7) Morgan Freeman
Won For: Million Dollar Baby
Should Have Won For: The Shawshank Redemption
The Shawshank Redemption‘s wise old sage ‘Red’ Redding is such a defining performance for Morgan Freeman that he’s been playing a variation on the role ever since. It’s such a great performance, the real highlight of Frank Darabont’s film in fact, that Freeman probably should have taken home the Best Actor Oscar that year.
It was another decade before Freeman won his Academy Award, for playing a new take on the Red character in Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby. Tough, yet sensitive, rough, yet street-smart, Eddie Dupris was pretty much Freeman’s imitation of his own best-loved role. The Academy should have rewarded him for the real thing.
6) Christian Bale
Won For: The Fighter
Should Have Won For: Harsh Times
Often it’s Christian Bale’s dedication to putting his body through sheer torture, and not his bona fide acting talent, that wins him the attention. So it’s no real surprise that his shedding about a third of his body weight for The Fighter got people talking, put Hollywood in awe of his commitment, and eventually won him his first Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
The Fighter is far from Bale’s best work, though. He delivered his best, in fact, for a little-known character piece from 2005: David Ayer’s Harsh Times, in which Bale plays a PTSD-afflicted ex-soldier going off the rails. There’s no actorly embellishment as in The Fighter, no weight was gained or lost – this is just Bale at his most deeply felt and affecting.
