Spike Lee gets the "Chaplin"

by Nathaniel R

The honors aren’t over for Spike Lee who has spent the last two awards season in high demand walking red carpets and giving speeches as an Honorary Oscar winner and then a competitive winner for the screenplay of BlacKkKlansman. Next up the Chaplin Award at Film at Lincoln Center on April 27th, 2020 . They first handed out this award in 1972 to, you guessed it, Charlie Chaplin… though it obviously wasn’t called the Chaplin Award that first year — what was it called? The official website doesn’t say!

 Though the Chaplin Award has mostly gone to movie stars since, or directors who also happened to be famous movie stars (like Chaplin himself), a fair number of behind the camera legends have also been recognized… especially in the first ten years of the award. 

We’ve highlighted the directors in the list of previous recipients after the jump...

CHAPLIN AWARD GALA HONOREES

2020 Spike Lee

2019 — they skipped this particular year for a big anniversary  fundraiser with lots of world class auteurs present

2018 Helen Mirren

2017 Robert De Niro

2016 Morgan Freeman

2015 Robert Redford

2014 Rob Reiner

2013 Barbra Streisand

2012 Catherine Deneuve

2011 Sidney Poitier

2010 Michael Douglas

2009 Tom Hanks

2008 Meryl Streep

2007 Diane Keaton

2006 Jessica Lange

2005 Dustin Hoffman

2004 Michael Caine

2003 Susan Sarandon — this was the only time we’ve had the privilege to attend — since it’s a fundraiser tickets are pricey each year!

2002 Francis Ford Coppola

2001 Jane Fonda

2000 Al Pacino

1999 Mike Nichols

1998 Martin Scorsese

1997 Sean Connery

1996 Clint Eastwood

1995 Shirley MacLaine

1994 Robert Altman

1993 Jack Lemmon

1992 Gregory Peck

1991 Audrey Hepburn

1990 James Stewart

1989 Bette Davis

1988 Yves Montand

1987 Alec Guinness

1986 Elizabeth Taylor

1985 Federico Fellini

1984 Claudette Colbert

1983 Laurence Olivier

1982 Billy Wilder

1981 Barbara Stanwyck

1980 John Huston

1979 Bob Hope

1978 George Cukor

1975 Joanne Woodward & Paul Newman

1974 Alfred Hitchcock

1973 Fred Astaire

1972 Charles Chaplin

Comments

[brandz]

A fine, fine list!

[davide]

Add these to the list of actors who have also directed films:

Dustin Hoffman (Quartet);
Morgan Freeman (Bopha!);
Sidney Poitier (Let's Do It Again; Stir Crazy; Uptown Saturday Night);
Robert DeNiro (The Good Shepard; A Bronx Tale);
Tom Hanks (Larry Crowne; That Thing You Do);
Al Pacino (Salome; Looking for Richard);
Shirley MacLaine (The Dress Code).

Maybe others. The point is that those who receive the award are all celebrities, regardless of whether they are actors, directors, or a combination. The award recipient is, I'm sure, chosen in part based on a calculation of how much media attention and interest they will attract in the hope that it results in brisk sales of the (very expensive) seats for the gala, which serves as a generator of funds for the organization.

[Patrick T]

Great list. Spike will be in good company. Peculiar that neither Jack Nicholson or Steven Spielberg have received this honor.

[NATHANIEL R]

Perhaps they should look to Denzel Washington, Julia Roberts, Warren Beatty, or Nicole Kidman next?

[cal roth]

Paul Newman was a TERRIFIC director, too

[JF]

I want them to do Warren and Annette, as an echo of the Newman/Woodward year!

[Rob]

Go Spike! Well-deserved.