We can all agree that Daniel Day Lewis deserved to pick up his second Oscar this week for There Will Be Blood. But let's face it, there have been some people who shouldn't even have been let in the building, never mind win the award.
In recent years, standards have certainly slipped. In fact, the way things are looking, even the likes of Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Sir Roger Moore, and perhaps Big Mo from EastEnders stand a fleeting chance at Oscar glory. So let us present the Oscar-winning performances that surely should never have been…
7. Kim Basinger for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
L.A Confidential (1997)
'The Oscar-winning actress Kim Basinger?' Has a funny ring to it, doesn't it? Surely not the same women who polished the term 'wooden horse' as an unforgettable Bond girl in the unofficial trite Bond outing Never Say Never Again? Or the lousy and seemingly emotionless female lead in Tim Burton's original Batman? This isn't the same female lead that played a charmless possible murderess (even her sex scenes were infamously body doubled) in the mediocre Richard Gere thriller Final Analysis? To be fair, she was OK in the Curtis Hanson glossy noir that got her the gong, playing a beautiful but foul-mouthed and mysterious femme fatale. But did she really deserve to sweep the golden man from prehistoric fellow nominee Gloria Stuart? Nah.
6. Robin Williams for Best Actor
Good Will Hunting (1997)
You just know something is fishy when you see Robin Williams don a beard in the film's poster (he always seems to grow one when he gets 'serious' ie: Dead Poets Society, Awakenings…). But an Oscar as well? Please. What was the academy thinking? It's a half-hearted, half-baked, annoyingly bogus and seriously prestigious pants of a performance. Surely, this should have been saved for his more challenging and arguably atypical work in suspense thrillers Insomnia and One Hour Photo?
5. Helen Hayes for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Airport (1970)
A little kind old lady playing a little old lady (albeit one who has a 'mischievous touch' ) – what a challenging part that must of been for the 70-year-old. She even played the same role in Herbie Rides Again. Surely, this award was just one of those 'too old to continue much longer' sympathy votes that veterans Henry Fonda, James Coburn and Driving Miss Daisy's Jessica Tandy received prior to their unfortunate demise.
4. Judi Dench for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Sorry, but this was a miserable apology for not gracing her with the gong for her outstanding performance as Queen Victoria in Mrs Brown a year earlier. Although she is equally stupendous in the equally royal role for the above, it's only eight minutes of screen time (an extended cameo at the most) and just doesn't warrant the award. The academy should have admitted to their mistake and snatched the Oscar back off Hunt instead of tarnishing another British actress' opportunity in the process – namely Brenda Blethyn for Little Voice.
3. Gwyneth Paltrow for Best Actress
Shakespeare in Love (1998)
And from the same overrated film came another Oscar for the, generally overrated Miss Paltrow, for 'mastering' an English accent. But if we are honest, it's more like a trite impersonation of Emma Thompson than a performance of any depth or focus. Thankfully, the acceptance speech was equally as awful, so that redeems things a little.
2. Michael Caine for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
The Cider House Rules (1999)
And now for the opposite: a cockney doing a diabolical American accent. Sorry Sir Michael, but this is up there with your performances in Jaws: The Revenge and The Swarm for sheer overstated embarrassment. What a terrible casting mistake that was. What next? Stallone playing Jack Carter in the remake to Get Carter? Oh yes, they did that too.
1. Whoopi Goldberg for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Ghost (1990)
Whoopi won for her overblown performance in Ghost, when she should have won five years earlier for her remarkable debut turn in Spielberg's The Color Purple. Don't get us wrong, it's a hilarious and well-timed comedic performance, but it's just not got the Oscar clout it was awarded for.
[story by Oliver Pfeiffer]
Dallas says
Two notable omissions:
Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny (Supporting Actress, 1992).
Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman (Best Actor, 1992).
1992 was a bad year at the Oscars.
d.
ET Barton says
I have to agree with a lot of these here. I don’t watch the Oscars myself just because its so frustrating to see the actors I adore be ignored or lose to someone else because they are an “A” list actor higher up in the ranks. I think Leonardo DiCaprio should have won a dozen times over for many of his movies, and yet he’s not only been ignored for many key performances, but he never seems to win. I know some people may not like Titanic, but seriously…he was the only person NOT nominated in that movie and he stole the hearts of millions of women and teenagers around the world because of that performance. He should have at least been nominated.
Dario says
WTF? Whoopi was amazing. undeserved was timothy hutton in ordinary people.