Al Pacino as Michael Corleone is the ultimate. I have seen so many good actors doing fabulous acting but for me nobody can match what Al did in Godfather II.
Yup. That's part of the reason why I don't put much stock in these awards. So often actors don't win them for their finest performances, and instead receive them for lesser work to make up for that.
Absolutely true In my opinion Pacino was bad in Scent of a Woman He was VERY bad in Godfather 3 by the way He was absolutely fantastic in Godfather 1 and 2 and in Scarface
That may be true. All too often an actor gets an Oscar for a performance that doesn't merit it because he or she did not get the award when they did deserve it. (Russell Crowe in "Gladiator" and the late great Geraldine Page for "The Trip to Bountiful", just to give two examples.)
Adrien Brody was fantastic in The Pianist. It's too bad he never became a big star. I loved Mickey Rourke in the Wrestler and I agree it was a better performance than Sean in Milk.
@@johnhayden772 There is no Tom Hanks obsession. The you tube clip is about Top 10 Oscar Mistakes for Best Actor. Nobody can deny that Tom Hanks is a brilliant amazing actor. But he should not have won for Philadelphia instead it should have gone to Liam Neeson that year. Indeed Hanks should have won the following year for Apillo 13.
There is a Tom Hanks obsession. I once suggested that he was overexposed, overrated, and tiresomely earnest. Ohhh, the grief I caught. People just kept piling on.
Actually with the whole Pacino over Washington debate, the dark horse that year was Robert Downey Jr. He was astonishing in Chaplin and was the first time he showed how truly talented he is. At the very least he gave the other two a run for their money big time
Three certs I agree with - Edward Norton, Russell Crowe instead of Washington for Training Day and Peter O'Toole over Cliff Robertson. The rest are openly disputable.
The Academy awarded Pacino for Scent of a Woman because they screwed him out of at least two other best actor awards (doesn’t make the Scent of a Woman fair). Adrian Brodie totally deserved the Best Actor award for The Pianist.
I say you're wrong on #5, because Denzel was phenomenal in Training Day. But the greatest snub was not awarding Al Pacino for Godfather II. For me the best performance in movie history! He played the role only with his eyes.
I do believe Jaime Foxx deserved that Oscar over Leo. Leo was robbed & not even nominated for Django Unchained. That was Leo's Oscar winning performance & they didn't even nominate him. Plus don't forget What's Eating Gilbert Grape. But Jaime absolutely deserved his win for Ray.
Ironically, Jack Nicholson won three Oscars for playing Jack-like characters. In About Schmidt, he completely steps out of himself to inhabit a role for which truly should have won the award.
I disagree with Sean Penn (Mystic River) and Adrien Brody (The Piano) they both did great Perfomance. Robert Donat (Goodbye Mr. Chips) over Clark Gable (Gone With the Wind)
Seriously, Benigni was great. No issue with that one whatsoever. I agree with you that Sean Penn deserved to win for Mystic River but not over Rourke, who should have won. (I consider Penn's greatest performance to actually be in "I Am Sam.") Pacino not winning for "The Godfather Part II" is the greatest travesty ever, and that easily should have been #1.
Others who should've won Best Actor 1940-Charlie Chaplin-The Great Dictator, 1943-Bogart in Casablanca, 1947-Robert Mitchum-Out Of The Past, 1948-Humphrey Bogart-The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre, 1949-James Cagney-White Heat 1950-Bogart-In A Lonely Place, 1960-Anthony Perkins-Psycho, 1961-Paul Newman-The Hustler, 1964-Peter Seller-Dr Strangelove, 1967-Paul Newman-Cool Hand Luke, 1973-Al Pacino-Serpico, 1974-Nicholson-Chinatown, 1976 DeNiro & Finch tie, 1979-Roy Scheider-All That Jazz, 1992-Clint Eastwood-Unforgiven, 1998-Tom Hanks-Saving Private Ryan(not sure of the years but, Paul Newman-The Verdict, Gene Hackman-Hoosiers, Al Pacino-Insomnia.
marisa tamayo the academy doesn’t choose what category the actor is in. I believe it’s up to the film team itself to decide where they want to campaign him
Absolutely. Elizabeth Taylor and Sandy Dennis won Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for the same film. No idea why Burton, like Peter O'Toole, Glenn Close, Angela Lansbury, Rosalind Russell, Thelma Ritter, and so many others were nominated so many times and came home empty-handed. Ridiculous. Sometimes even moronic.
Burton gave a scenery chewing performance in Wolf, but he should have won for Anne of a thousand days. Paul Scofield deserved his Oscar for A man for all seasons.
It's too bad Burton never won an Oscar. He was absolutely brilliant in Virginia Woolfe. Maybe because it was too close to home with Liz Taylor that it was less challenging to play George to Taylor's Martha. Still, in my opinion Richard Burton was at his best in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe?".
It is rare when an actor wins for the film he should have won for; rarer still when a great actor never wins out of numerous tries. O'Toole could have won for any number of his dazzling performances. My choice would be : "The Stunt Man."
Please consider Daniel Day Lewis (Lincoln) over Joaquin Phoenix (The Master) and Eddie Redmayne (The Theory Of Everything) over Michael Keaton (Birdman)
My Picks for Best Actor (one tie & only one actor has three): 1927 George O’Brien (Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans) 1928 Conrad Veidt (The Man Who Laughs) 1929 George Arliss (Disraeli) 1930 Lew Ayres (All Quiet on the Western Front) 1931 Peter Lorre (M) 1932 Fredric March (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) 1933 Charles Laughton (The Private Life of King Henry VII) 1934 Clark Gable (It Happened One Night) 1935 Victor McLaglen (The Informer) 1936 Gary Cooper (Mr. Deeds Goes to Town) 1937 Spencer Tracy (Captains Courageous) 1938 Errol Flynn (The Adventures of Robinhood) 1939 Clark Gable (Gone with the Wind) 1940 Charlie Chaplin (The Great Dictator) 1941 Orson Welles (Citizen Kane) 1942 Humphrey Bogart (Casablanca) 1943 Joseph Cotton (Shadow of a Doubt) 1944 Fred MacMurray (Double Indemnity) 1945 Ray Milland (The Lost Weekend) 1946 James Stewart (It’s a Wonderful Life) 1947 Richard Attenborough (Brighton Rock) 1948 Humphrey Bogart (Treasure of the Sierra Madre) 1949 James Cagney (White Heat) 1950 Toshiro Mifune (Rashomon) 1951 Marlon Brando (A Streetcar Named Desire) 1952 Takashi Shimura (Ikiru) 1953 Montgomery Clift (From Here to Eternity) 1954 Marlon Brando (On the Waterfront) 1955 (TIE) Ernest Borgnine (Marty) & James Dean (East of Eden) 1956 Laurence Olivier (Richard III) 1957 Alec Guinness (The Bridge on the River Kwai) 1958 James Stewart (Vertigo) 1959 Jack Lemmon (Some Like It Hot) 1960 Anthony Perkins (Psycho) 1961 Maximilian Schell (Judgement at Nuremberg) 1962 Peter O’Toole (Lawrence of Arabia) 1963 Richard Harris (This Sporting Life) 1964 Peter Sellers (Dr. Strangelove) 1965 Omar Sharif (Doctor Zhivago) 1966 Richard Burton (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) 1967 Rod Steiger (In the Heat of the Night) 1968 Peter O’Toole (The Lion in Winter) 1969 Dustin Hoffman (Midnight Cowboy) 1970 George C. Scott (Patton) 1971 Gene Hackman (The French Connection) 1972 Marlon Brando (The Godfather) 1973 Jack Lemmon (Save the Tiger) 1974 Al Pacino (The Godfather) 1975 Jack Nicholson (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) 1976 Network (Peter Finch) 1977 Richard Burton (Equus) 1978 Brad Davis (The Midnight Express) 1979 Peter Sellers (Being There) 1980 Robert De Niro (Raging Bull) 1981 Jürgen Prochnow (Das Boot) 1982 Ben Kingsley (Gandhi) 1983 Albert Finney (The Dresser) 1984 F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus) 1985 Aleksey Kravchenko (Come and See) 1986 Bob Hoskins (Mona Lisa) 1987 Robin Williams (Good Morning, Vietnam) 1988 Dustin Hoffman (Rainman) 1989 Daniel Day-Lewis (My Left Foot) 1990 Jeremy Irons (Reversal of Fortune) 1991 Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs) 1992 Denzel Washington (Malcolm X) 1993 Leslie Cheung (Farewell My Concubine) 1994 Morgan Freeman (The Shawshank Redemption) 1995 Nicolas Cage (Leaving Las Vegas) 1996 Ralph Fiennes (The English Patient) 1997 Robert Duvall (The Apostle) 1998 Edward Norton (American History X) 1999 Richard Farnsworth (The Straight Story) 2000 Tom Hanks (Cast Away) 2001 Russell Crowe (A Beautiful Mind) 2002 Adrien Brody (The Pianist) 2003 Bill Murray (Lost in Translation) 2004 Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda) 2005 Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) 2006 Ulrich Mühe (The Lives of Others) 2007 Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood) 2008 Sean Penn (Milk) 2009 Colin Firth (A Single Man) 2010 Colin Firth (The King’s Speech) 2011 Michael Fassbender (Shame) 2012 Joaquin Phoenix (The Master) 2013 Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club) 2014 Michael Keaton (Birdman) 2015 Jason Segel (The End of the Tour) 2016 Casey Affleck (Manchester By the Sea) 2017 Timothée Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name) 2018 Christian Bale (Vice) 2019 Joaquin Phoenix (Joker)
Thanks, I just really think Gary Oldman deserves an Oscar. I'm glad that you agree with Joaquin Phoenix for the master, he gave one of the best performances I've ever seen
That would be hilarious if he got an Oscar for the Disaster Artist. James Franco was amazing in 127 Hours though. People create lists like these all over the internet of who they think should've won an Oscar and some of them just have too many ties so I decided against ties when making my list.
Timothée Chalamet is an exceptional young actor but I am of the opinion that Gary Oldman is one of the greatest actors alive. He's like an underrated version of Daniel Day-Lewis
Christian Bale is a phenomenal actor and I've read articles/ seen pictures of his transformation into Dick Cheney for the upcoming biopic "Backseat." I'm trying to be clairvoyant but if he doesn't get nominated then shame on me.
These are just my personal preferences. If you disagree with me, that's fine; I respect your opinions. Thanks for your feedback, maybe you should make your own list.
i remember that year when Denzel Washington won the oscar for Training Days, it shocked the hell out of me. Russel Crowe was robbed, but then again, Russel Crowe has won the statue a year before whereas Tom Hanks should have won in that year for Cast Away, and yes, Denzel Washington should have won for Malcolm X. The Academy Award has always like this, they always make up for the actor that should have won, sadly, not for the movie they supposed to win.
Peter Finch in 1976! Absolutely deserved. Sometimes there should be two - sometimes none. Bogart in "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" is my pick for greatest robbery.
Marlon Brando was ROBBED of an Oscar for his performance in A Streetcar Named Desire Joaquin Phoenix should've won for The Master over Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln (yes, I know) Joaquin Phoenix also should've won for Her and Peter O'Toole should have had at least one Oscar
Denzel Washington’s performance was deserving for training day. The iconic “King Kong ain’t got shit on me”. The fact it took Denzel to be play a villain to win an Oscar astonishing. Other performances by him such as hurricane, Malcom x and remember the titans are prime examples.
It was a rather standard performance by Russel Crowe. So, it wasn't as tragic that Denz won for that particular film rather than for Malcom X or The Hurricane which he should have won for.
Hoffman deserved to win for pretty much everything he was nominated for - except the two he *did* win. In '79 Scheider or Sellers should have got it and in '88 it should have been Hackman.
Lee Marvin in Cat Ballou over Rod Steiger in The Pawnbroker, Gregory Peck over O'Toole in Lawrence, Redman over Keaton in Birdman, Tom Hanks over Daniel Day Lewis in In the Name of the Father, Rex Harrison over O'Toole and Burton in Becket, Jack Lemon over Jack Nicholson in The Last Detail.
I have to disagree about Leonardo Dicaprio. His accent was ok and he was doing good but he overacts in the middle of the film so I'd pick Don Cheadle instead.
1. Pacino in Godfather II - best performance of all time in my opinion 2. Mickey Rourke in the Wrestler 3. Liam Neeson in Schindlers List 4. Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society 5. Ryan Gosling in Blue Valentine (not even nominated) one of the best performances ever 6. Christopher Walker in Catch me if You Can 7. Al Pacino in Serpico 8. Al Pacino in Scarface 9. Russell Crowe in a Beautiful Mind 10. Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
I'd say that qualifies. Much as I love Bogie as "Mr Allnut", Brando's Stanley Kowalski is one of the few all-time as-close-as-possible-to-definitive performances in movie history.
@Diego Pisfil A lot of actors have been/were robbed (Crowe got an Oscar he didn't deserve in compensation, anyway) -- Angela Lansbury, Thelma Ritter, Edith Evans, Peter O'Toole, Richard Burton, Judy Garland, Glenn Close, Agnes Moorehead, Nigel Hawthorne, Valentina Cortese, Rosalind Russell, etc. -- so get over it.
@@bigjoetube I love Kevin Spacey as an actor; in fact he'd been one of my favorites. But no. If you predate on people you're mentally ill and need psychiatric care for such behavior. People can't be allowed to take advantage of others just because they are talented.
Back in 1970 after the Oscar ceremony people said that John Wayne won the Oscar because he was facing cancer during that time, almost the same thing happened to Elizabeth Taylor when she won the Oscar 10 years before for Butterfield 8, that she won the Oscar because of pity due that she almost die of her illness by that time
True. Sympathy awards do happen. At least they make sense. Most of the Oscar miscarriages had nothing to do with that. and if sympathy awards counted then why didn't Emmanuelle Riva (who died of cancer the following year)'s swan song beat 20ish Jennifer Lawrence?
Nick Nolte should have won for The Prince of Tides over Denzel Washington. There's a scene in there when Nick raised the bat on capturing multiple emotions and converting both an angry man and a hurry confused child. Brilliant performance.
Yes, Nolte should have won for "Tides", I agree. One of my favorite performances ever. But the winner that year was actually Anthony Hopkins for "The Silence Of The Lambs." Of course Hopkins was brilliant, but he's only on screen for a total of 16 minutes. Should have been up for Best Supporting Actor because of that. Nolte deserved it more than Hopkins did because of that fact.
Duke deserved at least one Oscar for Christ sake! even i'm not so big fan of his but his career got some pretty much finest performance what he did with Ford. Academy compensated later by True Grit
He was very good...but if it was an actor who was known for dramas, that actor wouldn't have won. I think it went to him based on surprise performance, since he's known for comedies.
Actually that's one of my favorite Murray performances. Sofia Coppola had him in mind for the role from the beginning. He's so seamless that the understated humor and world weariness shine through. He's great and the standout in the film.
Sean penn was very good in mystic river i'll give him a pass on that still considering it was carrer best as part of bill murray's. but his award for milk is no go. Mickey rourke had better performance by miles. Mickey rourke was more derserving of that award
No, not at all. The Danish Girl it's horrible and while Redmayne tried, he ended up giving a bad performance overall. If Anyone should have gotten the Oscar besides Leo, it should have been Michael Fassbender for Steve Jobs.
One must say that it's not the performances that get the Oscar, but the theme/role and the movie. So if you make a movie about the Holocaust, Aids or racism, you have better chances than if it's about a middle class old American man. Sometimes it's the actor, who gets credit for whatever, if he was overlooked in a major role. Sometimes, if a movie gets many major Oscars like Schindler's List, it is overlooked in some other categories.
Most of these seem to be they got the Oscar for the wrong picture. The voters know they mad a mistake and make it up on another movie, which just continues the mistakes
1991: Daniel Day-Lewis over Tom Cruise 1998: Jack Nicholson over Matt Damon 1999: Roberto Benini over Edward Norton 2014: Matthew McConaghan over Chiwetel Ejiofor and Leonardo DiCaprio 1991: Jeremy Irons over Al Pacino (nota nominated) 1993: Al Pacino over Denzel Washington and Clint Eastwood 1995: Tom Hanks over Morgan Freeman 2002: Denzel Washington over Will Smith
If you have your theory of "should have won", so does the jury. There may be lobbying or mistakes for sure sometimes...but if there are multiple great performances in same year, they can only give it to one person.
Adrien Brody was good in the pianist, I don’t know why he’s on this list. Funny how Sean penn screwed 2 people out of oscars. I thought mystic river was terrible.
Leo has given us equally outstanding movie performances for almost three decades. He should have won for the Wolf of Wall Street and Aviator as well but not for the Revenant. N. B. He won Golden Globe and Critics Choice in 2014 for the Wolf of Wall Street.
Heath ledger (Brokeback) should have won over Seymour Hoffman (Capote). Hoffman was a great actor but it was almost always different versions of the same person eg: Boogie Nights, The Talented Mister Ripley, and Capote. All incredibly "mannered" performances.
Most of these winner's are the result of getting it wrong the first time and the Academy trying to make up for it. They also unnecessarily give Oscars for lifetime work instead of awarding the actor with the best performance.
And it's about popularity. If Jennifer Lawrence was supposed to win an Oscar at all, it should've been for THE FIRST Hunger Games movie. She won because she was very popular at the time. Other than that first movie, I have yet to see her in any moving, profound performance.
There are some others that you could have added like: Jimmy Stewart in the Philadelphia Story over Henry Fonda in The Grapes of Wrath (1940) James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy over Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca was a travesty. John Wayne not being nominated for Stagecoach (1939), The Searchers (1956) and The Quiet Man (1952) is dumb. Jimmy Stewart losing for It's a Wonderful Life will never sit right with me. Richard Burton was robbed for Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf. To this day it still makes me mad. Clark Gable and Jimmy Stewart losing to Robert Donat in Goodbye Mr. Chips is one of the most underwhelming Oscar wins ever.
Though I think Liam Neeson not winning for Schindler's List is the worst of all times, I also think Dustin Hoffman (Tootsie) should have won over Ben Kingsley in Gandhi. I know most will disagree, and I do think Kingsley was good, but i think what Hoffman did took more acting chops.
I hadn't watched Scent of A Woman until earlier this year. I love Al Pacino but even he must have known that Denzel Washington gave the best performance that year. Scent is a grandstanding performance by Pacino. He shouldn't even have been nominated for that role. As Spike said, Al should have won for The Godfather Part II, Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon.
Overlooked actors: consider the following for anything they ever did. Always perfect acting. Montgomery Clift, Peter O’Toole, Bill Murray, Cary Grant..