The nominees were ...
- Charles Bickford in The Song of Bernadette
- Charles Coburn in The More the Merrier
- J. Carrol Naish in Sahara
- Claude Rains in Casablanca
- Akim Tamiroff in For Whom the Bell Tolls
... when they should have been ...
- Charles Coburn in The More the Merrier
- Hume Cronyn in Shadow of a Doubt
- John Garfield in Air Force
- John Mills in In Which We Serve
- Claude Rains in Casablanca
And the Oscar went to ...
Often cast as an Englishman, Coburn was actually born in Savannah, Georgia. He spent most of his early career on stage and made his film debut in his late fifties, in 1933. His career as a lovable, sophisticated grandfather type flourished in the 1940s, but extended through the 1950s, including two memorable outings with Marilyn Monroe, Monkey Business and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. He made his last screen appearance in Pepe at the age of eighty-three in 1960, a year before his death.
... when it should have gone to ...
With four nominations and no wins, Rains is one of Oscar's most notorious also-rans. Film after film, from The Invisible Man in 1933 to The Greatest Story Ever Told in 1965, is enlivened by his suave presence, and his role as in Casablanca as the amoral police chief whose heart is really in the right place fits like a glove. No one was better at charming menace or menacing charm. It helps, of course, that Rains is given some of the best lines ever written for a supporting player, from "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!" to "Round up the usual suspects," and that he delivers them perfectly. And it has to be acknowledged that it takes skill and finesse to stand out in the company of accomplished scene-stealers like Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, S.Z. Sakall, Marcel Dalio, and Leonid Kinskey.
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| Conrad Veidt and Claude Rains in Casablanca |
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