Quite a lot has changed since February 2005: YouTube hadn’t yet launched, Hurricane Katrina wouldn’t hit until August, and Disneyland was about to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
But things were happening on Feb. 27, 2005, at the 77th Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. It was the first Oscar ceremony where more than one Black performer was vying for the lead actor trophy. And one of them took home the golden statue: Jamie Foxx.
You can call him ‘Ray’
Foxx went into the evening the heavy favorite to win for his performance as Ray Charles in “Ray.” Oscar voters love biopics, and Charles (who died several months before the film was released) was a beloved musical icon. Foxx also was nominated in the supporting actor category for his portrayal of a taxi driver in “Collateral,” though he didn’t win that trophy.
Foxx brought his daughter Corinne, then 11, to the ceremony as his date. After Charlize Theron read his name as the victor, Foxx hugged Corinne and took to the stage, keeping the energy going by getting the audience to do Charles’ signature call-and-response of “oooh!” and “aaah!”
Foxx thanked director Taylor Hackford for “taking a chance on this film,” and proceeded to give shout-outs to the first Black actor to win in the category, Sidney Poitier, and Halle Berry, the first Black performer to win a lead actress Oscar. He also thanked Estelle Marie Talley, his grandmother. “She was my first acting teacher. She told me, ‘Stand up straight. Put your shoulders back. Act like you got some sense.’
He also gave Corinne a nod from the stage: “I want to thank my daughter for telling me just before I got up here, ‘If you don’t win, Dad, you’re still good.’”
Keeping it real
Most of the other lead actor nominees came to the ceremony with multiple nominations (and in one case, multiple wins) under their belt already — and, bar one, they were all playing real-life people.
Don Cheadle, the sole nominee who was a newcomer to the Oscar competition, was competing for his performance as hotelier Paul Rusesabagina in “Hotel Rwanda,” while Johnny Depp had received his second lead actor nomination, this time for portraying author J.M. Barrie in “Finding Neverland.” Leonardo DiCaprio, recognized for his performance as Howard Hughes in “The Aviator,” was still 11 years from winning his first Oscar in 2016 (for “The Revenant”), but this was his second nomination and first in the lead acting category after an earlier nomination for his supporting turn in “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.”
Clint Eastwood, who directed, produced and co-starred in “Million Dollar Baby,” played the only fictional character in the bunch, Frankie Dunn. He had previously won Oscars for best picture and directing (both for 1993’s “Unforgiven”), and this night he earned a similar double for “Million Dollar Baby.” But he kept his streak of never winning an acting Oscar intact: Morgan Freeman and Hilary Swank would win the supporting actor and lead actress trophies, respectively, while Eastwood had to be content with just being nominated in that category.
From the Oscars to the Emmys.
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