Tom Cruise and Dolly Parton are among those to be awarded honorary Oscars at the 16th annual Governors Awards, taking place November 16 at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation Hollywood.
Established by The Academy in 1950, the Honorary Award is given “to honour extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or outstanding service to the Academy”. Recent winners include Samuel L Jackson, Angela Bassett, and the late David Lynch.
Cruise will receive his Honorary Award alongside choreographer and actress Debbie Allen, as well as production designer Wynn Thomas. Parton will receive Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, and Oscar given for “outstanding contributions to humanitarian causes”. Previous winners include Oprah Winfrey and Michael J Fox.
Parton has been known for her charitable work for decades, particularly in the area of child literacy. Her programme, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, has given out over 285Million books globally since 1995.
Tom Cruise has enjoyed success in every decade since breaking through in the ‘80s with films like Risky Business and Top Gun. His numerous successes include Jerry Maguire (1996), Minority Report (2002), Edge Of Tomorrow (2014) and the Mission: Impossible franchise, with the seventh film Final Reckoning currently in cinemas.
Prior to this award, the star had been nominated four times at the Academy Awards, twice for Best Actor (for Born On The Fourth Of July and Jerry Maguire), once for Best Supporting Actor (for Magnolia), and one for Best Picture as the producer of Top Gun Maverick.
Parton is a legendary musician and actor, known for chart hits such as ‘Jolene’ and ‘I Will Always Love You’. On the big screen, she enjoyed two box office hits in the ‘80s with 9 To 5 and Steel Magnolias. She has been nominated for two Oscars previously, both for Best Original Song.
Now in his 60s, Cruise remains busy with a couple of projects on the horizon. Filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie recently revealed that Top Gun 3 was “in the bag”, while the actor himself says he remains “very serious” about a spin-off film featuring his Tropic Thunder character Les Grossman.