We had an interesting discussion on this topic twelve years ago:
viewtopic.php?t=1023
Following up on that discussion, which doesn't fully address the absence of Sidney Poitier in
In the Heat of the Night, I think it would be interesting to speculate as to which of the nominees we would eliminate in order to give Poitier his rightful due.
I suspect that most would say Spencer Tracy in
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner given that he is the only one of the five nominees who didn't get a single vote in the original poll, but I don't agree.
Having just rewatched
Cool Hand Luke, I would suggest that Paul Newman is the one who should be eliminated. It's a fine performance even if it doesn't reach the heights of his earlier work in
The Hustler and
Hud or his later work in
The Verdict and
Nobody's Fool, but it's the only one of the nominated performances that is not from a Best Picture nominee making it the most vulnerable among the nominees. It ranks as the sixth best performance of the year in my opinion, following in order:
Rod Steiger whose performance in a difficult role opposite Poitier in
In the Heat of the Night was an easy choice for the win.
Poitier for his combined work in
In the Heat of the Night,
Guess Who's coming to Dinner, and
To Sir, with Love, but specifically for
In the Heat of the Night.
Spencer Tracy, who did some of his finest acting late in his career in
The Last Hurrah,
Inherit the Wind, and
Judgment at Nuremberg. His performance in
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner doesn't really reach that level of acting until his final speech, but that speech alone, filmed twelve days before he dropped dead of a heart attack in Katharine Hepburn's kitchen, is quite a speech. Hepburn's teary-eyed reaction to it is probably what got her the Oscar for one of her weakest overall nominated performances in a film that was the most eagerly awaited of 1967's end-of-year releases.
Dustin Hoffman, whose nomination for his sensational breakthrough performance in
The Graduate was considered award enough at the time, a view I still hold despite his having won our earlier poll.
Though it may not be as strong a performance overall as Newman's, I don't see how you can nominate four other actors in
Bonnie and Clyde without nominating Beatty's charismatic portrayal of Clyde.
So, have at it.