Sacheen Littlefeather, the Native American actress and civil rights activist who turned down Marlon Brando’s Oscar in 1973, has died at age 75, the Academy of Movement Footage has introduced.
She revealed in 2018 that she had breast most cancers.
Littlefeather died at her dwelling in Novato, Northern California, surrounded by family members, The Hollywood Reporter stated, citing an announcement despatched by her caretaker.
In 1973, she was booed offstage on the Oscars after turning down Marlon Brando’s Greatest Actor award.
She had refused to take the Roger Moore statuette and began a speech concerning the mistreatment of Native People by the movie business. She was compelled to depart the stage after talking for only one minute.
She stated she was then boycotted by the movie business for many years.
Earlier this yr, the Academy apologized to him in an open letter, acknowledging that her look had certainly induced her to be “professionally boycotted, personally attacked and harassed and discriminated in opposition to for the previous 50 years”.
David Rubin, its president, provided his “deepest apologies and honest admiration”.
Littlefeather formally accepted the apology at an Academy occasion held in his honor Sept. 17 in Los Angeles.
Greeted on stage to rapturous applause, she stated: “I settle for this apology not only for me alone, however recognition not only for me, however for all of our [Native American] nation. Our nation wants to listen to that apology.”
She stated some members of the general public laughed at her with the uneven sound of a tomahawk
Pondering again to the 1973 ceremony, at which she wore a conventional buckskin costume, she stated the viewers booed her as she began to talk and a few mocked her with the chopped sound of a tomahawk and the cries of “Indians”.
Actor John Wayne was “able to assault me”, she stated, and “restrained by six safety guards”.
Littlefeather would not take the Roger Moore statuette. Photograph: TS/Keystone USA/Rex/Shutterstock
Brando turned down the Oscar for his iconic function as Vito Corleone in The Godfather.
He later instructed US tv that he felt it was a “fantastic alternative” to talk to tens of hundreds of thousands of individuals as a result of “the American Indian could not make his voice heard wherever on the earth. historical past of the US”.
In a 2021 interview with The Guardian, Littlefeather, who had suffered from a number of critical well being points all through her life, stated she had been receiving chemotherapy for a while. She described most cancers as “a full-time job”.
Awaiting his loss of life, she stated, “I’ll one other place. I’ll the world of my ancestors. I am saying goodbye to you…I’ve earned the appropriate to be myself.”
