Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1972: Results

5. Ian Bannen in The Offence - Bannen gives an effective portrayal  of the character's damaged state even if he can't fully realize what the writing demands from the character.

Best Scene: The beginning of the interrogation. 

4. Ned Beatty in Deliverance - Beatty has a particularly thankless role that could have easily been a caricature, but realizes a genuine victim through his performance.

Best Scene: Squeal like a Pig

3. Robert Shaw in Young Winston - Shaw, as usual, gives a striking performance first in realizing the quiet command of his character then later his tragic decay.

Best Scene: Lord Randolph fails to deliver his speech in parliament.

2. Eddie Axberg in The New Land - Axberg matches the naturalism of his co-stars and gives a moving depiction of his character's doomed journey.

Best Scene: Robert goes to the brothel.

1. Bruce Dern in The Cowboys - Dern actually gives a my favorite supporting of 1972 as he creates such a memorable pathetic scoundrel as the man who shot the man who shot Liberty Valance.

Best Scene: Asa Watts does the unthinkable. 

Overall Rank:

1. Bruce Dern in The Cowboys
2. Joel Grey in Cabaret
3. James Caan in The Godfather
4. Eddie Axberg in The New Land
5. Robert Shaw in Young Winston
6. Robert Duvall in The Godfather
7. Ned Beatty in Deliverance
8. John Cazale in The Godfather
9. Richard S. Castellano in The Godfather
10. Gene Hackman in Prime Cut
11. Ronny Cox  in Deliverance
12. Alistar Sim in The Ruling Class
13. Clive Revill in Avanti!
14. Nigel Green in The Ruling Class 
15. Barry Foster in Frenzy
16. Eddie Albert in The Heartbreak Kid
17. Alec McCowen in Frenzy
18. Arthur Lowe in The Ruling Class
19. Stacy Keach in The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
20. Abe Vigoda in The Godfather
21. Roscoe Lee Browne in The Cowboys
22. Peter Boyle in The Candidate
23. Sterling Hayden in The Godfather
24. Nicholas Colasanto in Fat City
25. Robert Duvall in The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid
26. Howard da Silva in 1776 
27. Fernando Rey in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie  
28. Tony Roberts in Play It Again, Sam
29. Julien Bertheau in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
30. Ned Beatty in The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
31. Edward Andrews in Avanti!
32. Robert Duvall in Joe Kidd 
33. Helmut Griem in Cabaret
34. Alex Rocco in The Godfather
35. Kenneth Mars in What's Up, Doc?
36. Donald Madden in 1776 
37. Paul Winfield in Sounder
38. Jack Albertson in The Poseidon Adventure
39. Melvyn Douglas in The Candidate
40. Gianni Russo in The Godfather
41. Roddy McDowall in The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
42. John Marley in The Godfather
43. Anthony Hopkins in Young Winston 
44. Fritz Wepper in Cabaret
45. Anthony Perkins in The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
46. Slim Pickens in The Getaway
47. Bill McKinney in Deliverance
48. Red Buttons in The Poseidon Adventure 
49. Jerry Lacy in Play It Again, Sam
50. Ben Johnson in The Getaway
51. Ron Holgate in 1776
52. Arthur O'Connell in The Poseidon Adventure
53. Herbert 'Cowboy' Coward in Deliverance
54. Gregory Walcott in Prime Cut
55. Michael Bryant in The Ruling Class
56. Micheal Murphy in What's Up, Doc?
57. Bernard Bribbins in Frenzy
58. Roddy McDowall in The Poseidon Adventure
59. Ian Holm in Young Winston
60. A Martinez in The Cowboys
61. Harry Andrews in The Ruling Class
62. Al Martino in The Godfather
63. Ruy Guerra in Aguirre, the Wrath of God
64. Ernest Borgnine in The Poseidon Adventure
65. Del Negro in Aguirre, the Wrath of God
66. Don Stroud in Joe Kidd
67. Donald Moffat in The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid
68. Paul Frankeur in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
69. Jean-Pierre Leaud in Last Tango in Paris
70. William Mervyn in The Ruling Class
71. Roy Poole in 1776
72. James Best in Sounder
73. Ron Rifkin in Silent Running
74. Ken Howard in 1776
75. Cliff Potts in Silent Running
76. John Saxon in Joe Kidd
77. Don Porter in The Candidate

Next Year: 1929 Lead/Supporting

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1972: Ned Beatty in Deliverance

Ned Beatty did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Bobby Trippe in Deliverance.

Ned Beatty plays one of the men going on a river rafting trip in the deep south and like the entirety of the cast Beatty non-verbally establishes how his own character, Bobby, views the locals they must interact with in order to get to the river. Beatty plays Bobby as obviously having some clear disdain for them although does not bother to make it quite as obvious as Burt Reynolds's Lewis, though he he clearly expresses a particularly clear discomfort with dealing with the locals. When the trip starts it becomes rather obvious that Bobby is not suited for the outdoor adventure they are on. Beatty's very good in these scenes in a rather understated way. It is obvious that Bobby is suppose to be the one out his element to the point of derision from Lewis. Beatty does well though because although he properly matches the incompetence needed for the character but he doesn't go too far with in making Bobby seem like a caricature. He importantly stays believable and makes Bobby's inadequacies realistic. 

The trip eventually leads to the infamous scene where Bobby and Ed (Jon Voight) are accosted by some armed locals. Beatty is terrific in this scene where he must fulfill a particularly unglamorous role. Beatty is quite good as he begins still with the same slight unease and disdain at the behavior of locals as they at first just seem to be hassling the two men in just sort of general fashion. Quickly enough though when the men do pull the guns on them Beatty is great as he expresses almost a complete confusion at their request for him to strip as though he barely able to process what exactly is going on. When the man actually goes to rape Bobby Beatty creates the horror of the scene through by so effectively realizing that horrible moment where Bobby understands what the man intends to do to him. Beatty does well by capturing the brutality of the scene as Bobby is raped by one of the hillbillies. Before anything worse happens though they are saved by Lewis who kills on the hillbillies leaving the four men to decide what it is that they should do.

Bobby's choice of covering up the death of the hillbilly is made particularly understandable by Beatty's performance as he shows Booby almost running the whole situation in his mind and portrays the intense fear at thinking his rape will come to light in public. Beatty conveys the trauma in a different way that might be expected, but still in a way that feels honest. Instead of portraying a constant overt distress Beatty plays Bobby's manner as man trying his best to forget what happened to him. Beatty still shows that Bobby is irrevocably scared by his experience though he internalizes into him as for the rest of the film Bobby clearly no longer takes anything without some concern. There is a general cautiousness Beatty plays and has a whole unease towards the world that he did not before. When they do go back with the locals Beatty's performance works especially well as he portrays quite a different reaction in Bobby as he deals with the locals now. There's no disdain towards them just a constant friendliness about his interactions, although still with that strong undercurrent fear as Bobby obviously wants to give no form of offense to them for his own sake. This is a very good work from Ned Beatty as he, like his other three co-stars, successfully keeps an honest humanity in the story that in the wrong hands could have just seemed like absurdest exploitation. 

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1972

And The Nominees Were Not:

Eddie Axberg in The New Land

Ian Bannen in The Offence

Ned Beatty in Deliverance

Bruce Dern in The Cowboys

Robert Shaw in Young Winston

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: 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

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?