Stanley Over Oscar: Best Actor Watches NHL Playoff Game Rather Than Accept Award In 1971

On Sunday, March 15, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences aired its 98th annual cinematic awards show, the Oscars, which many of you probably skipped to watch hockey.

On Thursday, April 15, 1971, legendary actor George C. Scott did the same thing, only he was an Oscar nominee missing his own ceremony for a Stanley Cup playoff game some 2,500 miles away.

Scott was nominated for best actor for playing George S. Patton in Patton, a biopic about the fiery U.S. Army general who led crucial campaigns during the Second World War. With similar features, especially hard-headedness, Scott perfectly captured the general. Or perhaps the general captured Scott.

In direct disobedience of Academy marching orders, Scott had rejected any nominations and decided to go AWOL from the ceremony.

"The public display of actors sitting like children waiting for their rewards and the contrived suspense of the announcements is pure nonsense," he told London's Evening Standard.

Recognition for great work is marvellous, Scott later said on 60 Minutes, but he refused to partake in a "two-hour television spectacular where everyone is put on a kind of meat parade…"

So in 1971, the 43-year-old Scott chose a different two-hour meat parade: Game 6 of the quarterfinal between the New York Rangers and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Rangers were up 3-2 in the series and looking to clinch at Maple Leaf Gardens.

Scott was nominated for four Academy Awards, but his only win came for playing Patton in 1970.

While Scott's shiny co-stars filled Los Angeles' Dorothy Chandler Pavilion that Thursday night, he lounged before a TV at his farm in South Salem, N.Y., presumably cheering for the homestate Rangers.

His then-wife Colleen Dewhurst, who hailed from Montreal and whose father played major sports in Ottawa, had allegiance elsewhere. That allegiance was, in a roundabout way, with her husband.

Despite being Canadian, Dewhurst didn't join Scott for televised hockey playoffs. Instead, she and their sons watched the Oscars on TV in a different room, rooting for Scott even if he wouldn't.

When Goldie Hawn opened the envelope and incredulously read Scott's name, his family erupted in cheers.

"When Dad won, we all started screaming and rushed upstairs to his bedroom," Scott's son Campbell said, per Page Six. "(Dad) was plainly sound asleep. He just didn't care."

Another account tells of Scott's sons waking him with a mock-Oscar: an Abraham Lincoln statue engraved with "God A'mighty, free, free at last."

After the interruption, Scott "shrugged that since we'd woken him up anyway, he might as well turn on the TV," Campbell said. "And he resumed watching the hockey game."

But the game was surely over. It had been scheduled for 8 p.m. EST, compared to 10 p.m. EST for the Oscars. Though there must have been some overlap between both events, the Rangers' Bob Nevin ended the game – and series – in overtime long before Scott won and his forlorn statuette was snagged by Patton's producer. The less-contrived competition decided, Scott had taken a victory nap.

One of Scott's many roles was playing Scrooge, which seems to fit his famously gruff personality. (Imagn/USA Today Images)

Though Marlon Brando declining his Oscar in 1973 (as a protest of Hollywood's portrayal of Native Americans) is more famous, Scott was the first actor to refuse an Academy Award, and he did so while dozing in the warm afterglow of a Rangers series-clincher.

No NHLer has snubbed the Stanley Cup, but the Montreal Hockey Club did boycott the inaugural 1893 ceremony when the Cup was an amateur award. That, however, is a story for another issue.

By Shane Fraser

This story appeared in The Hockey News' popular Playoff Special 2026 issue.

In our 2026 Playoff Special, we preview each NHL team hunting for Lord Stanley's Cup and profile several of the stars looking to make a big splash this spring.

Also in the issue, we visit with Dominik Hasek in Czechia to find out why he's compelled to speak his mind, and we commemorate the Rangers' centennial by counting down their top 100 players of all-time.

You can order this issue now at The Hockey News' online store, and pick a free issue when you subscribe today at THN.com/free.