Best Actor 1976

[MovieFan]

I heard a few people were rooting for Holden that year. I think it was Barry Levinson who said he voted for Holden

[Reza]

I haven't seen Giannini, and while that should hold me back, I'm still going to vote for De Niro. I think it's one of the greatest pieces of acting by one of our [formerly] great actors. I have no doubt that Giannini will place within the top three of the nominated performances, but I don't feel like abstaining.

I think it's interesting that the race could have gone totally different if Shire and Finch went supporting as likely they should've. Which is not to say it went badly for Finch...well, except for being dead and all. But that would have cleared a path for...who? A win for De Niro?

I think if they had gone with Finch in supporting, Holden would have won his second Oscar. De Niro was still new and had already won recently.

[mayukh]

Was Giannini's nod a huge surprise back in '77?

[Sabin]

I haven't seen Giannini, and while that should hold me back, I'm still going to vote for De Niro. I think it's one of the greatest pieces of acting by one of our [formerly] great actors. I have no doubt that Giannini will place within the top three of the nominated performances, but I don't feel like abstaining.

I think it's interesting that the race could have gone totally different if Shire and Finch went supporting as likely they should've. Which is not to say it went badly for Finch...well, except for being dead and all. But that would have cleared a path for...who? A win for De Niro?

[Big Magilla]

Voted for De Niro - my favorite of his performances.

My memoray of Giannini has faded somewhat since I haven't seen Seven Beauties in decades.

Holden's performance in Network has stood the test of time better than Finch's though at the time the novelty, as well as the sheer audacity, of Finch's characterization made audiences sit up and take notice. His win was more than mere sentiment, though had he not died so unexpectedly we might have seen more of a horse race with De Niro.

Stallone was a fresh face. As others have said, had they known what the rest of his career would look like he is unlikely to have been nominated.

On the other hand had they known that The Shootist was to be John Wayne's last film and that he would be dead in three years, he may well have gotten the fifth slot instead.

Also worthy of mention: David Carradine as Woody Guthrie in Bound for Glory.

[mayukh]

I loved Network when I first saw it, and, though the years have soured me on it, I can say that even in my “I love Network” days I wasn’t a fan of Finch’s performance. And I like Finch as an actor. He was well used by many directors, like Schlesinger a few years ago, and he had a very expressive face. I just find nothing appealing about this performance on any level. I mean, it's not unappealing. He's not bad. I just found him, like Dunaway, serviceable. He did what he needed to do, he did it fairly well, but it lacked any kind of idiosyncratic life that would've made me say, "this is a great work of art". I hate saying that a performance is “fine”, because that sounds so lazy, but I couldn’t think of a more adequate way to describe this.

Holden was one of the elements of Network I was absolutely crazy about when I first saw the film – I loved his mere presence, so dignified and sad and complex – but now it strikes me as one of the film’s phoniest elements. I thought the breakup scene between Holden and Dunaway was the nadir of his performance. Dunaway, whose performance was otherwise totally one-note and boring as hell, was sensational in that scene, but then Chayefsky decided to saddle Holden with the most didactic, devoid-of-subtext, "Diana-you-are-the-television-incarnate" chunk of dialogue. And it was terrible. Holden, the great William Holden, couldn't get through that mess of a script. He sounded downright silly. I feel bad for him.

I like Sylvester Stallone in Rocky. He of course was not much of an actor, and this clearly isn't great acting, but I will say that I found him tremendously affecting in this film.

Seven Beauties thrilled me when I first saw it, and to this day that film holds a very special place in my heart. And much of that has to do with Giannini's incredibly stylized, but still nuanced, performance – he is overdrawn but not soulless, sensual, charismatic as hell, pathetic, incredibly touching. I long for the days when performances like those of Giannini and Barrault would get nods, in the same year nonetheless.

De Niro should win here, though. For many reasons. I could go on and on about why it constitutes a great work of art. I think his performance is one of the masterpieces of the 70s cinema, along with Fonda in Klute and Brando in Last Tango, and maybe one or two others – works that are, for me, too difficult to succinctly praise or even describe. (This sounds easy, I know, but I'd rather not try to clumsily describe exactly what about this performance makes it a masterpiece.)

[anonymous1980]

I've seen all of them.

The best thing I can say about Sylvester Stallone's performance is that it's better than 98% of all his subsequent performances throughout his career plus I think Rocky is a rather overrated film that didn't deserve its Best Picture win.

I won't begrudge Peter Finch's Oscar win. But isn't he borderline supporting? I think William Holden has been better elsewhere.

For me, this is between Giacarlo Giannini and Robert De Niro. It's tough to do drama and it's even tougher to do comedy. Giannini does it both in Seven Beauties and did both extremely well. But my vote would have to go to Robert De Niro who has seldom been better than in Taxi Driver. It's an instantly unforgettable legendary classic work.

[OscarGuy]

It's unusual for me to have seen all five nominees in a category this early in Oscar history.

Sylvester Stallone is the only one who sticks out in this group. The rest deliver wonderful performances.

Finch's work, although supporting, is nominated here and when compared with the others, he just towers over them. However, De Niro, Giannini and Holden are all superb.

Perhaps if the Academy had seen the rest of Stallone's impending career, they would have been "meh" and ignored him.

[MovieFan]

Robert De Niro- Taxi Driver. I never get the love for Finch in Network, plus hes arguably supporting.

[ksrymy]

I know Magilla's internet is acting up and he tries to put these polls out on Thursday so I figure I'll spare him the effort and do this for him (and everyone who'll vote).

I highly consider this (after 1939) to be the greatest year in film history and these performances are just spectacular. This is definitely the hardest choice I'll have to make for any year in the Best Actor category.

Sylvester Stallone doesn't belong here. He was nominated simply because everyone else (except Carl Weathers) in 'Rocky' was too.

Giancarlo Giannini is great as always but I can't vote for him because his work in 'Love and Anarchy' is much more brilliant and the last two nominees I list are much greater.

I do not understand what everyone sees in Robert De Niro's portrayal of Travis Bickle. The only bits of acting that I really appreciated of his were the bedroom scene he did with Jodie Foster where he tries to talk her out of prostitution and any time he was silent (à la the look in the rearview mirror at the end of the film where we realize that he's going to slip back into another violent outburst when the music blares) and the "You talkin'a me" scene of course. Other than those, I find it a performance that lacks any real heart. Either that or Travis Bickle is an extremely easy character to portray and I say this knowing I'm probably going to be crucified by everyone else here who will vote for De Niro and flog me for being so blasphemous.

But for me this is a real race between the 'Network' gentlemen (and that is apart from the fact that it is one of my all-time favorite films). Peter Finch definitely had the meatier, flashier role whereas William Holden had to be much more subtle and carry some of the film's weight through a more emotional side (my best analogy is to think of Finch's role as that of Hannibal Lecter and Holden's as that of Clarice Starling). Finch is absolutely marvelous as the TV prophet that is (disturbingly) all-too-common nowadays. His riveting monologues stand in film history as some of the finest. Even his few scenes outside of the newsroom (which are forgotton by the majority of the people who have seen the film) are great. The petrified look he has on his face while Ned Beatty ravishes him for "meddling with the primal forces of nature" seems to be that of a man staring into the face of God. Finch gives a wonderful, memorable performance as Howard Beale.

My vote, though, goes to Bill Holden. What Finch gives us in outlandish, screaming monologues, Holden is able to give us through calm serenity (not to say he didn't do his fair share of screaming in possibly the yellingest film ever (with Glengarry Glen Ross and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? as close combatants)). Holden's Max Schumacher is brilliant. Note the breakup (end-of-the-affair) scene with Dunaway and what he does after Beatrice Straight's (perfect) monologue: he is quiet, calm, collected, and, from what we can tell, trying to hold all his emotion in. In a weird sort of irony, his stoicism shows all of his emotions. Even though people like Jeanne Eagels and Spencer Tracy had posthumous nods before Finch did, I feel like (since the Oscars were overly-sentimental in the '70s and '80s) Finch's award was given to him because of his death and "I'm as mad as hell" speech. In my opinion, Holden carried the weight throughout the movie and worked off of Faye Dunaway's hot-headed passion.

I apologize for the (excessive) parentheses.