1958-1967 Best Actor Winners

[CalWilliam]

Gregory Peck, followed by Paul Scofield and Burt Lancaster.

[Reza]

Steiger was the obvious choice but Tracy was also sublime amongst the nominees. Poitier should have been nominated. Which actor could he have replaced on the nominees' list? I would bump Warren Beatty and nominate Poitier for In the Heat of the Night.

This was really a tough one.

If ever there was a case for expanding the category to six nominees, 1967 was it. Steiger and Tracy stay no matter what, but between Beatty, Hoffman, and Newman, it's hard to make a case for eliminating any of them in favor of Poitier.

Poitier was the star of three box-office bonanzas that year, To Sir, with Love being the third. Aside from Tracy, however, he was the only other winner. First-time nominees Beatty and Hoffman were both in Best Picture nominees giving them somewhat slightly more gravitas than Newman who was on his fourth nomination. I think the fifth slot was probably between him and Poitier.

I've never really liked Beatty's performances. He comes off too self conscious. Very easy for me to replace him here with Poitier.

However, I liked his performance in Bugsy and especially in Bulworth for which he should have been nominated. His acting nods for Heaven Can Wait and Reds were a complete waste. Those slots should have gone to Dirk Bogarde (Despair) or Brad Davis (Midnight Express) and Harrison Ford (Raiders of the Lost Ark) respectively.

[Big Magilla]

Steiger was the obvious choice but Tracy was also sublime amongst the nominees. Poitier should have been nominated. Which actor could he have replaced on the nominees' list? I would bump Warren Beatty and nominate Poitier for In the Heat of the Night.

This was really a tough one.

If ever there was a case for expanding the category to six nominees, 1967 was it. Steiger and Tracy stay no matter what, but between Beatty, Hoffman, and Newman, it's hard to make a case for eliminating any of them in favor of Poitier.

Poitier was the star of three box-office bonanzas that year, To Sir, with Love being the third. Aside from Tracy, however, he was the only other winner. First-time nominees Beatty and Hoffman were both in Best Picture nominees giving them somewhat slightly more gravitas than Newman who was on his fourth nomination. I think the fifth slot was probably between him and Poitier.

[Reza]

Like a number of the winners during this decade.

Voted for Rex Harrison. Followed by Paul Scofield, Rod Steiger and Gregory Peck.

Niven was the best amongst those nominated for 1958. Stewart should have been nominated for Vertigo and won.

Heston's win here is not unlike the win years later by Russell Crowe. A crowd pleasing turn in a popular film. Lemmon should have won.

Yes Lancaster was the best of the bunch nominated, although he had been giving this same overripe performance (teeth and all) through the years - The Crimson Pirate, The Flame and the Arrow. It all finally came together as Elmer Gantry.

Yes Schell should have won in the supporting category. Newman was very good in The Hustler but I agree Mastroianni should have been nominated and won for La Dolce Vita.

Finally a great performance by Peck but I think Peter O'Toole should have won for what is his definitive performance as Lawrence. But he was a newbie and Peck was overdue for a win. Who knew back then that the promising newcomer would keep losing.

Newman should have won his Oscar for Hud. Poitier was a close second followed by Finney.

Nobody came close to Rex Harrison in 1964.

The Marvin win was an absurd choice. I wonder if the Academy was trying to make some silly point about all the foreign nominees. Burton should have won.

Nobody came close to Paul Scofield in 1966. Not even Burton.

Steiger was the obvious choice but Tracy was also sublime amongst the nominees. Poitier should have been nominated. Which actor could he have replaced on the nominees' list? I would bump Warren Beatty and nominate Poitier for In the Heat of the Night.

[gunnar]

This was a tough call since there were a lot of good choices. I ended up going with Scofield, though I also considered Lancaster, Steiger, Schell, Harrison, Heston, and Peck...probably in that order as well.

[Big Magilla]

The decade started out on a sour note for me.

I thought Spencer Tracy gave the performance of his career in The Last Hurrah but the Academy nominated him for the snooze-fest that was The Old Man and the Sea. James Stewart at the top of his game in Vertigo was ignored. While I agree that David Niven in Separate Tables gave the best of the nominated performances, it was nevertheless a borderline lead performance.

Charlton Heston was authoritative in Ben-Hur but James Stewart nominated for the first time since 1950 should have won this for Anatomy of a Murder.

Burt Lancaster gave the performance of his life as Elmer Gantry and richly deserved his win.

Maximilian Schell should have won in support for Judgment at Nuremberg. Marcello Mastroianni should have been nominated and won for La Dolce Vita. Paul Newman in The Hustler was the best of the nominees.

Gregory Peck gave the performance of his career in To Kill a Mockingbird but the year's best performance was that of the enigmatic Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia.

Sidney Poitier got my vote for Best Actor of 1963 for Lilies of the Field but Albert Finney in Tom Jones and Paul Newman in Hud were equally terrific.

Rex Harrison honed his Professor Higgins to perfection on stage and justifiably won for recreating his role in the film version of My Fair Lady,

Lee Marvin's win for Cat Ballou I don't get. Richard Burton should have won that one for The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

Paul Scofield's win for A Man for All Seasons was richly deserved as was Rod Steiger's for In the Heat of the Night.

This one's a close call for me between Lancaster, Peck, Scofield, and Steiger, but Peck finally getting the recognition he long deserved is my ultimate pick.