61st Academy Awards

61st Academy Awards
Date	Wednesday, March 29, 1989
Site	Shrine Auditorium Los Angeles, California
Host	None
Producer	Allan Carr
Director	Jeff Margolis
Highlights
Best Picture	Rain Man
Most awards	Rain Man (4)
Most nominations	Rain Man (8)
Duration	3 hours, 19 minutes
Viewership	42.77 million
< 60th Academy Awards 62nd >

The 61st Academy Awards were presented on March 29, 1989 at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. The date had been moved from its usual Monday telecast due to Easter, which was on March 26. For this show, there was no "official" host as the show opened with a stage-show featuring Merv Griffin, Snow White and Rob Lowe. Another change was that the producers attempted to change the traditional line "And the winner is..." to "And the Oscar goes to...". This broadcast is also noted for being the final public appearance of actress Lucille Ball, who died less than one month later.

Awards

Films with multiple nominations:

8 - Rain Man

7 - Dangerous Liaisons, Mississippi Burning

6 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Working Girl

5 - Gorillas in the Mist

4 - The Accidental Tourist, Die Hard

3 - A Fish Called Wanda, Tucker: A Man and His Dream

2 - Big, Coming to America, Little Dorrit, Pelle the Conqueror, Running on Empty, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Willow

Films with multiple wins:

4 - Rain Man, Who Framed Roger Rabbit (One of them was the Special Achievement award)

3 - Dangerous Liaisons

Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.

Best Picture	Best Director
Rain Man The Accidental Tourist Dangerous Liaisons Mississippi Burning Working Girl	Barry Levinson – Rain Man Charles Crichton – A Fish Called Wanda Mike Nichols – Working Girl Alan Parker – Mississippi Burning Martin Scorsese – The Last Temptation of Christ
Best Actor	Best Actress
Dustin Hoffman – Rain Man Gene Hackman – Mississippi Burning Tom Hanks – Big Edward James Olmos – Stand and Deliver Max von Sydow – Pelle the Conqueror	Jodie Foster – The Accused Glenn Close – Dangerous Liaisons Melanie Griffith – Working Girl Meryl Streep – A Cry in the Dark Sigourney Weaver – Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey
Best Supporting Actor	Best Supporting Actress
Kevin Kline – A Fish Called Wanda Alec Guiness – Little Dorrit Martin Landau – Tucker: The Man and His Dream River Phoenix – Running on Empty Dean Stockwell – Married to the Mob	Geena Davis – The Accidental Tourist Joan Cusack – Working Girl Frances McDormand – Mississippi Burning Michelle Pfeiffer – Dangerous Liaisons Sigourney Weaver – Working Girl
Best Original Screenplay	Best Adapted Screenplay
Rain Man – Ronald Bass and Barry Morrow Big – Gary Ross and Anne Spielberg Bull Durham – Ron Shelton A Fish Called Wanda – John Cleese and Charles Crichton Running on Empty – Naomi Foner	Dangerous Liaisons – Christopher Hampton The Accidental Tourist – Frank Galati and Lawrence Kasdan Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey – Anna Hamilton Phelan and Tab Murphy Little Dorrit – Christine Edzard The Unbearable Lightness of Being – Jean-Claude Carrière and Philip Kaufman
Best Foreign Language Film	Best Film Editing
Pelle the Conqueror (Denmark) Hanussen (Hungary) Salaam Bombay! (India) The Music Teacher (Belgium) Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Spain)	Who Framed Roger Rabbit – Arthur Schmidt Die Hard – Frank Urioste and John Link Mississippi Burning – Gerry Hambling Rain Man – Stu Linder Gorillas in the Mist – Stuart Baird
Best Documentary Feature	Best Documentary Short
Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie – Marcel Ophuls The Cry of Reason: Beyers Naude – An Afrikaner Speaks Out – Robert Bilheimer and Ronald Mix Let's Get Lost – Bruce Weber and Nan Bush Promises to Keep – Ginny Durrin Who Killed Vincent Chin? – Renee Tajima and Christine Choy	You Don't Have to Die – William Guttentag and Malcolm Clarke The Children's Storefront – Karen Goodman, Producer Family Gathering – Lise Yasui and Ann Tegnell, Producers Gang Cops – Thomas B. Fleming and Daniel J. Marks, Producers Portrait of Imogen – Nancy Hale and Meg Partridge, Producers
Best Live Action Short	Best Animated Short
The Appointments of Dennis Jennings – Dean Parisot and Steven Wright Cadillac Dreams – Matia Karrell and Abbee Goldstein Gullah Tales – George deGolian and Gary Moss	Tin Toy – John Lasseter and William Reeves The Cat Came Back – Cordell Barker Technological Threat – Bill Kroyer and Brian Jennings
Best Original Score	Best Original Song
The Milagro Beanfield War – Dave Grusin The Accidental Tourist – John Williams Dangerous Liaisons – George Fenton Gorillas in the Mist – Maurice Jarre Rain Man – Hans Zimmer	"Let the River Run" from Working Girl – Music and Lyric by Carly Simon "Calling You" from Bagdad Cafe Music and Lyric by Bob Telson "Two Hearts" from Buster – Music by Lamont Dozier; Lyric by Phil Collins
Best Sound Mixing	Best Visual Effects
Bird – Les Fresholtz, Rick Alexander, Vern Poore and Willie D. Burton Die Hard – Don J. Bassman, Kevin F. Cleary, Richard Overton and Al Overton, Jr. Gorillas in the Mist – Andy Nelson, Brian Saunders and Peter Handford Who Framed Roger Rabbit – Robert Knudson, John Boyd, Don Digirolamo and Tony Dawe Mississippi Burning – Robert J. Litt, Elliot Tyson, Rick Kline and Danny Michael	Who Framed Roger Rabbit – Ken Ralston, Richard Williams, Ed Jones and George Gibbs Die Hard – Richard Edlund, Al DiSarro, Brent Boates and Thaine Morris Willow – Dennis Muren, Michael McAlister, Phil Tippett and Chris Evans
Best Art Direction	Best Cinematography
Dangerous Liaisons – Art Direction: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Gérard James Beaches – Art Direction: Albert Brenner; Set Decoration: Garrett Lewis Rain Man – Art Direction: Ida Random; Set Decoration: Linda DeScenna Tucker: The Man and His Dream – Art Direction: Dean Tavoularis; Set Decoration: Armin Ganz Who Framed Roger Rabbit – Art Direction: Elliot Scott; Set Decoration: Peter Howitt	Mississippi Burning – Peter Biziou Rain Man – John Seale Tequila Sunrise – Conrad Hall The Unbearable Lightness of Being – Sven Nykvist Who Framed Roger Rabbit – Dean Cundey
Best Makeup	Best Costume Design
Beetlejuice – Ve Neill, Steve LaPorte and Robert Short Coming to America – Rick Baker Scrooged – Tom Burman and Bari Dreiband-Burman	Dangerous Liaisons – James Acheson Coming to America – Deborah Nadoolman Landis A Handful of Dust – Jane Robinson Sunset – Patricia Norris Tucker: The Man and His Dream – Milena Canonero
Best Sound Editing
Who Framed Roger Rabbit -- Charles Campbell, Louis Edemann Die Hard -- Stephen Hunter Flick, Richard Shorr Willow -- Ben Burtt, Richard Hymns

Academy Honorary Awards

• National Film Board of Canada
• Eastman Kodak Company

Special Achievement Award

• Richard Williams

Production background

The producers of the ceremony attempted to change established Oscar traditions for this year's show. One noticeable difference was that instead of an award presenter saying, "and the winner is.." they'd say, "and the Oscar goes to...". Many however, continued announcing winners with the traditional line. In addition, there was no official host for the ceremony this year. The show's opening number consisted of an elaborate stage-show featuring Merv Griffin, Snow White (portrayed by actress Eileen Bowman) and Rob Lowe - the latter two singing a showbizzy rewrite of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary".

The Walt Disney Company considered suing for defamation of character for use of the likeness of Snow White, but later dropped the suit. This debacle, in addition to the changes made by the producers, led to the television broadcast receiving a disastrous reception. Consequently, producer Allan Carr would not return to produce the ceremony again, and future ceremonies would not open with a lavish "Broadway-style" opening number for the next 13 years.

Additional notes

Lucille Ball at the 61st Academy Awards, her last public appearance.

This was the last public appearance for Lucille Ball, who died less than one month later. Ball introduced a musical number along with her long-time friend and frequent co-star Bob Hope.

Right before Cher was to present the award for Best Picture, she had an anxiety attack. Jack Nicholson was brought backstage to help calm her down and almost had to present the award with her.

Best Actor winner Dustin Hoffman, upon realizing that he had forgotten to thank his Rain Man co-star Tom Cruise and the film's director Barry Levinson in his acceptance speech, asked Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn (who were presenting next) to thank them for him before presenting their award, which Russell did. Then, when Hoffman and Cruise took the stage later in the show to present the Best Actress award, Hoffman said "In my nervousness, I left out the director's name, and I left out Tom's name. Tom, thank you very much. I love you very much."

Presenters

• Anne Archer (Presenter: Dangerous Liaisons Film Clip)
• Lucille Ball and Bob Hope (Presenters: "I Wanna Be an Oscar Winner" Musical Number)
• Candice Bergen, Jacqueline Bisset, and Jack Valenti (Presenters: Best Foreign Language Film)
• Beau Bridges, Jeff Bridges, and Lloyd Bridges (Presenters: Best Visual Effects)
• Michael Caine, Sean Connery, and Roger Moore (Presenters: Best Supporting Actor)
• Cher (Presenter: Best Picture)
• Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman (Presenters: Best Actress)
• Billy Crystal (Presenter: Tap Dancing Montage)
• Willem Dafoe and Gene Hackman (Presenters: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration)
• Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum (Presenters: Best Documentary Short)
• Sammy Davis Jr. and Gregory Hines (Presenters: Best Original Song)
• Angie Dickinson (Presenter: Scientific & Technical Achievement Awards)
• Bo Derek and Dudley Moore (Presenters: Best Costume Design)
• Michael Douglas (Presenter: Best Actor)
• Robert Downey Jr. and Cybill Shepherd (Presenters: Best Makeup)
• Richard Dreyfuss and Amy Irving (Presenters: Best Original Screenplay)
• Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O'Neal (Presenters: Best Film Editing)
• Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson (Presenters: Best Supporting Actress)
• Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell (Presenters: Best Director)
• Carrie Fisher and Martin Short (Presenters: Best Live Action and Animated Short Film)
• Charles Fleischer and Robin Williams (Presenters: Honorary Award to Richard Williams)
• Barbara Hershey (Presenter: The Accidental Tourist Film Clip)
• Anjelica Huston (Presenter: Mississippi Burning Film Clip)
• Ali MacGraw (Presenter: Working Girl Film Clip)
• Walter Matthau (Presenter: Introduction of Lucille Ball and Bob Hope)
• Demi Moore and Bruce Willis (Presenters: Best Cinematography)
• Olivia Newton-John (Presenter: Introduction of Donald and Kiefer Sutherland)
• Kim Novak and James Stewart (Presenters: Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing)
• Edward James Olmos and Max von Sydow (Presenters: Best Documentary Feature)
• Michelle Pfeiffer and Dennis Quaid (Presenters: Best Adapted Screenplay)
• Donald Sutherland and Kiefer Sutherland (Presenters: Honorary Award to National Film Board of Canada)
• Patrick Swayze (Presenter: Best Original Score)

Performers

• Keith Coogan, Patrick Dempsey, Corey Feldman, Joely Fisher, Tricia Leigh Fisher, Savion Glover, Carrie Hamilton, Melora Hardin, Ricki Lake, Matt Lattanzi, Chad Lowe, Tracy Nelson, Patrick O'Neal, Corey Parker, Tyrone Power Jr., Holly Robinson Peete, Christian Slater, and Blair Underwood ("I Wanna Be an Oscar Winner")
• Army Archerd, Eileen Bowman, Coral Browne, Cyd Charisse, Dale Evans, Alice Faye, Merv Griffin, Dorothy Lamour, Rob Lowe, Tony Martin, Vincent Price, Buddy Rogers, Roy Rogers, and Lily Tomlin ("I Only Have Eyes for You"/"You Are My Lucky Star"/"I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts"/"Proud Mary"/Hooray for Hollywood")

References

• "The Official Academy Awards Database". awardsdatabase.oscars.org. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/BasicSearchInput.jsp. 

External links

• Official website
• LA Times Story on Production Background
• Reuters story on recalling the show