Favorite non-Oscar winning performances

Cafe Society
1

That’s right, I want to know your favorite film performances no matter how campy or silly or over-the-top that did NOT recieve the Acadamy Award.

And please, let’s try not to criticise each other’s choices, it’s all opinion after all.

Some that spring to mind:
William Powell and Myrna Loy in The Thin Man
William Powell and James Cagney in Mr. Roberts
Spencer Tracy in Captains Courageous
Bruce Campbell in Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness
Pierce Brosnan and Geoffery Rush in The Tailor of Panama
Lawrence Olivier and Michael Caine in Sleuth
Albert Brooks in *Broadcast News
Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge
Jamie Lee Curtis and Michael Palin in A Fish Called Wanda

2

Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream.

3

Ian McKellan in Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring.

4

A couple more just struck me:

Russell Crowe in LA Confidential
Leonardo DiCaprio in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape

5

Andy Serkis in … guess what.

6

It’d help if I knew who Andy Serkis was. A quick trip to the imdb though and I’m guessing you liked him for the Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers. (Since Gollum wasn’t much of a role in FOTR)

7

Another vote for Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream. God, she was great, wasn’t she?

Bruce Willis in Death Becomes Her

8

Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy.

In my opinion, the greatest Oscar travesty of all time.

9

Hands-down best female performance of 2000, IMO. Perhaps even best performance of 2000 period.

10

Haven’t seen Requiem for a Dream, but 2 nods for Burstyn’s performance is piquing my curiosity.

And KarlGauss - thanks for reminding me about Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy!

Here’s a few more I thought of recently (I had a list written up at one point for this thread but have since lost it):
Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own
Val Kilmer in Tombstone
Alan Rickman in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
John Belushi in Animal House
The cast of Pulp Fiction

11

Hate to nitpick but Spencer Tracy DID win for Captains Courageous.

Anyway, back to the subject of the thread, here are some that come to mind:

Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove;

Peter Sellers in Being There;

Robert Shaw in Jaws;

James Stewart in Vertigo;

Peter O’ Toole in Lawrence of Arabia;

Nicole Kidman in To Die For;

Helena Bonham Carter in Wings of the Dove;

Kevin Spacey in Se7en; and

Henry Fonda in Grapes of Wrath.

I’m sure I’ll think of some others later.

12

D’oh! He sure as hell did! Let’s just all pretend that’s not there then, shall we? Pretend it’s Sesame Street and we’re using our imaginations.

13

I still think Jim Carrey was robbed for The Truman Show

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Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind.

Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction - one of my favorite performances in movie history.

15

Linda Fiorentino in The Last Seduction.

Guy Pierce in LA Confidential.

Bill Shatner in Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan
[sub]“Khaaaan!!!”[/sub]

Robin Williams in Aladdin.

Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

16

I second Burstyn. Great performance. The big one for me though is Andy Serkis as Gollum. Animation, shmamination, it was a great performance and he deserved a big ol’ award for it.

17

THANK YOU HelloKitty!

I agree!

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Denzel in Malcolm X

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Steve Martin in Roxanne

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Paul Newman in The Hustler