Piper Laurie and Lee Grant, too of the most bizarre and over-the-top nominated performances I've seen. Grant's performance is a mess, Laurie's is brilliant. So beautifully controlled, not afraid to go high camp, and scarily effective.
Alexander is terrific. So is Foster, although I don't care for Taxi Driver much. I couldn't stand Network and barely remember Straight's role in it.
Voted for Laurie.
Best Supporting Actress 1976
Let's get Lee Grant out of the way immediately. Her hair-cutting scene in the atrocious Voyage of the Damned is high camp but, given the subject matter of the film, it's not fun camp. No list of worst Oscar nominations would be complete without this one.
Beatrice Straight and William Holden are the only two actors who show any relation to recognizable human beings in the god-awful Network. Straight is very good, but given the brevity of the role and the risible Chayefsky she had to mouth, I don't think an Oscar was warranted.
Any of the other 3 would have been worthy winners. At the time I had predicted Jane Alexander, who was then one of the most highly regarded actresses in America, giving acclaimed performances in the theatre and garnering a lot of attention for playing Eleanor Roosevelt on TV. Her frightened bookkeeper in All The President's Men beautifully conveyed the scary banality of low-level Republicans. A small role to be sure but one that resonates, and along with Jason Robards, she is one of the two best things about All The President's Men.
Jodie Foster startled many people as the child-whore of Taxi Driver. Those of us at the time who already knew her from Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, the Paper Moon TV series, and some other TV and film appearances had seen her wise-beyond-her-years stuff before. But she was highly accomplished even when her character was less than believable (in another so-called "classic" 70s movie I ca't stand, Taxi Driver).
My vote goes to Piper Laurie. She fearlessly dares to go to the absurd, but while making her character monstrous and horrifying (and an excellent, accurate representation of fundamentalist Christians), she projects a sense of humanity, so that while you hate her, you also feel for her.
My Own Top 5:
1. Kathleen Lloyd in The Missouri Breaks
2. Mariel Hemingway in Lipstick
3. Dori Brenner in Next Stop, Greenwich Village
4. Piper Laurie in Carrie
5. Geraldine Chaplin in Buffalo Bill and The Indians
Edited By Damien on 1282637096
Beatrice Straight and William Holden are the only two actors who show any relation to recognizable human beings in the god-awful Network. Straight is very good, but given the brevity of the role and the risible Chayefsky she had to mouth, I don't think an Oscar was warranted.
Any of the other 3 would have been worthy winners. At the time I had predicted Jane Alexander, who was then one of the most highly regarded actresses in America, giving acclaimed performances in the theatre and garnering a lot of attention for playing Eleanor Roosevelt on TV. Her frightened bookkeeper in All The President's Men beautifully conveyed the scary banality of low-level Republicans. A small role to be sure but one that resonates, and along with Jason Robards, she is one of the two best things about All The President's Men.
Jodie Foster startled many people as the child-whore of Taxi Driver. Those of us at the time who already knew her from Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, the Paper Moon TV series, and some other TV and film appearances had seen her wise-beyond-her-years stuff before. But she was highly accomplished even when her character was less than believable (in another so-called "classic" 70s movie I ca't stand, Taxi Driver).
My vote goes to Piper Laurie. She fearlessly dares to go to the absurd, but while making her character monstrous and horrifying (and an excellent, accurate representation of fundamentalist Christians), she projects a sense of humanity, so that while you hate her, you also feel for her.
My Own Top 5:
1. Kathleen Lloyd in The Missouri Breaks
2. Mariel Hemingway in Lipstick
3. Dori Brenner in Next Stop, Greenwich Village
4. Piper Laurie in Carrie
5. Geraldine Chaplin in Buffalo Bill and The Indians
Edited By Damien on 1282637096
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
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Aceisgreat
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Beatrice Straight's thunderous monologue gets all the attention of her small role, and rightly so, but there's an earlier scene that I think deserves at least a mention. She rises from bed one morning and pulls the sheet up over William Holden next to her with something of a loving pat, as if to say "go back to sleep, darling." She strolls though their apartment in her robe, realizes that Peter Finch is gone, goes back into the bedroom, kisses Holden, tells him to wake up, and offers to make coffee. It's probably not even a minute long, but it still gives insight (the devoted wife) and Straight does it so effortlessly. The explosion of emotion later on brings the performance full circle. She gets my vote.
"I can't stand a naked light bulb any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action." -- Blanche DuBois
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Big Magilla
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I've always suspected Beatrice Straight's win was a result of all those wives of Academy members who saw a bit of themselves in her character and voted for her when filling out their spouse's ballots.
I'm not sure that either she or Jane Alexander would have been nominated in a stronger year, but both give fine accounts of themselves with limited screen time and both are certainly better than Lee Grant and her scissors.
My choice for the win would have been Talia Shire had she been properly nominated in this category. Of the actual nominees I probably like Jodie Foster the best, but she would eventually win twice in lead so I'll use this opportunity in support of Piper Laurie, an actress who should have had an Oscar at some point in her career.
Her portrayal of Sissy Spacek's crazy mother may be over the top but deliciously so.
Others who might have been considered: Rita Moreno in The Ritz and Shelley Winters in Next Stop, Greenwich Village.
I'm not sure that either she or Jane Alexander would have been nominated in a stronger year, but both give fine accounts of themselves with limited screen time and both are certainly better than Lee Grant and her scissors.
My choice for the win would have been Talia Shire had she been properly nominated in this category. Of the actual nominees I probably like Jodie Foster the best, but she would eventually win twice in lead so I'll use this opportunity in support of Piper Laurie, an actress who should have had an Oscar at some point in her career.
Her portrayal of Sissy Spacek's crazy mother may be over the top but deliciously so.
Others who might have been considered: Rita Moreno in The Ritz and Shelley Winters in Next Stop, Greenwich Village.