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NEW YORK (AP) — Should any of this year's Oscar winners use the occasion to promote a political cause, you can thank — or blame — Marlon Brando.
Brando's role as Vito Corleone in "The Godfather" remains a signature performance in movie history. But his response to winning an Academy Award was truly groundbreaking. Upending a decades-long tradition of tears, nervous humor, thank-yous and general good will, he sent actress Sacheen Littlefeather in his place to the 1973 ceremony to protest Hollywood's treatment of Native Americans.
In the years since, winners have brought up everything from climate change (Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Revenant," 2016) to Planned Parenthood (John Irving, screenplay winner in 2000) to equal pay for women, Patricia Arquette, a winner in 2015 for "Boyhood."
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