Oscars Juvenile Award

It's a real Oscar, honey.

Does anyone know why Freddie Bartholomew never won this award? Wasn't he America's biggest child star after Shirley Temple in the 30s? I'm shocked that they didn't give it to him after Captains Courageous.

If AMPAS continued the award and gave it to Duke in 1963 Angela Lansbury would’ve likely won for the Manchurian candidate.

I think they should bring it back. People love child actors, maybe they will watch the Oscars again. At least if one of them throws a tantrum in the middle of the show, it won't be totally unexpected.

The real trouble started the year Helen Lawson arrived empty-handed at the podium to present the Juvenile Award to young Bobby Driscoll, and told the perplexed youth, "The award is on my person, but you have to find it, Bobby"

OP - was this thread motivated because Paper Moon was on TCM this evening?

[quote] Does anyone know why Freddie Bartholomew never won this award?

Because Freddie was a pansy.

[quote] Does anyone know why Freddie Bartholomew never won this award?

Looking at his wikipedia article, I would imagine the messy spectacle about his custody played a role in it. Remember the Academy Awards were respectable. Interestingly, he grew up to live the Don Draper life as a tv producer and director for the ad agency Benton & Bowles where he oversaw most of the early P&G soaps.

[quote]r4 I think they should bring it back.

This is my dream.

R6 No, it's because I read online that this was the year that the Academy finally gave Hayley Mills a replacement Oscar since hers was stolen. She'd been asking for a replacement for some time now but they kept telling her they didn't have a mold for the juvenile one anymore. Finally they just gave her a regular-sized Oscar.

R9 Why would Catherine Zeta-Jones be interested in this category?

R11 - Are you new to Datalounge?

[quote] think they should bring it back

Christ, the last thing we need is Millie Bobby Brown: Oscar winner

I don't think they should bring it back, but if they're going to honor child performances, then they need to stop relegating them to the Supporting category when they're actually the lead in the film. They did the right thing by Québooboo in that Beasts of the Southern Piece of Shit movie and Keisha Castle-Hughes in Whale Rider, nominating them in Best Actress, but too often -- Haley Joel Osmont (The Sixth Sense) and Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) -- they slot lead child performances in Supporting.

R12 Yeah, so I don't get the CZJ reference. Is it some allusion to her procuring young girls for her now deceased father-in-law?

It's a long-running (read: over-used) joke about CZJ thinking she can play roles she's too old for.

R16 That's true for just about every actress in Hollywood though, no matter the era.

Freddie Bartholemew gives an exceptional performance in Captains Courageous. It's remarkable and wonderful. Spencer Tracy gives one of the worst performances ever in the same film and won an Oscar for it.

Luana Patten and Bobby Driscoll were both supposed to receive Juvenile Oscars for Song of the South. That didn't end up happening (although Bobby got his a few years later), which I'm assuming is because Walt Disney ended up using his influence to get James Baskett his honorary Oscar instead. Three honorary Oscars for one movie might have been a bit too much.

The strange thing about the Juvenile Oscar is that it was not given out consistently; it was not an annual award. They awarded only 12 young actors in the award's 26-year history (1935-1961) and a couple of times it was two recipients in one year.