His Turn: Best Actor, 1960

The nominees of 1960 continue with Best Actor:

Trevor Howard, Sons and Lovers

Burt Lancaster, Elmer Gantry

Jack Lemmon, The Apartment

Laurence Olivier, The Entertainer

Spencer Tracy, Inherit the Wind

All five performances are stellar, all five performers among the best to ever do it; only Howard was a one-and-done, the rest had been here before and would be again. Hell, three of them - Lemmon, Olivier, Tracy - already had gold, so it's no wonder that the Academy went for someone they knew and already liked, but hadn't yet awarded: Burt Lancaster.

Ironically, Lancaster said it was the easiest role of his career, basically playing himself, he said. A helluva thing to say when you've seen the movie. Here are my rankings, from fifth to first:

Cinema '62: Best Actor

This is my last post on a Peter O'Toole Oscar nomination! I've managed to watch them all, my thoughts on each are linked below (except for Venus, which I think I reviewed on my long-defunct LiveJournal; at the first-ever Hollmann Awards, its one acting nomination went to Leslie Phillips in Supporting). Naturally, I saved his first for last, because...well, that's just the way it worked out.

Indeed, I've managed to discuss all these actors before. They are favorites of Oscar: a total of 28 nominations, an average of 5.6 noms per actor! Not that those always translated to wins: only four statues among all five, and two of them were Jack Lemmon's. Still, compare that to 1962's Supporting Actor, a five-wide race of one-and-doners; or Supporting Actress, where both first-time nominees were also one-time nominees; or Lead Actress, where...oh, we're talking about that tomorrow. 

In the meantime, the nominees for Best Actor:

Actor, 1953

I can already tell that this year's Retro Hollmann Awards are going to be most unusual. That's all I'm gonna say about that for now...

This lineup for Best Actor is an intriguing one, a telling one. Burt Lancaster credited From Here to Eternity with changing his career, allowing studio execs to see him as more than beefcake, but as a real actor. William Holden's career was already on the rise after his nominated turn in Sunset Blvd; Stalag 17 could only cement his status as a star, and the Lead Actor nomination is evidence of that: he's one part of a large ensemble. Marlon Brando was the sole Streetcar Named Desire cast member not to win an Oscar, but he was still a Hollywood heavy-hitter: top billing and a Lead Actor nomination for what is essentially one scene in a two-hour flick. Montgomery Clift was a beauty who pioneered the brooding, sensitive male Brando and James Dean would popularize -- this was his third nomination. And Richard Burton was starting out on his Hollywood career, after garnering attention -- and a Supporting Actor nod -- for his performance in My Cousin Rachel.

With the exception of Burton, who is mostly defined by the Taylor years, these are actors one immediately thinks of when one thinks of 50s Hollywood. Without exception, they are all timeless icons, actors every movie lover should know.

And here they are, together at last.....

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