Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1966: Results

5. Richard Crenna in The Sand Pebbles- Crenna gives a solid performance that seems to create a more complex character then the film even wanted.

Best Scene: The captain tries to prevent a mutiny.

4. Orson Welles in A Man For All Seasons- Welles in one scene gives complex portrait of Cardinal Wolsey that is worthy of the complex man.

Best Scene: Wolsey tries to persuade More to support the King's divorce.

3. Richard Attenborough in The Sand Pebbles- Attenborough gives a moving performance that effectively conveys his character story almost entirely in his physical performance.

Best Scene: Frenchy talks to Maily for the last time.

2. John Hurt in A Man For All Seasons- John Hurt is the perfect weasel informant here by showing the motivation of what makes such a man.

Best Scene: Richard Rich testifies against Thomas More.

1. Lee Van Cleef in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly- Good Prediction Mark feel free to name a year and a performance. This year came down to the comedic and almost leading work of Walter Matthau against Lee Van Cleef's classic villainous turn. Like Wallach against Nakadai this was not an easy choice but I have to choose one so I am going Van Cleef's chilling performance as the titular Bad.

Best Scene: Angel Eyes has Tuco tortured.

Overall Rank:

1. Lee Van Cleef in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
2. Walter Matthau in The Fortune Cookie
3. John Hurt in A Man For All Seasons
4. George Segal in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
5. Robert Shaw in A Man For All Seasons
6. Will Geer in Seconds
7. Richard Attenborough in The Sand Pebbles
8. John Randolph in Seconds
9. Murray Hamilton in Seconds
10. Paul Meurisse in Le Deuxième Souffle
11. Orson Welles in A Man For All Seasons
12. John Mills in The Family Way
13. Toshiro Mifune in The Sword of Doom 
14. Richard Crenna in The Sand Pebbles
15. Frank Gorshin in Batman 
16. Aldo Giuffrè in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly  
17. Sergei Bandarchuk in War and Peace Part II
18. Nikolai Sergeyev in Andrei Rublev 
19. Gunnar Bjornstrand in Here is Your Life
20. Burgess Meredith in Batman  
21. Nikolia Burlyayev in Andrei Rublev
22. James Mason in Georgy Girl 
23. Ralph Richardson in The Wrong Box
24. Donald Pleasence in Fantastic Voyage
25. Leo McKern in A Man For All Seasons
26. Maximilian Schell in The Deadly Affair 
27. Ivan Lapikov in Andrei Rublev
28. Jack Palance in The Professionals  
29. Jeff Corey in Seconds
30. John Saxon in The Appaloosa
31. Michael Hordern in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum  
32. Khigh Dhiegh in Seconds 
33. Marcel Bozzuffi in Le Deuxième Souffle
34. Denholm Elliot in Alfie  
35. Gene Hackman in Hawaii
36. Wolfgang Kieling in Torn Curtain
37. Vasily Lanovoy in War and Peace Part II
38. Ralph Bellamy in The Professionals
39. Eiji Okada in The Face of Another 
40. Peter O'Toole in The Bible 
41. Max von Sydow in Here is Your Life
42. Wesley Addy in Seconds
43. Eli Wallach in How to Steal A Million
44. Nigel Davenport in A Man For All Seasons
45. Cesar Romero in Batman
46. Hugh Griffith in How To Steal A Million
47. Robert Ryan in The Professionals 
48. Orson Welles in Is Paris Burning?
49. Cliff Osmond in The Fortune Cookie  
50. John Huston in The Bible 
51. Rip Torn in You're A Big Boy Now
52. Arthur Hill in Harper
53. Yuzo Kayama in The Sword of Doom 
54. John Mills in The Wrong Box
55. Antonio Molino Rojo in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
56. Ichiro Nakatani in The Sword of Doom
57. Woody Strode in The Professionals
58. Luigi Pistilli in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
59. Corin Redgrave in A Man For All Seasons  
60. Dudley Moore in The Wrong Box
61. Antonio Casas in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
62. Mako in The Sand Pebbles
63. Richard Harris Hawaii
64. Laurence Olivier in Khartoum
65. Phil Silvers in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum 
66. Mario Brega in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
67. Oscar Homolka in Funeral in Berlin
68. Cyril Cusack in Fahrenheit 451  
69. Jack Gilford in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum
70. Ned Glass in The Fortune Cookie
71. Buster Keaton in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum 
72. James Caan in El Dorado
73. Ralph Richardson in Khartoum
74. Alfie Bass in Alfie 
75. Alan Bates in Georgy Girl 
76. Arthur Hunnicut in El Dorado
77. Simon Oakland in The Sand Pebbles 
78. Robert Duvall in The Chase
79. John Comer in The Family Way
80. Strother Martin in Harper
81. François Lafarge in Au Hasard Balthazar
82. Michael Crawford in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum 
83. Neil Hamilton in Batman
84. James Hong in The Sand Pebbles  
85. Vyacheslave Tikhonov in War and Peace Part II
86. Colin Blakeley in A Man For All Seasons
87. Reginald Denny in Batman
88. Peter Bowles in Blow-Up
89. Charles Boyer in How to Steal A Million 
90. Herbert Lom in Gambit
91. Alan Napier in Batman 
92. Michael Parks in The Bible
93. Richard Harris in The Bible
94. George C. Scott in The Bible
95. Robert Wagner in Harper
96. Hal Holbrook in The Group
97. Arthur Kennedy in Fantastic Voyage
98. Edmond O'Brien in Fantastic Voyage
99. Bill Owen in Georgy Girl
100. Stafford Repp in Batman
101. Murray Head in The Family Way
102. Richard Johnson in Khartoum
103. Cyril Luckham in A Man For All Seasons
104. Graham Stark in Alfie 
105. Ron Rich in The Fortune Cookie 
106. Arthur O'Connell in Fantastic Voyage
107. Geoffrey Keen in Born Free 
108. William Redfield in Fantastic Voyage
109. E.G. Marshall in The Chase
110. Charles Robinson in The Sand Pebbles

Next Year: 1987 lead

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1966: Richard Attenborough and Richard Crenna in The Sand Pebbles

Richard Attenborough did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite winning the Golden Globe, for portraying Frenchy Burgoyne in The Sand Pebbles.

Richard Attenborough evidently could not catch a break with academy when it came to his acting as even though he won the Golden Globe for his performance and his co-star Mako did manage to be nominated. Richard Attenborough plays one of the ship mates on the warship the San Pablo that resides in the back waters of China. Frenchy is one of the few decent men on the ship and one of the few who befriends the lead character Holman plated by Steve McQueen. Attenborough puts on a bit of an accent in the role to make his character American it starts strong and then quickly softens close to his normal accent it never is a distraction though.

Attenborough plays a bit of an opposite of his character in Morning Departure as in that film he played one of the worst men on a sea vessel and in this film he plays one of the best men. Attenborough has a fairly large supporting performance but it is very quiet part in the scheme of things particularly since French lets Holman make most of the big actions during the course of the film. The subplot of Frenchy as a character is that he becomes smitten with a Chinese woman who is basically up for sale and he wants to save her from having to be prostituted to anyone especially not one of the sleazy crewmen of the San Pablo. Even when Frenchy takes his course to save her it still is a low key affair for French.

Richard Attenborough was the perfect choice for the part as Attenborough is the master of a magnetic yet still low key presence. This is great for Frenchy as much of Frenchy's personal conflict in the film is conveyed by reaction shots of Attenborough from him seeing her to the proceedings scenes of he unease at her potential fate to his determination to save her. Attenborough never makes this feel like a limitation as he Attenborugh conveys exactly as he needs to in every instance. There is nothing loss and even though it is mostly silent in nature Attenborough let's us see exactly what Frenchy is going through. Every little frame you catch Attenborugh presents Frenchy's personal story with quite a strong power and poignancy.

Later on the film there are some longer moments where we see Frenchy as he marries the woman and tries to see her even though the men have been banned from the town. Attenborough is very moving in these scenes bringing out the sense of love in Frenchy quite effectively in their wedding scene and even more so when he visits her later by swimming through the cold sea. Attenborough is terrific showing the physical ailment of French effectively as he is dying from hypothermia and importantly in the final moments of Frenchy, Attenborough still reinforces the emotional power of the scene through the genuine tenderness in his performance. Attenborough is excellent in the role. I only wish his character's story was not cut off as abruptly as it is as I found Frenchy's romance far more affecting then Holman's romance.

Richard Crenna did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Lieutenant Collins in The Sand Pebbles.

Richard Crenna plays a rather thankless role as the captain of San Pablo Collins. For most of the film he fulfills just the role of the good captain who is trying to things together on his ship while he has everyone do their duty. Crenna is very good because he doesn't make the captain a foolish commander as they are often portrayed in films like this and I could have easily this character portrayed that way as well. Crenna though avoids this by infusing the right honesty in the part. Whenever the captain has to take care of something very serious going on and he is forced to make a decision, the struggle to do the right thing is there in captain due to Crenna's performance.

Like Attenborough's performance a great deal of Crenna's best moments are silent although the difference here is that Crenna gets far fewer scenes to go on. There are two very strong scenes one is when the captain is forced to scare away angry locals as his men are ready to mutiny and refuse to follow orders. Crenna's has a great moment of split second intensity as he portrays the captain trying to stay strong even with so many problems around him. The other scene is even shorter as he is alone in his cabin with the ship seemingly having nowhere to go. The captain is interrupted and he holsters a gun. We see his face for a second and that is all Crenna needs to show the despondent man Collins has become suggesting that this situation is something he thought he would never have to deal with.

The only problem I would say for Crenna is the film seems to want a simpler character then the character Crenna wants to create. Late in the film the captain is treated as if he is insane and just a man who wants war for the sake of it. Crenna really does not give such a man in his performance instead bringing much more depth to the part by showing the weight of his position in his performance. Crenna never leaves the captain as a thick headed commander, but finds what there is beneath a man of his position. Again with Attenborough, although I would say to an even greater degree as Crenna really gets the short end of the stick most of the time, Crenna actually suggests that there could have been a more interesting story for captain Collins if the film had given him greater focus.

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1966

And the Nominees Were Not:

John Hurt in A Man For All Seasons

Orson Welles in A Man For All Seasons

Lee Van Cleef in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Richard Attenborough in The Sand Pebbles 

Richard Crenna in The Sand Pebbles