`  The genesis of this was due to a campaign by screenwriter Michael Russnow, (IMDB) who wrote to numerous film colleagues of Miss Kerr such as Robert Anderson (screenwriter of Tea and Sympathy), Elia Kazan (Director of The Arrangement and Broadway version of Tea and Sympathy), Delbert Mann (director of Separate Tables), Jack Clayton, (director of The Innocents) and Fred Zinnemann, (Director of From Here to Eternity) all of whom wrote Russnow letters of thanks, indicating they had sent on letters to the Academy urging the bestowal of an Oscar to Miss Kerr.  It had taken three years and continued lobbying with Roddy McDowall, who was personally lobbying for his friend Vincent Price.  But when Price died, Russnow reminded McDowell again at an industry function, and as he had now been elected a Governor of the Motion Picture Academy, he eloquently championed Deborah Kerr's case, and after his speech one of the other Governors moved that the nominations for other Honorees be closed.  And so Deborah finally was awarded her due.  When she went out onstage she seemed hesitant and frail.  There were some stunned looks by the audience as she grabbed presenter Glenn Close's arm and almost dropped the statue, during the longest standing ovation of the evening, one that also included tributes to Paul Newman and won Steven Spielberg his first Oscar.  As it turned out, when the applause ended and her voice started shaky and unclear, she then put on her glasses and with a burst of energy shouted, ``I've never been so frightened in all my life.``  She brought the house down with laughter.  But until then, she just couldn't see where she was going with all the lights around her, and when she gained her bearings she came to life and gave a short, elegant moving address of thanks.`