That Time A Bear Almost Got An Oscar Nomination (No, Really.)
A lot of crazy stuff has happened at the Academy Awards ceremony over the years, from a nude man streaking across the stage to Robocop saving Pee-wee Herman from a killer robot to the time a bunch of grown-ass adults unironically proclaimed Green Book to be the best movie of the year. Sadly we were denied one of the most potentially bonkers moments in Oscar history: the nomination of a friggin’ bear.
Bart the Bear, who also appeared in The Great Outdoors and terrorized Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin in The Edge, starred in 1988’s The Bear -- which wasn’t a drama about Chicago football players, but rather a French movie about a literal grizzly bear.
The film was a hit worldwide, and, as a result, there was a campaign to score Bart the Bear an Oscar nomination for his work. This wasn’t totally out of nowhere; critics raved about the “Oscar-quality performances” given by the ursine thespians. But unfortunately, the Academy put the kibosh on the campaign, “claiming that animal actors would not be permitted for Oscar consideration.”
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Bart the Bear eventually made it to the Oscars as a presenter in 1998, handing out an award alongside Mike Myers. Later it was revealed that the show’s crew were “terrified” that he would go “on a rampage” -- Bart, we mean, not the guy who unleashed The Love Guru onto the world.
This wasn’t the last time there would be a push to nominate an animal, either. In 2012 fans launched an online campaign to secure a nomination for Uggie, the Jack Russell Terrier from The Artist. “Consider Uggie” was even supported by Steven Spielberg -- although people speculated that he only did so in order to open the door to the possibility of a nomination for the horse from his film War Horse, whose work he praised effusively -- and really, if Mark Wahlberg can be nominated, would it be that crazy?
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Top Image: TriStar Pictures
