31st Academy Awards (Oscars) 1959

Crowd lining street under the marquee of the Pantages Theater at the 31st Academy Awards in 1959.

Published caption: BIG NIGHT -- Crowd stands outside the RKO Pantages Theater in Hollywood as stars arrive for 31st Academy Awards presentation show.

Best Picture

* Arthur Freed - Gigi - Winner
* Jack L. Warner - Aunt Mame
* Lawrence Weingarten - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
* Stanley Kramer - The Defiant Ones
* Harold Hecht - Separate Tables

Actor

* David Niven - Separate Tables - Winner
* Paul Newman - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
* Tony Curtis - The Defiant Ones
* Sidney Poitier - The Defiant Ones
* Spencer Tracy - The Old Man and the Sea

Actress

* Susan Hayward - I Want to Live! - Winner
* Rosalind Russell - Mame aunt
* Elizabeth Taylor - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
* Deborah Kerr - Separate Tables
* Shirley MacLaine - Some Came Running

Publication: Los Angeles Times. Publication date: Tuesday, April 7, 1959. This work is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1923 and 1963 with a copyright notice, and its copyright was not renewed. Note about non-renewal of copyright.

Best Supporting Actor

* Burl Ives - White Canyon - Winner
* Lee J. Cobb - The Brothers Karamazov
* Theodore Bikel - The Defiant Ones
* Arthur Kennedy - Some Came Running
* Gig Young - Prymus

Best Supporting Actress

* Wendy Hiller - Separate Tables - Winner
* Peggy Cass - Aunt Mame
* Cara Williams - The Defiant Ones
* Maureen Stapleton - Lonelyhearts
* Martha Hyer - Some Came Running

Best Director

* Vincente Minnelli - Gigi - Winner
* Richard Brooks - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
* Stanley Kramer - The Defiant Ones
* Robert Wise - I Want to Live!
* Mark Robson - the Sixth Happiness

Original Screenplay

* Nedrick Young , Harold Jacob Smith - The Defiant Ones - Winner
* Paddy Chayefsky - The Goddess
* Melville Shavelson , Jack Rose - Houseboat
* William Bowers , James Edward Grant - One against all
* Fay Kanin , Michael Kanin - Prymus

Best Adapted Screenplay

* Alan Jay Lerner - Gigi - Winner
* Richard Brooks , James Poe - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
* Alec Guinness - The Horse's Mouth
* Nelson Gidding , Don Mankiewicz - I Want to Live!
* Terence Rattigan , John Gay - Separate Tables

Cinematography (black and white)

* Sam Leavitt - The Defiant Ones - Winner
* Daniel L. Fappani - Desire Under the Elms
* Lionel Lindon - I Want to Live!
* Charles Lang - Separate Tables
* Joseph MacDonald - Young Lions

Cinematography (color)

* Joseph Ruttenberg - Gigi - Winner
* Harry Stradling Sr. - Aunt Mame
* William H. Daniels - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
* James Wong Howe - The Old Man and the Sea
* Leon Shamroy - South Pacific

Set design and interior decorations

* William A. Horning , Preston Ames , Henry Grace , Keogh Gleason - Gigi - Winner
* Malcolm C. Bert , George James Hopkins - Aunt Mame
* Cary Odell , Louis Diag - Black magic in Manhattan
* Lyle R. Wheeler , John DeCuir , Walter M. Scott , Paul S. Fox - A smile
* Hal Pereira , Henry Bumstead , Sam Comer , Frank R. McKelvy - Vertigo

Costumes

* Cecil Beaton - Gigi - Winner
* Jean Louis - Black magic in Manhattan
* Ralph Jester , Edith Head , John Jensen - Corsair
* Charles Le Maire , Mary Wills - A smile
* Walter Plunkett - Some Came Running

The sound

* Fred Hynes (Todd-AO Sound Department) - South Pacific - Winner
* Gordon Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD) - I Want to Live!
* Leslie I. Carey (Universal-International SSD) - The time of life and time of death
* George Dutton (Paramount SSD) - Vertigo
* Carlton W. Faulkner (20th Century-Fox SSD) - Young Lions

Assembly

* Adrienne Fazan - Gigi - Winner
* William H. Ziegler - Aunt Mame
* William A. Lyon , Al Clark - Cowboy
* Frederic Knudtson - The Defiant Ones
* William Hornbeck - I Want to Live!

Special Effects

* Tom Howard - Tom Thumb
* A. Arnold Gillespie , Harold Humbrock - Torpedo gone! - Winner

Song from a Movie

* "Gigi" - Gigi - Music by Frederick Loewe , lyrics: Alan Jay Lerner - Winner
* "A Certain Smile - A smile - Music by Sammy Fain , lyrics: Paul Francis Webster
* "Almost in Your Arms" - Houseboat - Jay Livingston , Ray Evans
* "A Very Precious Love" - Marjorie Morningstar - Music by Sammy Fain , lyrics: Paul Francis Webster
* "To Love and Be Loved" - Some Came Running - Music by Jimmy Van Heusen , lyrics: Sammy Cahn

Film music in drama / comedy

* Dimitri Tiomkin - The Old Man and the Sea - Winner
* Jerome Moross - White Canyon
* David Raksin - Separate Tables
* Oliver Wallace - White wilderness
* Hugo Friedhofer - Young Lions

Film music in the musical

* Andre Previn - Gigi - Winner
* Yuri Faier , Gennadi Rozhdestvensky - The Bolshoi Ballet
* Ray Heindorf - What Lola wants
* Lionel Newman - Mardi Gras
* Alfred Newman , Ken Darby - South Pacific

Short animated film

* John W. Burton - Knightly Knight Bugs - Winner

Short Film Board of Canada

* Walt Disney - Grand Canyon

Short documentary film

* Ben Sharpsteen - Ama Girls

Best Documentary

* Ben Sharpsteen - White Wilderness