# Actors Whose Oscars Should be Recalled & Melted **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 27, 2007, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-whose-oscars-should-be-recalled-melted/417124 "2007-08-27T17:39:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![mamboman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-whose-oscars-should-be-recalled-melted/417124/61 "2007-08-29T09:33:52Z")
Nicole Kidman. How that women even gets work is beyond me\*. Much as I love her, Helen Hunt should give back her Oscar, perhaps trading it for best supporting actress. While we are at it, Jack Nicholson could give back his Oscar for that film and it could be given to he guy who deserved it that year, Robert Duvall. mm - one day I am going to do a search to see just how many posts I have made on this message board procaliming my disdain for Nicole Kidman’s alleged acting skills. I’d guess at least 3 dozen. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-whose-oscars-should-be-recalled-melted/417124/62 "2007-08-29T11:07:02Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] Oh, and of course, the obligatory mentions for any such thread: Judy Holliday’s win for _Born Yesterday_ over both Gloria Swanson for _Sunset Blvd._ and Bette Davis for _All About Eve_ was absurd (yes I know, vote splitting and all that, still) . [/QUOTE] I have no problem with Holliday’s performance- it was fine and hardly a poor perfomance that didn’t deserve an Oscar. The oter two you mention were both great- especially Davis- but I wouldn’t say that they were robbed. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-whose-oscars-should-be-recalled-melted/417124/63 "2007-08-29T12:05:44Z")
[QUOTE=Robin Williams] I mean, it’s a blast to work on films like that, but when you’re doing a serious movie like The Night Listener you take a pay cut because you’re not going to make a lot of money. There’s not going to be a lot of merchandising on The Night Listener, like a Toni Collette doll that comes with two sets of clothes and a little fake kid doll you can either have or not have. You take a pay cut for films like that or **Man of the Year**. [/QUOTE] (bolding mine) :eek: 😕 :eek: 😕 :eek: 😕 :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: Jeebus fucking christ, he thinks that unwatchable turd is a serious movie? :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: Don’t take his Oscar away, beat his head until that withered little BB of a brain seeps out of his ears. Then step on it and wipe your shoe off on his sweaty shirt. :mad: :mad: :mad: pant, pant, pant…Sorry for the smiley overload. I _really_ hated that movie. Could you tell? ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-whose-oscars-should-be-recalled-melted/417124/64 "2007-08-29T12:24:58Z")
[QUOTE=RickJay] Marion Morrison wasn’t really a cowboy. [/QUOTE] You’re right. He was an actor who played a lot of cowboys, each one barely distinguishable from the next. > [@](#): > > John Wayne was definitely a character actor, but at his best, with a good script, he put on some pretty great performances; not only “True Grit,” but also “The Searchers” and “The Shootist.” Reasonable people can disagree, I guess. To me, those roles are interchangeable, at least the way Wayne played them. > [@](#): > > Whether that means he was better than Hoffman I don’t know, and frankly I think comparing one actor to another is impossible except in the most extreme comparisons. Perhaps, but since the topic is “Academy Awards,” such comparison seems inevitable, in that one actor invariably wins out over the others. > [@](#): > > I doubt Dustin Hoffman could’ve done Rooster Cogburn and I’m pretty sure John Wayne could not have been Ratso Rizzo, just as I doubt the Beastie Boys could sing “La Traviata” and I wouldn’t want to hear Pavarotti attempt “No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn.” Some actors fit some roles, and some REALLY fit some roles. Wayne and Hoffman were both perfect in the roles they played. There’s no system that involves handing out one Oscar a year that’s going to be fair. If Hoffman had played Ratso Rizzo dozens of times in his career, you might have a point. Wayne fit hIs role because he could do it in his sleep; Hoffman “fit” his because he had to create the character nearly from whole cloth. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-whose-oscars-should-be-recalled-melted/417124/65 "2007-08-29T12:34:50Z")
I believe Wayne’s portrayal of Ethan in The Searchers far out performed his other roles- including The Shootist and True Grit especially. They are not interchangeable. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-whose-oscars-should-be-recalled-melted/417124/66 "2007-08-29T12:57:54Z")
[QUOTE=mamboman] Nicole Kidman. How that women even gets work is beyond me\*. mm - one day I am going to do a search to see just how many posts I have made on this message board procaliming my disdain for Nicole Kidman’s alleged acting skills. I’d guess at least 3 dozen. [/QUOTE] I am on the same train with you, **mamboman** regarding Nicole Kidman. Watching her on screen is like watching a bowl of oatmeal. A very botoxed bowl of oatmeal. I feel it is safe to say that she received the Oscar for Moulin Rouge because Hollywood knew what a nutjob Tom Cruise really was before the general public did and she was fresh from a divorce from the loon. They gave her the Oscar as compensation. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-whose-oscars-should-be-recalled-melted/417124/67 "2007-08-29T15:29:06Z")
[QUOTE=Stoid] :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: I’m gonna be sick. [/QUOTE] Yanno, that post didn’t read “John Wayne [del]won for True Grit[/del] over Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy. It was wrong then and it’s still wrong,” which I would agree, is still a wrong image 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-whose-oscars-should-be-recalled-melted/417124/68 "2007-08-29T18:25:55Z")
[QUOTE=Cicero] I believe Wayne’s portrayal of Ethan in The Searchers far out performed his other roles- including The Shootist and True Grit especially. They are not interchangeable. [/QUOTE] OK. Take _The Searchers_ out of the argument. The fact remains that, as mentioned above, Wayne got a sympathy/career Oscar for True Grit. He was dying, and the voters knew he would never be nominated again, ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-whose-oscars-should-be-recalled-melted/417124/69 "2007-08-29T18:45:37Z")
[QUOTE=Contrapuntal] OK. Take _The Searchers_ out of the argument. The fact remains that, as mentioned above, Wayne got a sympathy/career Oscar for True Grit. He was dying, and the voters knew he would never be nominated again, [/QUOTE] He was not dying. He had “licked the big C” (lung) years earlier and was only rediagnosed with cancer (stomach) shortly before his death 10 years after _Grit_. He won because (a) he was a legend, (b) he played a role that in part spoofed roles he had played his whole life\*, and (c) Best Picture winner _Midnight Cowboy_ had 2 actors nominated in that category, helping to split the support that film had. \*note that fellow tough guys Humphrey Bogart and Lee Marvin won Oscars for similar play-ups of their tough guy images ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-whose-oscars-should-be-recalled-melted/417124/70 "2007-08-29T19:02:22Z")
Speaking of C.G.Jr, I thought he did all right in _Men of Honor_… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-whose-oscars-should-be-recalled-melted/417124.md?page=3)