find acceptorLink =045-16
Home : Research & Preservation : Resources & Databases : Academy Awards Acceptance Speeches
Search Results
|
|
|
Year: 1972 (45th) Academy Awards
Category: Best Picture
Film Title: The Godfather
Winner: Albert S. Ruddy, Producer
Presenter: Clint Eastwood
Date & Venue: March 27, 1973; Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
ALBERT S. RUDDY:
Don't fail me now! We were all getting nervous there for a moment. Let me do this quickly in two parts, because I know it's past midnight in New York and some of my relatives want to go to sleep.
There are a number of people I would like to thank, as everyone else would, because they deserve it. Bob Evans, for giving more than any studio head should in time and creativity. Frank Yablans, for having the courage and imagination to sell this film and make my mother rich. Charlie Bluhdorn, for having the courage to finance films, which I guess borders on insanity. And Peter Bart, who was a friend all the way through.
Now last off, there's millions of people who sit out there and people who love film and want to make film that will look at this [holding up the Oscar] and wonder what it's all about. America needs the motion picture business and the motion picture business needs the United States. Good audiences need good films as good films need good audiences. The American dream and what we all want, for me at least, is represented by this [holding up the Oscar]. It's there for everybody if we want to work, dream and try to get it. Thank you very much.
© Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
[Note: All winners are present except where noted; NOT all winners may have spoken.]
Albert S. Ruddy, Producer Academy Awards Acceptance Speech
