From Shirley Temple to Hayley Mills: These are the winners of the Academy Juvenile Award
A total of 12 actors and actresses under the age of 18 have been awarded the miniature, specially designed statuette.
Believe it or not, there were no categories for children during the first few years of the Oscars. The Academy introduced the Juvenile Award, also known as the Juvenile Oscar, an honorary prize, for the seventh edition of the gala in 1935.
Shirley Temple, the first winner of the Juvenile Oscar
Little Shirley Temple was the first recipient of the miniature, specially designed statuette. She was just six years and 310 days old when she was awarded the Juvenile Award in recognition of her “outstanding contribution to motion pictures” during the previous 12 months.
Temple shot to fame in David Butler’s comedy drama Bright Eyes in which she performed her signature song, On the Good Ship Lollipop. It would be the only time the actress would be honored by the Academy although she did receive a life achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild in 2006 among other accolades.
In 1935, the first Juvenile Oscar was given to pincurled workhorse Shirley Temple https://t.co/WD2EbRm1Ng #oscars pic.twitter.com/4iX11b9RQQ
— Atlas Obscura (@atlasobscura) February 29, 2016
Deanna Durbin and Mickey Rooney were the next to receive the honorary Oscar - both were teenagers when they were honored for “setting a high standard of ability and achievement” at the 11th awards in 1938.
Judy Garland became the fourth winner just a few months after the release of The Wizard of Oz, regarded as “America’s greatest and best-loved home-grown fairytale”. Garland was just 17 when she shot to fame playing Dorothy, who gets caught up in a tornado and swept away to the mythical Land of Oz.
Juvenile Oscar winners
- 1934 Shirley Temple (6 years, 310 days)
- 1938 Deanna Durbin (17 years, 81 days) of youth, and as juvenile players setting a high standard of ability and achievement.
- 1938 Mickey Rooney (18 years, 153 days)
- 1939 Judy Garland (17 years, 264 days
- 1944 Margaret O'Brien (8 years, 59 days)
- 1945 Peggy Ann Garner (14 years, 32 days)
- 1946 Claude Jarman, Jr (12 years, 167 days)
- 1948 Ivan Jandl (12 years, 59 days)
- 1949 Bobby Driscoll (13 years, 20 days)
- 1954 Jon Whiteley (10 years, 39 days) for his outstanding juvenile performance in The Little Kidnappers.
- 1954 Vincent Winter (7 years, 91 days) for his outstanding juvenile performance in The Little Kidnappers.
- 1960 Hayley Mills (14 years, 364 days) for her outstanding juvenile performance in Pollyanna
Hayley Mills as Pollyanna in @DisneyStudios "Pollyanna" (1960).
— The Academy (@TheAcademy) January 12, 2022
Mills won the Juvenile Oscar for her performance as Pollyanna. She was the last person and one of only 12 young actors to receive this award, a group that included Shirley Temple, Judy Garland, and Mickey Rooney. pic.twitter.com/MfmptwWebS
The last time the Academy Juvenile Award was given out was in 1960. British actress Hayley Mills was honored for her portrayal of Pollyanna, a 12-year-old orphan who is being looked after by a rich aunt in the Disney film of the same name. Mills was nominated for a BAFTA for Pollyanna but was overlooked by the Academy for her future projects including the classic Whistle Down the Wind.
Which Academy Juvenile Award winners have won an Oscar?
The only Academy Juvenile Award winner who went on to win an Oscar was Mickey Rooney, who received four nominations during his career and received an honorary award in 1983 “in recognition of his 60 years of versatility in a variety of memorable film performances”.
Judy Garland was nominated twice for A Star Is Born (1954) and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
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