Which Best Actor Winner Allegedly Once Shouted, "Don't Shoot. I Have Won an Oscar"?
In 1929, international movie star Emil Jannings won the first best actor Oscar for his work in two films, The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. Preparing to return to his native Germany when his win was announced — three months before the first Academy Awards ceremony — he made sure to pick up his award before he left, writing to the Academy: "I therefore ask you to kindly hand me now already the statuette award to me." Oscar in hand, Jannings returned to Europe after a six-picture sojourn in America and resumed his illustrious career as a scene-chewing star of German cinema.