Best Supporting Actor 1976: Results

5. Burt Young in Rocky- Young gets the job done as Adrien's brother. Although the job only involves acting jerky, which he does well enough but that is not really all that much.

 

4. Ned Beatty in Network- Beatty has one scene basically in Network and gets to yell for awhile. His yelling though is just not as well done as the rest of the cast's and his yelling seems a little unnatural.

3. Jason Robards in All the President's Men- Robards delivers in the role of Ben Bradley providing a sort of supportive mentor though with a definite incisiveness of a man who supports his writers but also demands the best of them.

2. Burgess Meredith in Rocky- Meredith is very effective as Mickey and creates a memorable character, and he has one emotional scene where he is truly great.

1. Laurence Olivier in Marathon Man- Olivier is brilliant and creates an incredibly villain with his performance Dr. Szell. He never over plays the part and gives an incredibly effective performance.

Deserving Performances:
Hal Holbrook in All the President's Men
 Carl Weathers in Rocky

Best Supporting Actor 1976: Laurence Olivier in Marathon Man

Laurence Olivier received his ninth acting Oscar nomination, and his only one for Supporting Actor for portraying Dr. Christian Szell in Marathon Man.

Marathon Man is a rather strange thriller, that has some strong moments, is thrilling at times, but the plot never becomes entirely compelling.

Laurence Olivier plays Dr. Christian Szell, a Nazi dentist, who is clearly based on the real life Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele. Olivier is probably the best part of Marathon Man, and his performance creates a very memorable villain in Dr. Szell. Olivier gives an incredibly interesting performance, one reason is because he never goes over the top. Playing a Nazi Dentist it would have been incredibly easy to go over the top but Olivier never does despite the strange role he has. His accent uses is very effective as an incredibly quiet German accent that he does. He never sounds stereotypical, and the accent works perfectly.

Olivier is only ever subtle, and understated as Szell making his performance far more effective and disturbing than if he went over the top. He almost always stays quiet in the role, making everything he does always a little more intense, since it is not obvious what he is going to do. He plays Szell certainly as an evil man, but still a man. He does not play as some monster, but as an old man who happens to pure evil. Olivier is always effective because of this. Every scene he is in becomes interesting because of him. The scene where he tortures Babe (Dustin Hoffman) would not be nearly as chilling if it were not because of Olivier's perfect way of speaking in these scenes. Is it safe would not be as memorable as it is if it were not for the way Olivier speaks it. His delivery is so perfectly chilling, since he always understates it. He never yells is it safe, but just coldly states it creating far more effective scene.

 Olivier is in full control throughout the performance. Every movement and gesture he makes is always finely attuned and helps his performance. Even though it obviously is acting he never seems to be doing so. All his movements all work for the character and merely add to performance even more so. Olivier shows the joy of his performance in this performance. Even though he is playing a despicable character, Olivier always shows the proper amount of life in the character. He shows that Szell know who he is and enjoys it. Szell is not a purely one note villain and I believe a strong reason for that because of Olivier's brilliant performance. Olivier never falters from when Szell knows all and is in command to when he loses his power just right at the end creating a satisfying conclusion to the character. Another great performance from the great Olivier. 

Best Supporting Actor 1976: Jason Robards in All the President's Men

Jason Robards won his first Oscar from his first Oscar nomination for portraying editor of the Washington Post Ben Bradlee in All the President's Men.

All the President's men is a fascinating film that follows reporters Woodward and Bernstein as they uncover secrets about the Watergate break in and find connects to the White House.

Robards plays the chief editor who comes in and out of the story, and is another performance from this year who has very limited screen time. Robards does actually seem like Ben Bradlee and carries the right quality throughout the film. He always commands the right presence as Bradlee, and never fails to seem like he really is the head of a newspaper. Robards commands in that sense in every scene he is, and creates that personality that simply dominates even with more emotional men around. A great moment early on is his editing of the two's story in silence, and Robards exudes that power without question.

Robards gives a performance that makes an impact in every second in which he appears. He is never dull but Robards knows his character's importance. Although there isn't a direct focus on the personal struggle Robards quietly finds small moments to reveal the personal investment of the man while still directly commanding his boys essentially. He gives the right amount of support to Hoffman and Redford and technically he is the definition of a supporting performance here. Robards though supports with both a certain sense of genuine support but also the incisiveness of criticism. When he tells them they better not screw up again Robards delivers the line flawlessly as he portrays almost a definite menace as it being the truth, while never raising his voice still showing that Bradley cares about the story and his journalists. It's terrific stand out work, even if it is perhaps not the single best supporting performance in the film it is a very good one. 

Best Supporting Actor 1976: Burgess Meredith in Rocky

Burgess Meredith received his second and final Oscar nomination for playing Mickey Goldmill the crusty old manager in Rocky.

Meredith plays what became probably his best known role as Mickey in Rocky. His line delivery being continually parodied in various shows, other movies and commercials. An interesting thing though is that the meat of his performance is not really related to this. Yes Meredith is good in the trainer parts telling Rocky to do this and do that. Meredith does put the right amount of energy into theses scenes and his presence does make the final fight better. Telling Rock to get him all that really is made effective because of Meredith.

The greater part of Meredith's performance is when he actually is not even Rocky's manager. He has one good scene and one great scene before he becomes Rocky's manager. The good one is where he chews Rocky out for being a collector for a loan shark. Here Meredith puts in the right amount of anger and intensity in the scene to give it the right strength, and passion.

The great scene of his performance though involves his visit to Rocky where he tries to persuade Rocky to allow him to be his manager. Meredith is pitch perfect in this scene, showing both Mickey want to help Rocky's future and his own laments about his own troubled boxing path. Meredith really strikes the right emotional chord here. When he is talking about how he had nails punched through his own mouth as a boxer, and how he never achieved what he thought he could. Then the best part is when Rocky closes the door on him, and he pleads with Rocky. Meredith is great in this scene putting all the emotional power into the scene making it probably the best scene in the film. Meredith gives overall a memorable performance, and a great one in this scene which alone makes his nomination deserving.

Best Supporting Actor 1976: Ned Beatty in Network

Ned Beatty received his only Oscar nomination for playing chairman of the UBS board Arthur Jensen in Network.

Ned Beatty is an incredibly short nominee, and is only in two scenes. In the first scene he basically says thank you to Robert Duvall's character. Beatty does this well enough I suppose. Then his other scene is where he tells Howard Beale (Peter Finch) the true nature of the world. Beatty's whole performance is this scene. It certainly is a showy scene for him, and he gets his chance to yell back at chronic yeller Howard Beale.

Beatty goes over the top in the scene for sure. He really yells a lot about how everything is equal to money and that the individual has not value. He yells for a little bit than quiets for a moment saying are you getting this to Beale. Beatty is fine in this scene although, not brilliant. The scene works but I really give most of the credit to Finch for his perfect reactionary face.

Beatty just plainly cannot yell as well as Finch does. His yelling does seem to be slightly unnatural, where Finch's seems like a force of nature. Beatty's yelling though is still effective. He is not bad in the role, but I do think he could have been better, and I do feel in his one special scene where he gets to yell so much the scene is still stolen from him.A performance that gets the job done, but again not much more than that.

Best Supporting Actor 1976: Burt Young in Rocky

Burt Young received his only Oscar nomination for playing Pauly in Rocky.

Pauly is Adrien's loud, and obnoxious brother. Young is cast in his usual type as the low working class guy. He is given more to do than in many of his roles though, but still not that much. He mostly goes around the film acting like a jerk to either Adrien or Rocky, although he does this well enough it really is nothing very special.

He goes around the film just yelling at people and make jerky remarks, and Young does this with the right amount of jerkiness but then again it is pretty easy to act like just some jerk. He does have one moment where he does something else, and that is where Adrien yells at him back finally. Young does do a fine job of showing the actual pathetic nature of the bully but still it really is not anything special. His character really lacks a lot of development, and Young actually does not really do anything wrong in the role. It is just a role that requires very little of him. It is just an actor doing his usual type, there is nothing special about it, it is not bad, but not anything that really required any awarding.

Best Supporting Actor 1976

And the Nominees Were:

Burt Young in Rocky

Jason Robards in All The President's Men

Laurence Olivier in Marathon Man

Ned Beatty in Network

Burgess Meredith in Rocky

 Since Sage just finished Supporting Actress for this year, Joe did Best Actress recently, and I just finished Best Actor I thought I would close the year with Supporting Actor to a take a short break from lead actor. And as usual who do you pick? Who do you Predict?