Walking Down Memory Lane For 15 of Oscar's Most Memorable Moments

Film fans all around the world wait for the Oscars every year. The 89th Academy Awards was watched live by 32 million viewers and almost half that amount was waiting anxiously to learn the results via the various social media outlets.

The Oscars have always been a mixed ball of emotions. Whenever we tune in, we expect to see it all. Comedy, drama, music, sometimes action, and recently, even plot twists. We get to see an ensemble of the actors we love entertaining us at the beginning of every which is a tradition that we are not ready to part with at any time soon.

Here’s a list of 15 of the most memorable Oscar moments of all time.

15. Crowd Surfing

The first station that we visit in our trip down memory lane is Oscars 1999. Overly enthusiastic Italian director and actor Roberto Benigni gets ushered in by his fellow Italian actress and Hollywood legend Sophia Loren to take the award for Best Foreign Film for his masterpiece 'Life Is Beautiful'.

Roberto, swept away by the immense owner bestowed upon him, decides to almost crowd surf his way to the stage as if he is at a punk concert, prompting Hollywood legends such as Steven Spielberg to help him along the way. Roberto later that night won another award for Best Actor and when he got up on the stage he said he thinks it is a mistake because he 'used up’ all the English words he knows in his first speech.

Italy wins the Oscar for Foreign Language Film at the 71st Academy Awards. Roberto Benigni said: 'This is the moment of joy, and I want to kiss everybody because you are the major of the joy, and he who kisses the joy as it flies lives in eternity's sunrise, say the poet'

14. The First Tie

In 1969, Barbra Streisand and Katherine Hepburn received exactly 3,030 votes for Best actress prompting the Academy to give each of them a golden statue. Katherine wasn’t around to receive hers in person which gave Barbra the chance to claim the moment as hers.

She greeted the statue by saying 'Hey, gorgeous!’ before going on with her speech. That historical moment marked the first time in history that two nominees competing for the same category received the same number of votes. It has been two more times since 1969.

13. The Naked Man

The best picture fiasco that took place a few days ago wasn’t the first. In 1974, before inviting legendary actress Elizabeth Taylor to announce the Best picture award, the British actor was interrupted by professional streaker Robert Opel who run on the on the stage in his bathing suit.

Opel received a strange treatment that night. Instead of being arrested or kicked out of the event, he was casually given a post-award press conference.

'Isn't it fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings?' Niven quipped

12. J-Law Falling Her Way to Stage

There is nothing like live TV to show the goofs of anybody. Professional actors aren’t an exception. Before making her awkward mannerism on live television a habit, Jennifer Lawrence infamously tripped and fell as she was climbing the stairs on her way to the stage to receive her first Oscar.

The young actress played it off brilliantly and later she commented saying that she was supposed to kick the dress while walking but she forgot in the heat of the moment. Lawrence managed to fall two more times on live TV, once more at the Academy awards and another time at the Golden Globes.

11. One-hand Pushups

Leave it to 73 years old Jack Palance to give you a historical impromptu workout for the ages. The two-time nominee and one-time Oscar-winning actor decided it is a good time to put his athletic prowess on display when he won Best supporting actor in 1991.

He commemorated the moment by doing three repetitions of one hand pushups. His co-star in City Slickers, Billy Crystal, played the incident off by saying that 'Jack just bungee-jumped off the Hollywood sign’.

10. Jumps and Screams

Few Academy award winners were as ecstatic to win as Cuba Gooding Jr. When the African-American actor won the Best Supporting Actor award for his phenomenal role in 'Jerry Maguire' and the orchestra decided to play him off after he took longer than the designated time to make his speech, he went in an understandable frenzy and started screaming the remaining of his speech over the music.

His speech was followed by the string of jumps and more screaming to express his unbridled joy and happiness.

9. Halle Berry’s Emotional Speech

To this day, Halle Berry is the only African-American woman that won the Best actress. The actress made history in 1992 when she was given the award and she gave back a hell of an emotional speech that left everybody, including the actress herself, in tears.

She later commented to express her sadness that no other African-American woman to this date has won best actress.

Berry's performance in Monster's Ball was amazing, but her acceptance speech was unforgettable: 'This moment is so much bigger than me. It's for every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened'

8. Adrien Brody’s Kiss

When Adrien Brody won the Best actor for 'The Pianist' in 2003, he was not ready to hold any of his emotions in check which was made evident by his long, and some may argue forced, kiss that he laid on Halle Berry.

The kiss infuriated feminists that night but Halle Berry did not comment on the incident until recently when asked if Adrien is a good kisser. She responded by saying that they didn’t really kiss so she wouldn’t know.

Brody was very 'excited' about winning Best Actor for his role in 'The Pianist'

7. Posthumous Win

Heath Ledger’s legendary performance as the Joker in 'The Dark Knight' was one that went down in history books as one of the best performances of all-time by an actor in a Best supporting role.

Unfortunately for his family and his many fans, the actor died shortly after the film was released, so he was awarded the Oscar for Best-supporting-actor posthumously. His sister and parents went up on the stage to accept the award on his behalf amid tears from everyone else and a long standing ovation.

Heath's family accept the award: 'Heath, we both knew what you had created in the 'Joker' was extraordinarily special and had even talked about being here on this very day. We really wish you were, but we proudly accept this award on behalf of your beautiful Matilda'

6. The Man Never Lets the Women Talk

This infamous incident sparked a long-running joke on live TV. Roger Ross Williams went up on stage to receive his deserved award of Best Documentary Film only to get Kanye’d by his female produced during his acceptance speech.

The producer took over the microphone and yelled 'The man never lets the woman talk. Isn’t that just a classic thing?’ Williams laughed the incident off but he was later trailed by paparazzi for a long time asking him to comment.

When 'Music by Prudence' won Best Short Documentary, Williams became the first black director to win an Oscar

5. Leonardo DiCaprio won his first Oscar

Leonardo DiCaprio may have one of the biggest fan bases among any living actor but on that night and after his outstanding performance in 'The Revenant', even those who weren’t such big fans of his work were rooting for him to win. Prior to that year, Leonardo has been nominated a total of five times and won nothing. A record that was hard to grasp given the actors' dedication and obvious talent. He finally had his moment that night to receive one of the longest standing ovations broadcasted on live television since the first ever Oscar aired.

After five acting nominations and one nomination as producer of best picture nominee DiCaprio received Oscar award. He thanked his director and co-star Tom Hardy and used his time on stage to speak about global warming

4. The Indian Woman

Undoubtedly, Marlon Brando’s performance as Vito Corleone in 'The Godfather' is one of the best performances in history. Some may even argue that it is the best. Marlon may have agreed but he certainly showed little to no effort in doing so. As a form of protest for the unjust treatment the Native Americans were getting at that time, the legendary actor decided it is the perfect time to protest in an unconventional fashion.

Instead of showing up to receive the award himself, he sent a female Native American activist, Sacheen Littlefeather, to the stage to speak on his behalf. She carried a later that detailed why he opted for such stunt and she read on stage in lieu of an acceptance speech.

Littlefeather was wearing traditional Apache dress and said: 'He very regretfully cannot accept this very generous award and the reasons for this being are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry'

3. Crash Wins, Brokeback Lose

'Brokeback Mountain' took everyone by a storm when it was released in 2006. It was signaled out as the most outstanding film of the year but many people and was clearly expected to win the Best picture by everybody.

Jack Nicholson, the presenter of Best Picture that night was flabbergasted when he opened the envelope and read the card to find out that 'Crash' won instead of 'Brokeback Mountain'. The camera later showed that almost everyone in the audience had the same reaction.

Even presenter Jack Nicholson seemed stunned when saw that 'Crash' beat 'Brokeback Mountain'

2. First African-American Best Actor

In 1964, racial marriage was not even legal in most parts of the United States. When Sidney Poitier won Best Actor he was presented with a kiss by Anne Bancroft, a scene that conservatives saw as an unacceptable gesture to be displayed on live TV.

Sidney Poitier gave a quick yet emotional speech and later commented in 2002 saying that it was a historical moment and one that opened the gates of many actors of color to win the award afterward.

Sidney Poitier became the first African-American to win the best actor Oscar

1. The Best Picture Fiasco

NBC finally gets the award host that she has been longing for the most, its very own 'Late Night Show' phenomenon, Jimmy Kimmel. The Oscars rates are at an all-time low and so much is expected from the ceremony. Almost everything went as planned, apart from a minor flag incident and a foreign producer pronounced dead in the In Memoriam segment even though she wasn’t, nothing that anybody noticed until the best picture award came up.

The envelopes were mixed, and the wrong winner, 'La La Land' was pronounced. The following three minutes were agonizingly awkward for everybody until the producers of 'Moonlight', the righteous winner, were finally invited on stage to receive their award. The Incident is seen by everybody as one of the most awkward moments ever on live TV and certainly one that everybody will have a hard time forgetting.