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1936 — 2010
The entertainment awards divide the city's near-misses from its wins with unusual neatness. At the Academy Awards, no winner was born or raised in Fort Wayne; the city's closest approach is its most famous acting export. Carole Lombard, born Jane Alice Peters in Fort Wayne on 6 October 1908, received the only Academy Award nomination of her career — Best Actress, for My Man Godfrey — at the awards honoring the films of 1936; the Oscar went to Luise Rainer. What the industry gave Lombard instead came sixty years later: the American Film Institute's 1999 roster of the twenty-five greatest female screen legends of classic Hollywood placed her twenty-third. At the Emmys, the city has a win: Shelley Long, raised in Fort Wayne and a graduate of South Side High School, won the 1983 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series as Cheers' Diane Chambers, in a run of five nominations — four as lead (1983–86) and a 1993 guest nomination for the finale.
The nominations without wins are part of the ledger too: Dick York, born in Fort Wayne, was nominated in 1968 for Bewitched, and Jenna Fischer, born in Fort Wayne, in 2007 for The Office. At the Tonys and the Grammys, one name holds both lines. Heather Headley came to Fort Wayne from Trinidad at fifteen in 1989 and graduated from Northrop High School; she won the 2000 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, in the title role of Aida, and the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Gospel Album, for Audience of One. She is the only Tony winner and the only Grammy winner the rosters give the city. The profiles of Lombard, Long, York, Fischer and Headley are in the People sections; the entries here are the awards as the Academy, the Television Academy, the Tony Awards and the Recording Academy record them.
Sources:
- Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, awards record — 9th Academy Awards: Carole Lombard, nominee, Best Actress, My Man Godfrey (1936); the award to Luise Rainer.
- American Film Institute, AFI's 100 Years…100 Stars (1999) — Lombard, No. 23 among the female screen legends.
- Television Academy, awards record — Shelley Long, winner, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, 1983 (Cheers); the York (1968) and Fischer (2007) nominations.
- Tony Awards and Recording Academy records — Heather Headley, Best Actress in a Musical, 2000 (Aida); Best Contemporary R&B Gospel Album, 2010 (Audience of One).
- The People sections of this history for the five profiles.