Northern Virginia's Oscar Connections

The 83rd Annual Oscar broadcast airs at 8:30 ET tonight live from Los Angeles' Kodak Theater, hosted for the first time by male and female co-hosts, actors James Franco and Anne Hathaway, who also happen to be the youngest hosts ever.

Did you know that the Northern Virginia area has a few connections to the Oscars? Actor/director/producer Warren Beatty, 73, husband of one of this year's Best Actress nominees, Annette Bening, was raised in Arlington.

He graduated from Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, where he played football. Beatty won an Oscar for Best Director in 1981 for "Reds." In all, he's been nominated for 13 Oscars for directing, writing and acting.

Beatty was encouraged to go into acting (instead of accepting any of the football scholarships offered to him), by his sister, actress Shirley MacLaine, who also graduated from Washington-Lee High School.

MacLaine, 75, won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as Aurora Greenway ("Give her the shot!") in "Terms of Endearment," which won five Oscars in 1983, including Best Picture. It was her fifth nomination for acting.

Sandra Bullock, 46, who won the Best Actress Oscar last year for her role as Leigh Anne Tuohy in "The Blind Side," also went to school at Washington-Lee, where she was a cheerleader and took part in drama productions. She graduated from the school in 1982.

Middleburg resident, actor Robert Duvall, 80, has been nominated six times for an Oscar fo his acting prowess and in 1984 won for Best Actor for his role in "Tender Mercies."

Further afield but still within Virginia's boundaries are:

• Actress Sissy Spacek, 61, who lives near Charlottesville, has been nominated six times for her acting talents and won the Best Actress award for her role as Loretta Lynn in "Coal Miner's Daughter," in 1980.
• 2011 nominee for "Best Supporting Actor," Mark Ruffalo, 43, grew up in Virginia Beach and attended First Colonial High, graduating in 1986.
• Former Takoma Park, Md. resident Goldie Hawn, 65, who won a "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar for her role in "Cactus Flower" in 1969, was also nominated for "Best Actress" for her role in "Private Benjamin."