Spike Lee gets the "Chaplin"
by Nathaniel R
The honors aren’t over for Spike Lee who has spent the last two awards season in high demand walking red carpets and giving speeches as an Honorary Oscar winner and then a competitive winner for the screenplay of BlacKkKlansman. Next up the Chaplin Award at Film at Lincoln Center on April 27th, 2020 . They first handed out this award in 1972 to, you guessed it, Charlie Chaplin… though it obviously wasn’t called the Chaplin Award that first year — what was it called? The official website doesn’t say!
Though the Chaplin Award has mostly gone to movie stars since, or directors who also happened to be famous movie stars (like Chaplin himself), a fair number of behind the camera legends have also been recognized… especially in the first ten years of the award.
We’ve highlighted the directors in the list of previous recipients after the jump...
CHAPLIN AWARD GALA HONOREES
2020 Spike Lee
2019 — they skipped this particular year for a big anniversary fundraiser with lots of world class auteurs present
2018 Helen Mirren
2017 Robert De Niro
2016 Morgan Freeman
2015 Robert Redford
2014 Rob Reiner
2013 Barbra Streisand
2012 Catherine Deneuve
2011 Sidney Poitier
2010 Michael Douglas
2009 Tom Hanks
2008 Meryl Streep
2007 Diane Keaton
2006 Jessica Lange
2005 Dustin Hoffman
2004 Michael Caine
2003 Susan Sarandon — this was the only time we’ve had the privilege to attend — since it’s a fundraiser tickets are pricey each year!
2002 Francis Ford Coppola
2001 Jane Fonda
2000 Al Pacino
1999 Mike Nichols
1998 Martin Scorsese
1997 Sean Connery
1996 Clint Eastwood
1995 Shirley MacLaine
1994 Robert Altman
1993 Jack Lemmon
1992 Gregory Peck
1991 Audrey Hepburn
1990 James Stewart
1989 Bette Davis
1988 Yves Montand
1987 Alec Guinness
1986 Elizabeth Taylor
1985 Federico Fellini
1984 Claudette Colbert
1983 Laurence Olivier
1982 Billy Wilder
1981 Barbara Stanwyck
1980 John Huston
1979 Bob Hope
1978 George Cukor
1975 Joanne Woodward & Paul Newman
1974 Alfred Hitchcock
1973 Fred Astaire
1972 Charles Chaplin
Reader Comments (7)
A fine, fine list!
Add these to the list of actors who have also directed films:
Dustin Hoffman (Quartet);
Morgan Freeman (Bopha!);
Sidney Poitier (Let's Do It Again; Stir Crazy; Uptown Saturday Night);
Robert DeNiro (The Good Shepard; A Bronx Tale);
Tom Hanks (Larry Crowne; That Thing You Do);
Al Pacino (Salome; Looking for Richard);
Shirley MacLaine (The Dress Code).
Maybe others. The point is that those who receive the award are all celebrities, regardless of whether they are actors, directors, or a combination. The award recipient is, I'm sure, chosen in part based on a calculation of how much media attention and interest they will attract in the hope that it results in brisk sales of the (very expensive) seats for the gala, which serves as a generator of funds for the organization.
Great list. Spike will be in good company. Peculiar that neither Jack Nicholson or Steven Spielberg have received this honor.
Perhaps they should look to Denzel Washington, Julia Roberts, Warren Beatty, or Nicole Kidman next?
Paul Newman was a TERRIFIC director, too
I want them to do Warren and Annette, as an echo of the Newman/Woodward year!
Go Spike! Well-deserved.