Stars Who Gave Away Their Awards

Winning a major award is usually treated as a career milestone.

But not every star keeps the trophy on a shelf.

Some hand awards to family members. Some lend them to museums. Others return them as a public statement. In a few cases, the award becomes less about personal glory and more about memory, protest, or sharing the moment with someone else.

Here are stars who gave away, returned, loaned, or placed their awards in someone else’s care.

Riz Ahmed

Riz Ahmed won an Oscar in 2022 for The Long Goodbye, the live-action short film he made with Aneil Karia.

After the ceremony, he did not keep the statuette with him for long. Ahmed told PEOPLE that he handed the Oscar straight to his mother because she “gets first dibs” on that kind of thing. He also joked that he had not seen it in a while and hoped she knew where it was.

Emma Stone

Emma Stone has won two Best Actress Oscars, but she does not keep them close to herself.

When asked where she keeps her award, Stone told PEOPLE that her mother holds on to it. After her 2024 win for Poor Things, that meant her mom was responsible for two Oscar statuettes.

Jennifer Lawrence

Jennifer Lawrence won Best Actress for Silver Linings Playbook in 2013.

At first, she tried hiding the Oscar around her home because having it out felt strange. Eventually, the award ended up at her parents’ home in Kentucky, where it reportedly sits on the family piano.

Alicia Vikander

Alicia Vikander won Best Supporting Actress for The Danish Girl in 2016.

Rather than keeping the Oscar with her right away, she gave it to a friend in Los Angeles while she was moving and working. The friend’s daughter even sent her photo updates to prove the statuette was being taken care of.

Robert De Niro

Robert De Niro has two Oscars, but he does not keep them casually displayed in his house.

In a 2024 interview, De Niro said his Academy Awards were in the care of a team at the University of Texas. He clarified that he had not donated them, but said the university preserves and archives things well.

Susan Sarandon

Susan Sarandon won Best Actress for Dead Man Walking.

For a while, her Oscar lived in what her family called the “famous bathroom.” Later, she said the award had gone “on tour” because the Museum of Natural History in Chicago borrowed it for a gold exhibition.

Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise returned his three Golden Globe awards in 2021.

The move came during controversy around the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, including criticism of its lack of Black members at the time. Cruise’s decision was widely read as a public protest rather than a rejection of the work the awards recognized.

Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando won Best Actor for The Godfather, but he did not accept the Oscar in person.

Instead, Sacheen Littlefeather appeared at the 1973 Academy Awards on his behalf and declined the award. The moment was connected to Brando’s protest of Hollywood’s treatment of Native Americans and the events at Wounded Knee.

George C. Scott

George C. Scott also refused an Oscar.

He won Best Actor for Patton, but had already made clear that he did not want to participate in the Academy Awards competition. Reports have long noted that he objected to the idea of actors competing against one another.

Clark Gable

Clark Gable’s Oscar has one of old Hollywood’s most unusual afterlives.

Reports about the statuette say Gable gave his It Happened One Night Oscar to his godson, Richard Lang. The award was later returned to Gable’s family and eventually became part of a larger preservation story after Steven Spielberg bought it and returned it to the Academy.

Lupita Nyong’o

Lupita Nyong’o did not exactly give away her Oscar, but she did make it unusually shareable.

After winning Best Supporting Actress for 12 Years a Slave, she said her Oscar was on a shelf and that guests were welcome to hold it.

Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks has two Best Actor Oscars, but he keeps them in a very family-centered place.

He has said the awards sit on the family trophy shelf next to soccer trophies and even a “World’s Greatest Mom” trophy.

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