Why Dolly Parton is getting an honorary Oscar alongside Tom Cruise
Dolly Parton holds many titles: 'Queen of Country Music,' 'Dreamer-in-Chief' and 'the Book Lady' to name a few. Now she can add Oscar winner to the list.
It's been 44 years since Parton was nominated for her first Academy Award. She didn't win that year, but come November, Parton will have an Oscar to put in her trophy case.
Parton, Tom Cruise, Debbie Allen and designer Wynn Thomas will receive honorary career awards at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Governors Awards on Nov. 16, USA TODAY reported.
"This year's Governors Awards will celebrate four legendary individuals whose extraordinary careers and commitment to our filmmaking community continue to leave a lasting impact," Academy President Janet Yang said in a statement.
Parton's Oscar will be extra special because it's not for her acting or songwriting, or even for her work in the movie industry. It's for how she has impacted the movie industry through philanthropy.
Parton is the 2025 recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award 'for her unwavering dedication to charitable efforts," Yang said.
The special award is 'given to an individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry by promoting human welfare and contributing to rectifying inequities,' according to the official Oscars website.
Parton created the Dollywood Foundation in 1988 to decrease the high school dropout rate in Sevier County. The foundation launched the Imagination Library program in 1995 to provide free books to children monthly; that program has expanded globally and has gifted over 284 million books.
She also has donated millions for natural disaster relief and medical research, including $1 million after devastating floods in East Tennessee caused by Hurricane Helene last year and $1 million for the research that helped to create the Moderna vaccine for COVID-19 during the 2020 global pandemic.
'I try to do as much good as I can in the area that I've been confined to, and if I'm a light, I hope so, because I ask God to let me shine. Let me do and say things that would be uplifting,' Parton told Knox News in 2023.
Parton has earned two competitive Oscar nominations during her career, both in the best original song category. The first was for '9 to 5' in 1981 from the movie of the same name, and the most recent was for 'Travelin' Thru" in 2006 from "Transamerica."
Devarrick Turner is a trending news reporter. Email devarrick.turner@knoxnews.com. On X, formerly known as Twitter @dturner1208.
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Dolly Parton is getting an honorary Oscar for her philanthropy
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