George C. Scott Refused His Oscar Because He Didn't Like Competing With Actors

Most of the time, when an actor wins an Academy Award, it's considered to be a major achievement. Aspiring actors practice their speeches in the mirror growing up, and it can be a major boon not just to their ego, but also to their career. Sometimes, though, an actor hears that they are nominated for an Oscar or even that they have won one, and decides not to accept it.

George C. Scott, who played the legendary World War II general George S. Patton in 1970's Patton, refused to accept the Oscar he received for his work in the film. Here's what we know about why.

While people sometimes refused Oscars for moral reasons, George's decision not to accept his Oscar had more to do with his personal beliefs. He didn't attend the ceremony and sent a telegram to the Oscars explaining that he had no intention of accepting the award and that he would rather he hadn't been nominated. He had been nominated once before, in 1962, and also refused the nomination at that time.

He called the Oscars "a two-hour meat parade, a public display with contrived suspense for economic reasons."

In part, the telegram asked him to be struck from the list of nominated actors. "I respectfully request that you withdraw my name from the list of nominees. My request is in no way intended to denigrate my colleagues," he wrote.

Ultimately, then, it seems that George felt the Oscars were far more about spectacle than substance, which is definitely true.

Although George might be most remembered today for his filmic performances (including in Patton and Dr. Strangelove), he made it clear while he was alive that he much preferred acting on stage.

“Film is not an actor’s medium,” he told Time Magazine ahead of the Oscars in 1971. “You shoot scenes in order of convenience, not the way they come in the script, and that’s detrimental to a fully developed performance.”

"There’s the terrible tedium and boredom involved in waiting around for the camera to be set up, and then you have to turn on and off when they do the scene over again," he continued. "When you see the rushes is the first time you begin to judge your performance. If you get 50 percent of what you hoped for, you’re lucky.”

George, a veteran of the stage, seems to have preferred acting in a theater to acting for film, and for understandable reasons.

Of course, George's decision not to attend or accept the Oscar didn't stop the Academy from giving it to him. It's not totally clear what happened to that Oscar after George's decision to refuse it, but USA Today reported that one of the movie's Oscars is currently on display library of the Virginia Military Institute, where Patton was educated. George, meanwhile, never went back on his stance that the Oscars sucked.