Paul Newman was nominated as Best Actor for Cool Hand Luke (Rod Steiger won for In the Heat of the Night) and George Kennedy was nominated for and won Best Supporting Actor for portraying Dragline in the film.
That was Newman's fourth nomination as Best Actor. He wouldn't win until his seventh for The Color of Money and he wound up with nine acting noms, Supporting Actor for The Road to Perdition being his last. He also won an honorary Oscar and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra
A couple of other performances that I think belong here:
Jim Carrey in Man on the Moon
Tom Hanks in A League of their Own
Rosanna Arquette in Desperately Seeking Susan
Meryl Streep in The Manchurian Candidate
Sally Field in Steel Magnolias
Jeff Bridges should have received nominations for Fearless...
1993 was an especially full year for Best Actor.
The five nominees were Daniel Day-Lewis (In the Name of the Father), Laurence Fishburn (What's Love Got to Do with It), Tom Hanks (Philadelphia), Anthony Hopkins (The Remains of the Day), and Liam Neeson (Schindler's List). Hanks won the first of his back-to-back Best Actor prizes (he also starred in Sleepless in Seattle that year) and that is a pretty good group of five. Hopkins gives a controlled, quiet, subtle performance two years after his win for Silence of the Lambs but that and Neeson's would probably be the only two I would consider switching out. For my taste Leeson did extremely solid but unremarkable work at the center of the obvious Best Picture winner, especially compared to Finnes' and Kingsley's stronger supporting roles (the former of which was nominated and lost). Day-Lewis and Hopkins also benefit by giving two other good, unnominated performances that year: The Age of Innocence and Shadowlands.
I too would have made room for Jeff Bridges' work in Fearless on my personal ballot (he was also great in American Heart), but I also would have gotten Kevin Costner for A Perfect World into the mix, and I would have actually given the damn award to David Thewlis for his jaw-dropping work in Mike Leigh's Naked. Even if you somehow cram those three alternates in and keep two of the original five that isn't even accounting for Pacino in Carlitos' Way, the iconic movie star turns of Harrison Ford in The Fugitive and Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, and true under-the-radar indie work like Rip Torn in Where the Rivers Flow North or Mandy Patinkin and James Spader in The Music of Chance.
Jeff Bridges is magnificent in Fearless and Peter Weir's movie remains a bit underrated, but that was a strong year crowded with worthy performances.
The five nominees were Daniel Day-Lewis (In the Name of the Father), Laurence Fishburn (What's Love Got to Do with It), Tom Hanks (Philadelphia), Anthony Hopkins (The Remains of the Day), and Liam Neeson (Schindler's List). Hanks won the first of his back-to-back Best Actor prizes (he also starred in Sleepless in Seattle that year) and that is a pretty good group of five. Hopkins gives a controlled, quiet, subtle performance two years after his win for Silence of the Lambs but that and Neeson's would probably be the only two I would consider switching out. For my taste Leeson did extremely solid but unremarkable work at the center of the obvious Best Picture winner, especially compared to Finnes' and Kingsley's stronger supporting roles (the former of which was nominated and lost). Day-Lewis and Hopkins also benefit by giving two other good, unnominated performances that year: The Age of Innocence and Shadowlands.
I too would have made room for Jeff Bridges' work in Fearless on my personal ballot (he was also great in American Heart), but I also would have gotten Kevin Costner for A Perfect World into the mix, and I would have actually given the damn award to David Thewlis for his jaw-dropping work in Mike Leigh's Naked. Even if you somehow cram those three alternates in and keep two of the original five that isn't even accounting for Pacino in Carlitos' Way, the iconic movie star turns of Harrison Ford in The Fugitive and Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, and true under-the-radar indie work like Rip Torn in Where the Rivers Flow North or Mandy Patinkin and James Spader in The Music of Chance.
Jeff Bridges is magnificent in Fearless and Peter Weir's movie remains a bit underrated, but that was a strong year crowded with worthy performances.
Love that you mentioned Kevin Costner in A Perfect World...I think that's Costner's best performance.
Female
Reese - Election
Isabelle Adjani - Possession
Amy Adams - Arrival
Essie Davis - The Babadook
Nicole Kidman - Dogville
Toni Colette - Hereditary
Kirsten Dunst - Melancholia
Anne Dorval - Mommy
Naomi Watts - Mullholand Drive
Giulietta Masina - Nights os Cabiria
Maria Falconetti - The Passion of Joan of Arc
Marion Cottilard - Rust and Bone
Tilda Swinton - We need to talk about Kevin
Male
Jim Carrey - ESOASM
Jamie Bell - Billy Elliot
Mads Mikkelsen - The Hunt
Joaquin Phoenix - Her
Jake Gyllenhaal - Nightcrawler
Tahar Rahim - A Prophet
Paul Giamatti - Sideways
Michael Shannon - Take Shelter
Ryan Gosling - Blue Valentine
Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road (always believed she should have been nominated for this role instead of The Reader) Keira Knightley in Official Secrets (best role I've seen her in) Kirsten Dunst in Interview With The Vampire and also Crazy/Beautiful (in particular the latter, she is so good in Crazy/Beautiful) Olivia Hussey in Romeo & Juliet (she's amazing in this role, my favourite Juliet)