And The Oscar Gays To …
With Colin Firth sure to be nominated for a Best Actor Oscar next month for his role in A Single Man, I thought it might be time to run a ‘All-Time Best Actor in a Gay Leading Role’ poll, based on the actors who scored a nomination or win over the years for playing a gay character.
Since I was born in 1972, I have no idea how to insert a button-poll into here, so if you’d like to vote for your favourite, you’re going to have to a place his name(s) in the comment stream below, and we’ll tally it up from there.
I do, however, have clips from each performance (where available - there’s trailers for Capote and Brokeback Mountain), so it should be just like watching the real Oscarcast!
Kind of.
The nominees (in chronological order) are:
1971: Peter Finch, Sunday Bloody Sunday
1975: Al Pacino, Dog Day Afternoon
1985 (won the Oscar): William Hurt, Kiss of the Spider Woman
1993 (won the Oscar): Tom Hanks, Philadelphia
1998: Ian McKellen, Gods and Monsters
2000: Javier Bardem, Before Night Falls
2005 (won the Oscar): Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote
2005: Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain
2008 (won the Oscar): Sean Penn, Milk
2009 (likely nominee) Colin Firth, A Single Man
And your Oscar goes to?
My five nominees would be
William Hurt, Kiss of the Spider Woman
Peter Finch, Sunday Bloody Sunday
Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote
Ian McKellen, Gods and Monsters
and my Oscar would go to …
William Hurt, Kiss of the Spider Woman
Ok, well I’ve only seen 5 of them:
1975: Al Pacino, Dog Day Afternoon
1993 (won the Oscar): Tom Hanks, Philadelphia
1998: Ian McKellen, Gods and Monsters
2005: Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain
2008 (won the Oscar): Sean Penn, Milk
so my nominees would be:
Al Pacino, Dog Day Afternoon
Ian MCKellen, Gods and Monsters
Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain
And the winner is…..
AL PACINO, DOG DAY AFTERNOON!!!
My gay Oscar goes to
John Hurt (as Quentin Crisp) in The Naked Civil Servant (1975)
@Steve: Hurt was excellent as Crisp but wasn’t nominated for an Oscar for that performance as The Naked Civil Servant was produced for British television. John Hurt has been nominated twice. In 1979 he was recognised in the Best Supporting Actor category in 1979 for his superb performance as the drug-addicted cat-loving lifer Max in Midnight Express (my favourite film) and lost that year to Christopher Walken in The Deer Hunter.
In 1980, he would have almost certainly won Best Actor for playing Joseph Merrick, the title role in The Elephant Man but lost to Robert de Niro, who won for Raging Bull.
Heath Ledger far and away the best - robbed of the Oscar by Philip Seymour Hoffman
What about Torch Song Trilogy star?
@Marcus: That was the immortal Harvey Fierstein, who developed the movie from his original play that won him two Tony Awards (Best Play and Best Actor in a Play). He wasn’t nominated (nor was his co-star Matthew Broderick, who played his lover) for an Oscar, for the film.
My Oscar goes to Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain!
These are some great performances. I’d give Heath Ledger a slight edge over Peter Finch. The Finch film (”Sunday Bloody Sunday”) was released in 1971 and it was quite controversial. I remember audience members leaving in droves from the theatre. The movie holds up very well to this day. I own it on DVD.
William Hurt, Kiss of the Spider Woman
Al Pacino, Dog Day Afternoon
Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote
Ian McKellen, Gods and Monsters
Oscar to: Heath Ledger