Best Actor 1960: Results

5. Trevor Howard in Sons and Lovers- I like that Trevor Howard tries to get something out of his fairly simplistic character, but he just is simply not given enough to do.

4. Spencer Tracy in Inherit the Wind- Tracy does a lot of big acting court room scenes, as well as believable mannerisms, he does both well, but not that well. And yes that's 9 losses to 0 wins for Tracy.

3. Jack Lemmon in The Apartment- Jack Lemmon is a charm, and humorous performance, that simply I enjoyable to watch, he creates a character and performance that is just great to follow through on his corporate misadventures.

2. Burt Lancaster in Elmer Gantry- Lancaster's performance is a terrific one because of his fascinating creation of Elmer Gantry. His wild energy is just perfect for the wild Gantry. Lancaster completely throws himself into his role creating a compelling character, with a fascinating combination of sarcasm, and earnestness.

1. Laurence Olivier in The Entertainer- I will admit this one really was pretty easy for me to choose. Olivier stood out for me as the best with his outstanding portrait of the on his last legs Vaudevillian Archie Rice. Olivier portrait of Rice's facades he puts on to hide the truth are perfectly handled by Olivier, and his moments where he shows the real honest Rice are incredible.

Deserving Performances:
Anthony Perkins in Psycho

Best Actor 1960: Trevor Howard in Sons and Lovers

Trevor Howard received his first Oscar nomination for portraying coal miner Walter Morel in Sons and Lovers.

The films tells the story of a young man Paul Morel (Dean Stockwell) who is an aspiring artist who comes from a poor mining town.

It is quite strange that Trevor Howard was nominated for this film since Howard actually does not portray the lead role of the film, but is rather a supporting role as the father of Paul. It is not even a domineering supporting role, the father really on a whole is not given very much time at all, and scenes that he is in tend to focus away from him.

Howard though is an actor I tend to like almost whenever I see him, due to his unique strong screen presence. Howard though is given very little in terms of character since Walter is a typical cliched father who does not support his sons artistic aspirations. He drinks, and he yells with his wife (Wendy Hiller) about what he sees, believing it was her fault his sons turned out the way they did.

Howard though does try his best to make something out of his lacking character. He does not make his typical character one dimensional. In the little time he is given Howard shows that he really does care for his family, but shows a sadness which he covers with anger, that not only does his son not want to follow in his footsteps, but also that there is something wrong about his footsteps.

Howard is only really given one scene that focuses on him all that much which is very early in the film,  when his only son who actually followed in his footsteps dies in the mines. Howard is good in showing the honest grief for his only son who wished to continue on his work.

Howard I think with Hiller are good in showing the long history of their characters' marriage despite barely given anytime to develop it. They properly showed that there fights are almost routine. This does allow Howard a brief good scene, near the end of the film where he does show his love for his wife once more, but Howard does not forget the character still showing their poor history at the same time.

He has one more good scene where he tells his son not to let his mother down, like he did. He again shows honest emotion, and a little more to his character. Overall Howard I did like when he was on screen, and I did like that he tried to show more to his simple character. Unfortunately the film refused to give him more of a character which possibly could have enabled a great performance.

Best Actor 1960

And the Nominees:

Jack Lemmon in The Apartment

Laurence Olivier in The Entertainer

Burt Lancaster in Elmer Gantry

Trevor Howard in Sons and Lovers

Spencer Tracy in Inherit the Wind

Well it's Spencer Tracy's final chance, can he finally win, or is someone else the best?