31st Academy Awards


The 31st Academy Awards ceremony was held on April 6, 1959, to honor the best films of 1958. The show's producer, Jerry Wald, started cutting numbers from the show to make sure it ran on time. He cut too much material and the ceremony ended 20 minutes early, leaving Jerry Lewis to attempt to fill in the time. Eventually, NBC cut to a re-run of a sports show.
The film Gigi won nine Oscars, breaking the previous record of eight. It would be short-lived, however, as Ben-Hur broke the record with eleven Oscars the following year.
Gigi was the last film until The Last Emperor to win Best Picture without any acting nominations. It also had the biggest clean sweep at the time, winning all nine of its nominations, a record that would be tied by The Last Emperor. This record was broken in 2003 when won all 11 of its nominations.
The ceremony was hosted by an ensemble of actors: Jerry Lewis, Mort Sahl, Tony Randall, Bob Hope, David Niven, and Laurence Olivier. Niven won Best Actor that night, making him the only host in Oscar history to have won an award during the same ceremony.

Awards

Nominations announced on February 23, 1959. Winners are listed first and highlighted with boldface.
Best Motion PictureBest Director

  • Vincente Minnelli – Gigi
  • *Richard Brooks – Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
  • *Stanley Kramer – The Defiant Ones
  • *Robert Wise – I Want to Live!
  • *Mark Robson – The Inn of the Sixth Happiness
    • Best ActorBest Actress
  • David Niven – Separate Tables as Major David Angus Pollock
  • *Tony Curtis – The Defiant Ones as John "Joker" Jackson
  • *Paul Newman – Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as Brick Pollitt
  • *Sidney Poitier – The Defiant Ones as Noah Cullen
  • *Spencer Tracy – The Old Man and the Sea as The Old Man
  • Susan Hayward – I Want to Live! as Barbara Graham
  • *Deborah Kerr – Separate Tables as Sibyl Railton-Bell
  • *Shirley MacLaine – Some Came Running as Ginny Moorehead
  • *Rosalind Russell – Auntie Mame as Mame Dennis
  • *Elizabeth Taylor – Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as Margaret "Maggie the Cat" Pollitt
    • Best Supporting ActorBest Supporting Actress
  • Burl Ives – The Big Country as Rufus Hannassey
  • *Theodore Bikel – The Defiant Ones as Sheriff Max Muller
  • *Lee J. Cobb – The Brothers Karamazov as Fyodor Karamazov
  • *Arthur Kennedy – Some Came Running as Frank Hirsh
  • *Gig Young – Teacher's Pet as Dr. Hugo Pine
  • Wendy Hiller – Separate Tables as Pat Cooper
  • *Peggy Cass – Auntie Mame as Agnes Gooch
  • *Martha Hyer – Some Came Running as Gwen French
  • *Maureen Stapleton – Lonelyhearts as Fay Doyle
  • *Cara Williams – The Defiant Ones as Billy's mother
    • Best Story and Screenplay Written Directly for the ScreenBest Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
  • The Defiant Ones – Nedrick Young and Harold Jacob Smith
  • *The Goddess – Paddy Chayefsky
  • *Houseboat – Melville Shavelson and Jack Rose
  • *The Sheepman – William Bowers and James Edward Grant
  • *Teacher's Pet – Fay Kanin and Michael Kanin
  • Gigi – Alan Jay Lerner from the novella by Colette
  • *Cat on a Hot Tin Roof – Richard Brooks and James Poe from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams
  • *The Horse's Mouth – Alec Guinness from The Horse's Mouth by Joyce Cary
  • *I Want to Live! – Don Mankiewicz and Nelson Gidding from writings by Ed Montgomery and Barbara Graham
  • *Separate Tables – John Gay and Terence Rattigan from Separate Tables by Terence Rattigan
    • Best Foreign Language FilmBest Documentary Feature
  • My Uncle
  • *Arms and the Man
  • *Big Deal on Madonna Street
  • *The Road a Year Long
  • *La venganza
  • White Wilderness – Ben Sharpsteen
  • *Antarctic Crossing
  • *The Hidden World
  • *Psychiatric Nursing
    • Best Documentary Short SubjectBest Live Action Short Subject
  • Ama Girls – Ben Sharpsteen
  • *Employees Only
  • *Journey into Spring
  • *The Living Stone
  • *Overture
  • Grand Canyon – Walt Disney
  • *Journey into Spring – Ian Ferguson
  • *The Kiss – John Hayes
  • *Snows of Aorangi – New Zealand Screen Board
  • *T Is for Tumbleweed – James A. Lebenthal
    • Best Short Subject – CartoonsBest Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
  • Knighty Knight Bugs – John W. Burton
  • *Paul Bunyan – Walt Disney
  • *Sidney's Family Tree – William M. Weiss
  • The Old Man and the Sea – Dimitri Tiomkin
  • *The Big Country – Jerome Moross
  • *Separate Tables – David Raksin
  • *White Wilderness – Oliver Wallace
  • *The Young Lions – Hugo Friedhofer
    • Best Scoring of a Musical PictureBest Song
  • Gigi – André Previn
  • *The Bolshoi Ballet – Yuri Faier and G. Rozhdestvensky
  • *Damn Yankees! – Ray Heindorf
  • *Mardi Gras – Lionel Newman
  • *South Pacific – Alfred Newman and Ken Darby
  • "Gigi" from Gigi – Music by Frederick Loewe; Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
  • *"Almost In Your Arms " from Houseboat – Music and Lyrics by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans
  • *"A Certain Smile" from A Certain Smile – Music by Sammy Fain; Lyrics by Paul Francis Webster
  • *"To Love and Be Loved" from Some Came Running – Music by Jimmy Van Heusen; Lyrics by Sammy Cahn
  • *"A Very Precious Love" from Marjorie Morningstar – Music by Sammy Fain; Lyrics by Paul Francis Webster
    • Best SoundBest Art Direction
  • South Pacific – Fred Hynes
  • *I Want to Live! – Gordon E. Sawyer
  • *A Time to Love and a Time to Die – Leslie I. Carey
  • *Vertigo – George Dutton
  • *The Young Lions – Carlton W. Faulkner
  • Gigi – Art Direction: William A. Horning and E. Preston Ames; Set Decoration: Henry Grace and F. Keogh Gleason
  • *Auntie Mame – Art Direction: Malcolm Bert; Set Decoration: George James Hopkins
  • *Bell, Book and Candle – Art Direction: Cary Odell; Set Decoration: Louis Diage
  • *A Certain Smile – Art Direction: Lyle R. Wheeler and John DeCuir; Set Decoration: Walter M. Scott and Paul S. Fox
  • *Vertigo – Art Direction: Hal Pereira and Henry Bumstead; Set Decoration: Samuel M. Comer and Frank R. McKelvy
    • Best Costume DesignBest Cinematography, Black-and-White
  • Gigi – Cecil Beaton
  • *Bell, Book and Candle – Jean Louis
  • *The Buccaneer – Ralph Jester, Edith Head and John Jensen
  • *A Certain Smile – Charles LeMaire and Mary Wills
  • *Some Came Running – Walter Plunkett
  • The Defiant Ones – Sam Leavitt
  • *Desire Under the Elms – Daniel L. Fapp
  • *I Want to Live! – Lionel Lindon
  • *Separate Tables – Charles Lang
  • *The Young Lions – Joseph MacDonald
    • Best Cinematography, ColorBest Film Editing
  • Gigi – Joseph Ruttenberg
  • *Auntie Mame – Harry Stradling Sr.
  • *Cat on a Hot Tin Roof – William Daniels
  • *The Old Man and the Sea – James Wong Howe
  • *South Pacific – Leon Shamroy
  • Gigi – Adrienne Fazan
  • *Auntie Mame – William Ziegler
  • *Cowboy – William Lyon and Al Clark
  • *The Defiant Ones – Frederic Knudtson
  • *I Want to Live! – William Hornbeck
    • Best Special Effects-
  • tom thumb – Tom Howard
  • *Torpedo Run – Visual Effects: A. Arnold Gillespie; Audible Effects: Harold Humbrock
    		• -

    Academy Honorary Award

  • Maurice Chevalier “for his contributions to the world of entertainment for more than half a century.”

    Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award

  • Jack L. Warner

    Presenters and performers

    • Presenters

    These films had multiple nominations:
    The following films received multiple awards.