Jocelyne LaGarde
Jocelyne LaGarde (* 1924 in Tahiti, † September 12, 1979 in Papeete, Tahiti) was a French Polynesian actress. Became famous for the amateur actress by her only film role in the Hollywood production of Hawaii (1966 ), which earned her a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination.
Biography
Jocelyne LaGarde was born in 1924 in Tahiti, the largest island of French Polynesia. She was a descendant of Pomaré V., the last king of Tahiti. Your Tahitian name was Tetuanuira. Although she had never worked as an actress and had no knowledge of English, LaGarde received in 1965 the part of the Queen Malama Kanakoa in George Roy Hill's movie Hawaii ( 1966). The period drama starring Julie Andrews and Max von Sydow in the leading roles, based on the eponymous novel by James Michener in 1959 and tells the story of a missionary couple from New England, the mid-19th century to Lahaina, Maui with the problems of the Christianization of the Hawaiian Native is confronted. Lagarde's character was modeled after the real Hawaiian Queen Kaahumanu.
At the time of its discovery, the amateur actress lived in a large, colonial-style house in Papeete, where she lived with an aunt and numerous other relatives. A brother worked as an accountant in Paris. For its time, about 15 million U.S. dollar English-language production, which was filmed in Hawaii and Tahiti from February to October 1965, inter alia, to the venues, the French-speaking Jocelyne LaGarde their dialogue had to phonetically learn with the help of a language teacher. Director George Roy Hill refused to let LaGarde get professional acting classes. You should be as natural as possible to act before the camera and learn only their text by heart. LaGarde had previously known only French films. She counted Jean Delannoy and there was light (1946 ) to their favorite movies and raved for Charles Boyer and Danielle Darrieux. She was known, however, with Marlon Brando and Tarita Teriipaia, the early 1960s had turned the film Meutereu on the Bounty (1962 ) together on Tahiti.
Nearly a year after the end of filming celebrated Hawaii on October 10, 1966 its premiere in the U.S.. To advertise their film, LaGarde had first left their home and traveled to Tahiti Asia, Europe and North America. It was, inter alia, invited in the TV show from Johnny Carson. However, George Roy Hill's staging was hardly popular with critics. Vincent Canby, a journalist for the New York Times, headlined, just one day after the premiere of his film criticism that the plot of the movie would be subordinated to the paradisiacal locations. In fact, had the writers of the film, Dalton Trumbo and Daniel Taradash, for their work resorted to only the section from 1821 to 1840 Michener's epic novel of Hawaii. Nevertheless, the critics praised the performances of the ensemble, especially the amateur actors, including Jocelyne LaGarde belonged. The 1.83 m wide and 136 -pound actress was in 1967 nominated by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and won the award surprising against such well-known American actresses like Geraldine Page (Big Boy - Now you'll man ) or Shelley Winters ( The Alfie ).
Just two months later at the Academy Awards 1967 Hawaii for seven Academy Awards was nominated. From the ensemble cast for Best Supporting Actress was nominated only Jocelyne LaGarde for her role as a tribal queen in the category. However, at the ceremony on 10 April 1967 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, the Polynesierin had the US-American Sandy Dennis (Who 's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ) Admit defeat.
Despite the great success, she earned her first movie role, Jocelyne LaGarde were offered no further film roles more. Then she returned to her homeland ("I 'm going to spend the same life as before. I am happy that I know life that the new generation will not see. [ ... ] Today, everyone must to work to eat. No more nurturing of breadfruit and coconuts. " ) LaGarde died in 1979 at their home on Papeete, Tahiti. To date, it is considered the only actress in the Academy history, which was nominated for her only film appearance for an Academy Award.