A dog was once nominated for an Oscar.
By the end of the 1970s, Hollywood screenwriter Robert Towne had reached the pinnacle of his profession by way of his celebrated work on classics such as Chinatown and Shampoo. Set to make his directing debut with the sports drama Personal Best, he was also heavily invested in a film adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan books, which he intended to direct.
Of course, it's a dog-eat-dog world in the high-stakes business of moviemaking, and after a 1980 Screen Actors Guild strike halted production of Personal Best, Towne sought out independent financing in a deal that ultimately forced him to relinquish his rights to the Tarzan property. And when Personal Best flopped at the box office in 1982, Warner Bros. handed Tarzan to director Hugh Hudson, who subsequently brought in writer Michael Austin to revise Towne's sprawling, unfinished script.
Unhappy with the wholesale changes to his story, Towne took a page from the disgruntled directors who disown their films under the pseudonym of Alan Smithee and insisted on being credited as "P.H. Vazak" — the name of his Hungarian sheepdog — for his contributions to the script. Lo and behold, the completed Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes garnered a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar nomination in 1985 for the duo of Michael Austin and P.H. Vazak. The awards ceremony seemed ripe for comedy, but ultimately human Peter Shaffer received the trophy for Amadeus.
While our favorite screen animals are normally excluded from Oscar recognition, they once enjoyed their own annual awards ceremony, complete with Hollywood pageantry and celebrity. Conceived by the American Humane Association, the Picture Animal Top Star of the Year (PATSY) Awards debuted in 1951 with Ronald Reagan as emcee and Jimmy Stewart on hand to award the night’s biggest prize to Francis the Talking Mule. The Performing Animal Television Star of the Year division was added in 1958, providing a stage for stalwarts like Lassie and Mister Ed to receive their due, and by 1973, the awards were being broadcast nationally. Sadly, the PATSYs were canceled after the 1987 ceremony, although the concept of throwing a bone to the industry’s best four-legged thespians has enjoyed a comeback in recent years in the guise of the PAWSCARS.
