Q: George C. Scott and Marlon Brando turned down their best actor Oscars, for "Patton" and "The Godfather" respectively. Have there been any other performers who have turned down this coveted award?

A: Besides Scott and Brando, the Oscar was turned down by a third person, Dudley Nichols, who won the Best Adapted Screenplay award for his script for "The Informer" in 1936. The book "Inside Oscar," by Mason Wiley and Damien Bona, says that two new unions, the Writers Guild and the Directors Guild, were scrapping with the Hollywood studios and the Oscar-issuing Motion Picture Academy. That included a boycott of the 1936 Oscars ceremony and Nichols refusing to accept his Oscar. In fact, according to the book, Nichols sent his Oscar back twice. Two years later, Nichols — by then the president of the Writers Guild — accepted his award.

It should be noted that the Oscars are not the only awards that people have said "no thank you" to. For example, Candice Bergen, after winning five Emmys for "Murphy Brown," decided enough was enough and no longer sought nominations for that show. (She was later nominated for work on "Boston Legal.") With the Tony Awards, Julie Andrews famously declined her 1996 nomination for the stage musical version of "Victor/Victoria" after she was the only person involved with the show who was nominated; she called the other participants "egregiously overlooked."

'Vampire' left its mark

Q: I saw a Movie of the Week back in the '70s called "Vampire" starring Richard Lynch. Do you know if this movie is on DVD?

A: "Vampire" starred Lynch as "a convincing Prince of Darkness," one reference says about the made-for-TV film, which also starred Jason Miller, E.G. Marshall and Kathryn Harrold. You can find the 1979 production on YouTube if you just want to see it again. If you must have a DVD, I have seen it for sale online, but not from companies I can vouch for. You should be able to find it with a Google search and can then decide whether to take a chance.

Write to brenfels@gmail.com.