Reply #59: A closely related cousin to this catagory [View All]

[OmahaBlueDog]

Stars who gave a great performance that would have won an Oscar in just about any other year, except somepne else gave the performance of a lifetime. Examples:

Clark Gable lost for "Gone With the Wind" : the Oscar went to Robert Donat for "Goodbye, Mr. Chips"

Tom Hanks lost for "Big": the Oscar went to Dustin Hoffman for "Rain Man"

Dustin Hoffman lost for his gender-bender role in "Tootsie": the oscar went to Ben Kingsley for "Ghandi"

Cher lost for an excellent supporting performance in "Silkwood" : the Oscar went to Linda Hunt, who won for playing a male photographer in "The Year of Living Dangerously"

Similarly, some Oscar years have nothing to spectacular for Best Picture (sorry, Coen Bros. fans, but this year falls in that catagory). Other years have several pictures that would have won most other years. 1982 is the year that, to me, demonstrates this phenomenon. "Ghandi" won in '82. The "losers" were "The Verdict", "Missing", "Tootsie", and "E.T." -- all of which would have probably won BP in any of the 3 subsequent years (all of which were weak).