The Internet Movie Database is taking an unscientific poll, asking for people’s “dark horse” pick for the Oscar:
Jake Gyllenhaal for Best Supporting Actor 1881 (18.0%)
George Clooney for Best Director 1145 (11.0%)
Matt Dillon for Best Supporting Actor 998 (9.6%)
Keira Knightley for Best Actress 858 (8.2%)
Munich for Best Picture 797 (7.6%)
Good Night, and Good Luck for Best Picture 694 (6.6%)
Terrence Howard for Best Actor 631 (6.0%)
Capote for Best Picture 585 (5.6%)
Amy Adams for Best Supporting Actress 572 (5.5%)
David Strathairn for Best Actor 518 (5.0%)
Other 451 (4.3%)
Steven Spielberg for Best Director 422 (4.0%)
William Hurt for Best Supporting Actor 327 (3.1%)
Judi Dench for Best Actress 225 (2.2%)
Charlize Theron for Best Actress 161 (1.5%)
Frances McDormand for Best Supporting Actress 143 (1.4%)
Bennett Miller for Best Director 34 (0.3%)
A total of 10442 votes were collected.
(as of 3 pm today)
I voted for Knightley, even though I never saw the movie Pride and Prejudice, because my wife liked her performance so much.
***
When my sister Leslie and I were little, we’d limp around the house, saying “Comin’, Mr. Dillon.” Somehow, this was terribly funny when we were 7 or 8. We were watching Dennis Weaver as Chester Goode, the limping deputy to James Arness’ rugged Marshall Matt Dillon, a role he played during the first half of the long run of “Gunsmoke”.
Later, I watched the fish-out-of-water “McCloud”, who was promoted to sheriff. He seemed to always get the bad guy, despite the doubts of New York City’s finest. McCloud was a 60-minute, 90-minute and 2-hour show on NBC in the early 1970s, often in rotation with shows such as “Columbo” and “McMillan and Wife”.
As a fine working actor, he took on many other parts, including on the the Simpsons, but I can’t help but to identify him by these two pivotal roles. He died on Friday, but I only heard today.
