On the night of the 1951 Oscar ceremony, José Ferrer wasn’t even in Los Angeles. A stage actor through and through, he was in New York, rehearsing his latest play with Gloria Swanson. So when Helen Hayes announced that he had won Best Actor for his performance in Cyrano de Bergerac, Ferrer delivered his acceptance speech from the La Zamba nightclub, in Manhattan, with the help of an open radio circuit.
You can hear smattered yells and cheers the moment he’s patched through—an iconic photo of the evening shows Swanson standing up from her seat next to Ferrer in excitement, gloved hands over her head, as the night’s Best Actress winner, Judy Holliday, wraps her arms around him for a hug. “From the bottom of my heart I thank you for what I consider a vote of confidence and an act of faith,” Ferrer told the audience. “And believe me, I will not let you down.”
That phrasing carried extra meaning, for just as Ferrer was being handed Hollywood’s highest honor—making him the first Latino actor to win an Oscar—he was being investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee for possible ties to communism. The dichotomy of this moment, both a coronation and a threat, perfectly encapsulated Ferrer’s uneasy place in Hollywood, where he was often considered too left-wing, too snobby, too difficult. It was a place he’d occupy even in death, when his history-making Oscar disappeared.
Ferrer was the extremely accomplished son of Rafael Ferrer and Maria Providencia Cintron, who moved their family from Puerto Rico to America when José was six. He fenced, played piano at the concert level, and got into Princeton at the age of 14. After college, Ferrer began working in theater, building experience as a stage manager in Suffern before transitioning to Broadway. He found early success in a 1940 production of the comedy Charley’s Aunt, but it was his turn as Iago in a 1943 production of Othello—which also starred Paul Robeson and Ferrer’s then-wife Uta Hagen—that made him a true star. He broke into Hollywood five years later, with his performance as the Dauphin in the 1948 Joan of Arc. It was his first movie role, and he was immediately nominated for an Oscar.
When Ferrer wasn’t working, he lent his name to various progressive causes. He fought against segregation in D.C., attended “crisis” meetings on atomic energy and foreign policy, and signed a letter in 1947 condemning the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). The letter called the HUAC investigations into Hollywood, which had already generated a “blacklist” of entertainers considered unemployable due to communist leanings, “morally wrong.”