Monday, December 19, 2022

Alternate Oscars: Best Supporting Actor of 1954

Rumor has it that Edmond O'Brien won best supporting actor because a trio of On the Waterfront actors — Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden and Rod Steiger — split the vote. Given that O'Brien didn't do anything in The Barefoot Contessa but sweat, all I can say is, "Maybe."

No, that's not fair. Edmond O'Brien was actually very good in The Barefoot Contessa, and a lot of other things, too — D.O.A., Seven Days in May and The Wild Bunch, for example.

But the Monkey is all about having your cake and eating it too — I've combined Cobb, Malden and Steiger into a single nominee for your voting convenience. No excuses if they lose this time.

Me? I'm voting for Toshiro Mifune.

My choices are noted with a ★. A tie is indicated with a ✪. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔. Best foreign-language picture winners are noted with an ƒ. Best animated feature winners are noted with an @. A historical winner who won in a different category is noted with a ✱.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I voted for Cobb and Steiger. Can’t consider Mifune a supporting actor in anything

Mythical Monkey said...

Fair enough! He could have a cameo and still be the star of the show.

My thinking was that Mifune is to Takashi Shimura in Seven Samurai as Horst Buchholz is to Yul Brynner in The Magnificent Seven ... thus supporting. But I could be wrong!