Morgan Freeman came out at the 2025 Oscars, giving an emotional tribute to the late actor Gene Hackman.
He then introduced an emotionally charged ‘in memorian’ segment, with names such as David Lynch, Jeff Baena, and Maggie Smith all receiving a tribute.
In addition to this Shelley Duvall was paid tribute, as well as James Earl Jones and other Hollywood legends.
Amid the emotional moments, viewers will be wondering why Freeman was wearing a single black glove.
The celebrity great has spoken out in the past about why he has to wear the glove.
It led viewers to question why he was wearing it.
One viewer tweeted: “What happened to Morgan Freeman’s left hand?”
Another said: “What is with Morgan Freeman’s glove??”
A third posted online saying: “Why he got one glove on.”
Though it may be a great look, there is actually a heartbreaking story behind it.
Freeman was involved in a car crash back in 2008, when he swerved off a Mississippi road and flipped over.
The actor had to be cut free by the emergency services and badly injured his left arm.
A local newspaper editor said at the time: “They had to use the jaws of life [hydraulic cutters] to extract him from the vehicle.
“He was lucid, conscious. He was talking, joking with some of the rescue workers at one point.”
Despite being told that the pain would subside and he would see some improvement by 2011, Freeman is still unable to use his hand properly.
He now has to wear a compression glove in order to keep the blood flowing.
Speaking previously about the injury, Freeman said: “I suffered nerve damage and it hasn’t gotten better. I can’t move it.
“If you don’t move your hand, it will swell up. Do you know you move your hand about a million times a day?”
During an interview with Esquire a few years ago, Freeman was experiencing some pain in his left arm.
When asked about it, he told the reporter: “It’s the fibromyalgia. Up and down the arm. That’s where it gets so bad. Excruciating.”
Freeman paid tribute to Gene Hackman, who was found dead alongside his wife Betsy Arakawa and their dog.
The pair starred together in Unforgiven, the second film for which Hackman won an Oscar.
He said in his speech: “This week our community lost a giant, and I lost a dear friend, Gene Hackman.
“He received two Oscars and more importantly he won the hearts of film lovers all over the world.”
The biggest Oscars snubs ever
Citizen Kane loses to How Green Was My Valley (1942)
Orson Welles’ epic tale of the rise and fall of a media baron topped BFI’s Sight & Sound poll of the best films ever made for 40 years, but this apparently wasn’t enough to win an Academy Award.
The gong instead went to How Green Was My Valley, which it’s fair to say has not stood the test of time to quite the same extent.
To add insult to injury, Welles had a falling out with the Academy prior to the ceremony, and the audience booed every time his name was mentioned.
Citizen Kane was nominated for nine Academy Awards, but only took home the statuette for Best Original Screenplay.
E.T. loses to Gandhi (1983)
Even Richard Attenborough, who ended up winning Best Picture for his biopic Gandhi, thought Steven Spielberg’s E.T. should have won.
He is quoted in Joseph McBride’s Steven Spielberg: A Biography as saying of the moment his win was announced: “I didn’t go to the podium, I went over to Spielberg. He got up, I put my arms round him, and I said, ‘This isn’t right, this should be yours’.”
Spielberg’s tale of the bond between a lonely child and a horrifying looking alien remains one of the most beloved films of all time, absolutely dominating the box office following its 1982 release
The Shawshank Redemption loses to Forrest Gump (1995)
While both of these films are pretty much universally adored, The Shawshank Redemption still tops IMDb’s 250 highest rated list and is regularly cited as one of the greatest movies of all time.
While in hindsight, the fact the film failed to win any of the seven Oscars it was nominated for is pretty odd, The Shawshank Redemption was a box office bomb, and in the year of its release was massively overshadowed by Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction.
Nevertheless, one fan admitted they were ‘blown away to find out that the movie didn’t win a single Academy Award’ on Reddit.
Saving Private Ryan loses to Shakespeare in Love (1999)
In yet another upset for Steven Spielberg, his epic World War Two drama lost out to romcom Shakespeare in Love.
This has since been chalked up to the sinister machinations of Harvey Weinstein, who Den of Geek reports started a ‘whisper campaign’ claiming the only good part of Saving Private Ryan was the first 20 minutes, with the rest being ‘sentimental hokum’.
DreamWorks marketer Terry Press recalls Spielberg telling him ‘I do not want to get down in the mud with Harvey’ when he was urged to fight back amid Weinstein’s bullish campaign tactics.
Brokeback Mountain loses to Crash (2000)
The following year saw another shock Best Picture upset, with the widely reviled Crash triumphing over Brokeback Mountain.
A Reddit user called it ‘truly the greatest robbery of all time’.
Director Ang Lee claimed in a 2024 Deadline interview that support for his tragic gay love story ‘had a ceiling’ amid the Academy of the time.
He even recalls being told to stay in the wings of the stage in-between his Best Director win and the announcement of Best Picture, being told by a stage manager: “Everybody assumes you will win.”
It’s clear this one still hurts for many cinephiles, with one calling Crash’s win ‘absolutely criminal’.
Featured Image Credit: Kevin Winter / Getty Images