26th Academy Awards

Infobox Academy Awards | name = 26th
poster =
date = 25 March 1954
site = RKO Pantages Theatre
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
NBC Century Theatre
New York, New York
host = Donald O'Connor (Los Angeles)
Fredric March (New York City)
network = NBC
last = 25th
next = 27th

The 26th Academy Awards honored the best in films of 1953.

The second national telecast of the Awards show draws an estimated 43,000,000 viewers. Shirley Booth, appearing in a play in Philadelphia, presents the Best Actor award through a live broadcast cut-in, and privately receives the winner's name over the telephone from co-host Donald O'Connor. (Actor Fredric March co-hosted from New York City.) Gary Cooper filmed his presentation of the Best Actress award in advance on a set in Mexico, with O'Connor announcing the winner's name. All of the big winners in this year of 1953 were black-and-white films. The big winner was Fred Zinnemann's eight-Oscar winning "From Here to Eternity" (with thirteen nominations and eight awards including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor and Actress, Best Director, Best Screenplay (Daniel Taradash), Best Cinematography (Burnett Guffey), Best Sound, and Best Film Editing). All five of its major actors and actresses were nominated, with secondary players Donna Reed and Frank Sinatra taking home the Oscars.

The candid film was based on James Jones' controversial, best-selling novel about Army life on a Hawaiian (Oahu) military base just prior to the Pearl Harbor attack and World War II, to illustrate the conflict between an individualistic private (Montgomery Clift) and rigid institutional authority (exemplified by the Army). Its achievement of eight awards matched the all-time record held by "Gone with the Wind" (1939). The record would be tied again the following year by "On the Waterfront" (1954).

Winners

*Best Picture: "From Here to Eternity" - Buddy Adler, producer
*Best Director: Fred Zinnemann for "From Here to Eternity"
*Best Actor: William Holden in "Stalag 17"
*Best Actress: Audrey Hepburn in "Roman Holiday"
* Best Supporting Actor: Frank Sinatra in "From Here to Eternity"
* Best Supporting Actress: Donna Reed in "From Here to Eternity"
*Best Story and Screenplay: "Titanic" by Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch and Richard L.Breen
*Best Motion Picture Story: "Roman Holiday" by Dalton Trumbo and Ian McLellan Hunter
*Best Screenplay: "From Here to Eternity" by Daniel Taradash
*Best Special Effects: "The War of the Worlds"

Walt Disney achieved a milestone in the 1954 awards ceremony - as the individual with the most Oscar wins in a single year. He won the award in four awards categories: Best Cartoon Short Subject: "Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom" (1953), Best Documentary Short Subject: "The Alaskan Eskimo" (1953), Best Documentary Feature: "The Living Desert" (1953), and Best Two-Reel Short Subject: "Bear Country" (1953).

Presenters

*Lex Barker (Co-Presenter: Cinematography Awards)
*Shirley Booth (Presenter: Best Actor)
*Charles Brackett (Presenter: Honorary Awards)
*Keefe Brasselle (Co-Presenter: Short Subject Awards)
*Walter Brennan (Presenter: Best Supporting Actress)
*Gower Champion (Co-Presenter: Art Direction-Set Decoration Awards)
*Marge Champion (Co-Presenter: Art Direction-Set Decoration Awards)
*Gary Cooper (Presenter: Best Actress)
*Cecil B. DeMille (Presenter: Best Picture)
*Kirk Douglas (Presenter: Writing Awards)
*Irene Dunne (Presenter: Best Director)
*Marilyn Erskine (Co-Presenter: Short Subject Awards)
*Arthur Freed (Presenter: Music Awards)
*Mercedes McCambridge (Presenter: Best Supporting Actor)
*Merle Oberon (Presenter: Best Special Effects)
*Tyrone Power (Presenter: Scientific & Technical Awards)
*David O. Selznick (Presenter: Irving G. Thalberg Award)
*Elizabeth Taylor (Co-Presenter: Documentary Awards)
*Gene Tierney (Presenter: Costume Design Awards)
*Lana Turner (Co-Presenter: Cinematography Awards)
*Jack Webb (Presenter: Best Sound)
*Michael Wilding (Co-Presenter: Documentary Awards)
*Esther Williams (Presenter: Best Film Editing)

Performers

*Ann Blyth ("Secret Love" from "Calamity Jane")
*Mitzi Gaynor, Margaret Whiting, and Donald O'Connor ("The Moon Is Blue" from "The Moon Is Blue")
*Dean Martin ("That's Amore" from "The Caddy")
*Connie Russell ("Sadie Thompson's Song (Blue Pacific Blues)" from "Miss Sadie Thompson")