Looking Back at One of the Most Controversial Moments in Oscars History, 50 Years Later

Welcome to Hollywood Stories, a column where we dive into the controversial events and scandalous secrets behind all the glitz and glamour of Tinseltown. With the Academy Awards upon us once again, in this edition we are going to look back 50 years, when Marlon Brando sent a young Native American activist named Sacheen Littlefeather to reject his Best Actor award – a stunt that remains as one of the most shocking, and perhaps influential, moments in the ceremony’s history.

Controversies and mix-ups have been a part of the Academy Awards throughout its long history. One could even say that, for such a sophisticated ceremony, these scandals have added to the overall entertainment value of the event, even stealing the headlines from the winners themselves.

Over the years we’ve had multiple certified WTF moments like the Oscars streaker, and Warren Beatty accidentally announcing the wrong Best Picture winner. The most recent one, of course, was Will Smith slapping comedian Chris Rock on stage after he made a joke at the expense of Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett-Smith, which just happened last year.

RELATED: An Academy Astrocity: The Disastrous 1989 Oscar Awards

But perhaps the most infamous yet historic one was during the 45th Academy Awards. On the night of March 27, 1973, Roger Moore and Liv Ullmann were on stage to present the award for Best Actor. Marlon Brando was announced as the winner for his performance on The Godfather, playing the role of Don Vito Corleone. But the actor was not present to accept his award. In his stead was Sacheen Littlefeather, a 26-year-old Native American actress and activist, who calmly walked up to the stage in an Apache buckskin dress and politely brushed back Moore’s hand as he tried to hand her the Oscar statuette to reject the award. Nobody knew what she was going to say at that point, not even the producers.

“Hello, my name is Sacheen Littlefeather,” the young woman said. “I’m Apache and I am president of the National Native American Affirmative Image Committee. I’m representing Marlon Brando this evening, and he has asked me to tell you in a very long speech which I cannot share with you presently because of time, but I will be glad to share with the press afterwards, that he very regretfully cannot accept this very generous award.”

She continued, “and the reasons for this being are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry and on television in movie re-runs, and also with recent happenings at Wounded Knee. I beg at this time that I have not intruded upon this evening, and that we will in the future, our hearts and our understandings will meet with love and generosity. Thank you on behalf of Marlon Brando.”

Her speech was met with a mix of boos and applause. Moore then escorted her off-stage and to the press rooms, before he “wished her well at completing her task.” As they were walking through the back, the activist was mocked by some people doing the tomahawk chop at her. In a 2022 interview with the official Academy blog A.Frame, Littlefeather recalled when people started getting into commotion in the audience, she “focused in on the mouths and the jaws that were dropping open in the audience, and there were quite a few.” She also noticed how there was little to no diversity at the time. “It was like looking into a sea of Clorox, you know, there were very few people of color in the audience,” she added. Later that night, the incident drew several remarks from celebrities in attendance. One of them was Clint Eastwood who, following her at the podium, made snide comments when presenting the Best Picture award, joking, “I don’t know if I should present this award on behalf of all the cowboys shot in all the John Ford westerns over the years.”

Another popular story that always comes up, and one that Littlefeather herself likes repeating, is John Wayne’s aggression towards her. As the story goes, John Wayne – the iconic actor most famous for playing cowboys on screen and killing Native Americans on-screen – wanted to rush the stage and possibly strike her down, but luckily was restrained by six security guards.

“[John Wayne] did not like what I was saying up at the podium,” she told A.Frame. “So, he came forth in a rage to physically assault and take me off the stage. And he had to be restrained by six security men in order for that not to happen.”

This claim has since been disputed by film historian Farran Nehme in her thoroughly-researched article about the infamous story, concluding that it all began as an “exaggerated tale [former Oscars director] Marty Pasetta told to interviewers” and has become a persisting urban legend.

At the press conference after the ceremony, Littlefeather read the full 739-word statement by Marlon Brando to journalists, which was also published in The New York Times the next day. It was only minutes before the Best Actor presentation when she arrived at the ceremony with Brando’s secretary Alice Marchak. Producer Howard W. Koch told Littlefeather that she can’t read the full statement at the podium because they lacked the time, so she had to condense everything into 60 seconds or he would have her arrested.

Today, it’s probably hard to imagine how shocking this moment was to the audience and the viewers at home. Many celebrities in the following years have since used awards ceremonies as a platform for their personal advocacies, with topics ranging from climate change to LGBTQ+ rights. But Littlefeather was the first one to do a political statement at such an event, protesting Hollywood’s portrayal of Native Americans on screen and to bring attention to the stand-off between activists from the American Indian Movement and federal law enforcement at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Both Brando and Littlefeather faced severe backlash by Hollywood and several publications for the protest, with the common response being that it was highly inappropriate for an awards ceremony. Veteran actor Charlton Heston even said, “it was childish. The American Indian needs better friends than that.” Any form of activism of this magnitude would certainly be met with heavy opposition, especially in a Hollywood still dominated by conservative war veterans in leading roles, and at a time when proper representation and inclusivity weren’t exactly at the forefront.

While Littlefeather was praised by Native Americans and leaders like Coretta King and Cesar Chavez, she was condemned by Hollywood and soon, her aspiring acting career was effectively over. She was discriminated against for the rest of her career for her speech that night, claiming she’d been blacklisted by Hollywood from working in the industry again. “I was blacklisted – or, you could say, ‘redlisted’. I was ostracized everywhere I turned. No one would listen to my story or give me a chance to work,” she said. False reports from the media also later surfaced questioning her Native American ethnicity, and that she only rented her buckskin dress. A few months later after the incident, Marlon Brando appeared on The Dick Cavett Show and expressed some doubts on putting Littlefeather in a compromising position. “I was distressed that people should have booed and whistled and stomped, even though perhaps it was directed at myself,” he told Dick Cavett. “They should have at least had the courtesy to listen to her.”

After being out of the spotlight for almost 50 years, she returned to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in September 2022 as an invited guest of honor for An Evening with Sacheen Littlefeather, an event honoring Littlefeather which featured a long overdue formal apology from the organization.

“The abuse you endured because of this statement was unwarranted and unjustified,” then Academy president David Rubin said in a formal letter. “The emotional burden you have lived through and the cost to your own career in our industry are irreparable. For too long the courage you showed has been unacknowledged. For this, we offer both our deepest apologies and our sincere admiration.”

In response, Littlefeather shared that it was a “dream come true” and “profoundly heartening to see how much has changed.” She also added, “regarding the Academy’s apology to me, we Indians are very patient people – it’s only been 50 years! We need to keep our sense of humor about this at all times. It’s our method of survival.”

Littlefeather passed away on October 2, 2022 from stage IV breast cancer, at the age of 75. Her speech remains to be highly influential and a historic moment in Oscars history, a political stunt that opened the door for activism in prestigious Hollywood ceremonies. In her later years, she continued fighting for her cause by running several programs in support of her advocacy of Native American civil rights. “I promised myself a long time ago that I would lead an interesting life,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “And that’s what I’ve done, Marlon Brando or no Marlon Brando…. I’m an elder now, coming to the end of my road. Now I am in a place of being a healer, if you will, of my own journey.”