Whoopi Goldberg – (1991 supporting actress winner for “Ghost”): “We watched every year. We thought Sidney should have won for ‘In the Heat of the Night.’ From the time that Hattie McDaniel won to the time Sidney won was how long? It’s kind of amazing that in our lifetime, we saw things shift. – I called my mom, who did not watch, because she didn’t want to see me disappointed. And I said, ‘But I won.’ And she was very happy. I had been making these kinds of speeches my whole life — in the mirror.”
Louis Gossett Jr. – (1983 best supporting actor winner for “An Officer and a Gentleman”): “Sidney was born a Bahamian. So in the records, I’m the first African-American man to win the Oscar. It’s a piece of history. From then on, it was a reality trip, because I got a lot of work in television, but hardly any movies. To this day, I’ve never made $1 million for a movie. I like to think my role was to open the doors for the Denzel Washingtons, the Morgan Freemans, the Forest Whitakers.”
