Sacheen Littlefeather, who gave a speech for Marlon Brando's Oscar on the 1973 Academy Awards, has died.
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Native American activist Sacheen Littlefeather — who cemented her place in historical past when she declined actor Marlon Brando’s Oscar on the 1973 Academy Awards — died at age 75 Sunday.
Littlefeather died round midday surrounded by family members in her house in Novato, California, in keeping with her caretaker. She had been battling breast most cancers since at the very least 2018 and the illness metastasized lately.
Her demise got here simply two weeks after she was honored in a celebration hosted by the Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences, the place she spoke of her impending finish.
“I’m crossing over quickly to the spirit world and you recognize, I’m not afraid to die,” she stated on the occasion. “As a result of we come from a we/us/our society. We don’t come from a me/I/myself society. And we study to offer away from a really younger age. After we are honored, we give.”
The Academy, which introduced her demise Sunday evening, had formally apologized to Littlefeather in June for its therapy of her following the 1973 Oscars.
Littlefeather, who was 26 on the time, had attended the award ceremony rather than Brando, who had determined to boycott the awards in protest of Hollywood’s portrayal and therapy of Native People and to acknowledge the continued American Indian Motion occupation of Wounded Knee.
The activist — an actress herself — took to the stage and rejected the Oscar that Brando gained for “The Godfather” and delivered a speech denouncing the therapy of Native People at his request.
Littlefeather, carrying conventional Apache apparel, instructed the star-studded viewers on the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in addition to 86 million viewers watching from house that Brando wouldn't be accepting the award.
“He very regretfully can not settle for this very beneficiant award and the explanations for this being are the therapy of American Indians immediately by the movie business and on tv in film reruns, and in addition with current happenings at Wounded Knee,” Littlefeather stated to a mixture of applause and boos.
Brando had handed her a speech he wrote that was eight pages lengthy, however she was unable to learn all of it beneath the time constraints of the awards ceremony. The New York Instances printed the complete speech three days later.
Following her look, Littlefeather confronted vital backlash from media shops and conservative Hollywood elites. She later stated the protest stunt killed her appearing profession — as she stated her guild membership was revoked and she or he was mainly blacklisted from the business.
“I used to be blacklisted — or, you would say, ‘redlisted,’” Littlefeather stated in a 2018 documentary about her life. “Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett and others didn’t need me on their reveals. … The doorways had been closed tight, by no means to reopen.”
Practically 50 years later, this June, she lastly obtained an apology from the Academy.
“The abuse you endured due to this assertion was unwarranted and unjustified,” then-AMPAS president David Rubin wrote in a June 18 letter to Littlefeather. “The emotional burden you may have lived via and the price to your individual profession in our business are irreparable.”
Rubin each apologized and praised the activist.
“For too lengthy the braveness you confirmed has been unacknowledged,” he stated. “For this, we provide each our deepest apologies and our honest admiration.”
Littlefeather stated the Academy’s apology shocked her.
“I used to be surprised. I by no means thought I’d stay to see the day I'd be listening to this, experiencing this,” Littlefeather instructed The Hollywood Reporter in August. “After I was on the podium in 1973, I stood there alone.”
Final month, the Academy held a night of reflection with Littlefeather as its visitor of honor on the Academy Museum.
“I'm right here accepting this apology, not just for me alone however as acknowledgment, understanding that it was not just for me, however for all of our nations that additionally want to listen to and deserve this apology tonight,” she stated on the ceremony. “Have a look at our individuals. Have a look at one another and be proud that we stand as survivors, all of us.”
Littlefeather was born Marie Louise Cruz in Salinas, California, on Nov. 14, 1946. Her father was Apache and Yaqui, whereas her mom was white. She was raised primarily by her maternal grandparents and commenced connecting along with her Native roots whereas attending California State College, the place she discovered different activists who renamed her.
She participated within the Native occupation try and reclaim Alcatraz Island in 1969 and served as president of the Nationwide Native American Affirmative Picture Committee whereas engaged on her appearing profession.
Littlefeather later left Hollywood and commenced a profession in holistic well being with a concentrate on conventional Native medicines.
She additionally co-founded the nonprofit Nationwide American Indian Performing Arts Registry within the Eighties and continued to be an advocate for Native American illustration in Hollywood all through her life.
Two weeks in the past, on the Academy Museum occasion, Littlefeather requested others to face of their truths in reminiscence of her.
“Please, after I’m gone, at all times be reminded that everytime you stand in your reality, you'll be retaining my voice, and the voices of our nations, and our individuals, alive,” she stated.
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