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[with info from an article by Laurie Goering about Charlize Theron in the Chicago Tribune]

Encouraged by Charlize Theron's Oscar triumph (she won the Oscar for her portrayal of U.S. serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the film Monster), South Africa is now reaching further for Oscar gold.

The author of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien, was born in Bloemfontein in 1892, trivia experts in South Africa note. Young Tolkien spent just three years in South Africa before his family returned to Britain, but that hasn't stopped South Africa from claiming another 11 Oscars - for "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" - as its own.

"It's nice to know that maybe, just maybe, Tolkien carried a part of South Africa in his heart with him after his family returned to the land of gray skies," one South African newspaper wrote, "and that he may never have been inspired to write about Hobbits and the like had he not seen the glorious landscapes of South Africa through his young eyes."

Published March 17, 2004

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