Best Supporting Actor 1988

[ksrymy]

Incidently Michael Keaton is being mentioned in this category for Beetlejuice. It is a hilarious performance but I've always considered him the lead in the film. I think he even won a Best Actor citation that year from one of the Critics groups for this performance.

That would be the National Society of Film Critics who did that.

[flipp525]

Incidently Michael Keaton is being mentioned in this category for Beetlejuice. It is a hilarious performance but I've always considered him the lead in the film. I think he even won a Best Actor citation that year from one of the Critics groups for this performance.

Sylvia Sydney is on my list for supporting for Beetlejuice (as is Sandy Dennis for her piercing cameo in Another Woman).

[Big Magilla]

My definition of vote splitting is that when two or more nominees in the same category appeal to the majority of voters (51% or more), their supporters are so torn between the two that a less popular nominee will actually secure more votes than either and come out on top. In this scenario, Nominee X could secure 26% and Nominee Y 25%, while all Nominee Z has to secure is 27%.

I think the reaason Italiano gets upset when we talk about vote splitting is that it sounds like sour grapes, but it really isn't. Sometimes the winner is actually the better choice. I don't think that was the case here, but I seem to be in the minority.

On the other hand, one of my all-time favorite wins was Maggie Smith in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. The Best Actress race that year was thought to be between her second generation fellow nominees, Jane Fonda in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and Liza Minnelli in The Sterile Cuckoo. Even though Smith's performance today might be considered clearly superior, certainly to Minnelli's performance, if not Fonda's as well, at the time she might not have won without vote splitting.

[Reza]

I'd suggest vote splitting, but I don't want to start that one again.

Bravo, let's leave that to Sasha Stone and her followers... Plus, why vote-splitting? What do those two have in common?

By then I was still quite young but old enough to make my personal predictions. There was no internet of course, but I used to buy American magazines and to read the newspapers at the American Embassy in Via Veneto. And I remember very well that Kevin Kline's Oscar was and still is one of the safest, surest things in Oscar history. Thinking that Dean Stockwell for that performance in that movie had even a slight chance would have been crazy.

I think what Magilla means is that Stockwell and Landau were both veterans with long and respected screen careers behind them, giving highly praised performances and also winning assorted awards that year. Kline, on the other hand, was pretty much a newcomer compared to them who was in an out and out farce - not something the Academy was prone to recognize.

Anyway I'm amongst the Kline supporters and was thrilled he won even though I, too, predicted Stockwell or Landau would win with Phoenix in third place.

Incidently Michael Keaton is being mentioned in this category for Beetlejuice. It is a hilarious performance but I've always considered him the lead in the film. I think he even won a Best Actor citation that year from one of the Critics groups for this performance.

[ITALIANO]

Landau and Stockwell were both revered veterans. They had both won pre-cursors. Everybody liked them.

Oh I see, now suddenly the vote-splitting theory makes sense... Too bad they share these qualities with 85% Oscar nominees - but ok, Kevin Kline won because of vote-splitting.

No, but seriously, as you can imagine I'd love to think of myself as a genius Oscar prognosticators, but I have to admit that this was, even back then, the easiest Oscar race to guess ever, or at least since I follow these things. It's a good thing that this board wasn't active in 1989, because I would have been hated by everyone, being the only one predicting Kline.

[Big Magilla]

I'd suggest vote splitting, but I don't want to start that one again.

Bravo, let's leave that to Sasha Stone and her followers... Plus, why vote-splitting? What do those two have in common?

By then I was still quite young but old enough to make my personal predictions. There was no internet of course, but I used to buy American magazines and to read the newspapers at the American Embassy in Via Veneto. And I remember very well that Kevin Kline's Oscar was and still is one of the safest, surest things in Oscar history. Thinking that Dean Stockwell for that performance in that movie had even a slight chance would have been crazy.

Seriously, no one was prediting Kline. If you thought he would win, and you bet on it, you would have cleaned up.

Landau and Stockwell were both revered veterans. They had both won pre-cursors. Everybody liked them, it seemed to be just a question of which one they liked more. Kevin Kline had not only not won anything, he had not even been nominated for anything. His Bafta nomination came after the Oscars.

[ITALIANO]

I'd suggest vote splitting, but I don't want to start that one again.

Bravo, let's leave that to Sasha Stone and her followers... Plus, why vote-splitting? What do those two have in common?

By then I was still quite young but old enough to make my personal predictions. There was no internet of course, but I used to buy American magazines and to read the newspapers at the American Embassy in Via Veneto. And I remember very well that Kevin Kline's Oscar was and still is one of the safest, surest things in Oscar history. Thinking that Dean Stockwell for that performance in that movie had even a slight chance would have been crazy.

[Big Magilla]

Clara's Heart was a Whoopi Goldberg movie that no one saw (well, I certainly didn't), which brought Harris his first, pre-Doogie exposure.

It's a Robert Mulligan film, and a good one, with touches of To Kill a Mockingbird and The Man in the Moon. Whoopi was terrific and Harris was excellent, but the film was a commercial disaster, making an Oscar nomination for either unlikely. Harris' Golden Globe nod was as much of a surprise as Rob Lowe's nomination for Square Dance the year before.

[Big Magilla]

I didn't know that Kevin Kline had been a surprise nominee; but certainly, once he was nominated, I and probably anyone else knew he was going to win.

Nope, just you. Landau and Stockwell were the favorites, as I recall. Though I had hoped Stockwell would win, I had a strong hunch Landau would. I'd suggest vote splitting, but I don't want to start that one again.

[FilmFan720]

I've never seen Tucker or Little Dorritt, so I won't vote here.

I have always been a little taken back by the hatred on this board for Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda. Not only do I find the film hysterical, but I think that (broad as it may be) Kline gives a wonderful comedic performance that still makes me laugh thinking about it. I probably would have nominated Michael Palin over him for the same film, but they are both on my personal nomination list.

It's nice that Dean Stockwell got a career nod, but this isn't one of his better roles.

Like many, I would have voted River Phoenix here. Running on Empty is a lovely little film with a slew of great performances, and even though Phoenix is in the wrong category, you have to cite this honest and raw performance by such an emerging talent. Of course, a lot of that is knowing that there won't be another time to cite him, which would have been unheard of in 1988.

[Mister Tee]

Clara's Heart was a Whoopi Goldberg movie that no one saw (well, I certainly didn't), which brought Harris his first, pre-Doogie exposure.

I see I had Landau, Phoenix and Stockwell, with Tim Robbins and (my long-shot) Robert Loggia in Big rounding out the slate. I did have Guinness as alternate, along with Brad Dourif, who I actually thought was pretty awful in Mississippi Burning, but I thought the best picture pull might mean something.

Kevin Kline's is one of those popular performances that, today would almost surely show up in SAG first, but this of course pre-dated that.

The Globes were even worse for predicting supporting actress -- Sigourney Weaver, the Globe winner, was the only repeater. And here, AMPAS went with a full slate from best picture contenders.

It had been an unusually split year at the major critics, with many of the winners (Jeremy Irons and Diane Venora in NY, Christine Lahti and Genevieve Bujold in LA, and Michael Keaton, Judy Davis and Mercedes Ruehl at National) failing to cash in for Oscar nods. (Not to mention Little Dorrit and The Unbearable Lightness of Being getting nothing from their best picture wins) It made sense that we had wide-open Oscar races, with both supporting winners being rated upsets (Landau and Weaver were the favorites going in). I do, by the way, agree with Italiano, at least in hindsight: Kline, once nominated, does seem a logical choice, given both his personal appeal, and the fact of his film's far greater popularity than any of his competitor's.

[ITALIANO]

I didn't know that Kevin Kline had been a surprise nominee; but certainly, once he was nominated, I and probably anyone else knew he was going to win. He was, after all, more or less a star in those days, and a good actor, and he had played this big showy role in one of the main box-office hits of the year. Plus, he seemed to be a nice guy and was generally liked. I personally had found A Fish Called Wanda much less funny than I expected, but Kline was obviously a versatile actor and I'd say that his win that night was a popular one.

He wouldn't get my vote though. Even I haven't seen all of Little Dorritt, and as for Dean Stockwell, an interesting actor by the way, I felt and still feel that his nomination was a typical "career tribute" nod. But River Phoenix and Martin Landau were, for different reasons and, of course, at different ages, both revelations in their respective movies. Probably nobody, back then, would have thought that the one who'd be nominated again and again, and won, would have been Landau and, sadly, not Phoenix - but it's true that Tucker suddenly made Landau THE supporting actor of those years.

But we have other chances of voting for Landau. I might even vote for him twice actually - three times would be too much. So my pick here is River Phoenix - a charismatic young actor who left us too soon but not before giving us a few memorable performances, and a few memorable portrayals of adolescent outsiders. Plus, Running On Empty is so full of genuine understanding for its characters, and so beautifully acted - not only by Phoenix but especially by him.

[Sabin]

Who was predicted to be in this race? I look at this lineup and it appears pretty respectable, but (I know, I know...) the Foreign Press nominated Guinness, Landau, and Phoenix, and instead of Kline and Stockwell they cited Neil Patrick Harris for Clara's Heart which I've never heard of, Raul Julia for Moon over Parador which I've kinda heard of, and Lou Diamond Philips which I've definitely heard of. Dean Stockwell clearly got enough critic's support to get in the race with wins from the Boston Film Critics, the Kansas Film Critics, the National Society of Film Critics, and the New York Film Critics. If Kline was a surprise nominee, who was expected to be in his stead? Philips?

[Mister Tee]

So, class: what about this year's slate of supporting actors is unusual? Well, not one of them comes from a best picture contender...which you might call statistically unlikely, as it's the ONLY time this has happened in the 76 years of the category's existence. Such an anomaly has also occurred only once in the supporting actress category (1972), and best actor (the recent, unhappily remembered 2006). Best actress, as you might suspect, is the outlier here, as the lack of mainstream roles for women has caused the mismatch to occur 9 times.

The oddity here is, there really wasn't a best picture contender with a conceivable substitute. The most obvious omittee was Tim Robbins in Bull Durham, another barely-in-the-race film. (Though it, like most other contenders here, did make it in for screenwriting)

Theoretically I shouldn't vote, because I've never watched the second half of Little Dorrit, where Guinness may be miraculous. I found the first half close to unbearhable -- so much cacophonous overlapping dialogue I had difficulty following the story (it was like something from a second-rate Altman wannabe, wholly unsuited to the material). Maybe some day I'll retry Part I and follow it up with Part II. I can't say Guinness seemed that much a standout in what I saw.

Kevin Kline, like Marisa Tomei a few years on, was the rarity: a surprise nominee who went on to win. There hadn't been much discussion about Kline, possibly because his role didn't seem particularly supporting. But the unexpected popularity of the film (it was a real sleeper) carried the day. I think Kline is funny enough, but I prefer others.

Dean Stockwell evolved from child star to off-kilter adult actor. I can't say I find his Married to the Mob performance all that interesting. The film is pretty flimsy, with, for me, only the breakthrough Pfeiffer performance giving it any distinction.

River Phoenix was a genuinely talented, sensitive actor whose early death was heartbreaking. This is, along with Idaho, his finest hour, though calling it supporting is standard Academy condescension to juveniles. He comes close to getting my vote.

I guess people can't understand now what a triumph Tucker was for Martin Landau. We'd all known him from Mission: Impossible days -- and of course from North by Northwest -- but he hadn't had a role of note in many years when Coppola gave him this plum. His devotion to Tucker was hugely moving, and set Landau onto a whole new career, one that brought him more nominations and ultimately a win. Perhaps others will opt to vote for him in those future races, but I have alternates I prefer in those. So, I'll vote for him here, at the moment I realized I'd seriously under-rated him as an actor.

[mlrg]

Kevin Kline - A Fish Called Wanda