Best Actor Oscar Winners of the 1950s
The 1950s were part of Hollywood’s Golden Age, but as usual, some of the great performances were justly rewarded, while others never received their due.The Academy Awards finally made up its long snub of Humphrey Bogart, but continued to ignore great performances in terrific films directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and again overlooked fine work by John Wayne.
Ferrer’s turn as the self-sacrificing swain with the big, big nose took top honors against tough competition, including William Holden's doomed gigolo in Sunset Boulevard; James Stewart's sweet town drunk with an imaginary six-foot rabbit in Harvey; Spencer Tracy's the beleaguered papa in Father of the Bride; and Louis Calhern as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in The Magnificent Yankee. Oscar failed even to nominate Alec Guinness’ tour de force as eight members of the same rich, dotty family bumped off by an ambitious relative in Kind Hearts and Coronets, as well as Clifton Webb’s engaging turn as the strict father in Cheaper by the Dozen.More »
Humphrey Bogart, ignored by Oscar for his famous roles in the 1940s, finally scored with memorable boat captain Charlie Allnut in the adventure/love story The African Queen. His primary competition was Marlon Brando for his iconic role as sexually charged, elemental brute Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. Bogart also topped Frederic March’s Death of a Salesman, Arthur Kennedy in Bright Victory and Montgomery Clift in A Place in the Sun. Snubbed were Robert Walker for his chilling role as psychotic killer in Hitchcock’s marvelous Strangers On a Train, and Kirk Douglas as a cynical, amoral reporter in Billy Wilder’s under-appreciated Ace in The Hole
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Holden won for his nuanced portrayal of a cynical operator who falls under suspicion among his fellow prisoners in Billy Wilder’s gripping WWII story of a German POW camp, Stalag 17.Marlon Brando lost for the third year in row for his Julius Caesar, and Richard Burton lost for The Robe, the second of what would ultimately be seven failed career nominations. Holden also bested two actors in the melodramatic Best Picture winner From Here to Eternity – Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift.Oscar failed to even nominate Alan Ladd for his moving portrayal of the title role in the beloved western Shane
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The fourth time was the charm for the brooding method actor, who won for On the Waterfront, 1954's Best Picture. Turning the tables on 1951, this time Brando’s beat-down palooka and mob errand boy bested Humphrey Bogart’s paranoid ship captain in The Caine Mutiny. Other nominations included James Mason’s poignant turn as a fading actor in A Star is Born, Dan O’Herlihy in The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, and crooner Bing Crosby in The Country Girl. Once again, Oscar ignored a great Alfred Hitchcock film, Rear Window, in all the big categories. Although Jimmy Stewart wouldn’t have beaten Brando, he should have been nominated as the voyeuristic, wheelchair-bound photographer.More »
Brynner’s career-making performance as the tradition-bound Siamese king who slowly warms to western ways in this classic musical won the Oscar, besting such excellent competition as Laurence Olivier in Richard III, James Dean in Giant (again, nominated for the second time after his tragic death), and Rock Hudson in the same film.Kirk Douglas as the tortured artist Vincent Van Gogh in Lust for Life was favored going in, but Brynner’s recreation of his Broadway role as the stubborn, exotic monarch was an audience-pleaser.Overlooked was John Wayne in one of his finest roles as the dark, obsessed former solider in The Searchers, a great classic western which received no major nominations.More »
Sir Alec finally won for his superb portrayal of an unbending British officer struggling to keep his men and their humanity intact in a brutal Japanese POW work camp during World War II. The spellbinding epic also won Best Picture and a total of seven Oscars. Guinness bested Marlon Brando’s soldier in love with a Japanese girl in Sayonara; Charles Laughton’s witty barrister in the courtroom drama Witness for the Prosecution; Anthony Franciosa reprising his stage role in A Hatful of Rain, and Anthony Quinn as an Italian-born rancher in Wild Is the Wind. Oscar snubbed Henry Fonda as the persuasive juror in 12 Angry Men, and both Burt Lancaster as a power-mad columnist and Tony Curtis as a conniving press flack in Sweet Smell of Success
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In a year of tough competition, urbane Brit David Niven won for his rich portrayal of a weak, flawed Army officer dining out on old war stories in Separate Tables.He won over Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier, both wonderful as escaped prisoners chained to each other in the racially charged The Defiant Ones. Also nominated were Paul Newman as the washed-up college football player with a secret in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Spencer Tracy in Hemingway’s classic The Old Man and the Sea.Orson Welles’ turn as the utterly vile, corrupt police detective in the bizarre noir Touch of Evil should have been nominated, as well as Jimmy Stewart’s turn as the obsessed former police officer in Vertigo, as Oscar’s snubs of all things Hitchcock continued.More »
It was all Ben Hur, all the time in 1959, as Heston’s powerful performance took one of the movie’s eleven Oscars. Jack Lemmon was equally deserving for his hilarious turn as a bass player in drag, hiding out from the mob in Some Like it Hot. (Tony Curtis should have been nominated for the same film, but wasn’t.)Jimmy Stewart was nominated but lost for his role as a shrewd defense lawyer in Anatomy of a Murder, as did Paul Muni in The Last Angry Man and Laurence Harvey in Room at the Top. Ben Hur’s domination meant one of the greatest Hitchcock movies of all time, North by Northwest, was completely snubbed, including Cary Grant’s turn as the suave, resourceful ad exec (featuring one of the best comic drunk scenes ever).More »
1. 1950 Best Actor – Jose Ferrer in ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’
Ferrer’s turn as the self-sacrificing swain with the big, big nose took top honors against tough competition, including William Holden's doomed gigolo in Sunset Boulevard; James Stewart's sweet town drunk with an imaginary six-foot rabbit in Harvey; Spencer Tracy's the beleaguered papa in Father of the Bride; and Louis Calhern as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in The Magnificent Yankee. Oscar failed even to nominate Alec Guinness’ tour de force as eight members of the same rich, dotty family bumped off by an ambitious relative in Kind Hearts and Coronets, as well as Clifton Webb’s engaging turn as the strict father in Cheaper by the Dozen.More »
2. 1951 Best Actor – Humphrey Bogart in ‘The African Queen’
Humphrey Bogart, ignored by Oscar for his famous roles in the 1940s, finally scored with memorable boat captain Charlie Allnut in the adventure/love story The African Queen. His primary competition was Marlon Brando for his iconic role as sexually charged, elemental brute Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. Bogart also topped Frederic March’s Death of a Salesman, Arthur Kennedy in Bright Victory and Montgomery Clift in A Place in the Sun. Snubbed were Robert Walker for his chilling role as psychotic killer in Hitchcock’s marvelous Strangers On a Train, and Kirk Douglas as a cynical, amoral reporter in Billy Wilder’s under-appreciated Ace in The Hole
.More »
3. 1952 Best Actor – Gary Cooper in ‘High Noon’
Tall, soft-spoken Cooper picked up his second and last Oscar out of five career nominations as the strong, silent type in the suspenseful High Noon, an archetypal American western. Cooper beat out Alec Guinness (again) as a mousy bank clerk planning a heist in one of his terrific Ealing Studios comedies, The Lavender Hill Mob.Marlon Brando lost for the second year in a row for Viva Zapata; along with Jose Ferrer as tortured Toulouse Lautrec in Moulin Rouge, and Kirk Douglas for his nasty Hollywood film producer in the The Bad and the Beautiful. In one of his most charming performances, John Wayne should have been nominated for The Quiet Man, but wasn’t. Ditto for the delightful, toe-tapping Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain.More »
4. 1953 Best Actor – William Holden in ‘Stalag 17’
Holden won for his nuanced portrayal of a cynical operator who falls under suspicion among his fellow prisoners in Billy Wilder’s gripping WWII story of a German POW camp, Stalag 17.Marlon Brando lost for the third year in row for his Julius Caesar, and Richard Burton lost for The Robe, the second of what would ultimately be seven failed career nominations. Holden also bested two actors in the melodramatic Best Picture winner From Here to Eternity – Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift.Oscar failed to even nominate Alan Ladd for his moving portrayal of the title role in the beloved western Shane
.More »
5. 1954 Best Actor – Marlon Brando in ‘On the Waterfront’
The fourth time was the charm for the brooding method actor, who won for On the Waterfront, 1954's Best Picture. Turning the tables on 1951, this time Brando’s beat-down palooka and mob errand boy bested Humphrey Bogart’s paranoid ship captain in The Caine Mutiny. Other nominations included James Mason’s poignant turn as a fading actor in A Star is Born, Dan O’Herlihy in The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, and crooner Bing Crosby in The Country Girl. Once again, Oscar ignored a great Alfred Hitchcock film, Rear Window, in all the big categories. Although Jimmy Stewart wouldn’t have beaten Brando, he should have been nominated as the voyeuristic, wheelchair-bound photographer.More »
6. 1955 Best Actor Ernest Borgnine in ‘Marty’
In this surprise hit, Ernest Borgnine won for his affecting portrayal of a rumpled, lonely butcher in the Bronx, Marty. (The film also won Best Picture and Best Director.) Borgnine triumphed over Frank Sinatra in the dark drug addiction film The Man With the Golden Arm; Spencer Tracy in the taut western allegory of McCarthyism, Bad Day at Black Rock; and James Cagney’s role as a gangster in Love Me or Leave Me. James Dean, nominated for East of Eden but not Rebel Without a Cause also lost out. (Both were released in 1955, when Dean became the first actor to be nominated posthumously.) Sidney Poitier was ignored as a student in The Blackboard Jungle, and Robert Mitchum was flat-out robbed for his menacing killer in Night of the Hunter.More »
7. 1956 Best Actor – Yul Brynner in ‘The King and I’
Brynner’s career-making performance as the tradition-bound Siamese king who slowly warms to western ways in this classic musical won the Oscar, besting such excellent competition as Laurence Olivier in Richard III, James Dean in Giant (again, nominated for the second time after his tragic death), and Rock Hudson in the same film.Kirk Douglas as the tortured artist Vincent Van Gogh in Lust for Life was favored going in, but Brynner’s recreation of his Broadway role as the stubborn, exotic monarch was an audience-pleaser.Overlooked was John Wayne in one of his finest roles as the dark, obsessed former solider in The Searchers, a great classic western which received no major nominations.More »
8. 1957 Best Actor – Alec Guinness in ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’
Sir Alec finally won for his superb portrayal of an unbending British officer struggling to keep his men and their humanity intact in a brutal Japanese POW work camp during World War II. The spellbinding epic also won Best Picture and a total of seven Oscars. Guinness bested Marlon Brando’s soldier in love with a Japanese girl in Sayonara; Charles Laughton’s witty barrister in the courtroom drama Witness for the Prosecution; Anthony Franciosa reprising his stage role in A Hatful of Rain, and Anthony Quinn as an Italian-born rancher in Wild Is the Wind. Oscar snubbed Henry Fonda as the persuasive juror in 12 Angry Men, and both Burt Lancaster as a power-mad columnist and Tony Curtis as a conniving press flack in Sweet Smell of Success
.More »
9. 1958 Best Actor – David Niven in ‘Separate Tables’
In a year of tough competition, urbane Brit David Niven won for his rich portrayal of a weak, flawed Army officer dining out on old war stories in Separate Tables.He won over Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier, both wonderful as escaped prisoners chained to each other in the racially charged The Defiant Ones. Also nominated were Paul Newman as the washed-up college football player with a secret in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Spencer Tracy in Hemingway’s classic The Old Man and the Sea.Orson Welles’ turn as the utterly vile, corrupt police detective in the bizarre noir Touch of Evil should have been nominated, as well as Jimmy Stewart’s turn as the obsessed former police officer in Vertigo, as Oscar’s snubs of all things Hitchcock continued.More »
10. 1959 Best Actor – Charlton Heston in ‘Ben Hur’
It was all Ben Hur, all the time in 1959, as Heston’s powerful performance took one of the movie’s eleven Oscars. Jack Lemmon was equally deserving for his hilarious turn as a bass player in drag, hiding out from the mob in Some Like it Hot. (Tony Curtis should have been nominated for the same film, but wasn’t.)Jimmy Stewart was nominated but lost for his role as a shrewd defense lawyer in Anatomy of a Murder, as did Paul Muni in The Last Angry Man and Laurence Harvey in Room at the Top. Ben Hur’s domination meant one of the greatest Hitchcock movies of all time, North by Northwest, was completely snubbed, including Cary Grant’s turn as the suave, resourceful ad exec (featuring one of the best comic drunk scenes ever).More »
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