The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1962
You know why I love 1962? Because you can say either Lawrence of Arabia or To Kill a Mockingbird should have won Best Picture — and you’d be right either way. They’re both perfect films. Lawrence of Arabia wins Best Picture, but that was always gonna happen. It also won Best Director for David Lean (talked about here), which was gonna happen no matter what and was the better decision there.
Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress this year were Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke for The Miracle Worker. If you’ve seen the film, you know how perfect those decisions were.
The lone poor decision made this year was Best Supporting Actor, which went to Ed Begley for Sweet Bird of Youth (talked about here). There’s a category where you have Omar Sharif, Telly Savalas and Terence Stamp, any of whom would have been much better decisions. But for a year with five out of six really strong categories (like, Top Ten or Top Five of all time strong), that’s still really good.
As for this category, you can pretty much take care of it with two words: Atticus Finch.
No one will ever be able to argue against this decision, ever. Not ever.
BEST ACTOR – 1962
And the nominees were…
Burt Lancaster, Birdman of Alcatraz
Jack Lemmon, Days of Wine and Roses
Marcello Mastroianni, Divorce, Italian Style
Peter O’Toole, Lawrence of Arabia
Gregory Peck, To Kill a Mockingbird
Lancaster — Birdman of Alcatraz is a perfect film.
Burt Lancaster is in prison for life for murder. He’s ordered to be in solitary the entire time. While he’s there, he finds a wounded bird and starts caring for it. Soon, he’s got a whole bunch of birds. And he starts learning about their diseases and stuff, and soon becomes one of the foremost authorities on birds in the US, which eventually allows him to be transferred to a minimum security prison.
It’s a great film. Burt Lancaster is amazing in it, and I’m glad he had his Oscar from two years before this, because he was not beating Atticus Finch.
Lemmon — Days of Wine and Roses is such a great film. Jack Lemmon meets Lee Remick and they fall in love. He’s a social drinker and she doesn’t drink at all. He introduces her to it, and very soon, they both become alcoholics. And we watch them as they sink deeper and deeper into alcoholism. Then they both realize how bad things have gotten and get sober. But then, he falls off the wagon hard and ends up in a sanitarium. But then he gets sober agin, and tries to help his wife. But then he falls off the wagon again. But then he gets sober for real, and tries to stay away from his wife, who is now disappearing for long stretches and going home with random people from bars. And she comes back, trying to get him back, but he says she has to get sober, and she refuses to admit she has a problem, so he leaves.
It’s such a fucking good movie. Such a great film about alcoholism, and it’s so — these people are pitiful. That’s what makes the movie work as well as it does. Honestly — and I’m being totally honest here, Jack Lemmon made me think twice about Gregory Peck in this category for about a half a second. That’s how good he was. He gives this performance one year in either direction, he wins the category. And she wins too. That’s how good they are.
But it’s still Atticus Finch.
Mastroianni — Divorce, Italian Style is about Marcello Mastroianni, an Italian nobleman who wants to kill his fat and unattractive wife and marry his cousin. The only way to do that would be for him to catch her cheating on him and then to kill her, which would have been looked at as a mercy killing. So he tries to organize it so he “catches” her with someone else — which of course leads to many different comic situations.
The film is pretty good, and Mastroianni is good in it, but he’s a foreign actor, Jack Lemmon and Peter O’Toole did not have Oscars and were really good in their roles — plus it’s Atticus Finch. No shot. Sorry, Marcello.
O’Toole — It’s Lawrence of Arabia. You need to have seen it.
He’s Lawrence.
The film is great. He’s great. Ain’t beating Atticus, though.
(Note: If you can, try to see this film in 70mm. It is stunning.)
Peck — It’s To Kill a Mockingbird. He’s Atticus Finch. This conversation is over.
My Thoughts: I mean, come on.
My Vote: Peck
Should Have Won: Peck
Is the result acceptable?: Come on.
Performances I suggest you see: If you haven’t seen To Kill a Mockingbird — and I mean this sincerely — you probably should just end it all.
If you haven’t seen Lawrence of Arabia, you’re dead to me.
If you haven’t seen Days of Wine and Roses or Birdman of Alcatraz, you don’t really love movies. I cannot begin to explain to you how good these movies are, so if you want to have a conversation with me in which I take what you say even remotely seriously, you should see these movies.
Divorce, Italian Style is pretty funny. Not essential, but not bad. I don’t like it so much, so I can’t say too much about it, but it’s not bad. A lot of people seem to like it.
Rankings:
5) Mastroianni
4) Lancaster
3) Lemmon
2) O’Toole
1) Peck
B+ Movie Blog 
Probably right, but I’m not so certain. O’Toole was pretty impressive; and to carry a film of that nature without getting obscured in the scenery is not an easy task. But certainly Atticus was the most admirable character of the lot. Hands down Angela Lansbury in “The Manchurian Candidate” over Patty Duke anyway. I have a natural aversion to overly awarding actors who play handicapped; it seems to be a magnet for the Academy.
December 18, 2011 at 1:45 pm
I’ll concede you Peck, as I agree actually, and your reasoning is quite impeccable. However, I truly think Lansbury was extraordinary. I’m not denying Duke wasn’t accomplished in the film, she was, but I always feel the playing field is not quite level with the Academy when an actor portrays a disability or plays mentally challenged. And who couldn’t love the abundance of riches in a year like ’62? You haven’t even mentioned (as the Academy skipped over their performances) the stellar work of James Mason in “Lolita” and Robert Mitchum in “Cape Fear”.
December 18, 2011 at 2:36 pm
I agree with you on this category completely.
My rankings:
1. Gregory Peck (not even close)
2. Peter O’Toole
3. Jack Lemmon
4. Burt Lancaster
5. Marcello Mastroianni
September 5, 2013 at 3:23 am
In Lawrence of Arabia, Peter O’Toole gave not only the best of his eight career nominated performanes as best actor, but one of the best of all time. If you know anything about the life of Thomas Edward Lawrence, you can appreciate how tremendously difficult this role was to play convincingly. O’Toole did more than convince us, he was absolutely brilliant.
While Mockingbird was Peck’s best performance, it was also his fifth nomination for best actor, after four prior nominations for best actor had failed to garnber the prize (1945, 1946, 1947, and 1949). He had always been a darling of the Hollywood crowd and was sorley overdue for the ultimate recognition. Lawrence was O’Toole’s first nomination and the film that made him a film celebrity. There’s no denying that these factors pushed the oscar towards Peck. Still, O’Toole’s performance was the betrer of two great performances.
July 8, 2015 at 2:22 pm