Oscar History: Academy Award Winning Movies and Actors of 1960

A look at Oscar winners and nominees, behind the scenes on the decisions for best picture, actor, etc for 1960, Wilder's the Apartment gets top honors.

1960

Best Picture

NOMINEES: The Alamo, The Apartment, Elmer Gantry, Sons and Lovers, The Sundowners

THE WINNERS: The Apartment (Mirisch-United Artists)

DIRECTOR: Billy Wilder

PLAYERS: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray

Best Actor

NOMINEES: Trevor Howard (Sons and Lovers); Burt Lancaster (Elmer Gantry); Jack Lemmon (The Apartment); Laurence Olivier (The Entertainer); Spencer Tracy (Inherit the Wind)

THE WINNER: Burt Lancaster

Best Actress

NOMINEES: Greer Garson (Sunrise at Campobello); Deborah Kerr (The Sundowners); Shirley MacLaine (The Apartment); Melina Mercouri (Never on Sunday); Elizabeth Taylor (Butterfield 8)

THE WINNER: Elizabeth Taylor

Behind the Oscar

Some said Elizabeth Taylor got the Oscar out of sympathy rather than for Butterfield 8. The glamorous star, then married to Eddie Fisher, had almost died from a bout of pneumonia a short time before. ABC outbid NBC to televise this year's proceedings, and it was held at the Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, creating a hue and cry from the purists who lamented that Santa Monica was not Hollywood.