Too Old or Too Familiar?

Big Magilla
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Too Old or Too Familiar?

Post by Big Magilla »

Much has been made of actors and actresses who were nominated and often won for lesser performances after having been ignored for better remembered ones. So has the fact that many young actors have been ignored at the expense of older, more familiar ones while older actresses find it difficult to compete with younger stars of the moment. Less celebrated are the actors and actresses who have given great performances throughout lengthy careers only to be rebuffed as they got older.

Here are ten examples of those who were ignored late in their careers for either being too old, too familiar, or both - five women and five men.

Lets start with the ladies. Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Frances McDormand, Judi Dench, are Maggie Smith may be exceptions to the rule, but what about these illustrious stars of the past?

Claudette Colbert won an unexpected Oscar early in her career for It Happened One Night, then received further nominations for Private Worlds and Since You Went Away, the last in 1944. Having had to bow out of both State of the Union and All About Eve, she still had two awards-caliber performances left to give as a real-life prisoner-of-war in 1950's Three Came Home and as the nun who solves the murder and saves the life of convicted killer Ann Blyth in 1951's Thunder on the Hill, now recognized as the first of Douglas Sirk's 1950s masterpieces, though at the time it was pretty much taken for granted.

Irene Dunne received four Oscar nominations between 1931 and 1939, but her equally fine work in such 1940s films as Penny Serenade, The White Cliffs of Dover, and Anna and the King of Siam was ignored in favor of stars of the moment like Greer Garson and Jennifer Jones. She finally received a long overdue fifth nomination for 1948's I Remember Mama, but her last great screen performance as the grieving widowed Queen Victoria in The Mudlark went unrecognized. Nearly half a century later Judi Dench would receive and Oscar nomination for a similar role in Mrs. Brown. Timing may have something to do with it, as the film was released in New York in 1950, but had to wait until 1951 for its Oscar-qualifying Los Angeles run.

Barbara Stanwyck received four Oscar nominations between 1937 and 1948, and would eventually receive a long overdue career achievement award at the 1981 awards, following it with her incomparable performance as the 75-year-old matriarch who tries to seduce priest Richard Chamberlain in the 1983 TV mini-series, The Thorn Birds, proving she still had it. Stanwyck didn't have too many leading actress opportunities after 1948's Sorry, Wrong Number, but she deserved to be singled out for her supporting performance in 1954's Executive Suite, an extremely weak year for that category.

Dorothy McGuire had one measly Oscar nomination to her credit, for one of her lesser performances in 1947's Gentleman's Agreement. Previously ignored for 1943's Claudia, 1945's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and 1946's The Spiral Staircase, she continued to be ignored for the remainder of her career, spent mostly from 1956 on in motherly roles that deserved Oscar consideration in such films as 1956's Friendly Persuasion, 1959's A Summer Place, and 1960's The Dark at the Top of the Stairs.

Rosalind Russell received four Oscar nominations from 1942's My Sister Eileen to 1958's Auntie Mame. She eventually received the Jean Hersholt Award for her humanitarian work at the 1972 awards. Denied Oscar nominations in the early part of her career for 1936's Craig's Wife, 1939's The Women, and 1940's His Girl Friday, she was later denied nods for both 1961's A Majority of One and 1962's Gypsy, for which she had won her fourth and fifth Golden Globes.

Anthony Hopkins' surprise Oscar win early this year was a rare example of a male actor earning a competitive Oscar late in life. Here are some examples of those who couldn't even get themselves nominated.

Cary Grant was one of the most popular actors of all time. He was especially renown for his light comedies, yet his only Oscar nominations for rare dramatic roles in 1941's Penny Serenade and 1944's None but the Lonely Heart. Oscar turned a blind eye to his great early performances in The Awful Truth and Bringing Up Baby. They would later ignore him for his most memorable dramatic role in Alfred Hitchcock's 1946 masterpiece, Notorious, and later in Hitchock's deft 1959 masterwork, North by Northwest when he was in his mid 50s.
There had been strong support for a late career nomination 1964's Father Goose but it didn't materialize. He did eventually receive a career achievement award at the 1969 awards, three years after the release of his last film.

Robert Mitchum received only one nomination, early in his career, for his supporting performance in 1945's The Story of G.I. Joe. A major star from then on, he somehow managed to be ignored by Oscar voters for such memorable portrayals as those in 1947's Out of the Past, 1955's The Night of the Hunter, 1957's Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, 1960's Home from the Hill and The Sundowners, 1970's Ryan's Daughter, 1973's The Friends of Eddie Coyle, and 1975's Farewell, My Lovely, making him perhaps the most ignored Oscar-worthy male star of all time.

Gary Cooper certainly wasn't ignored by Oscar, having won two competitive Oscars for Sergeant York and High Noon, as well as nominations for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, The Pride of the Yankees, and For Whom the Bell Tolls, but post-High Noon, none of his performances struck voters as Oscar-worthy even though some of them were equal to or greater than his earlier work. Especially memorable were those as the Quaker father in 1956's Friendly Persuasion, the errant husband in 1958's Ten North Frederick, and the misunderstood hero in 1959's The Hanging Tree. Oscar did take notice of him again at the 1960 awards when a tearful James Stewart accepted an honorary career achievement award on behalf of his dying friend.

James Stewart was no stranger to Oscar either, having received his first nomination for 1939's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, followed by a makeup Oscar for 1940's The Philadelphia Story, and subsequent nominations for 1946's It's a Wonderful Life and 1950's Harvey. He then found himself on the long lists of also-rans for his unforgettable 1950s performances in The Naked Spur, Rear Window, and Vertigo. Oscar finally recognized him again with a fifth nomination for 1959's Anatomy of Murder, but not for either of his last two great roles in 1965's Shenandoah and The Flight of the Phoenix. They did, however, recognize him once again with an honorary award at the 1984 Oscars.

Robert De Niro can't complain about his Oscar treatment over the years. He was nominated seven times for various performances, winning twice for The Godfather: Part 2 and Raging Bull, and receiving an eight nomination for Best Picture for The Irishman. So why is he on the list? It's because in addition to that nomination for Best Picture for The Irishman he should have been nominated for Best Actor. To me, it was his best performance since 1990's Awakenings and the only one for which this undeniably great actor should have been nominated since then, having given mostly phoned in performances in the interim.
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