BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — You may not know his name, but you certainly know his work.

A little something called the Academy Awards.

John Pavlik is the official spokesman for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. And after 39 Oscar shows, he's calling it quits.

During his four decades in Hollywood, Pavlik, a white-haired man with smiling blue eyes, has met icons from Charlie Chaplin to Oprah. He's seen the Academy Awards grow from "low key and laid back" to larger than life. He's watched today's over-the-top celebrity world evolve, from a front-row seat.

"I've enjoyed every single solitary minute of it," says the 67-year-old.

Jack Valenti, former chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, calls Pavlik "a repository of movie history."

"John is a custodian of memories," he says. "He has seen so much of what goes on in this dazzling and extraordinary arena we call Hollywood."

Pavlik's first Academy Awards was in 1969. As a junior publicrelations executive for the Producers Association, it was his job to arrange escorts to bring Oscar winners backstage to the press room.

"I was right smack-dab backstage when winners were coming off the stage," he says.

Welcome to Hollywood.

The Iowan, who originally came to Los Angeles to work as a newspaper reporter, was in the same prime position the following year when John Wayne won his Oscar.

"He came off stage with tears in his eyes," Pavlik says. "I was absolutely just blown away by this tough guy being so emotional about what he had just won."

Another memorable moment, he recalled, came in 1978, the 50th Academy Awards. Janet Gaynor, the first best-actress winner, signed Pavlik's Oscar poster.

"I've got it hanging in my office," he says. "I always thought it would be fun to have Diane Keaton, who won that year, come and sign it too, but I've never had the guts to ask."

Pavlik's office at the academy's Beverly Hills headquarters looks out over the Hollywood Hills. A blueprint detailing the media real estate on this year's red carpet sits on a table in the corner. The framed, Gaynor-signed poster hangs next to a poster from the 75th Academy Awards in 2003.

The Iraq war began that year, just days before the awards.

"It was a tough decision whether to put on the show or not," Pavlik recalls.

He and his team canceled the red carpet that night and turned away hundreds of journalists.

Pavlik had dealt with unpredictable Oscar changes before. When President Reagan was shot in 1981, the awards were called off just as guests were arriving. Everyone was told to return the following day. From media coverage to the Governor's Ball, everything was rebooked and rescheduled.

"It was unbelievable and it all worked," he says.

Pavlik is known for keeping an even keel regardless of the challenge: "Fabled grace under pressure," says Bruce Davis, the academy's executive director.

Academy president Sid Ganis describes him as a "fatherly, calm, all-knowing kind of guy."

"He makes you feel that life is in control when it's spinning gigantically out of control," he says.

Over the years, he's lunched with Alfred Hitchcock and George Burns, chatted with Boris Karloff and Jimmy Stewart. He's walked miles of red carpet. He's learned that "Hollywood is just like any other place, except everybody's interested in it."

But he's ready to step aside. As of April 1, Pavlik's longtime understudy, Leslie Unger, will take his place.

Pavlik says he's "refocusing, not retiring."