Actor and Native American activist Sachin Littlefeather, who took to the stage on the 1973 Academy Awards to disclose that Marlon Brando wouldn’t settle for his Oscar for The Godfather, has died. She was 75 years previous.
According to leisure web site Variety, she was affected by breast most cancers. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, which issued an apology to Littlefeather after practically 50 years and hosted a ceremony in his honor simply two weeks in the past, additionally took to Twitter to mourn his passing on Sunday night time. .
Sachen Littlefeather, the Native American civil rights activist who famously declined Marlon Brando’s 1973 Best Actor Academy Award, has died on the age of 75. pic.twitter.com/OlpsoItlCw
— Academy (@TheAcademy) 3 October 2022
Mary Louise Cruz, born in Salinas, California, in 1946 to a Native American father (Apache and Yaqui) and European American mom, grew to become fascinated by Native American points in faculty and took part within the seize of Alcatraz Island in 1970, throughout which His title was adopted. ,
After faculty, she joined the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and reportedly met Brando, who took an curiosity in Native American points, by way of her The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola, who, like Littlefeather, lived in San Francisco. Use to stay.
Brando, who was the front-runner for the Best Actor Oscar for his career-changing look as Mafia patriarch Vito Corleone, boycotted the ceremony to protest Hollywood’s portrayal of Native Americans and to attract consideration to the standoff in a wounded knee The American Indian Movement (AIM), which had 200 members, confronted off in opposition to 1000’s of US marshals and different federal brokers within the metropolis of South Dakota.
At the 1973 Oscars, Littlefeather took to the stage on Brando’s behalf, the place she was given solely 60 seconds to learn her speech on Native American rights.
“He cannot accept this very generous award with great regret. And this is because of the way the film industry treats American Indians today… and in the reruns of films on television, and the recent incidents in Wounded Knee with,” Littlefeather instructed the Academy Awards viewers.
He was then escorted off the stage with a response from the viewers members, which was divided between pleasure and applause. Actors Raquel Welch, Clint Eastwood and Oscar co-host Michael Caine have been amongst those that criticized the on-camera activist for disrupting the ceremony.
Littlefeather was later given permission to learn his full speech at a press convention and it was featured within the New York Times newspaper.
Although he had a couple of minor roles in movies corresponding to The Trial of Billy Jack (1974) and Shoot the Sun Down (1978), Littlefeather acknowledged that he was blacklisted from Hollywood after his Oscar handle.
She later returned to San Francisco to proceed her activism and work in theater and well being care.
In June, the Academy apologized to Littlefeather for his remedy on the Oscars that night time. He attended a private presentation of the Apology on the Academy Museum on 17 September.
“The abuse you suffered due to this assertion was unjustified and unjustified. The emotional burden you’ve got gone by way of and the associated fee to your individual profession in our trade is irreparable.
“The courage you have shown for too long is unacceptable. For this, we offer both our deepest apologies and our sincere appreciation,” David Rubin, then-AMPAS president, wrote in a letter to him on June 18. .
A documentary about his life and activism, titled Sachin Breaking the Silence, was launched in 2021.
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
