Great People who never got the AFI Life Achievement Award
by wintercobra | created - 10 Mar 2012 | updated - 20 Aug 2012 | PublicNow the AFI does a good job at picking the recipients of the Life Achievement Award, but to be fair there have been quite a few great filmmakers, actors etc. who didn't receive the award. I'm not including anyone who died before the year 1973, because that's when the first award was given. So, it's not really the AFI's fault that they didn't receive an award. Sorry, Humphrey Bogart.
1. Stanley Kubrick
Director | 2001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick was born in Manhattan, New York City, to Sadie Gertrude (Perveler) and Jacob Leonard Kubrick, a physician. His family were Jewish immigrants (from Austria, Romania, and Russia). Stanley was considered intelligent, despite poor grades at school. Hoping that a change of scenery would ...
Dr. Strangelove Paths of Glory 2001: A Space Odyssey The Shining Full Metal Jacket Spartacus The Killing Barry Lyndon Lolita
2. Katharine Hepburn
Actress | The Lion in Winter
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was born on May 12, 1907 in Hartford, Connecticut to a suffragist, Katharine Martha (Houghton), and a doctor, Thomas Norval Hepburn, who both always encouraged her to speak her mind, develop it fully, and exercise her body to its full potential. An athletic tomboy as a ...
Bringing Up Baby The Philadelphia Story Adam's Rib The African Queen On Golden Pond Morning Glory Little Women Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Suddenly, Last Summer Stage Door Long Day's Journey Into Night Woman of the Year
3. Sidney Lumet
Director | 12 Angry Men
Sidney Lumet was a master of cinema, best known for his technical knowledge and his skill at getting first-rate performances from his actors -- and for shooting most of his films in his beloved New York. He made over 40 movies, often complex and emotional, but seldom overly sentimental. Although ...
12 Angry Men Network Dog Day Afternoon The Verdict Fail-Safe The Pawnbroker Serpico Prince of the City Murder on the Orient Express Before the Devil Knows You're Dead Running on Empty Equus Long Day's Journey Into Night
4. Paul Newman
Actor | The Hustler
Screen legend, superstar, and the man with the most famous blue eyes in movie history, Paul Leonard Newman was born on January 26, 1925, in Cleveland, Ohio, the second son of Arthur Sigmund Newman (died 1950) and Theresa Fetsko (died 1982). His elder brother was Arthur S. Newman Jr., named for ...
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof The Hustler Hud Cool Hand Luke The Sting Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Nobody's Fool The Color of Money The Verdict Road to Perdition The Towering Inferno Sweet Bird of Youth Hombre Absence of Malice
5. Marlon Brando
Actor | Apocalypse Now
Marlon Brando is widely considered the greatest movie actor of all time, rivaled only by the more theatrically oriented Laurence Olivier in terms of esteem. Unlike Olivier, who preferred the stage to the screen, Brando concentrated his talents on movies after bidding the Broadway stage adieu in ...
The Godfather A Streetcar Named Desire On the Waterfront Superman Apocalypse Now Julius Caesar Viva Zapata! A Dry White Season Last Tango in Paris Guys and Dolls The Men The Wild One Sayonara One-Eyed Jacks
6. Cary Grant
Actor | North by Northwest
Once told by an interviewer, "Everybody would like to be Cary Grant", Grant is said to have replied, "So would I."
Cary Grant was born Archibald Alec Leach on January 18, 1904 in Horfield, Bristol, England, to Elsie Maria (Kingdon) and Elias James Leach, who worked in a factory. His early years in ...
North by Northwest To Catch a Thief His Girl Friday Bringing Up Baby The Philadelphia Story Notorious Charade The Awful Truth An Affair to Remember Penny Serenade None But the Lonely Heart The Bishop's Wife Arsenic and Old Lace Gunga Din
7. John Wayne
Actor | True Grit
John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison in Iowa, to Mary Alberta (Brown) and Clyde Leonard Morrison, a pharmacist. He was of English, Scottish, Ulster-Scots, and Irish ancestry.
Clyde developed a lung condition that required him to move his family from Iowa to the warmer climate of southern ...
The Searchers The Alamo True Grit Sands of Iwo Jima Rio Bravo The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance The Longest Day The Shootist The Quiet Man How the West Was Won Red River Fort Apache She Wore a Yellow Ribbon Rio Grande The Big Trail
8. Audrey Hepburn
Actress | Breakfast at Tiffany's
Audrey Hepburn was born as Audrey Kathleen Ruston on May 4, 1929 in Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium. Her mother, Baroness Ella Van Heemstra, was a Dutch noblewoman, while her father, Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston, was born in Úzice, Bohemia, to English and Austrian parents.
After her parents' divorce, ...
The Nun's Story Breakfast at Tiffany's My Fair Lady Sabrina Roman Holiday Wail Until Dark Charade War and Peace Two for the Road The Children's Hour Love in the Afternoon
9. Stanley Kramer
Producer | Judgment at Nuremberg
Stanley Kramer was born on September 29, 1913 in Hell's Kitchen [now Clinton], Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer and director, known for Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) and Inherit the Wind (1960). He was married to Karen Sharpe, Anne P. ...
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World Guess Who's Coming to Dinner The Defiant Ones Judgment at Nuremberg Inherit the Wind On the Beach The Secret of Santa Vittoria Ship of Fools
10. Charles Chaplin
Writer | The Great Dictator
Considered to be one of the most pivotal stars of the early days of Hollywood, Charlie Chaplin lived an interesting life both in his films and behind the camera. He is most recognized as an icon of the silent film era, often associated with his popular character, the Little Tramp; the man with the ...
City Lights Modern Times The Gold Rush The Great Dictator The Kid The Immigrant The Circus
11. Robert Altman
Director | Gosford Park
Robert Altman was born on February 20th, 1925 in Kansas City, Missouri, to B.C. (an insurance salesman) and Helen Altman. He entered St. Peters Catholic school at the age six, and spent a short time at a Catholic high school. From there, he went to Rockhurst High School. It was then that he started...
MASH Nashville Gosford Park Short Cuts The Player McCabe & Mrs. Miller Thieves Like Us The Long Goodbye 3 Women
12. George Cukor
Director | My Fair Lady
George Cukor was an American film director of Hungarian-Jewish descent, better known for directing comedies and literary adaptations. He once won the Academy Award for Best Director, and was nominated other four times for the same Award.
In 1899, George Dewey Cukor was born on the Lower East Side of...
My Fair Lady Adam's Rib The Philadelphia Story A Star is Born Little Women A Double Life Gaslight Born Yesterday Dinner at Eight David Copperfield Gone with the Wind(yea he filmed a few scenes of the movie before he got fired, but still some of those scenes are in the finished film)
13. Charlton Heston
Actor | Ben-Hur
With features chiseled in stone, and renowned for playing a long list of historical figures, particularly in Biblical epics, the tall, well-built and ruggedly handsome Charlton Heston was one of Hollywood's top leading men of his prime and remained active in front of movie cameras for over sixty ...
Ben-Hur Touch of Evil The Ten Commandments Planet of the Apes The Greatest Show on Earth El Cid Soylent Green The Big Country
14. Ingrid Bergman
Actress | Casablanca
Ingrid Bergman was one of the greatest actresses from Hollywood's lamented Golden Era. Her natural and unpretentious beauty and her immense acting talent made her one of the most celebrated figures in the history of American cinema. Bergman is also one of the most Oscar-awarded actresses, tied with ...
Casablanca Notorious Spellbound Gaslight For Whom the Bell Tolls The Bells of St. Mary's Joan of Arc Murder on the Orient Express Anastasia Cactus Flower
15. Elia Kazan
Director | On the Waterfront
Known for his creative stage direction, Elia Kazan was born Elias Kazantzoglou on September 7, 1909 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey). Noted for drawing out the best dramatic performances from his actors, he directed 21 actors to Oscar nominations, resulting in nine wins. He ...
On the Waterfront East of Eden A Streetcar Named Desire Gentleman's Agreement America, America Splendor in the Grass Viva Zapata! Panic in the Streets A Face in the Crowd Baby Doll A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
16. Laurence Olivier
Actor | Sleuth
Laurence Olivier could speak William Shakespeare's lines as naturally as if he were "actually thinking them", said English playwright Charles Bennett, who met Olivier in 1927. Laurence Kerr Olivier was born in Dorking, Surrey, England, to Agnes Louise (Crookenden) and Gerard Kerr Olivier, a High ...
Rebecca Spartacus Marathon Man Wuthering Weights The Boys from Brazil (I would include films like Hamlet and Henry V, but those are British films)
17. William Holden
Actor | Stalag 17
Billy Wilder proclaimed William Holden to be "the ideal motion picture actor". For almost four decades, the handsome, affable 'Golden Holden' was among Hollywood's most durable and engaging stars. He was born William Franklin Beedle Jr., one of three sons to a high school English teacher, Mary ...
Network Our Town Sunset Blvd. The Towering Inferno The Wild Bunch The Bridge on River Kwai Sabrina Stalag 17 Picnic Born Yesterday
18. Fred Zinnemann
Director | A Man for All Seasons
Initially grew up wanting to be a violinist, but while at the University of Vienna decided to study law. While doing so, he became increasingly interested in American film and decided that was what he wanted to do. He became involved in European filmaking for a short time before going to America to...
High Noon The Search From Here to Eternity Julia The Nun's Story The Sundowners The Men Oklahoma!
19. George Stevens
Director | Giant
George Stevens, a filmmaker known as a meticulous craftsman with a brilliant eye for composition and a sensitive touch with actors, is one of the great American filmmakers, ranking with John Ford, William Wyler and Howard Hawks as a creator of classic Hollywood cinema, bringing to the screen ...
Giant The More the Merrier The Diary of Anne Frank A Place in the Sun Shane The Greatest Story Ever Told Swing Time Woman of the Year Gunga Din
20. Howard Hawks
Director | Rio Bravo
What do the classic films Scarface (1932), Twentieth Century (1934), Bringing Up Baby (1938), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), His Girl Friday (1940), Sergeant York (1941), To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Red River (1948) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) and Rio Bravo (1959) have in...
His Girl Friday Bringing Up Baby Rio Bravo The Big Sleep The Thing from Another World Red River Sergeant York Ball of Fire Scarface
21. Vincente Minnelli
Director | An American in Paris
Born Lester Anthony Minnelli in Chicago on February 28 1903, his father Vincent was a musical conductor of the Minnelli Brothers' Tent Theater. Wanting to pursue an artistic career, Minelli worked in the costume department of the Chicago Theater, then on Broadway during the depression as a set ...
Gigi An American in Paris Meet Me in St. Louis The Bad and the Beautiful Lust for Life The Band Wagon Father of the Bride Some Came Running
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