William Wyler "Mrs. Miniver". He is tied with Frank Capra and behind John Ford, who won four Oscars in this category. He is also only director in Academy history to direct three Best Picture-winning films (the three for which he won Best Director), and directed more Best Picture nominees than anyone else (thirteen). He has the distinction of having directed more actors to Oscar-nominated performances than any other director in history: thirty-six. Out of these nominees, fourteen went on to win Oscars, also a record. He received the fourth AFI Life Achievement Award in 1976. Among those who thanked him for directing
Oscar speech It was shortly after this incident that the Academy set forty-five seconds as the allotted time for an acceptance speech and began to cut the winners off after this time limit. The shortest Oscar speech was given by Patty Duke at the 35th Academy Awards after she was named Best Supporting Actress for 1962 for "The Miracle Worker". Duke, age 16, was the youngest person at that time to receive an Academy Award in a competitive category. Her acceptance speech was, simply, two words "Thank you" after which she walked off the stage. Oscar speech An Oscar speech is a