Who hasn't practiced their Oscar speech in front of a bathroom mirror? Who hasn't imagined walking down a red carpet and partying with the A-list celebrities of the moment? One would imagine that if a person was lucky enough not only to be invited to the Academy Awards but to also win one, that the event would live on as an epic memory and a story to tell at every possible occasion.
And that Oscar statuette? It would live in a place of honor for all of eternity. But apparently, in real life, the Oscar is not always honored or looked after in the way those of us who only watch the award show on television might imagine. Sometimes Oscars have a way of going...missing.
Best Supporting Actress (Angelina Jolie, Girl Interrupted) - 2000
The first Academy Awards show of the new millennium saw superstar Angelina Jolie take home the statue for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Girl Interrupted.
Jolie already knew what she was going to do with her statue as she gifted it to her mother, Marcheline Bertrand. However, after her mother passed away in 2007, the Oscar disappeared as Bertrand's possessions who were packed away.
Best Supporting Actress (Whoopi Goldberg, Ghost) - 1991
Apparently, the Best Supporting Actress statues have a way of disappearing on their owners. In 1991, Whoopi Goldberg won her second Oscar for her supporting role in Ghost (she received her first in 1986 for Best Actress in The Color Purple).
Goldberg held on to the statue until 2002 when she returned it to the Academy to have it cleaned a service to offer award winners. However, the statue disappeared when the Academy mailed it back to Goldberg, taken out of the package before the empty box was resealed. No one ever found the perpetrators, though the statue was finally rediscovered in an airport garbage can.
Best Supporting Actress (Olympia Dukakis, Moonstruck) - 1988
In 1988 Olympia Dukakis won her one and only Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in the role of Rose Castorini in the Cher and Nicolas Cage hit, Moonstruck. She was able to hold on to the statue for about a year before it was stolen from her home in 1989.
It was the only item to disappear in the break-in. Dukakis reached out to the Academy for a replacement statue, which she was able to purchase for about $78. The replacement is the only statuette that Dukakis has today.
Best Actress (Vivien Leigh, A Streetcar Named Desire) - 1952
Vivian Leigh was a British actress but would win both her Academy Awards for playing Southern women. Her first statue for Best Actress she won for her work on Gone with the Wind in 1940. In 1952, she won the Best Actress Award a second time for her work on A Streetcar Named Desire. Like Olympia Dukakis, Leigh also suffered a break-in at her home which led to the disappearance of her Streetcar statue. The statue still has yet to be located, even though it is against the rules to sell any statue earned after 1950.
Best Actor (Marlon Brando, On the Waterfront and The Godfather) - 1955 and 1973
Marlon Brando misplaced both of the Academy Awards he received in his lifetime. Both statues were Best Actor awards, the first for On the Waterfront, the second for The Godfather. The star was unsure what happened to the statue he received in the 1950s. His award for The Godfather, however, was declined on television by Sacheen Littlefeather, as Brando did not attend in protest of Hollywood's treatment of Native Americans. Brando could never remember if the Academy ever sent him the statue for his 1973 win and, if they did, it was also misplaced.
Best Actor (Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart) - 2010
In 2010, Hollywood legend Jeff Bridges won his first Oscar for his role as an alcoholic country singer in Crazy Heart.
It was only a year later when Bridges was again nominated as Best Actor for his role in True Grit, that the actor admitted to having misplaced his first statue somewhere in his home. It made it even more disappointing that he didn't go home with a spare that night.
Best Original Screenplay (Matt Damon, Good Will Hunting) - 1998
In 1998, two fresh-faced actors, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for their screenplay for Good Will Hunting. While two statues were given out, apparently only one still exists.
In 2007, Matt Damon admitted to having misplaced his Oscar after a flood in his old New York apartment. Apparently the sprinkler system went off while Damon was out of town and when he returned there was water damage but no Oscar statue.
Best Documentary Feature (Frank Capra, Prelude To War) - 1943
Director Frank Capra, best known for films like It Happened One Night, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and It's a Wonderful Life, won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 1943 for Prelude to War, an anti-Nazi propaganda film. The Oscar was on display for many years at the Army Pictorial Center in Astoria, New York. In 1970, the statue was stolen from its display and to this day has never resurfaced.
Best Actor (Bing Crosby, Going My Way) - 1945
Putting an Oscar on public display seems to lead to quite a few disappearances. Like Frank Capra's Oscar, Bing Crosby's Best Actor award for Going My Way was put on public display at his alma mater, Gonzaga University. The statue was safe for quite a few years before disappearing in 1972. Apparently, it was just a good old fashioned college prank as the statue reappeared a week later in the school's chapel building. The thief indicated they just wanted to make people laugh when he spoke with the college newspaper anonymously.
Best Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel, Gone with the Wind) - 1940
Hattie McDaniel won the Best Supporting Actress award for her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind. She was the first African American actress to win an Academy Award. Perhaps due to the historic nature of her award, it is not surprising that it was nicked from its display at Howard University in the 1960s. There are very few details about exactly how the statue was taken, but it has never been seen again.