1978-1987 Best Actor Winners

[Big Magilla]

Jon Voight gave his most impressive performance in 1978's Coming Home. He deserved the win.

Voight's Midnight Cowboy co-star, Dustin Hoffman finally got an Oscar for 1979's Kramer vs. Kramer. He deserved the win even if it wasn't as iconic a role as were those in the three films for which he was previously nominated.

Robert De Niro was at his best in Raging Bull but my favorite De Niro performance remains the one he gave four years earlier in Taxi Driver.

That Henry Fonda had to wait 42 years to receive his second Oscar nomination and then finally win the damn thing on his deathbed remains one of the greatest examples of Oscar injustice. He should have won for both The Grapes of Wrath and On Golden Pond and been nominated several times in-between.

Ben Kingsley was the best thing about Richard Attenborough's overlong Gandhi but 1982 was the year they should should have finally recognized Paul Newman for The Verdict.

Robert Duvall gave his best performance in 1980's The Great Santini but 1983's Tender Mercies was a close second.

F. Murray Abraham deserved a nomination for 1984's Gandhi but Albert Finney deserved to win for Under the Volcano.

William Hurt's mannered performance in 1985's Kiss of the Spider Woman was still the best of a very weak year.

Paul Newman finally got an Oscar for 1986's The Color of Money but Bob Hoskins gave the year's most impressive male performance in Mona Lisa.

Michael Douglas gave his best performance in 1987's Wall Street but it was a another weak year for the guys.

Since the question I asked was who was best or "most deserving", I'm going to go with most deserving in this case - and vote for Henry Fonda. My choices in order: Fonda, Voight, Newman, Duvall, Kingsley, De Niro, Hoffman, Hurt, Abraham, and Douglas.

[mlrg]

Voted for De Niro with Duvall in second

[Reza]

Everyone gravitates towards De Niro but I think the most "real" performance was by Ben Kingsley as Gandhi. Eerie how perfectly he captured the man.

Voight, De Niro, Duvall and Douglas were the best of their years.

I preferred Peter Sellers (Being There) over Hoffman in K vs K.

Burt Lancaster was better than Hank Fonda in 1981 though how can one begrudge Fonda's only Oscar win?

Finney deserved to win for Under the Volcano in 1984.

I thought Hurt was too mannered in his Oscar-winning turn. A stunt performance not unlike the absurd turns later by Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump) and Dustin Hoffman (Rainman). Nicholson is great fun in Prizzi's Honor but I just love James Garner in Murphy's Romance.

Newman finally won in 1986. Its really not a consolation win as its now made out to be. Its one of his many wonderful performances. He had strong competition that year from both Bob Hoskins and James Woods.

Voted for Kingsley with Voight a close second. Then followed by De Niro, Duvall, Newman, Fonda and Douglas.

[gunnar]

I'm not a fan of Raging Bull so I'll pass on De Niro, but I loved Robert Duvall in Tender Mercies. My runners up would probably be F. Murray Abraham in Amadeus and Henry Fonda in On Golden Pond, though it has been a long time since I saw either movie.

[Sabin]

I haven't seen Gandhi or Tender Mercies, so I'll abstain. But I would imagine that Robert De Niro walks away with this.

[Big Magilla]

At least three of these were make-up awards for previous slights. What do you think?