The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1947
1947 is so boring. There’s nothing interesting about it. The nominees were just so weak. Sure, Gentleman’s Agreement was a solid Best Picture choice, but the field was so weak. Elia Kazan won Best Director for the film (talked about here) and Celeste Holm won Best Supporting Actress for it (talked about here), both of which were great decisions.
Best Actress this year was Loretta Young for The Farmer’s Daughter (talked about here), which is one of the worst Best Actress decisions of all time. Rosalind Russell was so horribly snubbed here it’s ridiculous. Awful, awful decision. And Best Supporting Actor was Edmund Gwenn for Miracle on 34th Street (talked about here), which — he played Santa Claus. End of story.
And then we have this category, which is career achievement Oscar, and one that actually works out, because the category wasn’t that strong, and the performance reads very well (as one that would win an Oscar) even though the actual performance is a bit overdone. So it’s actually not that bad.
BEST ACTOR – 1947
And the nominees were…
Ronald Colman, A Double Life
John Garfield, Body and Soul
Gregory Peck, Gentleman’s Agreement
William Powell, Life with Father
Michael Redgrave, Mourning Becomes Electra (more…)
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