Jamie Foxx arrived at the 2005 Oscar ceremony as a heavy favorite to win the lead actor award for his portrayal of Ray Charles in “Ray.” Sure enough, host Charlize Theron shouted his name.
(Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
A lot has changed since February 2005: YouTube had not yet launched, Hurricane Katrina wouldn't hit until August, and Disneyland was about to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
But things were happening on February 27, 2005, at the 77th Academy Awards at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles. It was the first Oscar ceremony in which more than one black actor competed for the leading actor trophy. And one of them took the golden statue: Jamie Foxx.
You can call him 'Ray'
Foxx came into the night as the heavy favorite to win for his portrayal of Ray Charles in “Ray.” Oscar voters love biopics, and Charles (who died several months before the film's release) was a beloved musical icon. Foxx was also nominated in the supporting actor category for his portrayal of a taxi driver in “Collateral,” although he did not win that trophy.
Foxx brought his then-11-year-old daughter Corinne to the ceremony as a date. After Charlize Theron read his name as the victor, Foxx hugged Corinne and took the stage, keeping the energy going by having the audience do Charles' signature call-and-response: “oooh!” and “aaah!”
Foxx thanked director Taylor Hackford for “taking a chance on this movie” and proceeded to congratulate the first black actor to win in the category, Sidney Poitier, and Halle Berry, the first black actress to win an Oscar for leading actress. . He also thanked Estelle Marie Talley, his grandmother. “She was my first acting teacher. She told me, 'Stand up straight.' Put your shoulders back. Act like you have some common sense.
He also gave a nod to Corinne from the stage: “I want to thank my daughter for telling me right before I got here, 'If you don't win, Dad, you're still okay.'”
Keeping it real
Most of the other lead actor nominees came to the ceremony with multiple nominations (and in one case, multiple wins) under their belts, and all but one were playing real-life people.
Don Cheadle, the only newcomer nominee in the Oscar competition, was in the running for his portrayal of hotelier Paul Rusesabagina in “Hotel Rwanda,” while Johnny Depp had received his second lead actor nomination, this time for playing author JM Barrie in “Looking for Neverland.” Leonardo DiCaprio, recognized for his portrayal of Howard Hughes in “The Aviator,” was still 11 years away from winning his first Oscar in 2016 (for “The Revenant”), but this was his second nomination and the first in the actor category. lead after an earlier nomination for his supporting role in “What's Eating Gilbert Grape?”
Clint Eastwood, who directed, produced and co-starred in “Million Dollar Baby,” played the group's only fictional character, Frankie Dunn. He had previously won Oscars for best picture and direction (both for 1993's “Unforgiven”), and tonight he won a similar double for “Million Dollar Baby.” But he kept his streak of never winning an acting Oscar intact: Morgan Freeman and Hilary Swank would win the supporting actor and lead actress trophies, respectively, while Eastwood had to be content with only being nominated in that category.
