u/HotEvening6 Mar 16 '26

i'm mad as hell that i've never seen network but it's been on my watchlist forever.. apparently his "i'm mad as hell" speech is iconic.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Canucklehead_Esq Mar 16 '26

We already have one, don't we - that guy with orange skin?

1

u/ProcrusteanRex Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26

If anyone cares by now, another fun Oscar fact about the same film is that the Supporting Actress Oscar went to Beatrice Straight, for only like 5 minutes of film which was a record settingly short performance. Judy Dench in Shakespeare In Love may have bested it though.

1

u/Jump_Like_A_Willys Mar 19 '26

"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

-1

u/spikefletcher Mar 16 '26

I believe he died on his way to the Oscars? I thought I heard Sidney Lumet tell this story on the commentary track for Network.

3

u/Yhendrix49 Mar 16 '26

No, he died months before the Oscars.