The 30th Academy Awards ceremony was held on March 26, 1958, to honor the best films of 1957.
Two violent deaths surrounded the Oscars during this ceremony. A plane crash took the life of producer Mike Todd, ending the then-latest marriage of Elizabeth Taylor, at that time a contender for the film Raintree County. Lana Turner, in the running for Peyton Place, would soon be embroiled in a major scandal when Johnny Stompanato, her boyfriend, was killed in her Beverly Hills home.[1] The Best Actress award, however, was won by a relative newcomer, Joanne Woodward, who made her own dress for the occasion, causing presenter Joan Crawford to remark that she was "setting the cause of Hollywood glamour back twenty years by making her own clothes".[1]
Peyton Place tied the record for the most nominations without a win (9) set by The Little Foxes (1941). This record would stand until 1977 when The Turning Point received 11 nominations without a win, which is the record to date (The Color Purple tied the record in 1985). Peyton Place also set the record for most unsuccessful acting nominations, with five; this record has been tied once, by Tom Jones at the 36th Academy Awards.
For the first time in Oscar history, during the time period (1944–2008) when Best Picture was limited to five nominees, the Best Director nominees aligned completely with the Best Picture nominees. This would only occur four more times before the Best Picture category's re-expansion in 2009. As of the 96th Academy Awards, Designing Woman is the last film to win the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay when nominated solely in that category.