How JAWS star knew he was going to win an Oscar
Hello Islanders,
I can’t remember when the Academy Awards went PC and changed “and the winner is” to “and the Oscar goes to.” But I know when I was watching parked in front of our television on the night of April 3, 1978, I was waiting to hear one name be announced as the winner. And while I was nervous, the winner wasn’t. As Sylvester Stallone announced, the winner – and new heavyweight champ – was Richard Dreyfuss!
I will always maintain that the three stars of JAWS were robbed of Academy Award nominations for their performances. Between the three of them, Roy Scheider (2), Robert Shaw (1) and Richard Dreyfuss (2) have garnered a total of (5) nominations – (3) as Best Actor and (2) in the Supporting category. In my mind, their performances in JAWS excluded, Shaw should have been nominated for his supporting work in The Sting while Dreyfuss was more than deserving of a Best Actor nod for Once Around. But nobody asked me.
What’s surprising to me is that both Scheider and Dreyfuss knew how the night would end long before Oscar night. I asked Scheider about two weeks before Oscar night 1980 if he thought he would win, having been nominated for Best Actor for All That Jazz! He told me that not only wouldn’t he win, but that Dustin Hoffman would, Roy’s reasoning being that Hoffman had” paid his dues.” And he was right.
A few years ago I asked Richard about his first Oscar night. Was he nervous? “No.” Was he worried that one of the greatest actors ever, Richard Burton, was nominated against him and was a sentimental favorite? “No.” Then he stunned me. “I knew I was going to win.”
Looking back, as Richard’s biggest fan, I would have given him an Oscar for reading the phone book. But he had a few things going for him that may have helped him win:
1. The film Dreyfuss was nominated for, The Goodbye Girl, was written by Neil Simon, one of the most prolific and beloved playwrights and screenwriters of all time.
2. Dreyfuss also had another film out in 1977, one in which he also delivered an amazing performance, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Perhaps voters felt that anyone that gives two great performances in one year deserves an Oscar. The same logic can be applied to that year’s Best Actress winner, Diane Keaton. Though she was nominated, and won, for her work in Annie Hall, she had also delivered a bravura dramatic performance in Looking for Mr. Goodbar.
3. Everyone loved Richard Dreyfuss! When you watch the presentation and hear the list of nominees being read, it is Dreyfuss who receives the most applause from the audience, with John Travolta a very close second. Oddly, when he took the stage to address the audience, his first words were “I didn’t prepare anything.”
Every year on April 3rd I text Richard and congratulate him on his win. 46 years later I’m sure he still feels the same joy he felt on Oscar night.
Words by Michael A Smith. Michael is co-author of Jaws 2: The Making Of The Hollywood Sequel. You can order the book by contacting Michael at OsFanMike@aol.com.
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