THE BIGGEST OSCAR SNUBS: BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR/ACTRESS
A Look At Who Should Have Won The Oscar...
The Academy Awards are on Sunday. While the awards are usually pretty predictable, there are often surprises, and even more often the performance we think should win does not.
In that spirit and because I am traveling this week, I thought I’d highlight some examples of when the Academy did not give the award to the actor, director, and film I feel should have won it. Sometimes my opinions here were shared by others who follow entertainment, sometimes not. Feel free to share yours.
I’ll start with Best Supporting Actor and Actress today, Best Actor and Actress on Wednesday, and finally Best Director and Best Picture on Friday.
Enjoy some lighthearted less serious posts this week!
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
5.) 1993
WHO WON? Tommy Lee Jones - The Fugitive
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON? Leonardo DiCaprio - What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?
The first time I saw The Fugitive, I couldn’t understand how this won Tommy Lee Jones an Oscar. Yes, Jones made the character of U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard so beloved that there was a spin-off movie, but it didn’t seem like an exemplary role for him, and it wasn’t as if the category was weak that year. I mean he was up against Ralph Fiennes for Schindler’s List!
The one who should have won though was Leonardo DiCaprio for his gut-wrenching portrayal of intellectually disabled teenager Arnie Grape in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? I know the Oscars hate to hand lead awards to the very young, but Leonardo DiCaprio was 19 when he was nominated, about the same age Timothy Hutton was when he won for Ordinary People in the same category. He was likely hurt by the fact Anna Paquin was nominated, and won, in the Best Supporting Actress category that same year for The Piano. Two kids winning Oscars the same year? Unfathomable.
Seriously though, try to watch this movie and not cry during DiCaprio’s scenes. You can’t. His performance will traumatize you. He deserved the Oscar for that one scene alone. You know the one I’m talking about.
4.) 1977
WHO WON? Jason Robards - Julia
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON? Alec Guinness- Star Wars
Am I crazy? Yes, maybe. I’m not even a huge Star Wars fan, but I’ll be honest, the Best Supporting Actor category this year was pretty weak. Jason Robards had won this award the previous year for All The Presidents Men – and he unquestionably deserved that one – but his role in Julia didn’t do for me.
Obi-Won though? Hell, even I can see an iconic character without fully appreciating the movie the same way rabid fans can. The more I go back and watch Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, which is what we Millennials call the original one now, the more I can’t think of a more well-performed supporting role than Obi-Won. A mentor, a father figure, and a hero, Obi-Won was the glue of this film and of the story. There is no Luke without Obi-Won, and there is no Star Wars without Luke.
I’m sure the Academy didn’t see the impact Star Wars would have on cinema in the future, it was too soon, but if we’re asking ourselves what makes the best supporting role, then Obi-Won is high on the list. When George Lucas made the prequel films more than two decades later, Obi-Won, played by Ewan McGregor, was the main protagonist.
He was, as Leia told us, their only hope, and the only nominee that year worthy of winning.
3.) 2001
WHO WON? Jim Broadbent - Iris
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON? Ian McKellan - The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
That Jim Broadbent won this award for his portrayal of author John Bayley in Iris wasn’t a surprise. He was the favorite for most of the awards season, but the Academy got this one wrong. Much like in 1977, there was an iconic character in a blockbuster fantasy film that deserved recognition.
The wizard Gandalf, much like Obi-Won, is one of the greatest supporting characters of all time, and Ian McKellan was widely praised for her performance. Peter Jackson’s The Lord Of The Ring: The Fellowship Of The Ring was the most nominated film at the 74th Academy Awards, but went home with only four awards, only in the technical categories. Throwing the film a bone in the form of its best-acted role would have made sense.
And it’s not as if it would’ve been a participation trophy. McKellan earned it. He is probably the most memorable cast member and Gandalf is one of the most beloved characters. McKellan’s performance contributed greatly to that and an Oscar would have been a deserving reward.
2.) 1954
WHO WON? Edmond O’Brien - The Barefoot Contessa
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON? Karl Malden - On The Waterfront
If there was ever a movie where all the major characters should have won Oscars, it was On The Waterfront. The film did win acting wards for Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint, but three actors in the film were nominated for Supporting; Karl Malden, Lee Cobb, and Rod Steiger, which no doubt split the vote against each other allowing Edmond O'‘Brien to win the award for his performance as Ava Gardner’s character’s flack in The Barefoot Contessa.
Malden deserved the award that year though. His performance as the courageous and determined Father Barry was even better than the role he won an Oscar for a few years earlier in A Streetcar Named Desire. Malden was the film’s conscience and its unsung hero. His monologue at the docks after the death of a worker willing to speak out against corruption was more than just a lesson for the character, it spoke to all of us. In a movie so full of cynicism, corruption, and inhumanity, Father Barry was more than just a priest, Malden presented the character as the symbol of hope and a reminder of the power of faith, whether in religion or just merely in each other.
In one of the darkest, most cynical storylines in cinematic history, he was a bright light; a beacon of hope and a reminder that even if it feels lonely and scary to do the right thing and you feel no human is on your side, God is.
1.) 2006
WHO WON? Alan Arkin - Little Miss Sunshine
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON? Eddie Murphy - Dreamgirls
Eddie Murphy got royally screwed here and I always believed some subtle racism was at play.
For the entire awards season, Murphy was considered the frontrunner for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in Dreamgirls. It became a media sensation. The entertainment media loves this kind of story: An actor, known for his comedic and unserious roles catching fire in a serious role and riding that wave of positive reviews right to an Academy Award. They love it even more when it’s a person of color. Jamie Foxx had just done it with his performance as Ray Charles. Bill Murray nearly did it for his role in Lost In Translation. Eddie Murphy seemed to be next.
Then, it just didn’t happen. The Kodak Theater was audibly shocked when Alan Arkin’s name was called instead of Eddie Murphy’s. It’s not that Arkin’s performance as the undisciplined bad grandpa in Little Miss Sunshine wasn’t good, it’s that Murphy worked for it. What happened?
One theory is that during awards season, Murphy released one of his infamous ridiculous comedy films, Norbit, which if you haven’t heard of it is…not very good. The film was so badly panned that many believe it cost Murphy votes in the Academy and allowed Arkin to win.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
5.) 1989
WHO WON? Brenda Fricker - My Left Foot
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON? Julia Roberts - Steel Magnolias
This should have been a no-brainer.
I know Brenda Fricker’s performance as the struggling Irish mother of a child with cerebral palsy tugged at the heartstrings, but so did the young greenhorn Julia Roberts.
It seems strange in hindsight that Roberts’ Best Supporting Actress nomination is the only one Steel Magnolias got at the 62nd Academy Awards, and probably explains why Roberts didn’t win. Fricker played alongside the Best Actor winner, Daniel Day-Lewis in a film that was favored to win many awards.
Nevertheless, Roberts should have carried it home. She was only 21 when she made Steel Magnolias and it was her fourth film, but her ability to hold her own alongside veterans like Sally Field and Shirley MacLaine showed that she had the star power that would carry her into a career as “America’s Sweetheart.”
The Best Supporting Actress award was often given to young actresses who gave us outstanding performances that served as their “arrival” into the A-list. Think Anne Baxter or Goldie Hawn; Meryl Streep or Jessica Lange; Angelina Jolie or Jennifer Hudson. This should have been Julia’s time to join them. It would be another decade before the Academy made this right and awarded Roberts an Oscar statue for her leading role in Erin Brockovich.
4) 2008
WHO WON? Penelope Cruz - Vicky Christina Barcelona
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON? Viola Davis - Doubt
Eva Marie Saint joined four past Best Supporting Actress winners to introduce the nominees for that category before awarding the winner at the 81st Academy Awards. When she introduced Viola Davis for her short, but memorable, role in Doubt, she noted that “in rare instances, an actress makes such an impression in only a few brief scenes that the energy of her work carries her all the way to a seat at the Kodak Theatre on Oscar night.”
Davis only appears in one scene, for about eight minutes, and only with Meryl Streep, but rarely have you seen Meryl, arguably the greatest living actress of this generation, break a sweat and work for it as hard as she did alongside Viola. As Mrs. Miller, the mother of a black son Streep’s Sister Aloysius believes is being corrupted by a priest, she presents a character tormented by the love for her son and fears for his safety if his secret is exposed. It’s not only the way she delivers her lines, but her facial expressions and body language, right down to the snot coming out of her nose as he breaks down and cries. Oscars have awarded Best Supporting awards for short performances before when they are impactful. Beatrice Straight in Network, Anthony Quinn in Lust For Life, and Gloria Grahame in The Bad And The Beautiful (we’ll get to her later), it felt wrong to hold this against Viola.
Nevertheless, Cruz’s performance was also Oscar-worthy. Her character in Vicky Christina Barcelona was so complex and intriguing, that it’s hard to argue against her winning. If Viola had to lose, she could lose to worse.
3.) 2000
WHO WON? Marcia Gay Harden - Pollock
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON? Kate Hudson - Almost Famous
Even Marcia Gay Harden was shocked when her name was called in the first minutes of the 73rd Academy Awards. Not only was she not favored, but in some rankings she was on the bottom of the list, well below favorites Kate Hudson for Almost Famous and Judi Dench for Chocolat.
The Oscar should have gone to Hudson, who would have won in the same category her mother, Goldie Hawn, did for Cactus Flower in 1969. It would have been poetic, mother and daughter winning the same award 30 years apart, both for their first major role. Plus Hudson deserved it. Her performance as hippie-era groupie Penny Lane made us feel multiple emotions in only two hours: joy, fear, grief, and hope. Penny acted both as a mentor for the protagonist, William Miller, but also as a vulnerable, emotionally damaged woman searching for direction herself.
Hudson’s co-star Frances McDormand was also nominated for the film, which won Cameron Crowe a Best Original Screenplay Oscar. The split between the co-stars probably contributed to Harden sneaking through the win.
For Hudson’s first major role, it was a home run, and she wholly deserved the Oscar that year.
2.) 1996
WHO WON? Juliette Binoche - The English Patient
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON? Lauren Bacall - The Mirror Has Two Faces
With all due response to Miss Juliette Binoche, this category was rigged this year.
The Academy Awards in the late 1990s have some of the worst wins in the awards’ history, probably owing to the odious creep Harvey Weinstein. If you looked at who won many of the Oscars in the late 1990s, it’s almost always movies produced or distributed by him and his company over more deserving winners. That’s exactly what happened at the 69th Academy Awards when Juliette Binoche won a shocking upset in the Best Supporting Actress category over screen legend and favorite Lauren Bacall. It was one of the rare times when the performance that won both the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards didn’t go on to win the Oscar. Usually, that’s a good prediction for who would win.
For years, it’s been suggested that Weinstein, whose subsidiary Miramax distributed The English Patient, aggressively lobbied the Academy voters to have his movies sweep the awards. Besides Binoche’s win, The English Patient also won Best Picture and Best Director.
When her name was called, even Binoche appeared shocked, opening her acceptance speech by saying “I thought Lauren would win.” We all did.
1.) 1952
WHO WON? Gloria Grahame - The Bad And The Beautiful
WHO SHOULD HAVE WON? Katy Jurado - High Noon
The only thing worse than Lauren Bacall’s snub in 1996 was this travesty that happened 44 years earlier at the 25th Academy Awards. That year the person who should’ve won for Best Supporting Actress not only didn’t win it, she wasn’t even nominated and that’s despite winning the Golden Globe in the category.
Mexican actress Katy Jurado played the smart, stoic saloon owner Helen Ramirez in Fred Zinneman’s anti-Western High Noon. Jurado’s performance was phenomenal. She served almost as the story’s moral conscience and an unrecognized authority figure. Her unnervingly calm demeanor in the stressful hours leading up to the climax said more than her character could verbalize.
Remember when I said we’d revisit Gloria Grahame’s win? Well now is the time. Grahame won the award for less than ten minutes of screentime and for no other reason than the fact her biggest competition, Jurado, was snubbed of a nomination entirely.
Now I don’t want to speculate that Jurado’s heritage played a role in her being snubbed, but this was 1952, and up until that point, Hattie McDaniel was the only person of color to win n Oscar and no Latina had even been nominated yet. Maybe it was a little early to appreciate another dynamic performance by a woman of color.