| 26th Academy Awards | |
|---|---|
| Date | March 25, 1954 |
| Site | RKO Pantages Theatre Hollywood, California NBC Century Theatre New York City, New York |
| Hosted by | Donald O'Connor (Los Angeles) Fredric March (New York City) |
| Highlights | |
| Best Picture | From Here to Eternity |
| Most awards | From Here to Eternity (8) |
| Most nominations | From Here to Eternity (13) |
| TV in the United States | |
| Network | NBC |
The 26th Academy Awards were held on March 25, 1954, simultaneously at the RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood (hosted by Fredric March), and the NBC Century Theatre in New York City (hosted by Donald O'Connor).
The second national telecast of the Awards show drew an estimated 43 million viewers. Shirley Booth, appearing in a play in Philadelphia, presented the Academy Award for Best Actor through a live broadcast cut-in, having privately received the winner's name over the telephone from O'Connor. Gary Cooper pre-recorded his presentation of the Academy Award for Best Actress while on location in Mexico shooting Garden of Evil, with O'Connor then announcing the winner's name live.
All the major winners in this year were black-and-white films. Fred Zinnemann's From Here to Eternity won eight awards from its thirteen nominations: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Academy Award for Best Director, Best Screenplay (Daniel Taradash), Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (Burnett Guffey), Best Sound Recording, and Best Film Editing. It was the third film to receive five acting nominations. Its eight awards matched the record set by Gone with the Wind in 1939. Walt Disney won four awards, a record to this day for most Oscars won by a single person in the same year.
William Holden's acceptance speech for Best Actor for Stalag 17 was simply "Thank You", making it one of the shortest speeches on record, forced by the TV broadcast's strict cutoff time. Holden, frustrated, later personally paid for advertisements in the Hollywood trade publications to thank everyone he had wanted to in his speech, as well as remarking that he felt that either Burt Lancaster or Montgomery Clift should have won the Oscar for From Here to Eternity instead of him.
