Outside the expected negative reviews from television network film critics, the film was a critical and box office success, winning ten Academy Award nominations, and Chayefsky won his third Academy Award, making him the only three-time solo recipient of a screenwriting Oscar; all the other three-time winners (Francis Ford Coppola, Charles Brackett, Woody Allen, and Billy Wilder) shared at least one of their awards with co-writers. When Peter Finch posthumously won Best Actor, Chayefsky was to accept on his behalf, but he defied the show's producer, William Friedkin, and called Finch's wife Eletha to the stage accept the award.