Sacheen Littlefeather, Best Known For Her Impassioned Speech Rejecting Marlon Brando’s Oscar, Has Died At 75

Sacheen Littlefeather died on October 2, 2022, after a long battle with breast cancer — and left behind an incredible legacy of activism.

One of the most shocking moments in Academy Awards history came in 1973, when Native American activist Sacheen Littlefather declined to accept Marlon Brando’s Best Actor Oscar on the actor’s behalf. Almost 50 years after taking her brave stand, on Oct. 2, 2022, Littlefeather died at the age of 75.

According to the Washington Post, the activist died from breast cancer. She had previously described her cancer as “terminal” in a 2021 Facebook post.

For Littlefeather, speaking out at the Oscars came with significant costs. Not only was she booed during the awards ceremony and reportedly shot at out outside Brando’s home, but she also later saw her own Hollywood career dry up.

Though she largely stayed outside of the public eye since the 1970s, Sacheen Littlefeather’s brief appearance at the Academy Awards in 1973 left an enduring impact on Hollywood and the United States. She and others successfully pushed for more accurate and nuanced depictions of Native Americans in film and television.

This her story.

How Sacheen Littlefeather Came To Speak Out At The Oscars

Born Marie Louise Cruz on Nov. 14, 1946, in Salinas, California, Littlefeather grew up with a white mother and a White Mountain Apache and Yaqui father. As the Washington Post reports, she was bullied for her dark skin and black hair as a child and joined the American Indian Movement in her 20s, when she changed her name to Sacheen Littlefeather as a nod to her heritage.

While living in San Francisco, she struck up a friendship with her neighbor, Francis Ford Coppola, who directed The Godfather. He introduced Littlefeather to his leading man, Marlon Brando. And when Brando was nominated for an Oscar for his role as Vito Corleone in the film, Brando and Littlefeather hatched a plan to decline the award if he won.

As CNN reports, Brando wanted to protest how Native Americans were portrayed in Hollywood movies and draw attention to the clashes between Native American activists and federal agents in Wounded Knee, South Dakota. And so, when Brando won the Best Actor Oscar, it was Sacheen Littlefeather who took to the stage.

Wearing a buckskin dress and moccasins, Littlefeather declined the Oscar. She called out Hollywood for its often offensive and stereotypical depictions of Native Americans and called for the audience to pay more attention to the occupation of Wounded Knee.

“I beg at this time that I have not intruded upon this evening and that we will in the future, our hearts and our understandings will meet with love and generosity,” Littlefeather said, according to the Los Angeles Times, as the audience booed and cheered. She later recalled that actor John Wayne tried to storm the stage during her speech, although some film scholars have disputed this.

The Aftermath Of Sacheen Littlefeather’s Speech

Frazer Harrison/Getty ImagesSacheen Littlefeather in September 2022, shortly before her death from breast cancer.

In the aftermath of her appearance at the Oscars, Sacheen Littlefeather saw her fledgling acting career dry up. She’d been blacklisted by Hollywood studios — or, as Littlefeather called it, “redlisted.” Stories spread that she was a stripper and not really Native American, and Brando later expressed regret for putting her in a vulnerable position.

“I was distressed that people should have booed and whistled and stomped, even though perhaps it was directed at myself,” he said on the Dick Cavett Show months later, according to the Los Angeles Times. “They should have at least had the courtesy to listen to her.”

Though Littlefeather largely dropped out of the public eye following her Oscar appearance, the Academy Awards never fully forgot her. In 2022, almost 50 years after she declined Brando’s Oscar, the organization formally apologized to her for the audience’s reaction to her speech and for the years of mistreatment that followed.

“The emotional burden you have lived through and the cost to your own career in our industry are irreparable,” former Academy President David Rubin wrote Littlefeather, according to CNN. “For too long the courage you showed has been unacknowledged. For this, we offer both our deepest apologies and our sincere admiration.”

Sacheen Littlefeather accepted the apology, joking that Native Americans were “patient” and that they use humor as a way to survive.

And despite being best remembered for her and Brando’s Oscar moment, Littlefeather went on to tirelessly fight Native American unemployment, alcoholism, and AIDS for decades.

Later recalling that night in 1973, she told A.frame that she’d mounted the Oscar stage in 1973 with a simple but sincere request.

“All we were asking, and I was asking, was, ‘Let us be employed. Let us be ourselves. Let us play ourselves in films. Let us be a part of your industry, producing, directing, writing,’” she said. “‘Don’t write our stories for us. Let us write our own stories. Let us be who we are.’”

After reading about the death of Sacheen Littlefeather, discover the story of Iron Eyes Cody, the famous Native American actor who wasn’t Native American. Or look through these stunning portraits of Native Americans in the early 20th century.