{"id":23037,"date":"2022-10-03T12:36:18","date_gmt":"2022-10-03T10:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1715169"},"modified":"2022-10-03T13:07:13","modified_gmt":"2022-10-03T11:07:13","slug":"sacheen-littlefeather-actress-who-declined-marlon-brandos-oscar-dies-aged-75","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/sacheen-littlefeather-actress-who-declined-marlon-brandos-oscar-dies-aged-75\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacheen Littlefeather, actress who declined Marlon Brando\u2019s Oscar, dies aged 75"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Molly Moss\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 03 October 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Sacheen Littlefeather, the Native American actor and activist who famously declined Marlon Brando\u2019s Oscar for The Godfather in protest at the film industry\u2019s treatment of Native American people, has died aged 75.<\/p>\n

Littlefeather had been suffering from breast cancer.<\/p>\n

The Academy of Motion Pictures announced her death in a tweet<\/a> on Sunday night (2nd October), writing: \u201cSacheen Littlefeather, Native American civil rights activist who famously declined Marlon Brando\u2019s 1973 Best Actor Academy Award, dies at 75.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brando received the Best Actor Oscar in 1973 for his role in The Godfather but did not attend the ceremony in protest.<\/p>\n

Littlefeather appeared at the ceremony on Brando\u2019s behalf, where she declined to accept the award in a powerful speech explaining the actor\u2019s refusal was due to \u201cthe treatment of American Indians today by the film industry\u2026 and on television, in movie reruns\u201d.<\/p>\n

The speech was met with some cheers, but also boos from several actors, including John Wayne, who disagreed with Littlefeather taking a political stand at the event.<\/p>\n\n<p>Littlefeather was blacklisted by Hollywood after the ceremony and it wasn\u2019t until\u00a0August 2022 that the Academy issued Littlefeather with a formal apology.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, the body that oversees the Oscars said her speech had been \u201ca powerful statement that continues to remind us of the necessity of respect and the importance of human dignity\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe abuse you endured because of this statement was unwarranted and unjustified,\u201d it added. \u201cThe emotional burden you have lived through and the cost to your own career in our industry are irreparable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor too long the courage you showed has been unacknowledged. For this, we offer both our deepest apologies and our sincere admiration.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\""twitter-tweet"\" data-dnt=\""true"\"><p lang=\""en"\" dir=\""ltr"\">Sacheen Littlefeather, Native American civil rights activist who famously declined Marlon Brando\u2019s 1973 Best Actor Academy Award, dies at 75. <a href=\""https:\/\/t.co\/OlpsoItlCw"\">pic.twitter.com\/OlpsoItlCw<\/a><\/p>\u2014 The Academy (@TheAcademy) <a href=\""https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheAcademy\/status\/1576750133802303490?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"\">October 3, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async=\"\" src=\""https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js"\" charset=\""utf-8"\"\/><p>Littlefeather responded by saying: \u201cRegarding the Academy\u2019s apology to me, we Indians are very patient people \u2013 it\u2019s only been 50 years!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She added: \u201cWe need to keep our sense of humour about this at all times. It\u2019s our method of survival.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tributes have been flooding in on social media for Littlefeather following the sad news of her passing.<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Molly Moss Published: Monday, 03 October 2022 at 12:00 am Sacheen Littlefeather, the Native American actor and activist who famously declined Marlon Brando\u2019s Oscar for The Godfather in protest at the film industry\u2019s treatment of Native American people, has died aged 75. Littlefeather had been suffering from breast cancer. The Academy of Motion Pictures […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":23038,"template":"","categories":[6],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/sacheen-littlefeather-actress-who-declined-marlon-brandos-oscar-dies-aged-75-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/sacheen-littlefeather-actress-who-declined-marlon-brandos-oscar-dies-aged-75-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/sacheen-littlefeather-actress-who-declined-marlon-brandos-oscar-dies-aged-75-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/sacheen-littlefeather-actress-who-declined-marlon-brandos-oscar-dies-aged-75-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/sacheen-littlefeather-actress-who-declined-marlon-brandos-oscar-dies-aged-75-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/sacheen-littlefeather-actress-who-declined-marlon-brandos-oscar-dies-aged-75-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/sacheen-littlefeather-actress-who-declined-marlon-brandos-oscar-dies-aged-75-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Molly Moss Published: Monday, 03 October 2022 at 12:00 am Sacheen Littlefeather, the Native American actor and activist who famously declined Marlon Brando\u2019s Oscar for The Godfather in protest at the film industry\u2019s treatment of Native American people, has died aged 75. Littlefeather had been suffering from breast cancer. The Academy of Motion Pictures…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/23037"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}