Do you really think she’d still be cast in a film adaptation? Even if it went into production tomorrow?
I’d call it highly unlikely.
Sorry, my point was that I noticed that Affleck and Damon weren’t on the list and I presumed this was so because they already had Oscars for original screenplay on Good Will Hunting (and Affleck for producing Argo). Therefore (my thinking continued), if they weren’t on the list because of their non-acting Oscars, then Pitt also shouldn’t be on the list because of his non-acting Oscar.
However, very few people realize that Pitt won last year which makes me think that we have a future trivia question on our hands. 
My personal favorite actors from this list would include Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Edward Norton, and perhaps Albert Finney. Ralph Fiennes and Sigourney Weaver are usually quite good as well. From this list of six, I can whittle it down to five (as specified in the OP) by eliminating Albert Finney, for whom it is probably far too late (although I guess you never know).
I couldn’t do multiple on the poll
Johnny Depp
Edward Norton
Gary Oldman
Joaquin Phoenix
Cumberbatch may be winning next year. He’s an early favorite to win for his performance in The Imitation Game.
No, sorry, I don’t see a way to do that.
Before even opening the thread, my answer was “Johnny Depp”.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Edward Norton should win one as well.
I’m surprised I’m the only vote for Gary Oldman so far. Also surprised that Leonardo Decaprio and Johnny Depp have so many votes.
I just don’t buy DeCaprio as an actor and Johnny Depp is turning into an Edward Scissorhands/ Willy Wonka/ Michael jackson hybrid. He’s a little creepy the older he gets.
Joaquin Phoenix, even though I think he’s weird as hell. Arguably why he can sometimes be brilliant.
Edward Norton, if anybody will hire him.
Like SaharaTea (and MissSwitac) I think Johnny Depp has lost interest in acting and has gone into costume design, so that’d be a nope.
Annette Bening should have won for The Kids are Alright. Don’t know if she’ll have another chance like that but I hope so.
DiCaprio was robbed when he didn’t win for What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. His portrayal was stunningly good IMO. Then not even getting nominated for Titanic was a slap in the face. I hope he eventually nails a role in such a way that Hollywood can’t deny it. Might have to equal parting the Red Sea, though.
I hate the Oscars. I’m still waiting for Irene Dunne to win.
Julianne Moore.
Dale Sams is referring to the possibility of a film adaptation of the stage musical adaptation of the original film.
It would be just like: The Producers (1967 Film) -> The Producers (2001 Stage Musical) -> The Producers (2005 Film Adaptation of the 2001 Stage Musical)
Glenn Close played Norma Desmond on stage in the 1994 stage musical Sunset Boulevard …20 years ago when she was age appropriate for the role.
Okay then. I don’t see any point in restarting the thread seeing as how people have already been commenting on the topic. So we’ll make it a one choice poll.
She looks pretty good for 67, but maybe just a little too aged. Swanson was 51.
So you’re saying there’s a time when you would’ve cast her, but now she’s too old? That she’d be killing herself to an empty house, since the audience left 20 years ago? That she’s still sleepwalking along the giddy heights of a lost career? Ah, but the stars are ageless – aren’t they? Always will be! Just us, the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark; all right, Mistah DeMille: I’m ready for my close-up!
Nah. No one ever leaves a star!!
Pitt, DiCaprio, Ralph Finnes. If they don’t ever win, there is no justice in the world.
But then again, they never gave Hitchcock an Oscar, and gave one to Jennifer Hudson So yeah.
Yeah, I know. There was just something about the post that sounded like maybe the poster wasn’t aware that it was originally a movie with the great Gloria Swanson. The role really belongs to her, whoever else plays it.
And Swanson looked damn good. She actually had make-up to age her because she looked so good at 51. Kinda like when Irene Dunne needed age make-up to look her actual age in I Remember Mama. Why didn’t Irene Dunne ever win?
The Academy Awards mean nothing. Jennifer Jason Leigh has never even been nominated, mainly because she makes independent films. John Sayles will also never win. Christine Lahti got nominated for a second rate comedy she did with Goldie Hawn, and no one noticed when she gave one of the best performances in cinema history in Housekeeping. Judy Davis will never win. Jim Jarmusch, who won the Palme d’Or and the Grand Jury Prize and Cannes, and was nominated for the Palme d’Or about 8 other times, has never been nominated for an Oscar.
Yet, Tom Hanks won for playing Forrest Gump.
I’m surprised Amy Adams isn’t on the list, seeing as she has five Oscar nominations without winning. She’s the new Kate Winslet.
Any of those people COULD win an Oscar, but the ones most LIKELY to win, in my opinion, are:
Johnny Depp
Leonardo DiCaprio
Julianne Moore
Brad Pitt
They’re the ones most likely to continue doing the sort of work in the kinds of movies that Oscar voters want to reward.
Some of the people on that list are too far past their prime (Harrison Ford and Glenn Close) or are now specializing in the kind of films that you just don’t win awards for (Liam Neeson’s action movies, Robert Downey Jr.'s comic book movies).
It’s still entirely possible that, say, Albert Finney will get a good role and the Academy will give him a sort of Lifetime Achievement Oscar for it.