Alternate Best Actor 1977: Results

5. Jack Nance in Eraserhead - Nance gives fine semi-straight man style of performance from the weirdness of the film but his work never stands beyond that weirdness.

Best Scene: Henry sees the "child's" insides

4. Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Dreyfuss was well cast as his average guy manner manages to make his character likable and easy to follow even as he does some questionable things.

Best Scene: Roy sees the mother ship.

3. Harvey Keitel in The Duellists - Keitel completely overcomes his apparent miscasting by giving an effective portrayal of a gentlemanly violent determination.

Best Scene: The final duel.

2. Alberto Sordi in An Average Little Man - Sordi for the first half of the film gives an entertaining comic performance then is extremely effective by subverting that into a disturbing portrait of a man's descent into despair and madness.

Best Scene: Giovanni sees the killer.

1. Art Carney in The Late Show - Good Predictions GM, and RatedRStar. Art Carney gives a great performance as he wonderfully balances the drama and comedy in his portrayal of an aging private detective.

Best Scene:  Ira gets the upper hand on the thug.

Overall Ranking:

1. Alberto Sordi in An Average Little Man
2. John Gielgud in Providence
3. Art Carney in The Late Show
4. Bruno Ganz in The American Friend
5. Boris Plotnikov in The Ascent
6. James Coburn in Cross of Iron
7. Keith Carradine in The Duellists
8. John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever
9. Marcello Mastroianni in A Special Day
10. Richard Dreyfuss in The Goodbye Girl
11. Vladimir Gostyukhin in The Ascent
12. William Devane in Rolling Thunder
13. Paul Newman in Slap Shot 
14. Robert Shaw in Black Sunday
15. Bruce Dern in Black Sunday
16. Roy Scheider in Sorcerer 
17. Sanjeev Kumar in The Chess Players
18. Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters of the Third Kind
19. Richard Burton in Equus
20. Sam Neill in Sleeping Dogs
21. Woody Allen in Annie Hall
22. Kostas Kazakos in Iphigenia
23. Bruno S. in Stroszek
24. Jack Lemmon in Airport '77
25. Gregory Peck in MacArthur
26. Andrey Myagkov in Office Romance
27. Fernando Rey in Elisa, Vida Mía
28. Rutger Hauer in Soldier of Orange
29. Jerzy Radziwiłowicz in Man of Marble
30. Richard Chamberlain in The Last Wave
31. Mark Hamill in Star Wars
32. Robert Shaw in The Deep
33. Vyacheslav Tikhonov in White Bim Black Ear
34. David Carradine in The Serpent's Egg
35. Jack Nance in Eraserhead
36. Saverio Marconi in Padre Padrone
37. Saeed Jaffrey in The Chess Players
38. Samy Ben Youb in Madame Rosa
39. George C. Scott in Island in the Streams
40. Marcel Sabourin in J.A. Martin Photographer
41. Fernando Rey in That Obscure Object of Desire
42. Charles Denner in The Man Who Loved Women
43. Peter Firth in Equus
44. George Burns in Oh God!
45. Bob Newhart in The Rescuers
46. George Segal in Fun With Dick and Jane 
47. Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit
48. Robert De Niro in New York, New York
49. Roger Moore in The Spy Who Loved Me
50. Mel Brooks in High Anxiety
51. Sean Marshall in Pete's Dragon
52. Michael Palin in Jabberwocky
53. Nick Nolte in The Deep
54. Al Pacino in Bobby Deerfield
55. Len Cariou in A Little Night Music
56. John Denver in Oh God!
57. Richard Burton in Exorcist II: The Heretic
58. Henry Winkler in Heroes
59. George Lauris in Sasquatch: The Legend of Bigfoot

Next Year: 1977 Supporting

Alternate Best Actor 1977: Jack Nance in Eraserhead

Jack Nance did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Henry Spencer in Eraserhead.

Eraserhead is a strange film about a man dealing and seeing weird things. I must say it is quite compelling in its weirdness.

Jack Nance plays the central man Henry Spencer who inhabits a most bizarre world filled with some equally bizarre people and creatures. Henry is perhaps the least odd thing about the film which isn't saying a lot, I mean just look at his haircut after all. Nance's performance fulfills a very particular role in that he's the kinda sorta straight man to the rest of the film. Both the kinda and sorta are needed though because it's hard to say that Nance's portrayal of Henry is exactly how a normal guy would react in such a situation. Nance's performance is also very much in the way of Lynch's style, although still feels less of one of "freaks" like the way all the other performances are. Nance has an almost comic manner with his performance with the way he portrays a certain constant unease at all the oddness, which actually seems like a rather reasonable reaction to everything going on around him.

Nance's performance is mostly reactive altogether as there is not exactly a lot of scenes where we understand the inner workings of Henry as a man, well unless one is referring to what is below his head if it were to fall off. Nance's performance though does work in his limited role of reacting to the odd things whether it is his manic fiancee, his alluring neighbor, his horny potential future mother in law, his constantly crying and seemingly dying alien son, a bleeding turkey dinner, or all sorts of other odd things going on in this world. Nance's reactions tend to be effective in one way or another. The first being just reflective of the oddness itself and Nance does a fine job of giving at least an ever so slightly realistic reaction to these completely out there images. Although I won't say that Nance really makes the film seem believable so to speak but his performance in a somewhat strange way facilitates them as a more accessible whole.

Jack Nance's performance here is a good one that not only matches David Lynch's most unusual style, but helps to amplify. One of the last shots of the film of Henry staring out would not be nearly as remarkable if not for Nance's combination of fear and astonishment that he portrays in Henry's face. He is always interesting to say the least in every frame that he does inhabit. Nevertheless, having said that Nance's performance is very much a cog in David Lynch's machine as all the performances in the film are. Nance's performance stands out the most in terms of the cast, but when thinking about the film it is doubtful that one would necessarily remember Henry as a character so to speak. It is more likely one would remember the imagery and how Henry is part of that imagery. Nance serves his purpose as in the film well, but it is always the film as a whole, rather than Nance's work as a individual, that leaves the strongest impression.

Alternate Best Actor 1977

And the Nominees Were:

Alberto Sordi in An Average Little Man

Jack Nance in Eraserhead

Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Art Carney in The Late Show

Harvey Keitel in The Duellists