This Mexican Filmmaker’s Six-Pack Inspired The Oscar Statue

That’s right, Oscar’s real name is actually Emilio.

When it comes to the Academy Awards, there’s nothing more iconic than the actual Oscar award. That’s right, it’s not Björk’s swan dress or Jennifer Lopez’s beloved pink gown, when people think of the Oscar Awards it’s always the rip-chested statue with broad shoulders and muscled legs. The art deco god that everyone in entertainment dreams of one-day holding: the Oscar award.

But, as familiar as he may be, it turns out we don’t know Oscar very well.

Emilio Fernandez, born in Coahuila, Mexico, became the face of the Academy Awards thanks to a close friend.

Fernandez grew up during the Mexican Revolution and according to PRI, later left high school to become an officer for the Huertista rebels. In 1925, he was captured and sentenced to 20 years in prison but managed to escape his sentence and fled to Los Angeles.

Soon enough he began working as an extra in Hollywood and picked up the nickname “El Indio” when he met Dolores Del Rio, the silent film actress and wife of MGM Art Director Cedric Gibbons. the nickname was terrible but Del Rio and Fernandez became friends and when her husband was given an opportunity to design the award statuette fate happened.

Del Rio suggested Fernandez as a model for the statue and her husband agreed.

Fernandez’s life became much greater than a statue though, he became one of the biggest stars of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. He worked in numerous film productions in Mexico and in Hollywood starring in the 1944 film María Candelaria, the 1947 film Río Escondido and Vìctimas del Pecado made in 1951.