I read something the other day about how almost all writing done about the Oscars - at least on the internet - is negative squabble about how and when they got it wrong. Totally fair point. And this post will do nothing to contradict that; in fact I've kind of written about this exact trend, the make-up Oscar, before. It's just a phenomenon that is already too prevalent in Oscar history to ignore. This list focuses solely on acting prizes, specifically Best Actor. I watched a TCM documentary about the history of the Oscars a couple weeks ago and there were two great quotes that I feel are relevant to this discussion: director/screenwriter Phil Alden Robinson (the man behind Field of Dreams, so obviously a hero) said (paraphrasing), "People say 'How could you give that to so and so over so and so?' Well, the answer is, we took a vote." Of course, people are fallible; the list of winners is just a microcosm of what the Academy liked best at the time. The other great quote was from Ellen Burstyn, talking about the year she won Best Actress for Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, besting several tough competitiors (Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under the Influence and Faye Dunaway in Chinatown). Burstyn states, "Gena Rowlands was really wonderful in that movie. She deserved an Oscar for that performance. Not my Oscar, but an Oscar." Sometimes that's just the way things go down - there are more than one actor who deserves the top prize. The only major category tie in history was in 1968 when Barbra Streisand and Katherine Hepburn both won Best Actress. All that said, here are the most glaring examples of how ignoring a great actor's best work leads down a very messy path.
1943: Paul Lukas, Watch on the Rhine
This could be a spectacular performance; I can't honestly say having never seen it. My only beef is that it seems wrong that Humphrey Bogart didn't take the Top acting prize for his most iconic role as Rick in Casablanca. Had he won here, there would have been less chance of his receiving a make-up Oscar from the Academy in 1951 for The African Queen.
1943: Jennifer Jones, The Song of Bernadette
Ingrid Bergman wasn't nominated for Casablanca, but she was nominated the same year as Best Actress in For Whom the Bell Tolls, an equally great performance. But she was bested by young ingenue Jennifer Jones, leading to Bergman's make-up Oscar the following year...
1944: Ingrid Bergman, Gaslight
Bergman is perfectly serviceable in Gaslight, playing a woman whose husband preys on her fragile and innocent mind to convince her she's crazy. But that's all she really has to play. The great shame is that Bergman's recompense comes at the cost of Barbara Stanwyck's dynamite performance in Double Indemnity. Though nominated 4 times in her career, Stanwyck never won a competitive Oscar; she received an Honorary in 1982.
1948: Lawrence Olivier, Hamlet
Another year that could have belonged to Bogart, he played a complex, greedy, sometimes very unlikable character in John Huston's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and despite it being one of Bogart's most memorable and praised roles, he wasn't even nominated. So Olivier won for his turgid portrayal of Hamlet (a great play, but in too reverential hands the lead character is extremely unsympathetic and whiny).
1951: Humphrey Bogart, The African Queen
Had Bogart not been overlooked in years past, his Best Actor Oscar could have been for something more meaningful than this pandering adventure tale. The most notable fellow nominees that year were Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire and Montgomery Clift in A Place in the Sun, both giving greater performances. Clift would never win a competitive Oscar and his A Place in the Sun antihero is one of his best roles. Brando's performance in Streetcar was game changing and popularized "the method" acting technique. However, Brando deservedly won in 1954 for On the Waterfront and in 1972 for The Godfather, so it's not like he really lost out in the long run.
1965: Lee Marvin, Cat Ballou
First of all, Lee Marvin's dual role in Cat Ballou isn't even the lead. That would be Cat Ballou (Jane Fonda) seeking to avenge her father's death, with the help of a couple yokels (Michael Callan and Dwayne Hickham) and a drunk former gunslinger (Lee Marvin). Marvin also plays the evil masked killer of Cat's father. As the bad guy, we never really get to see anything, the character is so shrouded and distant, and as the drunken gunfighter, Marvin is so over-the-top it's hard to take any aspect of the movie seriously. Marvin had a long and illustrious career in Westerns and War films, often playing the muscle or 2nd banana in such films as The Caine Mutiny, The Dirty Dozen, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Professionals, and The Big Red One. But his performance in Cat Ballou is preposterous and not even a leading performance. Losing to Marvin is the closest Richard Burton would ever come to winning a competitive Oscar; he was nominated the same year for The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.
1974: Art Carney, Harry and Tonto
Aww, shucks, Art Carney is really sweet in Harry and Tonto, and in a less competitive year I would have no problem with the former "Honeymooners" comedian taking top honors. But 1974 was a pretty special year: Jack Nicholson was nominated for Chinatown, Al Pacino was nominated for The Godfather Part II, and Dustin Hoffman was nominated as foul-mouthed comedian Lenny Bruce in Lenny. Luckily when they made it up to Jack Nicholson the next year, he won for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, possibly a more iconic performance than Chinatown. But for Pacino....well, take a look at 1992.
1986: Paul Newman, The Color of Money
The Academy gave Newman an Honorary Oscar the year before, but then he went and reprised his role from The Hustler in Scorcese's The Color of Money, and suddenly the Academy fell all over themselves to give him a competitive Oscar. In so doing they completely robbed Bob Hoskins who took the Golden Globe, BAFTA, Top Actor at Cannes and a variety of Top Critics awards for his leading role in Mona Lisa.
1992: Al Pacino, Scent of a Woman
The ultimate example of a make-up Oscar in practice. Pacino is undoubtedly a great actor whose enemy always seemed to be timing. His supporting nod for The Godfather was lost to Joel Grey in Cabaert, he lost to Jack Lemmon for Save the Tiger the year of his Serpico, his lead in The Godfather Part II was lost to Art Carney for Harry and Tonto, and when up for Dog Day Afternoon he was overlooked in favor of another perpetual nominee, Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. His series of nominated performances in the '80's and '90's all came to nothing, so in 1992 the Academy took it's chance and finally gave Pacino an Oscar for his rather hammy role in Scent of a Woman. Unfortunately, Denzel Washington gave the performance of his career, and the best performance of the year, in Malcolm X. Now Washington is owed a make-up Oscar, huh?
1995: Mira Sorvino, Mighty Aphrodite
Sorvino is charming in Woody Allen's 1995 film, but a rather one-note caricature. How exciting would it have been to see Kate Winslet actually win for her spunky, passionate Marianne in Sense and Sensibility? Or Joan Allen (in what was actually a leading actress role) as the beleaguered wife of Nixon? Or the always great Mare Winningham in Georgia? (People have largely forgotten about Winningham; today she's most remembered for playing Meredith Grey's doomed stepmother in "Grey's Anatomy," but she was always a top-notch actress.) Point being, there were better choices that year, and someday Joan Allen may be receiving a make-up Oscar as well. Winslet already got hers in 2008 for The Reader - although when you're talking about Winslet, the performances are almost always uniformly deserving.
2001: Denzel Washington, Training Day
Sure, Washington already had a Supporting Oscar for 1989's Glory, but the heir to the legacy of Sidney Poitier surely deserved his own Best Actor statuette. He was denied after great performances in 1992's Malcolm X and 1999's The Hurricane and the Academy wasn't going to let that happen again. So he won for playing against type as the thug of Training Day. I actually thought that Russell Crowe's best performance occurred in 2001 for A Beautiful Mind, but as he was already awarded the year before, it was easier to get Denzel the Best Actor Oscar he deserved. Tom Wilkinson also lost out for his subtle work in In the Bedroom.
2009: Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Bullock's Oscar is not exactly a makeup, and I don't think any great harm was done by not giving it to Meryl Streep for Julie and Julia. But as lovable as Bullock is, The Blind Side is a trumped up Afternoon Special on Lifetime, and while her performance is strong, it's not Oscar-worthy. Had Bullock lost, the award would most likely have gone to Streep, and then the Academy wouldn't have felt the need to give it to her for The Iron Lady in 2011 (although Streep had won twice before, her last victory was in 1982: that's 27 years and a further 12 nominations out and Streep couldn't be left in the cold for too much longer, Katherine Hepburn won Best Actress 3 times in the latter half of her career," the Academy noted distressingly), and Viola Davis could have won for The Help. Also nominated in 2009 were Gabourey Sidibe for Precious, and Carey Mulligan giving a confident and layered performance in An Education. (Potential make-up Oscar situations now brewing for Davis, Mulligan and Sidibe.)
2009: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
Jeff Bridges is awesome and I love him and while his performance in Crazy Heart is typically good, it's nothing extraordinary. But the Academy started getting worried when they saw the Dude had turned 60 and had been passed over for Supporting Actor in '71, '74 and '00 for The Last Picture Show, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and The Contender, respectively, as well as losing Best Actor for Starman in 1984. And somehow it was deemed the year of Jeff Bridges. I thought George Clooney showed new depth in Up in the Air, but the real winner was Colin Firth's heartbreaking performance in A Single Man. Firth says so much with silence. He deserved it that year. Yes, Firth did win the following year for perhaps an equally great performance as the noble, stuttering King Bertie in The King's Speech, and I can't say it was undeserved. But if Firth had won the previous year, then Jesse Eisenberg would have had a much better shot of winning for The Social Network in 2010, an assured performance at least equal to Firth's. This one is not a travesty, but Bridges most definitely won a make-up Oscar in 2009.
As a final lead-up to Oscar day (!) I hope that was satisfying. If you prefer to focus on the positive, here's a list of my favorite Oscar dresses (though the list is 6 years old).
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