My Favorite Performances By An Actor in the 1960s

Back in January, I posted a list of my favorite performances by an actress in the 1960s, and a couple of weeks ago, Mary Field challenged me to come up with a similar list of actors. Ms. Field has posted her own list of the top ten greatest acting performances here. Nothing so ambitious for me — I can barely narrow down the top ten performances of any given year — but here is a short chronological list of my personal faves from between 1960 and 1969.

Jack Lemmon (The Apartment) — his finest non-drag performance, maybe his finest, period. And in one of my all-time favorite movies, too.

"Mrs. MacDougall, I think it is only fair to warn you that you are now alone with a notorious sexpot."

James Cagney (One, Two, Three) — not one of Billy Wilder's better-known comedies, but Cagney's performance is finger-snapping good and Katie-Bar-The-Door quotes him every time we go to a baseball game.

"You know what the first thing is I'm going to do? I'm going to lead the workers down there in revolt!

"Put your pants on, Spartacus!"

Tony Randall (Lover Come Back) — My favorite Tony Randall performance, here playing a millionaire CEO living in the shadow of his late father.

"You don't realize how completely he dominated me ever since I was a little boy. Just once I spoke back to him. He cut a switch from a tree and gave me such a whipping, in front of this girl. It was a shattering experience."

"Pete, all kids get whippings."

"But I was twenty five! The girl was my fiancée!"

Robert Preston (The Music Man) — True story: in law school, my pals and I learned all the words to "Marian the Librarian" and sang it to a girl. Named Marian. Who was an undergraduate librarian. Sometimes life just serves it up to you on a platter.

"Oh, my dear little librarian. You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays."

Steve McQueen (The Great Escape) — technically, my favorite performance here is by Steve McQueen's motorcycle, but he's the one riding it, so ...

"Are all American officers so ill-mannered?"

"Yeah, about 99 percent."

The entire cast of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb — you know, a friend once confessed she watched this movie and didn't understand why it was supposed to be a comedy. We're not friends anymore.

"Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops. Uh, depending on the breaks."

The Beatles (A Hard Day's Night) — if you have to ask, I can't tell you.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, yeah. The lads frequently sit around the telly and watch her for a giggle. One time, we actually sat down and wrote these letters saying how gear she was and all that rubbish."

"She's a trendsetter. It's her profession."

"She's a drag. A well known drag. We turn the sound down on her and say rude things."

Michael Dunn (TV's The Wild, Wild West) — maybe the greatest television villain ever. My favorite, anyway.

"I thought you were dead."

"Oh, no, Mr. West! I'm afraid I shall never die. Death is too ordinary. The humiliation would kill me."

Charlie Brown (TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas) — reaching deep for pathos, comedy and blistering insight into the emptiness of our consumer-driven culture, this round-headed kid really brought it.

"How about cats? If you're afraid of cats, you have ailurophasia."

"Well, sort of, but I'm not sure."

Paul Newman (Harper) — I like Paul Newman. I like his movies, I like his pizza, I like his salad dressing. I like everything there is to like about Paul Newman. Except Paul Newman. How do you account for that? I kid. But I do like Paul Newman.

"What do you do this kind of crummy work for, anyway?"

"What, are you trying to be funny? I do it because I believe in the United Nations and Southeast Asia, and — you think it's funny if your life depends on what goes through the Panama Canal? What about the English pound? I'll tell you something — as long as there's a Siberia, you'll find Lew Harper on the job."

"Are you putting me on?"

"Jeez, I don't think so. "

Lee Marvin (The Dirty Dozen) — Katie-Bar-The-Door once gave me this movie as a Valentine's Day present. No wonder I love her!

"I owe you an apology, colonel. I always thought that you were a cold, unimaginative, tight-lipped officer. But you're really quite emotional, aren't you?"

Zero Mostel (The Producers) — probably one of the three most quoted movies when my pals Muleboy and Bellotoot get together.

"Oh my God!"

"You mean 'oops,' don't you? Just say 'oops' and get out! "

Hal 9000 (2001: A Space Odyssey) — saw this in the theater as a kid in 1968, and I say, while a lot of computers turned in fine work in the 1960s, particularly the Robot on Lost in Space, the Hal 9000 topped them all.

"I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I'm a... fraid."

The Katie-Bar-The-Door Awards (1961)

I think most people would go with George C. Scott in The Hustler for best supporting actor, but I'm going with his co-star Jackie Gleason. Both were nominated for Oscars, both deserved to win (both lost to George Chakiris in West Side Story).

Gleason as Minnesota Fats doesn't have much to say but he inhabits the character as fully as any actor I've seen play a role. Written on his face and in his body language is every compromise he's ever had to make to do the thing he does better than anybody else, and one look at him tells you everything you need to know about the empty world of big time pool hustling.

But you'll get no kick from me if you go with Scott. It's one of the best performances of his very great career.

PICTURE (Drama)
winner: The Hustler (prod. Robert Rossen)
nominees: The Guns of Navarone (prod. Carl Foreman); The Innocents (prod. Jack Clayton); Judgment At Nuremberg (prod. Stanley Kramer); A Raisin in the Sun (prod. Ronald H. Gilbert, Philip Rose and David Susskind)

PICTURE (Comedy/Musical)
winner: West Side Story (prod. Robert Wise)
nominees: Breakfast At Tiffany's (prod. Martin Jurow and Richard Shepherd); Lover Come Back (prod. Martin Melcher and Stanley Shapiro); One Hundred and One Dalmatians (prod. Walt Disney); One, Two, Three (prod. Billy Wilder)

PICTURE (Foreign Language)
winner: Yôjinbô (Yojimbo) (prod. Akira Kurosawa)
nominees: Divorzio all'italiana (Divorce—Italian Style) (prod. Franco Cristaldi); L'année dernière à Marienbad (Last Year at Marienbad) (prod. Pierre Courau, Anatole Dauman and Raymond Froment); Ningen no jôken (The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer) (prod. Masaki Kobayashi and Shigeru Wakatsuki); La notte (prod. Emanuele Cassuto); Såsom i en spegel (Through A Glass Darkly) (prod. Allan Ekelund); Viridiana (prod. Gustavo Alatriste)

ACTOR (Drama)
winner: Paul Newman (The Hustler)
nominees: Clark Gable (The Misfits); Sidney Poitier (A Raisin in the Sun); Vincent Price (Pit and the Pendulum); Maximilian Schell (Judgment At Nuremberg)

ACTOR (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Rock Hudson (Lover Come Back)
nominees: James Cagney (One, Two, Three); Fred MacMurray (The Absent-Minded Professor); Marcello Mastroianni (Divorzio all'italiana a.k.a. Divorce—Italian Style); Toshirô Mifune (Yôjinbô a.k.a. Yojimbo)

ACTRESS (Drama)
winner: Piper Laurie (The Hustler)
nominees: Anouk Aimée (Lola); Harriet Andersson (Såsom i en spegel a.k.a. Through A Glass Darkly); Deborah Kerr (The Innocents); Marilyn Monroe (The Misfits); Natalie Wood (Splendor in the Grass)

ACTRESS (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Audrey Hepburn (Breakfast At Tiffany's)
nominees: Doris Day (Lover Come Back); Anna Karina (Une femme est une femme a.k.a. A Woman Is A Woman); Hayley Mills (The Parent Trap); Margaret Rutherford (Murder She Said)

DIRECTOR (Drama)
winner: Alain Resnais (L'année dernière à Marienbad a.k.a. Last Year At Marienbad)
nominees: Michelangelo Antonioni (La notte); Luis Buñuel (Viridiana); Masaki Kobayashi (Ningen no jôken a.k.a. The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer); Robert Rossen (The Hustler)

DIRECTOR (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins (West Side Story)
nominees: Blake Edwards (Breakfast At Tiffany's); Pietro Germi (Divorzio all'italiana a.k.a. Divorce—Italian Style): Akira Kurosawa (Yôjinbô a.k.a. Yojimbo); Billy Wilder (One, Two, Three)

SUPPORTING ACTOR
winner: Jackie Gleason (The Hustler)
nominees: Gunnar Björnstrand (Såsom i en spegel a.k.a. Through A Glass Darkly); George Chakiris (West Side Story); Montgomery Clift (Judgment At Nuremberg); Tony Randall (Lover Come Back); George C. Scott (The Hustler)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
winner: Rita Moreno (West Side Story)
nominees: Edie Adams (Lover Come Back); Fay Bainter (The Children's Hour); Ruby Dee (A Raisin in the Sun); Marlene Dietrich (Judgment At Nuremberg); Judy Garland (Judgment At Nuremberg); Lotte Lenya (The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone); Pamela Tiffin (One, Two, Three)

SCREENPLAY
winner: Robert Rossen and Sidney Carroll, from the novel by Walter Tevis (The Hustler)
nominees: George Axelrod, from the novel by Truman Capote (Breakfast At Tiffany's); Luis Buñuel (story and screenplay) and Julio Alejandro, from the novel Halma by Benito Pérez Galdós (Viridiana); Akira Kurosawa (story and screenplay) and Ryûzô Kikushima (screenplay) (Yôjinbô a.k.a Yojimbo)

SPECIAL AWARDS
"Moon River" (Breakfast At Tiffany's) music by Henry Mancini; lyrics by Johnny Mercer (Song); Dede Allen (The Hustler) (Film Editing); Edward Beyer (The Hustler) (Sound); Eugen Schüfftan (The Hustler) (Cinematography)

The Final Four

For various reasons (a road trip, the dog's surgery and one long, long Mary Pickford essay), I haven't been able to promote Monty's best actor tournament over at All Good Things as much as I normally would, but I'm here to tell you, the final four is set and voting starts today.

The match-ups: William Powell versus William Holden; and Cary Grant versus Paul Newman

Click here to vote.

The Tale of the Tape

BOUT ONE

Representing the Silent/1930s bracket
William Powell
Birth Name: William Horatio Powell
Birth Date: July 29, 1892
Birthplace: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Height: 6'
Film Debut: Sherlock Holmes (1922)
Three To See: One Way Passage, The Thin Man and My Man Godfrey
A Gem You Might Have Missed: I Love You Again
Katie-Bar-The-Door Awards: 1 win—Best Actor (Comedy/Musical) (1936) (The Great Ziegfeld, The Ex-Mrs. Bradford, My Man Godfrey, Libeled Lady and After The Thin Man)
Academy Awards: 3 Oscar nominations, no wins
Marriages: Eileen Wilson (1915-1930, divorced); Carole Lombard (1931-1933, divorced); Diana Lewis (1940-1984, his death)



Representing the 1950s bracket
William Holden
Birth Name: William Franklin Beedle
Birth Date: April 17, 1918
Birthplace: O'Fallon, Illinois
Height: 5'11"
Film Debut: Prison Farm (1938) (uncredited)
Three To See: Sunset Boulevard, Stalag 17 and The Wild Bunch
A Gem You Might Have Missed: Born Yesterday
Katie-Bar-The-Door Awards: 2 wins—Best Actor (Drama) (1950) (Sunset Boulevard) and Best Actor (Drama) (1969) (The Wild Bunch)
Academy Awards: 3 Oscar nominations, 1 win (Stalag 17)
Marriages: Brenda Marshall (1941-1971, divorced)



BOUT TWO

Representing the 1940s bracket
Cary Grant
Birth Name: Archibald Alexander Leach
Birth Date: January 18, 1904
Birthplace: Bristol, England
Height: 6'1½"
Film Debut: This Is The Night (1932)
Three To See: The Awful Truth, His Girl Friday and North By Northwest
A Gem You Might Have Missed: Holiday
Katie-Bar-The-Door Awards: 3 wins—Best Actor (Comedy/Musical) (1937) (The Awful Truth); Best Supporting Actor (1940) (The Philadelphia Story) and Best Actor (Drama) (1959) (North By Northwest)
Academy Awards: 2 Oscar nominations, 0 wins; honorary Oscar (1970)
Marriages: Virginia Cherrill (1934-1935, divorced); Barbara Hutton (1942-1945, divorced); Betsy Drake (1949-1962, divorced); Dyan Cannon (1965-1968, divorced); Barbara Harris (1981-1986, his death)



Representing the 1960s bracket
Paul Newman
Birth Name: Paul Leonard Newman
Birth Date: January 26, 1925
Birthplace: Shaker Heights, Ohio
Height: 5'9½"
Film Debut: The Silver Chalice (1954)
Three To See: The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke and The Sting
A Gem You Might Have Missed: Slap Shot
Katie-Bar-The-Door Awards: 1 win—Best Actor (Drama) (1961) (The Hustler)
Academy Awards: 10 nominations, 1 win (The Color of Money), honorary Oscar (1986); Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award (1994)
Marriages: Jackie Witte (1949-1958, divorced); Joanne Woodward (1958-2008, his death)