Quite a lot has changed since February 2005: YouTube hadn’t yet launched, Hurricane Katrina wouldn’t hit until August, and Disneyland was about to celebrate its 50th anniversary. But things were happening on Feb. 27, 2005, at the 77th Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles.
It was the first Oscar ceremony where more than one Black performer was vying for the lead actor trophy. And one of them took home the golden statue: Jamie Foxx. Foxx went into the evening the heavy favorite to win for his performance as Ray Charles in “Ray.
” Oscar voters love biopics, and Charles (who died several months before the film was released) was a beloved musical icon. Foxx also was nominated in the supporting actor category for his portrayal of a taxi driver in “Collateral,” though he didn’t win that trophy. Foxx brought his daughter Corinne, then 11, to the ceremony as his date.
After Charlize Theron read his name as the victor, Foxx hugged Corinne and took to the stage, keeping the energy going by getting the audience to do Charles’ signature call-and-response of “oooh!” and “aaah!” Foxx thanked director Taylor Hackford for “taking a chance on this film,” and proceeded to give shout-outs to the first Black actor to win in the category, Sidney Poitier, and Halle Berry, the first Black performer to win a lead actress Oscar. He also thanked Estelle Marie Talley, his grandmother. “She was my first acting teacher.
She told me, ‘Stand up straight. Put your.
