{"id":287345,"date":"2023-03-15T08:39:52","date_gmt":"2023-03-15T13:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=287345"},"modified":"2023-03-14T17:40:06","modified_gmt":"2023-03-14T22:40:06","slug":"actor-down-syndrome-history-oscars-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/actor-down-syndrome-history-oscars-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"Actor with Down syndrome celebrates historic Oscars win on his birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Belfast actor James Martin has become the first person with Down syndrome to win an Academy Award \u2014 and in a special twist, he celebrated the win on his birthday.<\/p>\n

Martin starred in the short film “An Irish Goodbye,” which won in the best live action short category. Previously, Martin said he “burst out crying<\/a>” when he found out the film had been nominated, and that he hoped the nomination would encourage other actors with developmental disabilities. “I would say to people who have autism, Down\u2019s Syndrome or some physical disability, I would say go for it, act your heart out,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just one of those things, don\u2019t let people say \u2018you can\u2019t act\u2019, because you can act. It\u2019s just one of those things in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also promised to arrive at the Oscars in style. “My dad has a lovely leopard-skin jacket that I might wear at the Oscars and hopefully a nice dicky bow and a nice shirt of mine; it\u2019ll go down a treat, hopefully,” he said.<\/p>\n

Sunday, when the film won, Martin took the stage to accept, alongside directors Ross White and Tom Berkeley, and costar Seamus O’Hara \u2014\u00a0and as promised, Martin wore the leopard-print jacket.<\/p>\n

After giving a brief thank-you speech, White then turned his attention to Martin. “There’s something very important we’d like to speak about as well,” he said, with Berkeley adding, “This award is actually the second most important thing about today, because it’s this man’s birthday. He’s out here in Hollywood, wearing a leopard print suit jacket. We’d love to use the rest of our time up here to sing for James.”<\/p>\n

So the 3,000 people in the Dolby Theatre for the Oscars sang “Happy Birthday” to Martin.<\/p>\n