Who Should Have Won The Oscar-1956

 

Best Actor had a variety of roles this year with James Dean, Rock Hudson and Laurence Olivier all in the Oscar Pot. I believe one man should have won for 1956, but wasn't even nominated and here we go..

1. JOHN WAYNE IN THE SEARCHERS

Despite people either loving him(that's me) or hating him, he deserved to win the Oscar as the Indian hating former soldier who is on the hunt to find his niece(played by Natalue Wood). The gentle looks Ethan( Wayne) gives to his sister in law, speaks volumes. When he sees his brother's home on fire, he knows they are dead and his first thought is of his sister in law. When he sees her dead, his brother and their son and the 2 girls taken, hate takes over. A posse is put together and along with the adopted son of John Wayne's brother, who was not home when they were ambushed, they take off after the girls. The posse gives up but not Wayne or the Native American son, played by Jeffrey Hunter, who drive on for 5 long years. This film is directed by John Ford and you can tell by the look of the film with Monument Valley taking center stage. You have Ford's stock company of actors Wayne, Ward Bond, Harry Carey Jnr., Patrick Wayne and the wonderful Hank Worden who all have great characters. Wayne is amazing as Ethan, a troubled man moving towards his goal of finding Scar and killing him. His rage is his mission and you are scared once he finds his niece since she has been raised by the Commanche. Will he kill or save her. It’s a must see western.

2. YUL BRYNNER IN THE KING AND I

I was lucky enough to see Yul Brynner in the 1980 production of The King and I in Toronto. It was so much fun to see him in his iconic role. He played this role, on Broadway, with Gertrude Lawrence before taking it to film. He is excellent as the king and he has a great rapport with Deborah Kerr as the governess who is to teach the English ways to all his children and his wives. They are at odds but grew to have great respect for one another. It's a lush musical by Rogers and Hammerstein with great costumes and the music is sublime. He did win the Oscar and I'm not upset that he won but it should have gone to John Wayne.

3. KIRK DOUGLAS IN LUST FOR LIFE

Kirk Douglas was born to play Vincent Van Gogh and this is a great film that Kirk eats up the screen every moment he is on film. Douglas plays the tortured soul of this Famous Dutch painter who had trouble hanging on to any friend which included Paul Gauguin, played by Anthony Quinn in his Oscar Winning role for Best Supporting actor, who just can’t deal with Van Gogh. This is quite a good movie based on Van Gogh and Douglas really showed this artist in all his bravado plus he looks like him to boot! It is worth checking out. 

Do you agree with me or do you feel someone else deserved the win?