Alternate Best Actor 1967: Results

5. Richard Harris in Camelot - Harris is charming when he needs to be and knows how to bring weight to the dramatics, but can't completely overcome the weaknesses of the film.

Best Scene: Final reprise of Camelot

4. James Garner in Hour of the Gun - Garner is effective in portraying the intensity of this vengeful Wyatt Earp, unfortunately the film doesn't let him explore the role enough.

Best Scene: Earp's final kill

3. Sidney Poitier in In the Heat of the Night - Poitier is a commanding and charismatic portrayal of his determined detective, and especially shines in any scene he shares with Rod Steiger.

Best Scene: At the chief's house.

2. Alain Delon in Le Samourai - Delon gives an excellent minimalistic performance as he does so much in the creation of the physical manner of his character.

Best Scene: The Samourai final assassination attempt.

1. Robert Blake in In Cold Blood - Good prediction Fisti. This came down to Delon doing so much with such a purposefully limited character and Blake making the absolute most out of great as he manages to give such a heartbreaking yet wholly chilling portrayal of Perry Smith.

Best Scene: Perry recounts a part of his life before his execution.

Overall Ranking:

1. Robert Blake in In Cold Blood
2. Alain Delon in Le Samourai
3. Rod Steiger in In The Heat of the Night
4. Sidney Poitier in In The Heat of the Night
5. Toshiro Mifune in Samurai Rebellion
6. Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke
7. Scott Wilson in In Cold Blood
8. James Mason in The Deadly Affair
9. Sidney Poitier in To Sir With Love
10. Gene Wilder in The Producers
11. Michel Simon in The Two of Us
12. Paul Newman in Hombre
13. Charlton Heston in Will Penny
14. Toshiro Mifune in Japan's Longest Day
15. Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate
    
16. Tatsuya Nakadai in The Age of Assassins
17. Joe Shishido in Branded To Kill
18. Dirk Bogarde in Our Mother's House
19. Warren Beatty in Bonnie & Clyde
20. Lee Marvin in Point Blank 
21. Dudley Moore in Bedazzled
22. Yūzō Kayama in Two in the Shadow
23. Richard Burton in The Taming of the Shrew
24. Ugo Tognazzi in L'immorale
25. Ljubiša Samardžić in The Morning
26. James Garner in Hour of the Gun
27. Lee Van Cleef in The Big Gundown
28. Peter O'Toole in The Night of the Generals
29. Peter Cook in Bedazzled
30. Zero Mostel in The Producers
31. Sean Connery in You Only Live Twice
32. Albert Finney in Two For the Road
33. Richard Harris in Camelot
34. Shin Seong-il in Mist
35. Sergei Bondarchuk in War and Peace Part IV
36. Sergei Bondarchuk in War and Peace Part III
37. Uttam Kumar in Chiriyakhana
38. Tomas Milian in The Big Gundown
39. Robert Morse in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying 
40. Lee Marvin in The Dirty Dozen
41. Lee Van Cleef in Death Rides a Horse
42. George C. Scott in The Flim-flam Man  
43. John Wayne in The War Wagon
44. Spencer Tracy in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
45. Milo O'Shea in Ulysses
46. Tetsurō Tamba in Portrait of Chieko
47. Omar Sharif in The Night of the Generals
48. Sidney Poitier in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
49. Michael Sarrazin in The Flim-Flam Man
50. Kirk Douglas in The War Wagon
51. Dirk Bogarde in Accident
52. Jacques Tati in Playtime
53. Dick Van Dyke in Divorce American Style
54. Bekim Fehmiu in I Even Met Happy Gypsies
55. Alain Cohen in The Two of Us
56. Robert Redford in Barefoot in the Park
57. Antonio Gades in El Amor Brujo 
58. Maurice Roëves in Ulysses
59. James Fox in Thoroughly Modern Millie 
60. John Philip Law in Death Rides a Horse
61. Richard Burton in The Comedians
62. Rock Hudson in Tobruk
63. Leonid Kuravlyov in Viy
64. Marlon Brando in A Countess From Hong Kong
65. Rex Harrison in Doctor Dolittle
66. Tadao Takashima in Son of Godzilla
67. Akira Kubo in Son of Godzilla
    
68. Roy Orbison in The Fastest Guitar Alive

Next Year: 1967 Supporting

And yes apparently the Producers is 67 by my rules.

Alternate Best Actor 1967: James Garner in Hour of the Gun

James Garner did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Wyatt Earp in Hour of the Gun.

Hour of the Gun is a decent enough telling of the Tombstone story even if the whole thing seems oddly rushed. 

Wyatt Earp is a historical figure who has been played many times by several different actors usually depicting the events of Earp against the Cowboys lead by Ike Clayton. The role of Wyatt Earp is often portrayed as the hero who wages war against the outlaws along with his more flamboyant friend Doc Holliday (Jason Robards in this version). Earp is technically a slightly thankless role since he is somewhat pigeonholed and even set up in a way to be overshadowed by whoever is playing Holliday. Earp is usually played by the actor known for more steadfast roles which is the case here with James Garner in the lead. Garner is probably best known for the often likable romantic or heroic lead. Garner has just a natural likability in his performances to begin with but Garner actually kinda rejects his usually screen persona here as Wyatt Earp. It would be easy enough to see Garner play Earp with a wink and a welcoming smile but he actually chooses to take a very different approach with the gunfighter.

Garner surprisingly gives a rather cold portrayal of Earp actually and seems to purposefully accentuate the fact that Earp's a killer. This makes sense though for this version of Earp which the film presents as revenge seeking, although still justice seeking as well, since it is pretty earlier on in the film when Virgil Earp is wounded and Morgan Earp is killed. This leaves Wyatt for the rest of the film to avenge his brothers by any means necessary with the help by the seemingly self-hating Doc Holliday. Garner carries himself here with a real intensity here as there is such a lack of warmth in his eyes here which is quite different from the way Garner usually is. It's an effective approach by Garner though as he portrays Wyatt Earp as a man truly hard bitten and changed by what happened to his brothers. He does not have any time to be funny or charming he's on a mission to kill men who wronged him, and Garner bluntly shows this through his performance.

Now the way the story is told in this version isn't really in a way to give a character study while portraying the events. It instead takes a pretty strict stance of meeting each plot point even bothering to go over the courtroom problems faced by Earp and company. The film also spends plenty of time with the other supporting characters although never enough really to realize them all that well leaving the impact Garner can have some what reduced. It's a bit of a shame as what Garner does do in the role is rather striking as he successfully plays this extremely hard bitten version of the character. He also has some nice enough chemistry with Robards, but the film fails to explore the particularly interesting friendship between the two men, something Tombstone handled particularly well. Garner is consistently good here and has one particularly stand out moment where he coldly kills his last man. Garner gives a strong performance and I only wish the film had allowed him to explore Wyatt Earp a little more than it did.

Alternate Best Actor 1967

And the Nominees Were Not:

James Garner in Hour of the Gun

Alain Delon in Le Samourai

Sidney Poitier in In The Heat of the Night

Robert Blake in In Cold Blood

Richard Harris in Camelot

Best Actor 1985: Results

5. Jack Nicholson in Prizzi's Honor- Nicholson gives one of his worst performances here probably his worst performance nominated. He over does everything and does a lot of things that just fall flat.

 

4. Jon Voight in Runaway Train- Voight is good in moments of the film but he is also too over the top at other times. He is never really able to create a single character. He may have been better if the film was not so bad.

3. James Garner in Murphy's Romance- I do not have a single problem with this performance really, it just is nothing very special.

2. Harrison Ford in Witness- Harrison Ford does not do anything amazing with this performance but he is always good. He is always effective and carries the film very well.

1. William Hurt in Kiss of the Spider Woman- William Hurt really easily won this one for me because his competition was basically nothing compared to his performance. Hurt takes on a difficult character and gives a fantastic performance. This year was incredibly weak and was probably my easiest to choice yet.

Deserving Performances:Raul Julia in Kiss of the Spider Woman
Micheal J. Fox in Back to the Future

Best Actor 1985: James Garner in Murphy's Romance

James Garner received his only Oscar nomination for playing Murphy Jones in Murphy's Romance.

Murphy's Romance is a very standard romantic comedy of sorts, with its characters with their quirks. It was okay I suppose but there was really nothing all that original about it, nor was there anything all that great about it.

Garner's performance is just like the film really. There is nothing wrong with his performance but there is nothing that makes it really stand out in any sort of way. He plays the romantic lead of the film, who is an older pharmacist. Garner gives a typical performance expected to him really. He handles his character well enough but never in a unique way.

Garner does nothing surprising and does nothing out of his normal performance reach in this film. Doing this is fine for him but it is not at all amazing. He has his quirks and his strange ways, which are never made that interesting by Garner. He is okay at all times though but never great in anyway. He never does anything that is special in any way.

His chemistry with Sally Field is fine but again nothing amazing. I never really felt that he or Field ever created that interesting of a relationship, an okay but not one that was anything special. I really do not have that much to say about his performance overall because it is standard and never ever special. Garner is never bad during this performance but he never did a single thing that seemed like he should have been nominated.

Best Actor 1985

And The Nominees Were:

Harrison Ford in Witness

William Hurt in Kiss of the Spider Woman

Jon Voight in Runaway Train

James Garner in Murphy's Romance

Jack Nicholson in Prizzi's Honor

Who Do you Pick? Who Do You Predict?