The Academy Awards ceremony has always tried to avoid controversy, but on 27 March 1973, during the first Oscars show broadcast by satellite around the world, Sacheen Littlefeather came to the dais to receive the best actor award on behalf of Marlon Brando.
Littlefeather raised a hand to decline the Oscar statue being presented by Roger Moore. She held up an eight-page speech Brando had written for her, but she had been told by the show’s producer, Howard W Koch, that she would have only 60 seconds to speak, or else be arrested.
