Sacheen Littlefeather, Apache activist and actress who refused to accept the best actor award on behalf of Marlon Brando at the 1973 Academy Awards, causing mockery on stage in an act of transgression. across the façade of the awards ceremony and highlighted her criticism of Hollywood for its depictions of dead, Native Americans. She is 75 years old.
Her death was announced on Sunday of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The cause of death was not immediately known.
Her death came just a few weeks after the Academy sorry Miss Littlefeather to treat her at the Oscars. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in August, Miss Littlefeather said she was “stunned” by the apology. “I never thought I would live to see a day when I would hear this, experience this,” she said.
When Miss Littlefeather, then 26 years old, raised her right hand that night inside the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles – it was clearly a signal to the presenters, spectators and millions of TV viewers that she did not want to accept one. shiny golden ceremonial way. statue – it marks one of the most famous breaking moments in Oscars history.
“I plead at this time that I was not trespassed this evening, and that in the future, our hearts and our understandings, will meet again with love and generosity,” Ms. Littlefeather said. podium, after enduring a chorus of boos and some cheers from the crowd.
Dressed in a shimmering suede dress, moccasins and a hair tie, her appearance at the 45th Academy Awards, at age 26, was the first time a Native American woman had stood on stage at the show. ceremony. But the backlash and criticism was immediate: Actor John Wayne was too unstable that a show producerMarty Pasetta said security officers had to restrain him from entering the stage.
She told The Hollywood Reporter in August: “When I stood on the podium in 1973, I stood there alone.”
Follow her website. After graduating from high school, she adopted the name Sacheen Littlefeather to “reflect her natural heritage,” the website states.
Her website says she participated in Native Americans occupied the island of Alcatrazbegan in 1969 in an action against a government they say has long trampled on their rights.
Her acting career began at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco in the early 1970s. She would go on to play roles in films such as “Billy Jack’s Challenge” and “Winterhawk.”
Littlefeather said in an interview with the Academy that she had planned to watch the award on television when she received a call the night before the ceremony from Mr Brando, who had been nominated for his role as Vito Corleone in “The Godfather. “
The two became friends through her neighbor, director Francis Ford Coppola. Mr. Brando asked her to decline the prize on his behalf if he won and gave her a speech to read in case.
With only about 15 minutes left on the show, Miss Littlefeather arrived at the ceremony with little information on how the evening would unfold.
An Oscar producer noticed the pages in Miss Littlefeather’s hand and told her she would be arrested if her comment lasted longer than 60 seconds.
Then Mr. Brando won.
In her speech, Miss Littlefeather also caught the attention of the federal government Confronting Native Americans Injured knee.
She later recalled that while giving a speech, she was “focused on the mouth and jaw opening of the audience, and quite a few things.”
The audience, she recalls, looked like a “sea of Clorox” because there were “very few people of color.”
She said that some in the audience had done so-called “tomahawk chop” on her and that when she got to Mr. Brando’s house later, people shot in the doorway where she was standing.
Last month, Miss Littlefeather spoke at a program organized by the Academy called “An evening with Sacheen Littlefeather,“Recall how she stood up for justice in the arts.
“I do not represent myself,” she said. “I represent all the Indigenous voices there, all the Indigenous people, because we have never been heard that way before.”
And when she said those words, the audience erupted in applause.
“I paid the price for admission, and that was okay,” she said. “Because those doors have to be opened.”
After learning that the Academy would formally apologize to her, Ms. Littlefeather said it felt “like a major cleansing”.
“It feels like the sacred circle is perfecting itself,” she said, “before I go into this life.”
