2015 Governors Awards
Gena Rowlands and Spike Lee
Honorary Award recipients Gena Rowlands and Spike Lee attend the Academy's 7th Annual Governors Awards in the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Calif., on Saturday, November 14, 2015.
The two - along with Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award recipient Debbie Reynolds - were honored by the Academy for lifetime achievement.
Credit: Matt Petit/© AMPAS
Gena Rowlands"
With more than 100 film and TV appearances throughout a remarkable six-decade career, Rowland, 85, has captivated viewers for six decades, embodying dramatic, unconventional and offbeat characters of startling honesty, most famously a mother experiencing a devastating and volatile emotional breakdown in John Cassavetes' "A Woman Under the Influence" (1974).
Rowlands has been nominated twice for a Best Actress Oscar, for "A Woman Under the Influence" and "Gloria" (1980). She has also won four Emmy Awards and two Golden Globes.
Credit: Cine-Source
One of Hollywood's great triple-threat performers, Debbie Reynolds, 83, has been acting, singing and dancing for nearly 65 years. Launched to stardom at age 19 by appearing in the classic "Singin' in the Rain," the Oscar-nominated actress enjoyed international success in the movies and TV, on the Broadway stage, and in Las Vegas revues.
She has also been an invaluable supporter of the Thalians, an industry philanthropic organization devoted to mental health issues (including autism, Alzheimer's, PTSD, addictions and depression), raising tens of millions of dollars over the past six decades.
Pictured: Reynolds in "I Love Melvin" (1953).
Credit: MGM
The features, documentaries and music videos of the Brooklyn-based Lee, 58, have been a catalyzing force within the American independent film movement and a shot-across-the-bow of traditional Hollywood studios.
His most critically-lauded films include "She's Gotta Have It," "Do the Right Thing" (for which he received a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award nomination), "Malcolm X," "Clockers" and the Oscar-nominated documentary, "4 Little Girls."
Credit: Island Pictures
Honorary Award recipient Spike Lee (right), with his family - son Jackson Lee, daughter Satchel Lee, and wife Tonya Lewis Lee - attend the Academy's 7th Annual Governors Awards in the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Saturday, November 14, 2015.
Actress Cate Blanchett ("Carol") attends the Academy's 7th Annual Governors Awards in the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Saturday, November 14, 2015.
Gena Rowlands and Cate Blanchett
Honorary Award recipient Gena Rowlands and actress Cate Blanchett attend the Academy's 7th Annual Governors Awards in the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Saturday, November 14, 2015.
Actress Carey Mulligan ("Suffragette") attends the Academy's 7th Annual Governors Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Calif., Saturday, November 14, 2015.
Actor Jason Segel ("The End of the Tour") attends the Academy's 7th Annual Governors Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Calif., Saturday, November 14, 2015.
Actress Saoirse Ronan ("Brooklyn") attends the Academy's 7th Annual Governors Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Calif., Saturday, November 14, 2015.
Ian McKellen and Laura Linney
Actors Ian McKellen and Laura Linney ("Mr. Holmes") attend the Academy's 7th Annual Governors Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Calif., Saturday, November 14, 2015.
Credit: Richard Harbaugh/© AMPAS
Actress Brie Larson ("Room") attends the Academy's 7th Annual Governors Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Calif., Saturday, November 14, 2015.
Actress Teyonah Parris ("Chi-raq") attends the Academy's 7th Annual Governors Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Calif., Saturday, November 14, 2015.
Harvey Keitel and Daphna Kastner
Actor Harvey Keitel ("Youth") and Daphna Kastner attend the Academy's 7th Annual Governors Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Calif., Saturday, November 14, 2015.
Honorary Oscars
From left: Director F. Gary Gray, Ice Cube, Kimberly Woodruff and actor O'Shea Jackson Jr. ("Straight Outta Compton") attend the Academy's 7th Annual Governors Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Calif., Saturday, November 14, 2015.
Idris Elba ("Beasts of No Nation") attends the Academy's 7th Annual Governors Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Calif., Saturday, November 14, 2015.
Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz
Daniel Craig ("Spectre") and Rachel Weisz ("Youth") attend the Academy's 7th Annual Governors Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Calif., Saturday, November 14, 2015.
Sunrise Coigney and Mark Ruffalo
Sunrise Coigney and Mark Ruffalo ("Spotlight") attend the Academy's 7th Annual Governors Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Calif., Saturday, November 14, 2015.
Peter Fonda and Jane Fonda
Actor Peter Fonda (left) and actress Jane Fonda ("Youth") attend the Academy's 7th Annual Governors Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Calif., Saturday, November 14, 2015.
Director Danny Boyle ("Steve Jobs") attends the Academy's 7th Annual Governors Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Calif., Saturday, November 14, 2015.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw ("Concussion") attends the Academy's 7th Annual Governors Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Calif., Saturday, November 14, 2015.
Paul Dano and John Cusack
Paul Dano and John Cusack ("Love & Mercy") attend the Academy's 7th Annual Governors Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Calif., Saturday, November 14, 2015.
Actor Will Smith ("Concussion") attends the Academy's 7th Annual Governors Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Calif., Saturday, November 14, 2015.
Benicio Del Toro ("Sicario") attends the Academy's 7th Annual Governors Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Calif., Saturday, November 14, 2015.
Actress Rooney Mara ("Carol") attends the Academy's 7th Annual Governors Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Calif., Saturday, November 14, 2015.
Actress Helen Mirren ("Woman in Gold") attends the Academy's 7th Annual Governors Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Calif., Saturday, November 14, 2015.
Oscar-winning actress Jane Fonda said the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award was being presented to Debbie Reynolds "for the outstanding work she has done outside her day job to improve our city, our country and the world."
As part of the presentation of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Debbie Reynolds, actress Zooey Deschanel performed the song "Tammy," which Reynolds sang in 1958's "Tammy and the Bachelor."
Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep speaks as part of the award presentation to Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award recipient Debbie Reynolds during the 2015 Governors Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Calif., on Saturday, November 14, 2015.
Reynolds could not attend due to poor health, but in a recorded message she said she was "thrilled beyond words, shocked, and you couldn't be more amazed that a little girl from Burbank even came near this sort of accolade."
Reynolds' granddaughter, Billie Lourd, accepted the award for her. "It honestly feels super-weird to be up here without her," she said. "I've never seen her miss a show in her life!"
Credit: Matt Petit, Matt Petit / ©A.M.P.A.S.
Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett speaks at the 2015 Governors Awards during the presentation of the Governors Award to Gena Rowlands.
Blanchett praised the "intense authenticity" and immediacy of Rowlands' performances, which she called "as close as anyone has ever come to capturing on film that special quality, that presence of live stage performance. There is, quite simply, no membrane between Gena and her audience."
In being presented her Honorary Oscar, Gena Rowlands said, "You know what's wonderful about being an actress? You don't live just one life - yours - you live many lives."
Credit: Michael Yada/© AMPAS
Aloe Blacc performed the song, "A Change Is Gonna Come," as part of the presentation of the Honorary Oscar to filmmaker Spike Lee.
Heralded as an "American anarchist," Spike Lee was praised by actors Denzel Washington (who starred in four of Lee's films, including "Malcolm X"), Samuel L. Jackson and Wesley Snipes (who both starred in "Jungle Fever").
"Spike makes film that are very personal," Jackson said, to which Washington interjected, "He don't pay nobody, either!"
Honorary Award recipient Spike Lee attends the 2015 Governors Awards, Saturday, November 14, 2015, in Hollywood.
Spike Lee sports a pair of special Oscar-gold Air Jordans as he accepts his lifetime achievement Oscar.
In his speech, in which he described his evolution as a film student and director ("I don't say I found film; film found me"), Lee called for more diversity in the film industry, noting that it has become easier for a black person to become President of the United States than to become head of a Hollywood film studio or TV network.
"We need to have some serious discussions about diversity and get some flavor up in this. [The] industry is so behind sports, it's ridiculous," he said.
Honorary Oscar recipients Gena Rowlands and Spike Lee at the 2015 Governors Awards, Saturday, November 14, 2015, in Hollywood.
Governors Awards (AMPAS)
Gallery: Oscar honors Gena Rowlands
Gallery: Debbie Reynolds
Gallery: The films of Spike Lee
By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan