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As It Was: Klamath Falls Native Son Wins Oscar Late in Life

James Ivory saw his first movie when he was five at a theater in Klamath Falls, Ore.  Eighty-four years later, he has become the oldest person ever to receive an Oscar at the Academy Awards.

Born in Berkeley, Calif., on June 7, 1928, Ivory moved with his family to Klamath Falls.  He graduated from Klamath Union High School in 1946, received a University of Oregon fine arts degree in 1951 and a University of Southern California master’s degree in cinema in 1957.

This year’s Oscar for Best Adapted Screen Play went to Ivory for the movie titled “Call Me by Your Name.” Ivory has directed more than 30 full-length movies, most about well-off people with emotional problems, including “A Room with a View” and “Remains of the Day.” 

Ivory has been nominated for four Oscars, winning one.  He has been a partner for 50 years in Merchant Ivory Productions whose films have won six Academy Awards. 

Ivory is spending time this summer, as he has for 80 years, at the family’s Lake of the Woods cabin in the Southern Oregon Cascades west of Klamath Falls.
 

Sources:  Source for the above quotes: Roxborough, Scott. "James Ivory on His Film Legacy and Adapting 'Call Me by Your Name'." The Hollywood Reporter, 19 Jan. 2018, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/james-ivory-adapting-call-me-by-your-name-his-film-legacy-1075848. Accessed 17 Apr. 2018; Hubbard, Saul. Daily Tidings [originally published in Eugene Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore.], 8 Mar. 2018 [Ashland, Ore.], p. A12; "James Ivory." Wikipedia, Wikipedia Foundation, Inc., 3 Apr. 2018, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Ivory. Accessed 17 Apr. 2018; "Merchant Ivory: Fifty Years of Filmmaking History." Merchantivory.com, Merchant Ivory Productions, www.merchantivory.com/about/james-ivory. Accessed 17 Apr. 20; Juillerat, Lee. "James Ivory — who has Klamath County connections — wins Oscar for adapted screenplay writer." Herald and News, 4 Mar. 2018 [Klamath Falls, Ore.], https://www.heraldandnews.com/news/local_news/james-ivory-who-has-klamath-county-connections-wins-oscar-for/article_fd613f73-5d3f-5e74-8b64-3ffd96798f64.html. Accessed 17 Apr. 2018.

Kernan Turner is the Southern Oregon Historical Society’s volunteer editor and coordinator of the As It Was series broadcast daily by Jefferson Public Radio. A University of Oregon journalism graduate, Turner was a reporter for the Coos Bay World and managing editor of the Democrat-Herald in Albany before joining the Associated Press in Portland in 1967. Turner spent 35 years with the AP before retiring in Ashland.