Which actor do you believe was overlooked for an Oscar? Which movie?

I think Felicity Huffman should have won the Best Actress Oscar for Transamerica rather than Reese Witherspoon for Walk The Line.

And Ellen Burstyn should have won the Best Actress Oscar for Requiem for a Dream, but not necessarily rather than Julia Roberts. She should have been nominated in the Supporting Actress category instead and beat em’ all out.

I think Vera Farmiga in her performance for Down To The Bone was overlooked completely.

Robin Williams What Dreams May come

As much as I’m a fan of Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando deserved the Oscar more for his role in A Streetcar Named Desire than Bogart in The African Queen. Don’t get me wrong, Bogart was great in that, but it didn’t stir the raw emotion Brando did.

And how did Anthony Hopkins win for Hannibal Lecter? He totally overacted that! At least when Jack Nicholson overacted Jack Torrance in The Shining he portrayed the sense of loss and insanity in the movie, and he didn’t even get a nod. Anthony Hopkins took a cool and methodical killer and turned him into a creep. Brian Cox’s calm and subdued insanity of Lecter’s was much more appropriate for the character.

Charles Chaplin in City Lights.
Orson Welles in Citizen Kane.
Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca
Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia
Harrison Ford in Raiders Of The Lost Ark

All magnificent, all overlooked.

Oh, I could make a list as long as your arm with “unlucky losers.” However, I don’t think it’s a valid argument. Winning an oscar depends on a number of factors, the competition you’re up against in that particular year, being the most significant. I’d also add that the academy seem to get it wrong most years, makes you wonder about their motives if not their criteria.

Anyway, having said all that, to me there is one glaring error that stands out above all others.
Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke (1967) absolutely deserved to win. George Kennedy was given the award for best supporting actor, I reckon they both should’ve been celebrating. Which brings me back to my point, Rod Steiger won that year, In the Heat of the Night. Hefty competition a major factor in the outcome of the prize.

I really think Jennifer Lawrence deserved the Best Actress statue for Winter’s Bone. Portman was good but Lawrence was great.