Reader Ranking: Which one-time male nominee would you most like to see holding an Oscar?

by Team Experience

LIAM NEESON, HARVEY KEITEL, EDDIE MURPHY, and WILLIAM H MACY are just four of many actors we'd love to see stage an Oscar comeback.

Hello dearest readers. Inspired by Amy Madigan's amazing Oscar comeback we've spent the last month fantasizing about another such occurence. Because our audience is less into actors than actresses, we did a more abbreviated version of the mammoth actress poll / team ranking / reader ranking we recently posted in three parts. Today it's all in one. We polled all of you (readers and our writers together) and while there was much less participation (y'all just love your actresses, don'cha) we still thought the results were interesting. The same rules applied this time around. Namely 1) The actor had to still be alive and 2) over 50 years of age with 3) only one Oscar nomination to date that was 20 or more years ago. The final caveat was that they had to be Oscarless so Honoraries and awards in other categories would disqualify them. Interestingly enough despite the same criteria as the actress poll, there were far fewer men eligible (49 vs 75) indicating that there are less one-and-done Oscar nominations for male thespians. Or that they don't live as long; Both are true!

Maybe because there were fewer eligible contenders for this list, you didn't snub any of them. All 49 eligible men received at least one vote from a reader or team member here. Peter Firth (Equus), Randy Quaid (The Last Detail), and Gary Busey (The Buddy Holly Story) narrowly avoided complete snubs by landing on one ballot each. With the votes spread out over literally all eligible contenders, we're narrowing this to a top 15 (for actresses we did a top 26) as the nearest rivals for dominance (Elliott Gould, Alec Baldwin, and Alan Alda in that order) were quite a bit further back in terms of points /  number of ballots.

YOUR TOP FIFTEEN

Ken Watanabe in THE LAST SAMURAI

15 KEN WATANABE
66 years old. 93 points. Placed on 26% of your ballots. Most frequent rank on those ballots: #4
Breakthrough:  Dokuganryu Masamune  (1987)
Only Oscar Nomination: The Last Samurai (2003)
Closest He's Come Since?: Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
Career Haul: 3 Japanese Academy Prizes
Up Next: Kobiki-cho no Adauchi, a Japanese samurai drama

The first thought with Watanabe is always his memorable work in The Last Samurai, but his work in Letters from Iwo Jima is rarely mentioned these days. Since his award-friendly years, showing up in major franchises like Godzilla, Transformers and Nolan films like Batman Begins and Inception has made him seem like more of a commercial actor. Still, in recent years he has shown up in awards players like Japan's epic kabuki drama Kokuho and the sci-film film The Creator. An elder statesman role might be an obvious archetype for him, but it would be wonderful to see an independent film allowing him to stretch his acting chops – maybe a reflective romance? He’s always a welcome face on our screens, and it would be nice to see him offered an awards-friendly acting challenge.
-Eurocheese

James Cromwell in BABE

14 JAMES CROMWELL
86 years old. 99 points. Placed on 29% of your ballots. Most frequent rank on those ballots: #5
Breakthrough and Only Oscar Nomination: Babe (1995)
Closest He's Come Since?: LA Confidential (1997)
Career Haul: 1 Emmy
Up Next: Crime drama Night Trader (2027)

First, I love that his lone Oscar nomination is for Farmer Hoggett, a feat of utter warmth and goodness in this most perfect of movies. It’s even more remarkable to see this well-gauged radiance in retrospect, now that I’ve become acquainted with his imperious, villainous, calculating side in L.A. Confidential and American Horror Story (and justly winning an Emmy for it). Hearing that brogue tearing into Jesse Armstrong’s dialogue on Succession? That’s a man who knows how to wield his gravitas like an instrument. Any genre, any role, any amount of screen time. Cast him in the right film to remind the culture how he’s been a force nature for fifty years and we’re cooking with gas, baby.
- Nick Taylor

Tim Roth in ROB ROY

13 TIM ROTH
64 years old. 115 points. Placed on 39.1% of your ballots. Most frequent rank on those ballots: #9
Breakthrough: The Hit (1984)
Only Oscar Nomination: Rob Roy (1995)
Closest He's Come Since? (N/A)
Career Haul: 1 BAFTA, 1 EFA, 1 People's Choice Award
Up Next: four films in post-production and another one filming. Busy!

Roth was a critical darling from the jump, a hit in a couple of British television films before scoring his first BAFTA nomination for his feature debut The Hit (1984). His star kept rising with must see films like The Cook The Thief The Wife and Her Lover. In the early 90s he was on fire. I personally will never forget the way he managed to smuggle in weirdly intimate pathos or comic tenderness into "Mr. Orange" (Reservoir Dogs) and "Honeybunny" (Pulp Fiction) two roles that while well-written could have easily presented as less three dimensional and more derivatively 'cool'-only, in less inspired hands. He chased that seismic Tarantino break-out double with a sensationally memorable turn as the fop villain "Archibald Cunningham" in Rob Roy landing a well deserved Oscar nomination and a BAFTA win. If Roth had retired right then, at the young age of 33, I bet film fans would still be screaming that he was "robbed of an Oscar!" rather than the relative silence around his gifts now. His subsequent career isn't without the occasional highlight but he never again had a stretch of projects that kept hitting like those early ones did in quick succession.
-Nathaniel R

Brad Dourif in ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST

12 BRAD DOURIF
76 years old. 119 points. Placed on 30.4% of your ballots. Most frequent rank on those ballots: #1
Breakthrough and Only Oscar Nomination: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Pop Culture Claim to Fame: The Voice of "Chucky"
Career Haul: 1 BAFTA, 1 Golden Globe -- both for Cuckoo's Nest
Up Next: Unknown

Talk about starting with a bang. No sooner had Brad Dourif made his film debut after some years on the New York stage than he was an Oscar nominee, BAFTA and Golden Globe winner. In Milos Forman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the 25-year-old thespian played Billy Bibbit, whose fragile demeanor and tragic fate made him one of the Best Picture winner’s most memorable elements. Surely, Louis Fletcher would’ve struggled harder to cinch her Oscar if not for Nurse Ratched’s final confrontation with her most vulnerable ward. What followed was a career marked by many another unstable young man, like the disillusioned anti-preacher in Huston’s Wise Blood or the exploding vessel of all of America’s atomic-age technological hopes in Hooper’s Spontaneous Combustion.

And yet, Dourif might have left the biggest impression away from straight drama. Genre cinema is his castle, and he is the king of horror as the voice of Chucky, the killer doll in the Child’s Play franchise. Still in horror, he delivered a veritable Oscar-worthy performance in The Exorcist III, suffered a nasty fate in Alien: Resurrection, and found profound pathos in Rob Zombie’s Halloween diptych. Fantasy proved a welcome home through the Lord of the Rings series, while sci-fi misadventures have included the Baroque grotesquerie of Lynch’s Dune. He always understands the assignment and over-delivers, evolving from a dependable face of youthful brokenness into one of the best character actors working his way through modern-day Hollywood. It’s impossible to overstate what a remarkable performer Dourif is, to the point that the Academy should feel so honored to hand him one of its little golden men and have his name permanently etched into Oscar history.
-Cláudio Alves

 Albert Brooks in BROADCAST NEWS

11 ALBERT BROOKS
78 years old. 122 points. Placed on 30.4% of your ballots. Most frequent rank on those ballots: #3
Breakthrough: Stand-up comedy in the mid 70s
Only Oscar Nomination: Broadcast News (1987)
Closest He's Come Since: Drive (2011)
Career Haul: 3 NSFC and 2 NYFCC
Up Next: Unknown

Could Albert Brooks have come in second place in 1987 when he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Broadcast News?  It was a beloved film that year, and his performance is a beaut...gloriously comic but laced with sadness and ache.  He was right at home with that sophisticated-sitcom acting style that James L. Brooks wanted from his performers, and his duet with Holly Hunter remains soulful and complex.  Not to mention his hilarious flop-sweat on-air meltdown, or breezy drunk tirade watching William Hurt soar ("That's a lot of alliteration from anxious anchormen placed in powerful posts!").  Two of the films he directed, Lost in America and Defending Your Life are minor classics.  It's unlikely at age 78 that he'll get that role to bring him back, but if it can happen for Judd Hirsch, why not the divine Mr. Brooks?
-Eric Blume

John C. Reilly in CHICAGO

10 JOHN C REILLY
60 years old. 159 points. Placed on 42% of your ballots. Most frequent rank on those ballots: #7
Breakthrough: Boogie Nights (1997)
Only Oscar Nomination: Chicago (2002)
Closest He's Come Since: Stan & Ollie (2018)
Career Haul: 1 Critics Choice, 1 SAG Actor - both cast awards
Up Next: Two thrillers -Sponsor with Jason Segel and part of the all star cast of How to Rob a Bank (2026)

Who doesn't love a sad sack? Now to state the obvious, absolutely nothing about John C. Reilly, the person, reads sad sack; but there's no denying he excels as that character type on screen. As the cuckolded husband of Roxie Hart, aka "Mr. Cellophane Man," in Chicago, he evoked a sad-clown pathos that was poignant enough to take viewers' eyes momentarily off the razzle-dazzle and to net him his sole Oscar nomination. It also became something of a template for his career: although he started off playing his share of heavies (Casualties of War, The River Wild, Gangs of New York), he became something of a go-to actor for good-hearted schmoes and/or clueless husbands (The Good Girl, The Hours, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Carnage, etc.). In a more overtly comic vein, mainstream movie audiences likely remember him best as the second banana to Will Ferrell in the loopy NASCAR send-up Talladega Nights and the man-child comedy Step Brothers, or as the voice of the villain-turned-hero of the animated uberhit Wreck-It Ralph.

Even a cursory glance at his filmography shows greater versatility and range than he generally gets credit for - whether it's his string of distinctive characters in Paul Thomas Anderson's early-period films (Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia) or his stranded WWII pilot-gone-native in Kong: Skull Island. And let's not forget the man can sing, as shown not just in Chicago but in Walk Hard, the parody to end all parodies of the musical biopic genre. True, his credited film appearances have dwindled in recent years; the last time he was in the Oscars conversation was probably 2018, when he made a lovely Hardy to Steve Coogan's Laurel in Stan & Ollie and played the straight man/steadier brother to Joaquin Phoenix's loose cannon in The Sisters Brothers. This year, his quiet Western drama A Prayer for the Dying (co-starring Johnny Flynn) played at Venice, but it's not clear if or when it will get a theatrical release. He's in the upcoming heist action comedy How to Rob a Bank, though I think it's safe to say that won't be an awards contender. Still I have faith that with his chops and his reputation, he will eventually get another part worthy of the Academy's attention.  Maybe he needs to work with Paul Thomas Anderson again? I, for one, would love to see him take on a brilliant and ruthless  character, just to see what an actor so well known for amiable lunkheads could do with it. I have a feeling he could surprise us.
-Lynn Lee

Eddie Murphy in DREAMGIRLS

09 EDDIE MUPRHY
64 years old. 190 points. Placed on 43.5% of your ballots. Most frequent rank on those ballots: #6
Breakthrough: Saturday Night Live (season 4, 1980)
Only Oscar Nomination: Dreamgirls (2006)
Closest He's Come Since: Dolemite Is My Name (2019)
Career Haul: 3 NAACP Image Awards, 2 Golden Globes, 1 Emmy,  1 Grammy, 1 AFI, 1 Annie, 1 Critics Choice Award, 1 NSFC, 3 People's Choice Awards
Up Next: A remake of The Pink Panther as Inspector Closeau 

When it comes to rewarding known clowns, award voters like to wait until their favorite funny people get serious. AMPAS is no different, as can be attested by such performers as Robin Williams, Jamie Foxx, Steve Carell, Jonah Hill, Sacha Baron Coen and many, many others. Eddie Murphy, too, since none of the various blockbuster comedies he starred in across the 1980s and 90s got him close to Oscar gold. Only Dreamgirls did the trick and, by that point, I’d say he was fairly overdue for that kind of recognition. Sure, Murphy’s bad reputation precedes him, and even the stand-up comedy that gave the man legendary status is sometimes hard to swallow in all its sexism, homophobia and whatnot. However, can anyone deny his chops as a performer?

Right from the start, he was a force to be reckoned with, magnetizing the screen with the kind of movie star charisma that became less and less common on big screens as the 20th century drew to a close. Whether in wild improvisation or razor-sharp comedic set pieces, he commands the camera’s attention in modern classics of the genre like Trading Places and Beverly Hills Cop, Boomerang and the high-wire absurdities of The Nutty Professor 1996 remake. He even got serious, well-earned award consideration for his vocal work in the Shrek movies, and then came the Oscar nomination that should have been an Oscar win for his feverish rendition of James ‘Thunder’ Early in the Dreamgirls movie musical. Recently, he was also in the conversation for Dolemite Is My Name, where his penchant for clownery mixed superbly with dramatic chops for a performance that, in my eyes, far outclassed some of those year’s actual Academy Award nominees, winner included. C’mon, Hollywood, give him the showcase he deserves and throw an Oscar Eddie Murphy’s way.
-Cláudio Alves

Clive Owen in CLOSER

08 CLIVE OWEN
61 years old. 208 points. Placed on 47.8% of your ballots. Most frequent rank on those ballots: N/A fairly even spread
Breakthrough: Croupier (1998)
Only Oscar Nomination: Closer (2004)
Closest He's Come Since: Children of Men (2006)
Career Haul: 1 BAFTA, 1 Critics Choice, 1 SAG Actor, 1 Golden Globe, 1 NBR, 1 NYFCC, 
Up Next: The thriller Kristallnacht and the TV Miniseries The Murder of JonBenet Ramsey (he plays her father)

I don't know what the world expected out of Clive Owen, but it got a whole lot very early.  Following a rocketship of a start, including his lone nomination in 2004's Closer, Owen was supposed to be the Hollywood mainstay.  He still works regularly in plenty of interesting projects, but what's it going to take to get him back into the good graces of the critical masses?  Maybe something from Broadway, much like his Closer role zeroed in on his sleazy likeability.  Hollywood has these ebbs and flows with actors.  Owen could be one role away from being right back in the mix.  Plus, he still looks good and is only 61.
-Ben Miller

Bill Murray in LOST IN TRANSLATION

07 BILL MURRAY
75 years old. 215 points. Placed on 49.3% of your ballots. Most frequent rank on those ballots: #2
Breakthrough: Saturday Night Live (1977) season 2
Only Oscar Nomination: Lost in Translation (2003)
Closest He's Come Since: Get Low (2009)
Career Haul: 2 Emmys, 2 Spirit Awards, 2 LAFCA, 2 NSFC, 2 NYFCC, 1 BAFTA, 1 Golden Globe
Up Next: Diamond, a crime drama from Andy Garcia (who directs and stars)

If we knew what we know now, with Sean Penn coming off his third Oscar win, it would be ridiculous to deny Bill Murray a win on his first nomination for Lost in Translation (unless you lean Johnny Depp). Already a box office smash for multiple comedies, Murray had also established himself as a reliable Wes Anderson presence – and would it surprise anyone if a role in one of those films (even if they have lost some steam with Oscar) translated to another nomination or even a win? It was puzzling when his brilliant repairing with Sofia Coppola in On the Rocks seemed to be met with a collective shrug, but Murray is always a noticeable addition to any film, consistently stealing scenes with his dry humor. Perhaps his comedic touch is part of the reason he has remained underrated, especially since he began in broad comedies. Even his famously grumpy demeanor doesn’t take away from his status as a national treasure, and his unique voice in modern cinema needs to be treasured while we still have it.
-Eurocheese

Don Cheadle in HOTEL RWANDA

06 DON CHEADLE
61 years old. 216 points. Placed on 50.7% of your ballots. Most frequent rank on those ballots: #2
Breakthrough: Devil In a Blue Dress (1995)
Only Oscar Nomination: Hotel Rwanda (2004)
Closest He's Come Since: Crash (2005)
Career Haul: 3 NAACP Image Awards, 2 Grammys, 2 SAG and Critics Choice Cast Awards, 2 Golden Globes, 2 Gotham Awards, 1 Spirit Award, 1 LAFCA, 1 NSFC 
Up Next: Oceans 14 ? 

I just think it’d be so easy to get Don Cheadle nominated again with the right role. He should have multiple nominations already! Either with his fiercely controlled turn in Devil in a Blue Dress, the formation of a Cheadle-specific star vehicle we never got following his 1995 breakout or his Hotel Rwanda afterglow. And why the fuck has this not materialized? The on-screen charisma and off-screen charm, the near endless litany of Emmy nominations throughout the 2010’s, the awards already taking up space on his shelves. People love Don Cheadle! There’s maybe not a world where he gets nominated for No Sudden Move, but it would’ve been great if he did! Have PTA or Kasi Lemmons write their next film around a re-teaming of Cheadle and Regina Hall and they’ll both walk away with Oscars.
-Nick Taylor

YOUR TOP FIVE

Liam Neeson in SCHINDLER'S LIST

05 LIAM NEESON
73 years old. 222 points. Placed on 52.2% of your ballots. Most frequent rank on those ballots: #1
Breakthrough: Excalibur (1981)
Only Oscar Nomination: Schindler's List (1993)
Closest He's Come Since: Kinsey (2004)
Career Haul: 1 BIFA, 1 LAFCA, 1 Volpi Cup
Up Next: 6 movies in production currently

Neeson has made so much Hollywood crap in the last twenty years that it's sometimes easy to forget what a formidable actor he is.  You have to really go back to remember the tenderness and vulnerability of his fine work opposite Cher in 1987's Suspect and especially opposite Diane Keaton in 1988's The Good Mother at the start of his career.  Neeson brought this gentle giant energy to the movies, where his hulking frame juxtaposed with his soft humanity resulted in a fresh new masculine vibe not prevalent during that decade.  In those early years, few actors cornered the sexuality he brought to the screen:  he and Jessica Lange looked at each other as if they wanted to eat the other alive in Rob Roy; and he and Ralph Fiennes looked at each other as if they were deciding who was going to be the top throughout Schindler's List.  Neeson's sexuality seemed both scary and threatening, but also loving and soft.  He's been criminally underused for three decades.  But if a major director gave him a major role, he could kill it.  He's also one of the most lovely humans in show business with a perfect reputation.  I'd love to see Neeson get ignited about acting again like he was in his first chapter.
-Eric Blume

Harvey Keitel in BUGSY

04 HARVEY KEITEL
86 years old. 237 points. Placed on 53.6% of your ballots. Most frequent rank on those ballots: #2
Breakthrough: Mean Streets (1973)
Only Oscar Nomination: Bugsy (1991)
Closest He's Come Since: Smoke (1995)
Career Haul: 1 Gotham, 1 Spirit, 1 AFI, 1 Silver Bear, 1 David Di Donotella award, 1 NSFC
Up Next: The romantic fantasy Fate (2027?) and after that Timothy Linh Bui action film Live Fast, Die Laughing

Oscar nominations and wins are so often about career timing, something that's external to the work itself and beyond the artists control. Consider that Keitel's incredible gifts as a performer helped build the legend of Martin Scorsese but the Academy wasn't truly committed to honoring Scorsese films back then. Scorsese pictures only really became default contenders as the  auteur was entered 'legacy' mode and at that point Keitel had already receded within his filmography. Keitel has rarely stopped working since his debut in Scorsese's Who's That Knocking At My Door (1967) but his tastes in projects has obviously never aligned with any fantasy of winning an Oscar with nary a whiff of 'career calculation'. His early films were often bold and discomfitting (Taxi Driver, Mean Streets) and he regularly appeared in genre pictures (of which awards voters rarely take notice). In what we might consider Keitel's highest profile Star-Actor years (the 1990s) for every hit like Sister Act or Pulp Fiction or Get Shorty there's something grimy or bold or weird and auteur-driven pictures like a Bad Lieutenant, Dangerous Game, or a Holy Smoke!  In fact, even if you only look at the major Oscar players from his filmography (Taxi Driver, Bugsy, Thelma & Louise, The Piano, Pulp Fiction, The Grand Budapest Hotel) it's pretty hard to claim that any of them were made for less than artistic reasons. He's still doing the same mix of B genre pictures, occassional lead indie roles, and ambitious art films (The Painted Bird, Youth) that he's favored since the beginning though sadly the films haven't been crossing over into the public (or Oscar) conciousness for some time. And at 86 he's still working. Where is his Honorary Oscar?

It remains frustrating to this day that Harvey Keitel's sole nomination comes from the gangster biopic Bugsy which wasn't even his best performance of 1991! That honor belongs to his sympathetic and observant detective in the instant classic Thelma & Louise. 
-Nathaniel R

David Strathairn in GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.
03 DAVID STRATHAIRN
77 years old. 238 points. Placed on 55% of your ballots. Most frequent rank on those ballots: #4
Breakthrough: The Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980)
Only Oscar Nomination: Good Night and Good Luck (2005)
Closest He's Come Since: N/A
Career Haul: 1 Emmy, 1 Spirit Award, 1 Volpi Cup
Up Next: Supporting roles in the civil rights era thriller By Any Means (2026), the comedy Babies (2026), and the 19th century set formerly enslaved biopic The Bard (2027?)

Strathairn has always lived on the borders of movies:  he's a character actor who comes in, does his job expertly, and lets everyone around him shine, especially his leading ladies.  Think about it, is there *any* other American actor who has starred opposite so many of the cinema's greatest actresses?  Check out this list:  Meryl Streep, Debra Winger, Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Sigourney Weaver, Julianne Moore, Glenn Close.  Those are just the biggies.  It was particularly thrilling that this journeyman got his only Oscar nomination not in the supporting category, but for his leading role in 2005's Good Night and Good Luck.  Director George Clooney knows a great actor when he sees one, and he uses Strathairn's everyman qualities to brilliant effect in that aces picture.  And the wonderful director John Sayles used Strathairn across several films in several different ways (his work in the gorgeous Passion Fish was particularly lovely).  Sayles needs a great swan song project too...maybe they'll find each other one last time and make something great?  Here's hoping.
-Eric Blume

Laurence Fishburne in WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT
02 LAURENCE FISHBURNE
64 years old. 242 points. Placed on 59.4% of your ballots. Most frequent rank on those ballots: #2
Breakthrough: Boyz N the Hood (1991)
Only Oscar Nomination: What's Love Got to Do With It (1993)
Major Pop Culture Claim to Fame: The Matrix franchise
Closest He's Come Since: N/A
Career Haul: 7 NAACP Image Awards, 4 Emmys, 1 Cable Ace award, 1 PGA
Up Next: 5 projects in the works plus one that's already filming The Exorcist (2027) with Scarlett Johansson

How in the world does Laurence Fishburne only have one nomination?  He's Furious Styles.  He was Othello.  He's freaking Morbius!  The guy keeps working and gets some pretty good roles.  Every time you see Fishburne, you're glad he's there.  Maybe when you receive your nomination for playing Ike Turner, no other part can compare.  TV has also been very kind to him, with 16 Emmy nominations and six wins.  He keeps getting the roles of the wise sage or the old supporting man.  Maybe he can have his own Skarsgård-level featured role and get back into the mix.  He certainly deserves it.
-Ben Miller

William H. Macy in FARGO
01 WILLIAM H MACY
76 years old. 285 points. Placed on 63.8% of your ballots. Most frequent rank on those ballots: #1
Breakthrough: Oleanna the play and its film version (1992-1994)
Only Oscar Nomination: Fargo (1996)
Closest He's Come Since: Pleasantville (1998) or Seabiscuit (2003)
Career Haul: 4 SAG Actor Awards, 2 Emmys, 1 Spirit, 1 NBR, 1 Jury Prize Sundance
Up Next: 7 projects in production including a co-lead in the romantic late-life drama Exit Right (2027?) with Susan Sarandon.

It’s somewhat strange to think that William H. Macy’s sole Oscar nomination comes from what ranks among his most sedate performances, especially compared to the rest of the wonderfully wacky ensemble of Fargo. He’s the kind of actor who blends effortlessly into a stacked cast (Magnolia), elevates small parts (last year’s Best Picture nominee Train Dreams and recent SXSW premiere Brian), and carries with conviction the most absurd and detestable of roles, like the one that earned him six Emmy nominations as Frank Gallagher in Shameless. What he likely needs is something in between bit part and inarguable lead, perhaps like the role that probably got him closest to another Oscar nomination in Seabiscuit. No one does emphatic line delivery like he does, and he’s a master of blending sincerity with just enough frantic energy that you’re never entirely sure what to make of the people he plays.
-Abe Friedtanzer

What do you think of the final results, dear reader, and which actor are you rooting hardest for in terms of golden comebacks? 

Comments

[Jim McCarthy]

Not to immediately bring this back to actresses, but the family resemblance between Brad Dourif and his daughter, Fiona, from The Pitt is staggering in the selected photo. Could there be a fabulously acted father/daughter movie in their future?

Back to the actors, Liam Neeson has made more than his fair share of dud thrillers, so it IS a bit difficult to imagine him back in the race. At the same time, can we talk about how good he was in The Naked Gun? Just about as far from awards-bait as a movie can possibly be, it was a delight to see him so engaged and committed and having so much fun. I wouldn't say that it showed off his acting chops that much, but it was a stealth reminder that when he's not making Taken movies (or movies that feel like Taken movies but are even more generic), he has unfailing charisma and can really own the big screen.

I think he and Eddie Murphy share a similar challenge to finding their way back to the awards--they're both immensely talented actors who have a habit of making truly terrible movies. Neeson has Absolution and Retribution. Murphy has Pluto Nash and the Pickup. For either to make it, I think they not only need to find the right vehicle, but they need to make a few less terrible movies in the immediate run-up to a campaign.

Unrelated--he probably only had 5 minutes of screentime, but I would have been more than happy for Macy to have been nommed for Train Dreams. He wasn't as robbed as Joel Edgerton, but...truly an incredible performance, almost in miniature.

[Dave in Hollywood]

You can say that Liam Neeson has made a lot of Hollywood Crap, but I'd argue that he's made a lot of Hollywood money. For rate of profitability over these last few years, I think he'd almost top the list, and I feel that Hollywood owes him something gold and shiny for all that work.
I would have said the same thing for Eddie Murphy as well, but that was quite a few years back.

And I hate to say it, but probably the 60something guys in this Top Ten have the best shot of scoring a good role in a good film eventually. If I had to bet money, I'd probably say Clive Owen and Tim Roth would be the most likely to score something in the future.