Five worst "Best Actor" Academy Awards

I've excluded the Oscars given as substitute lifetime achievement awards. We all understand that John Wayne "True Grit", Henry Fonda "on Golden Pond", Paul Newman "The Color of Money", didn't win for their performances alone. Hollywood just wanted to reward them for the whole careers.

1. Paul Muni "THE STORY OF LOUIS PASTEUR" Sally Box says it best:

"In one of our collections of New Yorker cartoons, a woman on a radio quiz show says,'I don’t know what he did, but Paul Muni played him in the movie."

Muni was the 30s idea of a "Great Actor." Between 1930 and 1938 he was nominated 5 times and won for "Life of Louis Pasteur." Not a bad actor, but looking back its hard to see what all the fuss was about. Muni always seems to be "acting" - either too pious/noble when playing great men or hamming it up when playing less heroic roles. I wont even mention his horrible Chinese/Russian/Mexican impersonations.

2. Paul Lucas "WATCH ON THE RHINE" - Josh R says:

"An earnest, monochromatic performance neither good nor bad enough to qualify as memorable - this win only really begins to piss you off when you recall that the competition included Bogart in Casablanca (Oscar wasn't quite ready for the anti-hero yet). It's difficult to make impassioned sermons on the tyranny of fascism work without something in the way of dramatic fire - Lukas drones on like a high school history teacher reading from a textbook. We're supposed to believe that this dude is dynamic and inspiring enough to single-handedly liberate Europe - something that would only make sense if he were planning to pull it off by boring the Nazis to sleep."

3. Jose Ferrer - "Cyrano de Bergerac" - Hollywood considered him a great actor for a couple years in the early 1950s and then his career went into free fall. Ferrer isn't bad in the role but he's really one-note johnny. Ferrer is fine at making speeches or sword-fighting but his romancing of Roxanne is embarrassing. Despite the script, Ferrer is as romantic as E.G. Marshall in a business suit.

Ferrer was a very limited actor. Highly intelligent, physically unimpressive, and blessed with a rich baritone voice. But his great voice could only play a few notes. An accurate opinion: "Like Burgess Meredith or Hume Cronyn, Ferrer is one of those actory actors who never spoke a believable word in his life."

4. AL PACINO (SCENT OF A WOMAN) - Everyone's favorite bad Pacino performance. This started Al's decent into self-parody. Per Isaac Bickerstaff:

He's blind and he yells.
Look! He dances the tango!
I wish I were deaf."

5. Richard Dreyfuss (THE GOODBYE GIRL) A truly amazing choice. Richard Dreyfuss plays Richard Dreyfuss in a mediocre movie based on mediocre Simon play. Dreyfuss was a character actor thrust into Stardom for some reason in the 1970s. Appealing but limited. Belushi's 2 minute SNL takeoff is more memorable than the whole movie:

John Belushi: Okay, okay, you know. I know you don't do TV. You know, I just thought you lost your place on the cue cards, that's all.

Richard Dreyfuss: I don't use cue cards, John, and when I'm doing Shakespeare, actors who do Shakespeare do not use cue cards, you know?

John Belushi: [sarcastically] Ooooo, Shakespeare! Well, What do I know, huh? I'm just a sleazy, late night TV actor, is that it?

Richard Dreyfuss: No, no, I didn't mean that--

John Belushi: No, no, what do I know about Shakespeare, huh? Mr. Oscar, Mr. Best Actor. Now, Richard Burton, now there's an actor. When he did Hamlet, when he did Hamlet he was great. He didn't have to use any pauses. But it takes one drink, and Hollywood
blackballs him! Huh, Mr. New Hollywood Establishment? You know? At least when George C. Scott won the Oscar, he didn't accept it! You know? Marlon Brando
sent up an Indian! Now, you could've sent up an Indian, but nooooo! You run up there, you "whoo-hoo-hoo, I could stay up here all night." Maybe I'm just a struggling TV actor, right? Maybe I didn't win the Oscar, you know? Maybe I have to work every week just to keep my family in clothes and drugs, you know? Maybe I don't know that much about Shakespeare, you know, or about pausing or England. But I know one thing, [takes the Oscar from Richard] you didn't deserve this Oscar. [John punches Richard in the stomach and walks offstage. Audience applauds. Stage lights dim again as Richard tries to restart his performance]

Richard Dreyfuss: To be, or... [pouting] I don't wanna do this anymore. [Takes off Hamlet wig] We'll be right back. [Walks out of the spotlight as audience applauds]