Black actors top bill at the Oscars

Black actors dominated the top awards at the Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles early today. For the first time a black actress, Halle Berry for her role in "Monster's Ball", won best actress.

Denzel Washington took best actor for "Training Day," joining Sidney Poitier in an emotional evening as the only blacks to win best actor awards.

By coincidence, Poitier was on hand to receive a lifetime achievement award. He won his best actor award for "Lilies of the Field" in 1963.

"A Beautiful Mind," which also won best director for Ron Howard, tied with "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" with four Oscars each.

Stand-by-your-spouse roles earned supporting-performance Oscars for Britain's Jim Broadbent in "Iris" and Jennifer Connelly in "A Beautiful Mind."

Broadbent took the supporting-actor Oscar for his role as the befuddled but doting husband of Alzheimer's-afflicted writer Iris Murdoch, and Connelly won the supporting-actress honour as the steadfast wife of delusional math genius John Nash.

Broadbent thanked Murdoch's husband, John Bayley, "who allowed us to plunder and I'm sure misrepresent his life with Iris."

"A Beautiful Mind" also earned the adapted-screenplay award for Akiva Goldsman.

Julian Fellowes took the original-screenplay honor for "Gosford Park," directed by Robert Altman. "My thanks start with the great Robert Altman, who's given me the biggest break in movies since Lana Turner walked into Schwab's," Fellowes said.

Denzel Washington said after receiving his best actor award: "40 years I've been chasing Sidney. They finally give it to me, and they give it to him the same night."

Halle Berry, the sixth black actress nominated for an Oscar in a lead role, was the first to win. She broke down in tears, saying she was accepting the award for every black actress who had preceded her, naming Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne and Diahann Carroll among them.

This is also "for every nameless, faceless woman of color who now have a chance because tonight a door has been opened," Berry said.

The ceremony's host, Whoopi Goldberg, who won a supporting-actress in for 1990's "Ghost," acknowledged Berry's achievement. "It has been a very large door and I'm glad she has kicked it down," she said.

It was only the second time that three black actors were in the running for lead-acting Oscars. The last time was 29 years ago, when Diana Ross was cited for "Lady Sings the Blues" and Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield were nominated for "Sounder."