In 1953 the Oscar Awards ceremony for the year 1952 was held and five true Hollywood legends of the golden years competed to get the statuette for best leading actor. Some of the films they had performed are also among the best known in the history of the seventh art. The nominees were:
- Gary Cooper for “Alone in the face of danger”.
- Marlon Brando for “Viva Zapata”.
- Kirk Douglas for “Captives of Evil”.
- José Ferrer for “Moulin Rouge”.
- Alec Guinness for “Gold in bars”.
Today it would be really difficult to gather such a cast of actors in the Oscar nomination. All of them are well known and have left their name inscribed among the most illustrious performers that cinema has given. However, the anecdote that is most striking about this particular Oscar is that whoever received the award for best actor was not one of the five nominees.
When it was announced that Gary Cooper was the winner of the statuette for his portrayal of a sheriff in High Noon (translated in Spain as “Only in the face of danger”) who went up to collect the award was not Cooper himself, but another myth from the world of cinema that was not part of the list of nominees; neither more nor less than John Wayne. If the list of contenders for the award was already extraordinary, this circumstance made the ceremony unforgettable for film lovers, since the anecdote that day united forever in a single moment the names of Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Alec Guinness, Marlon Brando, Kirk Douglas and José Ferrer.
In his speech, John Wayne explained that he and Cooper were old friends and that he had asked if he won the award to collect it on his behalf. After having some nice words towards the winner, the funniest moment came when Wayne said that what he really would have liked had been to replace Gary Cooper in the role of the protagonist of "Alone in the face of danger" and not in the collection Of the prize. He even joked that he was going to talk to his representatives to find out why, despite the a lot of money he paid them, they hadn't gotten him that role.
The following video captures this historic moment.