These Oscar Awards Ended Up in the Wrong Hands

Getting an Oscar is the height of making it in the film industry, but sometimes, the gold statuettes don’t always end up with the intended Oscar winners.

About 80 statuettes have been misplaced or stolen since the beginning of the Academy Awards. While some have been found, there are others that were never seen again. 

Year won: 1939

Movie: “Gone With the Wind”

Award: Best Supporting Actress

Hattie McDaniel was a trailblazer — she was the first African American to win a Best Supporting Actress Oscar (or any Oscar, for that matter) for her role as Mammy in the 1939 film “Gone with the Wind.”

However, despite her historic win, she almost didn’t make the award ceremony due to segregation laws at the time. She was able to go when producer David O. Selznick pulled some strings, but she had to sit at separate table away from her white co-stars.

After her death in 1952, McDaniel’s Oscar was bequeathed to Howard University; however, it was lost or stolen sometime in the 1960s or 1970s and has never been found. 

Year won: 1939

Movie: “Gone with the Wind”

Award: Best Picture (Producer) 

When Selznick’s died in 1965, his two Best Picture Oscars, one of which was his “Gone with the Wind” award, were bequeathed to his son, Jeffrey, but in 1980, Jeffrey sold both at auction. 

In 1999, the “Gone with the Wind” Oscar was resold again to Michael Jackson, who paid $1.54 million for it, outbidding Steven Spielberg. When Jackson died in 2009, the award could not be found. 

Allegedly, the Oscar found its way back to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, but it’s unclear if the Academy will return it to the Selznick family.

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Year won: 1944

Movie: “Going My Way”

Award: Best Actor

Bing Crosby held onto his Oscar, but upon his death, he bequeathed his Oscar to a university — specifically Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, where he went to college to earn a law degree. He never graduated, as he was more interested in being an entertainer. 

In 1972, someone noticed the Oscar was gone and had been replaced with a statue of Mickey Mouse. Luckily, it was just a college prank — a week later, it was found hidden in the university’s chapel.

Year won: 1945

Movie: “Meet Me in St. Louis”

Award: Academy Juvenile Award

The Academy Juvenile Award was given to outstanding young talent intermittently between 1934 and 1960. It was given to actors considered too young for traditional Academy Award categories. O’Brien and the other child recipients got mini statuettes.

O’Brien kept it in her possession for many years, but in 1954, O’Brien’s home was robbed, and the Juvenile Award was taken. Nearly 40 years later, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave O’Brien a replacement. The new one was the regular size, as the original mold used to make the smaller statuettes was destroyed years before.

Years later, the original turned up at an L.A. flea market and was sold for just a few hundred dollars — but the buyers put it up for auction. It was eventually returned to O’Brien.

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