Mikhail Baryshnikov received his only Oscar nomination for portraying Yuri in The Turning Point.
The Turning Point is a drama about two former ballet competitors and friends. One who retired and daughter is becoming a ballerina herself, well the other is still the prima ballerina in their former company.
This nomination is one of those odd ones that seems to have been entirely who the person was rather than their performance. Baryshnikov was a famous ballet dancer, and the academy wanted to be cool or something so they decided to nominate him for his performance. Mikhail really does very little in the film to begin with besides dance.
His dancing skills do not come into play at all with this nomination becuase whether or not he can dance have nothing do with whether or not he can act. The truth is he can't act at all. Whenever he is not dancing he makes basically the same face that is probably best described as trying to convey some sort of emotion it is quite hard to tell what the emotion is suppose to be I would say that it is unlikely that Baryshnikov knew himself.
It is actually quite hard to notice him most of the time in the film, his performance really is quite forgettable. The only really notable thing about him which is his Russian accent. His accent that he frankly never seems to be able to even go over sometimes making some of his dialogue as stilted as possible, since he seems to have a hard enough time just saying the words let alone adding any sort of meaning to them. This is one bad performance that certainly wants more out of it than Baryshnikov gives. It wants him to be some sort of pompous yet irresistible man. Baryshnikov comes off as neither instead he just comes off as a man who simply cannot act in the least. There is not single moment in his performance where he comes off as even competent in this terrible performance.
2. Jason Robards in Julia- Robards gives an effective performance having the right chemistry with Jane Fonda, as well as being able to create fine portrait of the aged Dashielle Hammett, although limited by the film. 
1. Alec Guinness in Star Wars- Alec Guinness does not have the biggest challenge in his career but he certainly handles it with an complete ease and grace. He makes his character memorable, and fully realizes each aspect of Obi-wan Kenobi. 
