The American actor had asked the actress and Native American activist to refuse for him theAcademy Award for Best Actor for “The Godfather” in protest at the film industry’s treatment of Native Americans.
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A symbol has left us. Sacheen Littlefeather, the Native American actress and activist who was booed in 1973 after refusing an Oscar on behalf of Marlon Brando, died Sunday, October 2 at the age of 75, announced the American institution. The actor had asked Littlefeather to refuse theBest Actor Oscar for The Godfather in protest at the film industry’s treatment of Native Americans.
In his Twitter post announcing his death,The Academy of Oscars quoted Littlefeather as saying: “When I’m gone, always remember that every time you stand up for your truth, you will keep my voice and the voices of our nations and peoples alive.”
The Academy had organized a ceremony on September 17 in its new museum in Los Angeles to pay tribute to Sacheen Littlefeather, who was Apache and Yaqui, but also publicly apologize for the treatment she suffered at the Academy Awards almost fifty years ago.
“I went there, like a proud Indian woman, with dignity, courage, grace and humility”, Littlefeather said during the ceremony at the museum. “I knew I had to tell the truth. Some people can take it. Some people can’t.” Sacheen Littlefeather also said that western star John Wayne had to be stopped from physically attacking her as she left the stage.
Sacheen Littlefeather, a member of the Screen Actors Guild, the first union for film actors founded in 1933, then struggled to find work in Hollywood as casting directors were warned not to employ him.