Here is very good prediction for next year's Oscars. The source will remain anonymous.
And the voting for the Lifetime Achievement Oscar this year is so close that the academy has decided to honour two worthy recipients, among those voted for we have:
David Lynch, for directing such classic films such as 'Dune', 'Blue Velvet', 'Twin Peaks', 'The Elephant Man', 'Straight Story', 'Lost Highway' and 'Mulholland Drive'
Sean Connery, for not only acting in his James Bond films, but others such as 'Indiana Jones And The LastCrusade', 'Highlander', 'Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves', 'Marnie', 'The Man Who Would Be King' and 'The Untouchables'.
Christopher Lee, the quintessential Dracula, who also has acted in 'The Lord Of The Rings', 'Star Wars: Episode II: Attack Of The Clones', and has played such characters as Rochefort, Fu Manchu , Sherlock Holmes, Frankenstein's Monster, Scaramanga in 'The Man With The Golden Gun', and even Death for Terry Pratchett's 'Soul Music'.
Luc Besson, the French director of films such as 'Leon', 'The Fifth Element' and 'Nikita'.
John Williams, the composer of most of America's film music, including 'Star Wars', 'Indiana Jones', 'Jurassic Park', 'Jaws', 'Superman', and 'ET The Extra Terrestrial'.
And the winners are:
David Lynch and Christopher Lee.
Sean Connery already has an oscar for best supporting actor in "The Untouchables".Although he's a fellow Scot I find him a much better golfer than actor but ,what do I know.
John Williams has quite a few oscars already so why give him another?
If Luc Besson got it I would be stunned .A few good movies does not a lifetime achievment make.
David Lynch certainly deserves it .The man has made a truly unique contribution to the world of film.His films will be watched and critiqued for years.
CHRISTOPHER LEE........well all I can say is...ABOUT TIME TOO.If the academy miss the mark on this one they've only themselves to blame as everyone else knows that an Oscar should be pride of place on Mr.Lees mantleplace ( or wherever he decides to put it)..........fingers crossed.
I don't want to get too excited yet. Mr. Lee SHOULD win it by all counts but Hollywood has a history of awarding not the most deserving sometimes but the most connected or politically self serving. Or so it seems to me at least at some Oscars in past years. So I will hope and keep my fingers crossed but keep in mind this fact as well.
You can see the process of elimination, too.
John Williams? He's already got a box full of Oscars for his music.
Luc Besson? The guy is still in his prime, directing films. Too early for him.
Sean Connery? He got an Oscar already.
Much as I like David Lynch, I think he's still not there yet either in terms of achievement.
It's got to be Mr. Lee all the way.
Best,
John F
If one were to base their decision solely on a body of work, Mr. Lee would definitely win. However, Mr. Lee has done such an excellent job in all of his roles, and his talent cannot be superceded by anyone else - definite award for that also. There's no question about it, Mr. Lee HAS to win!!:bounce:
Yes, stiff competition. The key word here is "Lifetime", and sentimental Hollywood likes to honor its veteran actors while they're still with us. So many of the younger generation know Mr. Lee and have loved his movies. I would love to see him recognized for his 80th birthday.
Maria S.
(who would guess).
Mr. Lee deserves it, of course, but what's fair at the Oscars? Look at those who never received it, not the honorary award nor any other - James Mason had, I think, 8 nominations and never got it; O'Toole had six or seven, without success. Tom Hanks got it twice. Probably he'll get the Lifetime Achievement Award next year ...
Uwe
Christopher lee should of course win this award but in the past unfortunatly the oscars have seemed to favour Americans for these awards. Mr Lee has made an outstanding contributaion to the film industry and as much as I admire the others on the list there is no doubt in my mind who deserves to be honured the most. So I will keep my fingers crossed for a year and hope the academy get it right for once.
I'm stoked! This is really great news. A Lifetime Achievement Academy Award would be great! But let us not lose sight of the fact that at this point in the lifetime of MOST actors about all they could ever expect to take home is what Harrison Ford has referred to as "The Old Geezer Award". But, we are talking about Mr. Lee and he is not MOST actors.
Mr. Lee is amazingly productive at 80. There are still many legitimate opportunities for a genuine Actor in a Leading Role or an Actor in a Supporting Role statue in Mr. Lee's immediate future. The LOTR series, Star Wars series, Laddie and Last Unicorn all are possible nominations.
Many have said that Hollywood Insiders are favored. History actually does not support that opinion as I shall prove by listing the non-US born winners over just the past twenty years.
2000 Best Actor Russell Crowe, GLADIATOR, New Zealander
1998 Best Actor Roberto Benigni, LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL, Italian
1996 Best Actor Geoffrey Rush, SHINE, Australian
1991 Best Actor Anthony Hopkins, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, Welch
1990 Best Actor Jeremy Irons, REVERSAL OF FORTUNE, UK
1989 Best Actor Daniel Day Lewis, MY LEFT FOOT, UK
1982 Best Actor Ben Kingsley, GHANDI, UK
So, that is SEVEN out of the past TWENTY Best Actor Oscars going to people other than USA born thespians.
2000 Best Supporting Actor Benicio Del Toro, TRAFFIC, Puerto Rico (P.R. is a US Territory but not actually the USA...yet.)
1999 Best Supporting Actor Michael Caine, THE CIDER HOUSE RULES, UK
1987 Best Supporting Actor Sean Connery THE UNTOUCHABLES, UK
1986 Best Supporting Actor Michael Caine, HANNAH AND HER SISTERS, UK
1984 Best Supporting Actor Haing S. Ngor, THE KILLING FIELDS, Cambodia
1981 Best Supporting Actor, Sir John Gielgud, ARTHUR, UK
That is SIX out of the past Twenty Best Supporting Actor Oscars that now reside overseas.
All totalled there have been 13 out of 40 possible Oscars leaving the USA. That is about a one in three chance that a non-American will win. Those are better odds than any casino game, except craps of course.
I like to think that Mr. Lee will take home the Lifetime Achievement statue along with many other film specific awards. Should he never wind up taking any of them home, it certainly will not be because of any bias against giving awards to deserving international talent.
Best of luck Mr. Lee! Pulling hard for you here!
BroDave:
Well done on your research once again.
I hope you're right, and that all our most ardent wishes come true. If Mr Lee receives the Lifetime award, then Greg and I are going to party the night away!
It will be as if someone in our own family has won, and I know everyone here shares that same feeling.
Carmen
Nice bit of research there, Dave. Clearly the odds aren't as skewed as many of us thought. That Christopher Lee deserves a lifetime achievement Oscar is without question. But, will he get it? I feel very strongly (with nothing to back me up but a feeling) that next year will be the one.
Quote:
That Christopher Lee deserves a lifetime achievement Oscar is without question. But, will he get it? I feel very strongly (with nothing to back me up but a feeling) that next year will be the one.
I had this feeling immediately after New Line left him out of all nominations, he was the only one. This year his name will be put forward on two films, two very important films. There have been many hints, too many to mention but what will always stay in my mind is Lucas's quote, "The Legendary Christopher Lee".
A life-time archievement Oscar would sumarise Mr Lee's career better than a best or best supporting actor, those are just for "one lucky" performace. Being in the right film, at the right time and just doing your job. Mr Lee is not a one lucky performance actor, hence his record.
Quote:
Despite the fact that we all love Mr. Lee, if for just one reason, he deserves the Oscar for having the most screen credits of any individual in Hollywood. I wonder who's a close 2nd behind him?
Actually, I think the all-time champion for screen credits is John Carradine. Lee is catching up, though...
I also thought the same as the Guinness folks, however by researching the Internet Movie Database and other noted sources, I got the following results.
Harry Carey is billed as appearing in 236 films, adding in his writing, directing and producer credits for a total of 269 recorded credits. This often forgotten contributor to early American film should never be left out of any comparison. He was often working in three or four films during the same week. Granted they were not epic five star films, but this guy was a workhorse.
Christopher Lee is billed as appearing in 247 released films to date, tally in his televison and producer appearances and you will get a total of 280 recorded credits. Some films Mr. Lee made have not been released yet though and many more are still to come!
John Carradine is billed as appearing is 264 films. Adding in voice overs and television appearances yields the champion of the most recorded credits at 329.
As noted here on the official LOTR website Mr. Lee is described in the Guinness book as "the international star with the most screen credits", hovever it says nothing to clarify the distinction between "Star" and "International Star".
There are four considerations to keep in mind though that makes one question these numbers. First, there are untold incidents where Mr. Lee is credited only once when actually he did two or more live performances for release in different languages. Neither Mr. Carradine nor Mr. Carey would have that advantage. However, IMDB makes no allowances for such work in their number totals! Hence Mr. Lee will in reality be the all time credits leader if you take this factor into account.
Second, there surely are some films in which all three of these icons worked, but for varied reasons the film never made it to release. Again, IMDB does not take shelved projects into account either.
Third, none of Mr. Lee's appearances in special features, documentaries and his many narrations in the bonus material included on home video releases are included. For example, I own copies of at least three broadcast television documentaries in which Mr. Lee appeared during the past year alone and yet none of these are listed!
And of course, fourth and most importantly to us here, Mr. Lee is still working! So happily for fans of "THE KING OF THE MOVIES" these numbers will just keep going up and up and up! 
Thank you Juan for those figures. Wow that is a lot of popcorn sold over the years.
I knew that not everything was listed on the database because as I mentioned in the third consideration of my previous post, I have copies of three broadcast documentaries myself that are not on their list that Mr. Lee certainly did appear in. The excellent National Geographic BEYOND THE MOVIE-LORD OF THE RINGS to name one.
Quantity AND quality! You get both when you examine the career of Mr. Lee and Mr. Carradine. I am also confident no other actor will ever amass such staggering figures because of changes in the very nature of the motion picture business.
Still, the best part is that there is so much more to come!
Thanks again!
Mr. Nice and Well Behaved Guy
The list is impressive to say the least!
That would be so wonderful if Mr. Lee would really get this award. I do hope it comes true for him.
Old Soul