Cher

Cher wins the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her portrayal of Loretta Castorini, a Brooklyn bookkeeper who falls in love with the brother (Nicholas Cage) of the man she’s supposed to marry, in Norman Jewison’s Moonstruck. Paul Newman (with Chevy Chase) presents the award.

. . . . When I was little my mother said, “I want you to be something.” And I guess this represents twenty-three or twenty-four years of my work, and I’ve never won anything before from my peers. I’m really, really happy. I’d like to thank everyone I worked on with the movie [sic]. They were really fabulous. It was really a great experience for me . . . . And I don’t think that this means that I am somebody, but I guess I’m on my way. Thank you.