After a lifetime of excelling at his craft, Morehouse College graduate Samuel L. Jackson is finally going to receive his Oscar! Jackson will be one of 4 entertainers being honored at the upcoming Governors Awards ceremony. Jackson has been known for bringing his no-nonsense attitude to roles in Pulp Fiction, Snakes On A Plane, the Star Wards franchise. Learn more about Jackson and the winners below in the article by J. Kim Murphy at IGN.
Samuel L. Jackson is finally getting his due from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The organization announced that Jackson, Elaine May, and Liv Ullmann will receive honorary Oscars at next year’s Governors Awards ceremony. The Academy also announced that Danny Glover will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
After working in film and theater during the 1970s and ’80s, Jackson broke out in the ’90s with major roles in films like Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever and Jurassic Park. After receiving a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his performance in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, Jackson has appeared in over 100 films, joining projects across a wide range of scale and genre. He is considered to have the highest-grossing filmography of any actor, with a body of work that has earned over $5.6 billion at the box office in the United States and Canada.
Elaine May is a celebrated writer, director, and actress. She has been nominated for two competitive Oscars, for Best Adapted Screenplay for 1978’s Heaven Can Wait and 1998’s Primary Colors. Almost a decade after rising to fame as a comedic duo with the late Mike Nichols, May became only the fourth woman to join the Directors Guild of America when she signed with Paramount to direct her 1971 debut A New Leaf.
Ullman is most well-known for her collaborations with the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, starring in films like Persona, Cries and Whispers, and The Passion of Anna. She received Oscar nominations for Best Actress for her performances in 1971’s The Emigrants and 1976’s Face to Face.
While Glover has never been nominated for a competitive Oscar, the actor has accrued a diverse body of work that spans from big blockbusters like the Lethal Weapon seriesand Predator 2 to small independent films like To Sleep with Anger and Sorry to Bother You. The Academy is recognizing Glover for his lifelong commitment to advocating for economic justice, heath care, and education access in the United States and Africa.
Glover will be the 41st recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. It was most recently presented to Tyler Perry at this year’s Oscar ceremony. David Lynch, Wes Studi, and Lina Wertmüller received honorary Oscars at the most recent Governors Awards, which was held in 2019.
