“I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell, I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!”
News anchors Walter Cronkite and John Chancellor were both approached by director Sidney Lumet to play Howard Beale, but they declined. Henry Fonda turned down the role saying it was “too hysterical”. James Stewart turned it down because of the strong language. But Cronkite’s daughter agreed to play left-wing radical Mary Ann Gifford – a character loosely based on Patricia Hearst. United Artists agreed to make this film despite having just settled a lawsuit from producers Paddy Chayefsky and Howard Gottfried that challenged UA’s right to lease their previous film, The Hospital (1971), to ABC television. Later, UA backed out fearing the subject matter was too controversial. But then MGM agreed to make the movie, so UA quickly did a reversal, choosing to co-produce the film with the competing studio. Six years later, MGM bought UA outright after their debacle with Heaven’s Gate (1980), a financial and public relations nightmare that prompted UA’s parent company, Transamerica, to leave the film business. Peter Finch (Howard Beale) died before the Academy Awards ceremony, making him the only actor to ever receive an Oscar posthumously. Ned Beatty (Arthur Jensen) once remarked that actors should never turn down work. “I worked a day on Network and got an Oscar nomination.” Beatrice Straight was on screen for just five minutes and forty seconds, making her’s the shortest performance to ever win an Oscar. Network is one of only two films to win three Oscars for acting. The other is A Streetcar Named Desire (1951).
