“To Thine Own Self Be True” – Dolly Parton Awarded Honorary Academy Award
on Nov 17, 2025
The Country Icon Accepted Her First Oscar In A Video Statement
While the 98th Academy Awards won’t be given out until March of 2026, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences held its 16th Governors Awards on Sunday, November 16.
There, several lifetime achievement Oscars were given out, with honorees including legendary film actor and producer Tom Cruise, choreographer and actress Debbie Allen, and production designer Wynn Thomas.
Country music icon Dolly Parton also received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, with her “lifelong compassion,” as exhibited in her “philanthropy and in her art,” celebrated.
Dolly has been nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Original Song, but has never won… until now.
Ahead of the ceremony, the Academy wrote that the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award is awarded to her in recognition of “her decades-long humanitarian efforts.”
“She has founded various charitable and philanthropic organizations, including the Dollywood Foundation, which was created in 1988 to inspire the children of East Tennessee — her home state — to achieve educational success.”
“Additionally, her literacy program, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, launched in 1995 in honor of her father, has provided children with 285 million books,” the press release notes. “It evolved into an international movement and remains the signature program of the Dollywood Foundation.”
Honorary Oscar For Humanitarian Efforts Awarded To Dolly Parton
For Dolly Parton, who is 79 and has had a career as an actress in addition to her work as a recording artist, receiving the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award is a particularly special distinction.
According to the Academy, this is what the Board of Governors looks for in a Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award recipient:
“[This Oscar is given] to an individual in the motion picture arts and sciences whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry by promoting human welfare and contributing to rectifying inequities.”
Jean Hersholt, the award’s namesake, was a Hollywood actor who, in 1939, helped establish the Motion Picture Relief Fund — now known as the Motion Picture and Television Fund — which assists crew members and other employees of the film industry in receiving medical care.
Introducing the award for Dolly Parton was one of her co-stars from 9 to 5 (1980), Lily Tomlin.
Reflecting on how she first met Dolly, Lily shared that she had first seen Dolly perform in New York in 1977.
“Her manager … had booked her there to introduce her to a new audience, and, as you can imagine, she was sensational,” Lily recalled.
A few years later, she noted that she met with Jane Fonda who had the screenplay for 9 to 5, but the film was, at that time, a straight drama. Offering Lily a part, Jane said it was her hope to switch the film from a drama to a comedy.
Upon hearing Dolly on the radio, Jane found the film’s missing piece, and the rest is history.
Looking back on the making of 9 to 5, Lily shared that she was amazed by Dolly’s professionalism, telling a story of how Dolly demonstrated her work ethic during the film’s production.
“9 to 5 was Dolly’s first movie, and she was fabulous,” Lily started. “During one of our rehearsals, I forgot a line and she recited it for me. I asked her how she knew my line, and she said, in her rapturous drawl … ‘Well, I never made a movie and I thought I better memorize the whole darn script.'”
Speaking more broadly, Lily went on to note that people often speak of Dolly’s fake nails and her fake hair, but said, “I can’t use ‘fakery’ with the word ‘Dolly.’ It doesn’t suit her at all.”
Ultimately, Lily attributed Dolly’s “authenticity” to why she was so deserving of the Academy’s honor, having stated earlier that Dolly lived by the words of William Shakespeare: “To Thine Own Self Be True.”
Concluding her remarks, Lily said, “Her authenticity, her generosity, her concern for other people — for that reason, she really does deserve this honor, symbolized by the Oscar statuette.”
She added, “She is one of the people who remains in this world that everyone loves and respects.”
Watch Dolly Parton Accept The Oscar In A Video Statement
Back in September, Dolly announced that she had been “dealing with some health challenges,” adding that it meant her shows in Las Vegas this December would have to be canceled.
Other public appearances have also been canceled.
Similarly, her appearance at the Academy’s Governors Awards was by video.
Wearing gold to match her Oscar, Dolly was still her chipper self, and she shared from the heart about what the award meant to her.
“I grew up in a house of 12 kids,” Dolly stated. “Now, that alone teaches you how important sharing is. Don’t get me wrong, we didn’t have that much to share, but my momma and daddy showed me, by example, that the more you give, the more blessings come your way.”
Continuing, she said, “I have tried my whole life to live by their example, and I have been blessed more than I ever dreamed possible.”
Of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, she said, “It’s an honor just to be considered, but to receive this? I mean, that’s a blessing of a lifetime, and I don’t take this kind of thing lightly.”
Concluding her video statement, she said, “[This award] makes me want to dream up new ways to help lift people up, and isn’t that what we’re supposed to be here for?”
Watch Dolly’s acceptance speech, here:
