Honorary Oscar winner Robert Altman during the 78th Annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, CA on Sunday, March 5, 2006.

The Director-producer-writer Robert Altman has been voted an Honorary Award by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The Award, an Oscar® statuette, was presented at the 78th Academy Awards® Presentation on March 5, 2006. The Honorary Award was given to Altman to honor "a career that has repeatedly reinvented the art form and inspired filmmakers and audiences alike."

Altman has received five Academy Award nominations for directing — for "M*A*S*H," "Nashville," "The Player," "Short Cuts" and "Gosford Park" — as well as two additional nominations as a producer of Best Picture nominees "Nashville" and "Gosford Park” — but has never taken home the Oscar.

He has directed 86 films, produced 39 and written 37 of them.

"The board was taken with Altman's innovation, his redefinition of genres, his invention of new ways of using the film medium and his reinvigoration of old ones," said Academy President Sid Ganis. "He is a master film maker and well deserves this honor."

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Altman began his film career working there on documentary, employee training, industrial and educational films. While there, he made his first feature film in 1957, "The Delinquents," a low budget exploitation film which was distributed by United Artists. He moved to Hollywood and found work directing episodes of television series such as "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "Bonanza." In 1969 he was offered the script of "M*A*S*H," the success of which galvanized his feature film career.

Altman's films include such additional titles as "McCabe and Mrs. Miller," "The Long Goodbye," "Thieves Like Us," "Popeye" and "Prêt-à-Porter." His current film, "A Prairie Home Companion" is in post-production.

Acceptance Speech
Thank you. Thank you. Thanks very much. I've got a lot to say, and they've got a clock on me.

I want to thank everybody for this, the Academy. I was really honored and moved to accept this award. When the news first came to me about it, I was caught kind of off guard. I always thought this type of award meant that it was over. And then it dawned on me that I was busy in rehearsals on a play that I'm doing in London right now. It opened last night, Arthur Miller's last play, "Resurrection Blues." I was doing an interview for my new film that I just finished, "A Prairie Home Companion," which will come out in the summer. And I realized that it's not over. Of course I was happy and thrilled, and thrilled to accept this award. And I look at it as a nod to all of my films because, to me, I've just made one long film. And I know some of you have liked some of the sections, and others you.... Anyway, it's alright.

And I want to thank all of the people that have worked on all my pictures so hard, the brilliant actors, the amazing crews. And I can't name them all so I'm going to name a doctor who is taking care of me, Jody Kaplan. So she represents everybody who have supported me and made it possible.

I've always said that making a film is like making a sandcastle at the beach. You invite your friends and you get them down there and you build this beautiful structure, several of you, and then you sit back and watch the tide come in. Have a drink, watch the tide come in and the ocean just takes it away. And that sandcastle remains in your mind. Now I've built about forty of them, and I never tire of it. No other filmmaker has gotten a better shake than I have. I'm very fortunate in my career. I've never had to direct a film I didn't choose or develop. I love filmmaking. It has given me an entree to the world and to the human condition and for that I'm forever grateful.

Finally I'd like to thank my family—you're all up there, all of them, almost—for their love and support through the years. And most importantly, I want to thank and applaud my wife Kathryn Reed Altman, without whom I wouldn't be here today. I love you, Trixie. Thank you.

Oh, one more thing. I'm here, I think, under kind of false pretenses, and I think I have to become straight with you. Ten years ago, eleven years ago, I had a heart transplant. A total heart transplant. I got the heart of, I think, a young woman who was about in her late thirties, and so by that kind of calculation, you may be giving me this award too early. Because I think I've got about forty years left on it. And I intend to use it. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Related Links:
01/11/2006 Robert Altman to Receive Honorary Academy Award®