Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 7:24 am
Wendy Hiller is leading with 5 votes to 3 for Myrna Loy, 2 for Tony Curtis and 1 each for Edward G. Robinson, Rosalind Russell, John Kerr and Marlene Dietrich. Helen Hayes, Patricia Neal and Fredric March have no votes, though Hayes would have had one were it not for Reza's confusion.
Interestingly, Loy was my second choice basically because she was never nominated for anything, though if she had received just one nomination in her long career it should have been for The Thin Man, with The Best Years of Our Lives a close second.
Hiller was my first choice. A lot has been written about Timothy Hutton winning a supporting Oscar for Ordinary People when he was the protagonist of the film. I've defended that choice because Donald Sutherland and Mary Tyler Moore, who play his parents, were big stars at the time and Hutton was basically an unknown. It made perfect sense at the time.
Ironically Sons and Lovers was the Ordinary People of my generation. Dean Stockwell was the protagonist. Trevor Howard and Wendy Hiller, who played his parents, were well regarded character actors with name recognition. All three were apparently listed by Fox as leads though Howard and Hiller's roles were substantially smaller than Stockwell's.
Not knowing anything about the mechanics or the politics of the Oscars back then I was shocked that Mary Ure, a fine actress who died too young, but who was clearly less commanding than Hiller, was nominated in support for playing Stockwell's older, married lover while Hiller was ignored. But then I realized Hiller would have been eligible in the lead actress category where her chances at a nomination would have been a lot tougher.
Howard, who I thought a leading contender for supporting actor, was in my estimation at the time not as impressive as either Stockwell or Hiller. I was just as shocked that he managed to secure a best actor bid over the likes of Robert Mitchum in Home From the Hill and The Sundowners; Anthony Perkins in Psycho and Fredric March in Inherit the Wind, which makes Hiller's omission even more glaring.
Edited By Big Magilla on 1257424144
Interestingly, Loy was my second choice basically because she was never nominated for anything, though if she had received just one nomination in her long career it should have been for The Thin Man, with The Best Years of Our Lives a close second.
Hiller was my first choice. A lot has been written about Timothy Hutton winning a supporting Oscar for Ordinary People when he was the protagonist of the film. I've defended that choice because Donald Sutherland and Mary Tyler Moore, who play his parents, were big stars at the time and Hutton was basically an unknown. It made perfect sense at the time.
Ironically Sons and Lovers was the Ordinary People of my generation. Dean Stockwell was the protagonist. Trevor Howard and Wendy Hiller, who played his parents, were well regarded character actors with name recognition. All three were apparently listed by Fox as leads though Howard and Hiller's roles were substantially smaller than Stockwell's.
Not knowing anything about the mechanics or the politics of the Oscars back then I was shocked that Mary Ure, a fine actress who died too young, but who was clearly less commanding than Hiller, was nominated in support for playing Stockwell's older, married lover while Hiller was ignored. But then I realized Hiller would have been eligible in the lead actress category where her chances at a nomination would have been a lot tougher.
Howard, who I thought a leading contender for supporting actor, was in my estimation at the time not as impressive as either Stockwell or Hiller. I was just as shocked that he managed to secure a best actor bid over the likes of Robert Mitchum in Home From the Hill and The Sundowners; Anthony Perkins in Psycho and Fredric March in Inherit the Wind, which makes Hiller's omission even more glaring.
Edited By Big Magilla on 1257424144