I second Jeff Bridges for The Big Lebowski. John Goodman for that movie as well.
Nicholas Cage in Bringing Out the Dead—a seriously underrated movie which I just love.
I also second Brad Pitt for Snatch.
Billy Bob Thornton for The Man Who Wasn’t There
um…what’s his name?..played Delmar in O Brother Where Art Thou?. He’s a director. Him. Whatitsname.
Lee Marvin in this (it might actually be a made for TV movie, but still good) WW2 movie (I know what you’re thinking…Lee Marvin in a WW2 movie??? What gives, right? hehe) called Hell in the Pacific. It’s just ol’ Lee and a downed Japanese pilot on an island. Caught it on cable and fell in love with it.
Tim Robbins in The Shawshank Redemption.
Tim Robbins for writing The Cradle Will Rock
Nick Nolte in Mother Night
His fellow cast members Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden all won Oscars for their roles, but Brando’s Stanley Kowalski, arguably one of the greatest performances in movie history, was passed over in favor of Bogart in The African Queen.
Some ones not yet mentioned (Asterisks to indicate performances that weren’t even nominated):
Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman* & Claude Rains in Casablanca (1943)
Ingrid Bergman in Notorious (1946)
Marilyn Monroe* & Jack Lemon in Some Like It Hot (1959)
River Phoenix* in My Own Private Idaho (1991)
Louise Brooks* in Pandora’s Box (1927)
Lilian Gish* in The Wind (1928)
Cary Grant & Irene Dunne in The Awful Truth (1937)
Agnes Moorehead in The Magnificient Ambersons (Supporting Actress, 1942 )
Bill Murray* in Rushmore (Supporting Actor, 1998)
Morgan Freeman* in Street Smart (Supporting Actor, 1987)
Al Pacino in The Godfather (1972)
Jack Nicholson in Chinatown (1974)
Sean Penn in Dead Man Walking (1995)
Robert Duvall in The Apostle (1997)
Robert Forster in Jackie Brown (Supporting Actor, 1997)
Bette Davis for “All About Eve” And/Or Gloria Swanson for “Sunset Blvd.” (Both 1950)
Montgomery Clift in From Here to Eternity (1953)
Valentina Cortese in Night for Day (Supporting Actress, 1974–Even the actual winner [Ingrid Bergman for Murder on the Orient Express] apologized to Cortese in her acceptance speech)
**Crunchy ** I bow to your superior Frog wisdom. I meant **Snatch ** but typed the other title. I sit here corrected.
Ohhh, **Bill Murray ** in *Rushmore *. Good choice. How about Bill in the *Ed Wood * Which is such an under appreciated film.
Ian Holm’s brilliant performance in The Sweet Hereafter wasn’t even nominated. One of the greatest screen performances of all time, in my opinion. Top fifty, certainly. And I don’t say that lightly.
I was going to say Val Kilmer in Tombstone, but someone already did.
I was going to say Leonardo DiCaprio in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, but someone already did.
So I’ll settle for saying Kevin Spacey in basically anything, and John Cusack in basically anything. High Fidelity comes to mind. Anyone who’s ever been dumped knows what I’m talking about.
The film is actually called Day for Night. Also in that post, Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant weren’t nominated in '46 & '37, respectively, but Morgan Freeman most certainly was for Street Smart.
My picks? I’ll just throw out 2: Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve and Robert Mitchum for Night of the Hunter
I’ll second that, and I’ll add his role as Han Solo. He made both characters. The roles weren’t particularly challenging as far as requiring a complete immersion in the character’s mind, but his portrayal was so vividly perfect that I can not for a second imagine Indy or Han being played by another actor.
And let’s not forget Wilson in Cast Away. That round fella is a natural histrion. And you know what, Tom Hanks wasn’t that bad either.
Plenty of people have gone for Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind. I actually thought he gave a great performance in The Insider. But i’m not going to feel too sorry for him, because there’s no way in hell that he deserved one for Gladiator.
I generally don’t care who wins the Oscar, but one performance i was rooting for a couple of years ago was Laura Linney in You Can Count on Me. I thought that was a great performance in a beautifully understated film, but Julia Roberts picked up the statue for Erin Brockovitch.
Got another one. Natalie Portman should have been best supporting actress for “Beautiful girls.”
And Anthony Hopkins for Meet Joe Black. Brad Pitt as well. They should have shared it: They gave soul to their characters. God, I love that movie. And since it’s currently playing on the tube…
