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Year: 1991 (64th) Academy Awards
Category: Actress in a Supporting Role
Film Title: The Fisher King
Winner: Mercedes Ruehl
Presenter: Joe Pesci
Date & Venue: March 30, 1992; Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
MERCEDES RUEHL:
Thank you. I went to New York to study acting the summer that I was twenty-one. And like thousands of actors before me and thousands of actors after me, I went through the usual scores of moonlighting jobs, the usual scores of rejection, and the usual legions of prophets of doom who are always there and always at the ready to give you the up-to-minute odds against your ever making anything of yourself in this business. And at this moment, all of those sort of doleful memories have suddenly transformed themselves into nothing more than the sort of charming and amusing anecdotes for my memoirs! I cannot, cannot thank you enough.
There are a few people I'd like to thank with all my heart, very quickly. The great Terry Gilliam. Richard LaGravenese, our screenwriter. An extraordinary cast; it was an honor to work with them. Roger Pratt, our cinematographer. Steve Randall, Lynda Obst, Debra Hill, Howard Feuer, Marsha McManus. My family and my close friends, for their patience and their respect and their support. And finally I would like to thank Albert Innaurato and the late Joseph Papp who gave me my first shot on the New York stage and my first break in the big time. And especially the late, great Joe Papp, who once in a rehearsal for that play nudged me out of the shadow and into the light and told me to stay there in no uncertain terms. I have. I do. I will. Thanks, Joe. Thank you.
© Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
[Note: All winners are present except where noted; NOT all winners may have spoken.]
