Best "best actor" winner of the decade

[rudeboy]

Jack but, yeah, he was better in Chinatown, and in Five Easy Pieces. What an actor that man once was.

[Hustler]

That´s a hard one too.
Brando is my favorite. In an equal level are Nicholson, Lemmon, Scott, Hackman and Carney.

[Mack Ten]

BRANDO.

[Bruce_Lavigne]

As amazing and iconic as Brando was in "The Godfather," George C. Scott was just a little bit better in "Patton." Nicholson was great in "Cuckoo's Nest," but not as good as he was in "Chinatown," and I blame his "Cuckoo's Nest" performance for the creation of the "JACK THE MOVIE STAR" persona that he cultivated when he stopped being a great actor. Finch gave an iconic performance as well, but not as good as the others I mentioned, and besides that, he beat out De Niro's superior work in "Taxi Driver."

[Sabin]

What a crappy lineup! I'll go with Jack for such a broadly Oscar-baiting role rather than Art, if only because Jack should be the winner irregardless for Chinatown. Couldn't care less about Dreyfuss or half the winners on there.

[dylanfan23]

I'd also love to see your rankings of these. I prefer chinatown over cuckoo's nest but i think jack was a little better in cuckoo's nest. But was fantastic in both, i don't know if anyone will ever have two performances as great as these in consecutive years. But here goes.

1)Jack Nicholsen
2)Marlon Brando
3)Richard Dreyfuss
4)Gene Hackman
5)George C. Scott
6)Jack Lemmon
7)Peter Finch
8)Art Carney
9)Cliff Robertson
10)John Wayne(i'm sorry john, i love ya though)

[Reza]

I voted for Jack but in retrospect I prefer his performance in Chinatown to the one in Cuckoo's Nest. Richard Dreyfuss' performance in The Goodbye Girl is the one I should have chosen instead. A marvellously sly performance with great comic timing.

[Aceisgreat]

Which is the best?