Best Supporting Actor 1976

[Reza]

Robards' subtle work is easily the best of this bunch, as it was the following year as well. Voted for him.

However, I feel Finch should have been nominated in this category and won here instead.

My picks for 1976:

1. Peter Finch, Network
2. Jason Robards, All the President's Men
3. Laurence Olivier, Marathon Man
4. Burgess Meredith, Rocky
5. Oskar Werner, Voyage of the Damned

The 6th Spot: Burt Young, Rocky

On an aside: Voyage of the Damned is one of my guilty pleasures. What a great cast. Faye Dunaway wearing a monocle and that horrifically campy moment when Lee Grant shears off her hair are highlights. She obviously did something right to get an Oscar nomination. Katharine Ross is very good and I'm surprised she was also not nominated.

[ITALIANO]

There's no way one can't vote twice, and consecutively, for Jason Robards - just like the Academy did. Next year, it's impossible not to choose him. And, though I tried, even in 1976 it's not easy. Yes, the competition may be slightly better and Robards's performance slightly less impressive than in 1977 (or not exactly less impressive - but the kind of performance that probably wouldn't even be nominated today. Too subtle, maybe) - but I still picked him. I think he's the best in this group - a quietly intense turn in an uncompromising politcal movie which is still one of the best of its kind.

What's good about this race is that all five nominees were REALLY supporting - different degrees of supporting, but still supporting.

Ned Beatty was a reliable actor and I'm glad that he was nominated once - but his role in Network is shorter than Beatrice Straight's, and in his only scene - a pivotal scene by the way - he isn't even given a close-up. His monologue is good and well delivered though.

Rocky isn't a masterpiece but it's not badly acted (even Sylvester Stallone, while never an actor of Marlon Brando-level, is for once almost bearable), and both Burt Young and Burgess Meredith are quite believable in their roles. Meredith is as showy as usual, but he had been better the year before.

And then there's Laurence Olivier. Marathon Man, unlike many other thrillers from the 70s, is still rather effective even today, and this is at least partly due to Olivier's iconic presence as the Nazi villain. And he seems to take it SO seriously - which is the only way, I guess, to make it work. And it works - the way memorable though conventional villains often do. But of course one can't give an Oscar for this role to someone who was once Hamlet, Henry V, the Entertainer.

[Big Magilla]

Magilla, I didn't realize you'd lived in the West 70s. Where, exactly? We're on 75th, between West End and Riverside (for film buffs: the block where the opening scenes of Death Wish were shot). Of course it was quite a different neighborhood back then: the former Needle Park is now the bucolic Verdi Square.

I want to say 76th St. off of the the avenue before West End (Columbus?). I know it was north of 72nd St. but how much north I can't recall. I lived there between 1971 and 1975 or 76. I then moved to Queens for two years and came back to Manahttan in the Chesea area in the late 70s. I remember a school nearby (cross the street?) where I had to go to vote. One year I was on line between Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach. Melvyn Douglas was also a neighbor.

That would be 76th between Amsterdam and Columbus. I've been voting at that school for 25 years.

OK, then the school was not directly across the street from me as my block went in the opposite direction toward West End Avenue.

[Mister Tee]

Magilla, I didn't realize you'd lived in the West 70s. Where, exactly? We're on 75th, between West End and Riverside (for film buffs: the block where the opening scenes of Death Wish were shot). Of course it was quite a different neighborhood back then: the former Needle Park is now the bucolic Verdi Square.

I want to say 76th St. off of the the avenue before West End (Columbus?). I know it was north of 72nd St. but how much north I can't recall. I lived there between 1971 and 1975 or 76. I then moved to Queens for two years and came back to Manahttan in the Chesea area in the late 70s. I remember a school nearby (cross the street?) where I had to go to vote. One year I was on line between Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach. Melvyn Douglas was also a neighbor.

That would be 76th between Amsterdam and Columbus. I've been voting at that school for 25 years.

[Big Magilla]

Magilla, I didn't realize you'd lived in the West 70s. Where, exactly? We're on 75th, between West End and Riverside (for film buffs: the block where the opening scenes of Death Wish were shot). Of course it was quite a different neighborhood back then: the former Needle Park is now the bucolic Verdi Square.

I want to say 76th St. off of the the avenue before West End (Columbus?). I know it was north of 72nd St. but how much north I can't recall. I lived there between 1971 and 1975 or 76. I then moved to Queens for two years and came back to Manahttan in the Chesea area in the late 70s. I remember a school nearby (cross the street?) where I had to go to vote. One year I was on line between Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach. Melvyn Douglas was also a neighbor.

[Mister Tee]

Tee, what's a quintessential villager?

Read this Sally Quinn column from Nov. 1998, which perfectly expresses all the entitlement felt by those DC insiders who feel THEY are the ones who run the country, with those elected merely passing through. I believe it was the blogger Digby who coined the term The Village to describe these people.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/po ... 110298.htm

In the world of this group, what Clinton did was an outrage, but the Supreme Court upending an election and Bush/Cheney lying us into a war were completely excusable. And today, with the GOP gone bug-fuck crazy, they will tell you over and over there are excesses "on both sides". They're like the Court of Versailles, still clinging to the world they grew up in, unaware or unwilling to notice how much it's changed outside their walls.

[Greg]

While I have seen all the performances, All The President's Men is the only one of the films that I saw in a theater, which was a revival years after its initial release. All the others I saw on television. My vote is for Robards. Particularly because of some of his droll line readings. "I know, you've got a wife and two kids and a dog and a cat." "Leave out the tit part. This is a family paper." "When you've got 'em by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow."

Tee, what's a quintessential villager?

[The Original BJ]

I'd have nominated (and awarded) Peter Finch's iconic Network performance in this category, and I also think his costar Robert Duvall was worthy of inclusion as well.

As for the Network fellow who was cited, Ned Beatty certainly makes an impression in his big moment, but it's just the one scene, without the range of emotions in Beatrice Straight's. He's a lot of fun, but an Oscar would be way too much.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that Rocky is well-acted, but I will somewhat grudgingly admit that it is fairly well-cast. Which is to say, I think the actors fit their roles well enough. Burt Young is a big lug playing a big lug, and Burgess Meredith a grizzled veteran actor playing a grizzled veteran trainer. Of the two, old pro Meredith is certainly superior, in a classic supporting actor type part, but I don't think Rocky provides any of its actors with a rich enough character to merit awards.

At this point, Olivier was in the global treasure stage of his career, and could get nominated for pretty much anything, no matter its quality. This isn't to demean his Marathon Man work -- I think his insane, over-the-top doctor is very entertaining, and commanding in a way that recalls the charismatic screen triumphs of his earlier years. And of course, his oft-imitated "Is it safe?" pretty much cemented the movie's small place in film history. But I think, on the whole, Marathon Man is basically trash, without much to recommend it beyond Olivier's work. And, at the end of the day, I can't even take that seriously enough to vote for him.

So, Jason Robards is my easy choice. I think what makes All the President's Men such a special film is the way its investigative/procedural elements never overwhelm the humanity of its characters -- we see the real taxing effect the Watergate investigation had on the people involved. And Robards gives the best performance in the film, as his Ben Bradlee balances thoughtful skepticism of Woodward & Bernstein's efforts with a grave understanding that, should they actually crack this case, the implications (as news story and history) would be major. Robards was one of American cinema's most consistently dependable character actors during this era, and I think this is the best of his nominated performances.

[Mister Tee]

So much stuff to respond to, even before I get to the supporting actors:

Magilla, I didn't realize you'd lived in the West 70s. Where, exactly? We're on 75th, between West End and Riverside (for film buffs: the block where the opening scenes of Death Wish were shot). Of course it was quite a different neighborhood back then: the former Needle Park is now the bucolic Verdi Square.

I'm surprised you didn't see Silent Movie, as it was a substantial hit during Mel Brooks' "can do no wrong" period. I actually did hear a bit of talk that Brooks should be considered for best director, for the technical feat of making a silent in a sound era, but we had far bigger fish to fry in 1976. Unlike -- cough, cough -- this year past.

I thought Voyage of the Damned was easily among the worst movies the Oscars made me see in the 70s. The film was, at best, what Andrew Sarris described as "outtakes from Ship of Fools", but it also struck me as almost incomprehensibly poorly made. I remember at one point the action seeming so disjointed that I wondered if reels had been shown out of order.

Sabin, you need to understand that in this period the Globes were not tied to the Oscars the way they usually are today. Sometimes they might match up pretty well, but there were an equal number of times they diverged mightily. It was only around the late 80s they we started to see the almost-always correlation we taken for granted today.

Okay, to the '76 field.

There weren't alot of alternatives to the actual nominees. I was fond of Zero Mostel in The Front, but his performance had received quite mixed reaction.

I do agree that Robert Duvall seemed the more likely nominee for Network, and I don't really know why he didn't make it. It's not like they didn't know him pretty well by then, given his amazing list of early-career credits (Mockingbird, Bullitt, True Grit, MASH, Godfather).

I'd liked Ned Beatty in Deliverance and Nashville, so it was hard to begrudge him his nod, but, come on: in screen-time, he was the flip side of Beatrice Straight, and had zero shot at winning.

The Olivier nomination caught me totally by surprise, despite my having seen the film. Perhaps my longstanding antipathy to big-stars-in-supporting-categories blinded me (such nominations were then exceedingly rare). He's amusing enough, and he's got the film's best scene -- the walk through the Diamond District -- but I'd never consider voting for him.

Unlike most, it appears, when I saw Rocky, I thought Burt Young was the clearer supporting nominee -- it just seemed a more dominant role, But Meredith was fine. I can tell you, Sabin, that those in my circles who didn't predict Jason Robards were to a man forecasting Meredith -- for career-length, of course, and some carryover from his losing nod the year before.

But for me it was Robards all the way. I just always loved Robards' delivery -- his skeptical/bordering-on-sleepy/jaundiced view of the world -- and it was a perfect fit for the Ben Bradlee of the time. (In the years since, Bradlee and his odious wife have become quintessential villagers, but back then he was a hero) I wouldn't call it a candidate for performance of the decade -- many other winners in the era excited me more -- but by the standards of 1976, Robards is the choice.

[Big Magilla]

Can somebody tell me if at any point Burgess Meredith was seen as a front-runner? Rocky is amiable schlock, but there's something faintly iconic about Mickey that just screams Oscar. I look at the Golden Globes that year and see that he wasn't even nominated! That the nominees were Olivier (who would seem like a frontrunner in the race) and Robards, and the other nominees were Ron Howard for The Shootist, Marty Feldman for Silent Movie, and Oskar Werner for Voyage of the Damned. Were any of these three movies or films in the hunt for anything major? I recall hearing Voyage of the Damned was a pretty loathed bomb.

Voyage of the Damned was a Golden Globe type movie, a film based on a real incident with an all-star international cast. It's a tough film to get through. Most people now at the start that it's about a ship of German refugees that is denied entry to the U.S. and must return to Nazi Germany in 1939 on the eve of World War II where many of the passengers face incarceration and maybe death. Max Von Sydow as the ship's captain and Oskar Werner as a doctor in a viritual replay of his Ship of Fools role are the standouts. Lee Grant as on unhinged passenger has a key scene where she chops off her hair, which is what got her nominated for an Oscar. I don't know that the film is particularly loathed, but is disappointing given the cast which also includes Faye Dunaway, Malcolm McDowall, Golden Globe winner Katharine Ross and Ben Gazzara in major roles.

I don't think I've ever seen Silent Movie all the way through. It was a gimmick movie that may have gone over big with the HFPA but didn't seem like an Oscar calibre film at all.

Ron Howard was decent enough in The Shootist, but the film belonged to John Wayne, who gave one of his best performances. Had he not already won an Oscar, or if they knew he was dying and that it would be his last film, it might have gotten more than just a nod for Art Direction.

[Big Magilla]

Robards as Ben Bradlee in All the President's Men was the only possibe winner here for me. The film, a fascinating mix of history and suspense even though we knew the outcome, was by far the year's best film and Robards was the best thing about it.

Marathon Man the novel was a sensation, especially in my then neighborhood in the West 70s where it took place. Filmed in many of the novel's locations, the film version did not disappoint. Olivier, by then quie frail, was still a strong enough actor to convince as the elderly Nazi dentist. But, as one of the critics of the day said in essaying his Oscar chances, "not tonight, Hamlet".

Burgess Meredith was excellent in what could have been just a stock role in Rocky, a film that is neither as good as its Oscar wins would suggest nor as bad as some people make it out to be. It was the weskest of the nominees, but its popularity was akin to that of the original Godfather at the time.

Burt Young is a good character actor but his nomination here is basically a testment to the film's popularity more than his actual performance. Ditto Ned Betty, who nails his screen time but who isn't otherwise that memorable. Co-star Robert Duvall should have gotten that slot.

Of the also-rans I probably like David Warner in The Omen best, although personally I would have relegated Peter Finch in Network to support in order to make room for David Carradine in Bound for Glory or John Wayne in The Shootist in the lead category.

[Precious Doll]

I voted for Robards, the best of a reasonable bunch of nominees, even if two of them (Meredith & Young) appear in one of the worst films of 1976.

My choices;

1. Rip Torn for The Man Who Fell to Earth
2. Volker Spengler for Chinese Roulette
3. Donald Sutherland for 1900
4. David Warner for The Omen
5. Nick Tate for The Devil's Playground

[bizarre]

Robards was terrible here. Just a complete nothing of a performance - in that way quite similar to the one he'd win a second Oscar for the following year.

[Sabin]

I haven't seen Marathon Man, and even though I'm reasonably sure I'd still be casting my vote for Jason Robards, I'm going to respectfully abstain for this round.

Can somebody tell me if at any point Burgess Meredith was seen as a front-runner? Rocky is amiable schlock, but there's something faintly iconic about Mickey that just screams Oscar. I look at the Golden Globes that year and see that he wasn't even nominated! That the nominees were Olivier (who would seem like a frontrunner in the race) and Robards, and the other nominees were Ron Howard for The Shootist, Marty Feldman for Silent Movie, and Oskar Werner for Voyage of the Damned. Were any of these three movies or films in the hunt for anything major? I recall hearing Voyage of the Damned was a pretty loathed bomb.

[ksrymy]

This is my favorite year in film history.

With that, I hate Rocky and all the schleck that it is. One of the actors deserved his nomination and that would be Burgess Meredith as the tough ex-boxer who whips Stallone into shape. Boxer's manager roles are always the best in boxing films (à la Paul Giamatti in Cinderella Man) and Meredith nails it here.

Network is not only the best film of 1976 but it is one of the greatest films of all-time. Ned Beatty takes a small role that would normally be reserved for a cameo spot and turns it into a memorable performance. "You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale!" is an oft-quoted (and, sadly, rarely grasped) reference I make in conversation on a regular basis. Beatty was not the best supporting actor from the film as that is Robert Duvall.

Jason Robards was swell in a role that would get no attention otherwise. As Ben Bradlee, he turns a truly supporting "go get 'em boys!" role into something extraordinary.

But he's not Sir Laurence Olivier: the greatest actor who has ever lived. Marathon Man is a total drag and is only ever remembered now for Olivier's terrifying Nazi dentist. "Is it safe?" still brings chills to my spine today (though, admittedly, my parents were all of ten years old when the film came out). Olivier saves the film and deserves the Oscar here.

My picks
_____________________
1) Laurence Olivier - Marathon Man
2) Robert Duvall - Network
3) Jason Robards - All the President's Men
4) Oskar Werner - Voyage of the Damned
5) Burgess Meredith - Rocky

6) Ned Beatty - Network