Winning an Oscar is one of the highest honors in the film industry. For actors, producers and filmmakers, the Academy Award statuette represents years of work, recognition from peers and a permanent place in Hollywood history. Yet not every Oscar statuette has remained safely with its winner.
Since the beginning of the Academy Awards, dozens of Oscars have reportedly been misplaced, stolen or lost under unusual circumstances. Some were eventually recovered, while others have never resurfaced. These stories of missing Oscar awards involve Hollywood legends, historic wins, burglaries, college pranks and even an after-party incident that became headline news.
Hattie McDaniel
Wikimedia Commons
Year won: 1939
Movie: “Gone With the Wind”
Award: Best Supporting Actress
Hattie McDaniel made Academy Awards history when she became the first African American to win an Oscar. She received the Best Supporting Actress award for her performance as Mammy in the 1939 film “Gone With the Wind.” Her win remains one of the most important milestones in Oscar history.
Despite the significance of the moment, McDaniel faced the realities of segregation at the time. She nearly was not allowed to attend the ceremony. Producer David O. Selznick helped secure her entry, but she was seated separately from her white co-stars.
After McDaniel died in 1952, her Oscar was left to Howard University. Sometime during the 1960s or 1970s, the statuette was either lost or stolen. It has never been recovered, making it one of the most famous missing Oscars in Academy Awards history.
David O. Selznick
Wikimedia Commons
Year won: 1939
Movie: “Gone With the Wind”
Award: Best Picture (Producer)
David O. Selznick won the Best Picture Oscar as producer of “Gone With the Wind.” When Selznick died in 1965, two of his Best Picture Oscars were left to his son, Jeffrey. In 1980, Jeffrey sold both awards at auction.
The “Gone With the Wind” Oscar later returned to the public eye in 1999, when it was sold again. Michael Jackson purchased the statuette for $1.54 million, outbidding Steven Spielberg. After Jackson died in 2009, the award could not be located.
Reports later suggested that the Oscar may have made its way back to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. However, it remains unclear whether it will be returned to the Selznick family.
Bing Crosby
Wikimedia Commons
Year won: 1944
Movie: “Going My Way”
Award: Best Actor
Bing Crosby won the Best Actor Oscar for “Going My Way” and kept the statuette during his lifetime. After his death, the award was given to Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. Crosby had attended the university while studying law, although he left before graduating to pursue entertainment.
In 1972, someone noticed that Crosby’s Oscar had disappeared. In its place was a statue of Mickey Mouse. Fortunately, the incident turned out to be a college prank rather than a permanent theft.
About a week later, the Oscar was found hidden in the university chapel. Unlike many missing Academy Awards, Crosby’s statuette was safely recovered.
Margaret O’Brien
Wikimedia Commons
Year won: 1945
Movie: “Meet Me in St. Louis”
Award: Academy Juvenile Award
The Academy Juvenile Award was presented from time to time between 1934 and 1960 to recognize outstanding young performers. Because these actors were considered too young for the standard Academy Award categories, recipients received smaller Oscar statuettes.
Margaret O’Brien received the award for her work in “Meet Me in St. Louis.” She kept it for several years, but in 1954, her home was robbed and the Juvenile Award was stolen.
Nearly 40 years later, the Academy gave O’Brien a replacement. The new statuette was full-sized because the original mold used for the smaller awards had been destroyed. Years later, the original Oscar appeared at a Los Angeles flea market and was sold for only a few hundred dollars. After the buyers attempted to auction it, the statuette was eventually returned to O’Brien.
Vivien Leigh
Wikimedia Commons
Year won: 1952
Movie: “A Streetcar Named Desire”
Award: Best Actress
Vivien Leigh was unable to travel to Hollywood to collect her Oscar in person. A smaller ceremony was later held in London so she could formally accept the Best Actress award for “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
She did not have the statuette for long. Her home was burglarized, and the Oscar disappeared along with clothing and silverware. Leigh never recovered the original award.
The Academy replaced her missing Oscar within a few weeks, but the stolen statuette was never found.
Olympia Dukakis
Lennox McLendon / AP Photo
Year won: 1988
Movie: “Moonstruck”
Award: Best Supporting Actress
Olympia Dukakis proudly displayed her Best Supporting Actress Oscar in her living room in Montclair, New Jersey. She had won the award for her performance in “Moonstruck.”
In 1993, her home was burglarized. The Oscar was stolen along with other valuable items. Unfortunately, the statuette was never recovered.
Dukakis was deeply upset by the loss, but she later paid $78 to receive a replacement statuette from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Whoopi Goldberg
Mark G. Taylor / Wikimedia Commons
Year won: 1991
Movie: “Ghost”
Award: Best Supporting Actress
Whoopi Goldberg owned her Oscar for about a decade before noticing that it looked tarnished. She sent the statuette to the Academy so it could be cleaned and restored.
The award was shipped from Los Angeles to New York and was supposed to continue on to Chicago for polishing. When the box was opened in Chicago, however, the Oscar was missing.
A few days later, the statuette was found back in Los Angeles. It apparently had never made the full journey and had been dumped in the trash near the airport. Goldberg’s Oscar was recovered, avoiding what could have become another permanent Academy Award mystery.
Angelina Jolie
Matt Sayles / AP Photo
Year won: 2000
Movie: “Girl, Interrupted”
Award: Best Supporting Actress
After winning the Academy Award for “Girl, Interrupted,” Angelina Jolie gave the statuette to her mother, Marcheline Bertrand. Jolie later said she essentially forgot about the award.
When her mother died in 2007, Jolie could not locate the Oscar. She has said that she did not exactly lose it, but that no one knew where it was at the time.
As far as publicly known, Jolie’s Oscar has not turned up.
Jared Leto
Jordan Strauss / Invision / AP Photo
Year won: 2014
Movie: “Dallas Buyers Club”
Award: Best Supporting Actor
Jared Leto won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for “Dallas Buyers Club.” Years later, he revealed that the statuette had gone missing after he moved homes.
In a 2021 interview with James Corden, Leto said he had learned that the Oscar had been missing for three years. He explained that he did not know sooner and suspected no one wanted to tell him.
Leto added that the award could still be somewhere and that people had searched for it thoroughly. He said he hoped it was in good hands wherever it ended up.
Frances McDormand
Eric Jamison / Invision / AP Photo
Year won: 2019
Movie: “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Award: Best Actress
Frances McDormand was celebrating her Oscar win at an Academy Awards after-party when her statuette briefly disappeared. She had set the award down and walked away from her table.
A man attending the same party, Terry Bryant, picked up the Oscar. He went outside and appeared with it on social media, acting as though it belonged to him.
Bryant was arrested and charged with felony grand theft. He later said he did not realize the award was real because there were prop Oscars around the room. When the case was set to go to trial, the charges were dropped. It was believed that McDormand may have declined to testify.
Unlike many other missing Oscar stories, McDormand’s award was recovered quickly, turning a potentially serious loss into one of the strangest incidents in recent Academy Awards history.