Celebrity Biographies
Sacheen Littlefeather
Sacheen Littlefeather, the Native American actress and activist who took the stage at the 1973 Academy Awards to reveal that Marlon Brando would not accept his Oscar for “The Godfather,” died on October 2, 2022, at age 75, in her home in the city of Novato, Northern California, surrounded by loved ones. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which reconciled with her in June and hosted a celebration of hers in her honor just two weeks ago, revealed the news on social media Sunday night. Her decedent revealed in March 2018 that she had been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer and that she had metastasized in recent years.
Marlon Brando had decided to boycott the March 1973 Oscars in protest of the way Native Americans were being portrayed on screen, as well as to pay tribute to the ongoing occupation at Wounded Knee, in which 200 members of the Indian Movement Americano (AIM) faced thousands of Americans. sheriffs and other federal agents in the South Dakota city. After hosts Liv Ullmann and Roger Moore listed the best actor nominees and Ullmann mentioned Brando’s name as the winner, Sacheen Littlefeather , then 26 and dressed in traditional Apache dress, appeared walking onto the stage from her seat in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
Originally, Sacheen Littlefeather was going to collect the Oscar for Marlon Brando for The Godfather. However, he raised his right hand to decline the statuette offered by Moore as he reached the podium, telling the audience that the actor “unfortunately cannot accept this very generous award.” Brando, who told him not to touch the trophy, had apparently given him an eight-page typed speech, but the producer of the telecast, Howard Koch, informed him that he had no more than 60 seconds. She continued: “And the reasons for this are the film industry’s treatment of American Indians today… and on television in reruns of movies, and also with the recent events at Wounded Knee.” The New York Times published Brando’s entire speech three days later.
Born in Salinas, California, on November 14, 1946, Marie Louise Cruz (real name Sacheen Littlefeather ) was part of the Indians of All Tribes group, with which she participated in the occupation of Alcatraz Island by activists in 1969, to protest the situation of the Indian people. After what happened at the Oscars, she made her film debut with a minor role in El counselor , where she shared the screen with the Spanish Francisco Rabal .
Subsequently, Sacheen Littlefeather had very minor roles in titles such as The Winter Hawk and Hunting in the Sun , but her career was not taking off, so she finally left the cinema, in 1978.