Alternate Best Actor 1979: Results

5. Graham Chapman in Life of Brian - Chapman gives enjoyable enough performances as both a straight man and a very silly one, but is never that hilarious.

Best Scene: Brian on the cross.

4. Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now - Sheen gives a solid mostly reactionary performance although I do feel he is a bit overshadowed by the film's direction and its other performances.

Best Scene: Willard is told about his previous missions.

3. James Woods in The Onion Field - Woods gives a compelling portrayal that brings depth to a character who could have been just a simple psycho killer.

Best Scene: Lead up to the murder.

2. Klaus Kinski in Nosferatu the Vampyre -Kinksi effectively replicates aspects of Max Schreck's performances, but also offers his own interpretation by strangely yet poignantly bringing some honest humanity to the creature.

Best Scene: Dracula speaks of his desire for love.

1. Brad Dourif in Wise Blood - This was an easier choice than I expected to be as I found Dourif easily gave the best leading performance from 1979. Dourif might not give the most accessible turn, but is consistently fascinating portrait of a truly unique character.

Best Scene: Motes confronts his imposter.

Overall Ranking:

1. Roy Scheider in All That Jazz
2. John Heard in Chilly Scenes of Winter
3. Brad Dourif in Wise Blood
4. Ken Ogata in Vengeance is Mine
5. Patrick Dewaere in Série Noire
   
6. George Burns in Going in Style
7. Alexander Kaidanovsky in Stalker
8. Anatoly Solonitsyn in Stalker
9. Peter Sellers in Being There
10. Klaus Kinski in Nosferatu the Vampyre
11. James Woods in The Onion Field
12. Robert Duvall in The Great Santini
13. Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now
14. Jack Lemmon in The China Syndrome
    
15. Ben Gazzara in Saint Jack
16. Malcolm McDowell in Time After Time
17. Klaus Kinski in Woyzeck
18. Dustin Hoffman in Kramer vs Kramer
19. Christopher Plummer in Murder By Decree
20. George C. Scott in Hardcore
    
21. Gian Maria Volonté in Christ Stopped At Aboli
22. Frank Langella in Dracula
23. Steve Martin in The Jerk
24. James Mason in Murder By Decree
25. Soumitra Chatterjee in The Elephant God
26. Ray Winstone in Scum
27. Yves Montand in I As in Icarus
28. Jean-Pierre Léaud in Love on the Run
29. Alan Arkin in The In-Laws
30. Peter Falk in The In-Laws
31. Maximilian Schell in The Black Hole
32. Jerzy Stuhr in Camera Buff
33. Bunta Sugawara in The Man Who Stole the Sun
34. Daniel Olbrychski in The Maids of Wilko
35. Mel Gibson in Mad Max
36. Bruno Ganz in Nosferatu the Vampyre
37. Al Pacino in ...And Justice For All
38. Ahmed Zaki in Alexandria...Why?
39. Dudley Moore in 10
    
40. Tatsuya Nakadai in Hunter in the Dark
41. Clint Eastwood in Escape From Alcatraz
42. Dennis Christopher in Breaking Away
43. Albert Brooks in Real Life
44. Treat Williams in Hair
45. Malcolm McDowell in Caligula
46. Graham Chapman in Life of Brian
47. Kenji Sawada in The Man Who Stole the Sun
48. Nicol Williamson in The Human Factor
49. Nick Nolte in North Dallas Forty
50. Sun Yueh in Raining in The Mountain
51. Hal Halbrook in Natural Enemies
52. Yoshio Harada in Hunter in the Dark
53. Robert Redford in The Electric Horseman
54. Nikolai Grinko in Stalker
55. Woody Allen in Manhattan  
56. Sylvester Stallone in Rocky II
57. Burt Reynolds in Starting Over
58. Michael Kramer in Over the Edge
59. John Savage in Hair
60. David Bennent in The Tin Drum
61. Jon Voight in The Champ
62. John Savage in The Onion Field
63. Franklyn Seales in The Onion Field
64. Phil Daniels in Quadrophenia
65. William Shatner in Star Trek The Motion Picture
66. Bill Murray in Meatballs
67. Art Hindle in The Brood
68. Ken Wahl in The Wanderers
69. William Devane in Yanks
70. James Caan in Chapter Two
71. Kelly Reno in The Black Stallion
72. Michael Beck in The Warriors
73. Alan Alda in The Seduction of Joe Tynan
74. Ricky Schroder in The Champ
75. Richard Gere in Yanks
76. Roger Moore in Moonraker
77. James Brolin in The Amityville Horror
78. Thelonious Bernard in A Little Romance
79. Matthew Barry in La Luna

Next Year: 1979 Supporting

Alternate Best Actor 1979: Graham Chapman in Life of Brian

Graham Chapman did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Brian Cohen and Biggus Dickus in Life of Brian.

Life of Brian is an enjoyable comedy about a man born near Jesus who gets mistaken for a messiah.

Life of Brian has plenty of absurd characters to go around played by the Monty Python members, but one of the least insane characters is played by Graham Chapman in the leading role. Brian is just a rather simple fellow and Chapman plays him as such going the extra mile really in his method of portraying that Brian is just some average sap. Chapman makes all of his expression simple without being overly stupid and his whole manner gives Brian a whole sort of naivety as a man. Brian is a man without really any big ideas or big ambition for himself therefore he's the perfect sort to be manipulated by some other upstarts. Chapman certainly gives us this man completely, and Chapman does a pretty admirable job of simply being the somewhat hapless fellow that Brian should be.

Most of the Python members are going for the laugh in a very broad way, Chapman does this himself which I will get to, but that's not the case with Chapman's portrayal of the lowly Brian. Instead Chapman is the straight man to all the absurdity as the film covers his reactions to those around him who seem rather insane. Chapman certainly derives a nice amount of humor as first Brian is just sort of strung long by the schemes as others as he basically smiles and follows like a good lad. As the film progresses Chapman adjusts accordingly to the more traditional straight man of comedy as he gets increasingly exasperated at the foolishness of others. Chapman again is quite funny and aids in the less subtle performances well with his own more down to earth portrayal of Brian's confusion and eventually annoyance at the actions of others.

Chapman is not only Brian being the straight man but he actually has his own broader character whose absurdity obviously begins with his name Biggus Dickus. Old Dickus is a Roman centurion who is not particularly intimidating to say the least. Chapman is fairly entertaining in giving the character a funny voice that sounds more like out of cartoon than a biblical epic. Overall though there really is not all that much of the oddly named man, and really Chapman's total time as this character is extremely brief with only a few lines given to him to say in that funny voice. Also I won't lie though these scenes though do belong to Michael Palin as Pontius Pilate not Chapman. Chapman's never bad though and certainly gets his fair share of laughs too, but Palin's performance is the one that you remember.

Chapman overall succeeds quite well within the film being the appropriate element of sanity to stabilize the humor in the right fashion when playing Brian, and being properly entertaining with the one character that let's him join in with the rest of the cast. I would not say that this is a great performance by any measure as I don't think this is a case of straight man turn that actually steals the show from the showier turns, in this case it is the showier turns that are the funniest, and even Chapman's showier character is far from the funniest character of that nature. This is a good comedic performance that serves his purpose well enough but I never thought it was a truly hilarious performance nor did I feel that Chapman went all that further with any other element of the character to make up for the fact that he's not ridiculously funny.

Alternate Best Actor 1979

And the Nominees Were Not:

Brad Dourif in Wise Blood

Klaus Kinski in Nosferatu the Vampyre

Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now

James Woods in The Onion Field

Graham Chapman in Life of Brian