Loved ones and mates are mourning the reduction of Sacheen Littlefeather.
The Indigenous American activist and actress, who famously declined an Oscar acquire on behalf of actor Marlon Brando at the 1973 Academy Awards, has died at the age of 75.
The Academy of Movement Picture Arts and Sciences shared the news to their formal Twitter account on Oct. 2.
Approximately 50 a long time back to day, Littlefeather, born Marie Cruz, took to the stage to deliver a speech at the 1973 Academy Awards, rejecting an Oscar earn on behalf of Brando.
The actor, who received Greatest Actor for his purpose in “The Godfather,” boycotted the ceremony in protest of Hollywood’s portrayal of Indigenous People onscreen. Whilst her speech (an 8-website page speech typed by the actor) was achieved a combine of boos and applause from the in-individual audience, Littlefeather confronted backlash and job decline in the show’s aftermath. Before this 12 months, the Academy issued a general public apology to the actress.
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“The abuse you endured for the reason that of this statement was unwarranted and unjustified,” a letter issued in June, signed by then-president David Rubin, go through. “The psychological stress you have lived through and the price tag to your own job in our sector are irreparable. For far too very long the courage you confirmed has been unacknowledged. For this, we offer both our deepest apologies and our honest admiration.”
Just days before the Academy held an function at the organization’s museum in Los Angeles in her honor in September, billed as “An Night With Sacheen Littlefeather,” she told Assortment that the apology surprised her.
“I am below to see a letter, 50 several years later, this apology — it was some thing I by no means expected,” she explained. “And arrived as a complete shock to me.”
When requested if she would reject the Oscar all more than all over again, she affirmed that the decision would nevertheless be produced “in a heartbeat.”
“I did not do this fully for Marlon,” she famous. “I did not do this on my behalf. I did this for all Indigenous folks just about everywhere who suffered from racial prejudice and discrimination.”
Though the trigger of death has not been shared publicly, in accordance to the Hollywood Reporter, Littlefeather shared that she had been identified with phase 4 breast cancer in 2018, and it had “metastasized in current years.”
