Month: February 2011

Twenty years after becoming the first African American to win two Oscars, Russell Williams, SOC/BA ’74, returned to Hollywood for the 83rd Academy Awards to commemorate that historic occasion.

Williams won Oscars for his sound work on Glory and Dances with Wolves. Since 2002, he’s been an artist in residence at American University’s School of Communication.

“When I was a sound person, very few people wanted to hear what I had to say when I walked in the room,” Williams said, joking with WJLA-ABC 7’s Arch Campbell in an interview at the Kodak Theatre, site of the Oscarcast. “As a professor, they generally start off wanting to hear what I have to say.”

See Arch Cambell, ABC-7 and Russell Williams on the Red Carpet.

In addition to Glory and Dances with Wolves, Williams has also worked on many other films, including Field of Dreams. The District native has won two Emmy’s and is a producer as well.

Williams has been no stranger to Hollywood since joining the School of Communication, where he runs SOC’s Summer in L.A program.

Check out Williams’s tweets about his 20th-anniversary return to the Academy Award ceremony.

Listen to Russell Williams on WAMU’s The Kojo Nnamdi Show.

As seen in American Today.

It’s certainly debatable that Twitter during the Oscars was more entertaining than the Oscars themselves. Here are some of BestWeekEver’s favorite Oscar tweets.