American character actor Jack Oakie's career spanned vaudeville, Broadway musicals, radio, television and 87 films, most of them comedies or musical comedies made in the 1930s and 1940s. His work includes such notable films as "Once in a Lifetime" (1932), "Million Dollar Legs" (1932), "It Happened Tomorrow" (1944), and "The Great Dictator" (1940), which earned him an Academy Award® nomination in 1940 for his portrayal of a Mussolini-like head of state. Since its donation by Victoria Horne-Oakie in 1990, the Archive has housed over 50 items in the Jack Oakie Collection. The collection is made up primarily of 16mm film prints and contains several home movies which have been digitized, featuring the Oakie traveling in Europe and to the San Francisco World's Fair, as well as at home. One of the home movies is an extensive tour of their estate, Oakridge, which was originally built for Barbara Stanwyck by the famous African American architect Paul Revere Williams.
Click here for a list of the Academy’s holdings related to Jack Oakie.