As per our current Database, Sacheen Littlefeather is still alive (as per Wikipedia, Last update: May 10, 2020).
Currently, Sacheen Littlefeather is 77 years, 11 months and 19 days old. Sacheen Littlefeather will celebrate 78rd birthday on a Thursday 14th of November 2024. Below we countdown to Sacheen Littlefeather upcoming birthday.
Sacheen Littlefeather’s zodiac sign is Sagittarius. According to astrologers, Sagittarius is curious and energetic, it is one of the biggest travelers among all zodiac signs. Their open mind and philosophical view motivates them to wander around the world in search of the meaning of life. Sagittarius is extrovert, optimistic and enthusiastic, and likes changes. Sagittarius-born are able to transform their thoughts into concrete actions and they will do anything to achieve their goals.
Sacheen Littlefeather was born in the Year of the Dog. Those born under the Chinese Zodiac sign of the Dog are loyal, faithful, honest, distrustful, often guilty of telling white lies, temperamental, prone to mood swings, dogmatic, and sensitive. Dogs excel in business but have trouble finding mates. Compatible with Tiger or Horse.
Awards and nominations:
Littlefeather got in contact with actor Marlon Brando through her neighbor, director Francis Ford Coppola. She wrote Brando a letter, asking about his interest in Native American issues, and he called the radio where she worked a year later. Brando had worked as an activist with the American Indian Movement (AIM) since the 1960s and into the 1970s. In Washington, D.C., where Littlefeather was presenting to the Federal Communications Commission about minorities, they met and found in common their involvement with AIM.
In 1972, Brando played Vito Corleone in The Godfather, which is considered one of the greatest films of all time. For the performance, he was nominated for Best Actor for the role at the 45th Academy Awards, which were presented on March 27, 1973, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California. But before the ceremony, Brando decided that – as the favorite to win – he would boycott as a protest against the ongoing siege at Wounded Knee led by AIM and his views on how Native Americans were represented in American films. He called Littlefeather and asked her to appear on his behalf. "I was a spokesperson, so to speak, for the stereotype of Native Americans in film and television," she later said.
Littlefeather joined the audience minutes before the award for Best Actor was announced. She was accompanied by Brando's secretary, Alice Marchak, and wore braided hair and an Apache buckskin dress. Producer Howard W. Koch, she would later say, told her that she had 60 seconds to deliver the speech or else be removed from the stage; she had planned to read a 15-page speech written by Brando.
The Best Actor award was presented by actors Liv Ullmann and Roger Moore. After giving brief remarks and announcing the five nominees, they declared Brando to be the winner. Littlefeather walked on stage and raised her hand to decline the Oscar trophy that Moore offered her. Deviating from the prepared speech she clutched, she said the following:
Moore escorted Littlefeather off-stage, past several people critical of her, and to the press. Backstage, actor John Wayne was outraged by her speech, and six security guards held him back from Littlefeather. At the press conference, Littlefeather read to journalists the speech that Brando had prepared; The New York Times published the full text the next day.
Later that night, before she announced the Best Actress winner, Raquel Welch said, "I hope the winner doesn't have a cause." When Clint Eastwood presented the Best Picture award, he remarked that he was presenting it "on behalf of all the cowboys shot in John Ford westerns over the years." Michael Caine, the night's co-host, criticized Eastwood for "Letting some poor little Indian girl take the boos" instead of "[standing] up and [doing] it himself".
The audience in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was divided between applause and jeers. Brando and Littlefeather's protest was generally considered inappropriate for the awards ceremony. "I was distressed that people should have booed and whistled and stomped, even though perhaps it was directed at myself," Brando later told Dick Cavett. "They should have at least had the courtesy to listen to her." Her appearance prompted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to rule out future proxy acceptance of Academy Awards.
Littlefeather claims that she was blacklisted by the Hollywood community and received threats. In addition, she says, media reports published several falsehoods, such as that she was not Native American or had rented the outfit for the occasion. She has said that the federal government encouraged the blacklisting in order to abate Native American activism after Wounded Knee.
The speech was credited with bringing attention back to the Wounded Knee standoff, on which a media blackout had been imposed. Coretta Scott King called Littlefeather to thank her for the speech. In 2014, the 87th ceremony of the Academy Awards drew criticism for lack of diversity in nominations; actress Jada Pinkett Smith, who boycotted the ceremony, cited Littlefeather as inspiration to do so.