Why did a Russian prince receive 3 Oscars?
In April 1963, the cream of Hollywood applauded the winners of the Oscars. Then, four of the seven main awards went to the movie ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. Including for the work of the artist – the statuette went to Alexander Golitsyn, a Russian prince and a famous production designer. That evening, he received his third Oscar.
This descendant of the ancient Golitsyn family was born in Moscow. His father was famous surgeon Prince Alexander Golitsyn, while his grandfather was the Moscow Governor-General. During the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, Alexander was nine years old and his family decided to emigrate. First to Harbin and then to Seattle. In the U.S., he found his calling – he became a production designer in Hollywood.
Golitsyn started out as an assistant to Alexander Tolubov, another immigrant from Russia, and was privileged to work at the largest studios MGM and Universal. He received his first Oscar nomination in 1940 for the movie ‘Foreign Correspondent’ by Alfred Hitchcock. And, three years later, he received this award for the first time for his work in the movie ‘The Phantom of the Opera’.
Since then, his name has regularly appeared on the lists of contenders for the award.
In total, he has had 14 nominations. Including for the movies ‘Gambit’ (1966), ‘Airport’ (1970) and ‘Sweet Charity’ (1969).
Golitsyn's second Oscar, meanwhile, was thanks to one of the most controversial and striking movies of the 1960s – ‘Spartacus’ by Stanley Kubrick with Kirk Douglas in the lead role.
