Round-up: Actor 1930-1931

Fredric March, The Royal Family of Broadway

as TONY CAVENDISH

Adolphe Menjou, The Front Page

as WALTER BURNS

Jackie Cooper, Skippy

as SKIPPY SKINNER

Lionel Barrymore, A Free Soul

as STEPHEN ASHE

Won: Academy Award - Best Actor

On paper, it'd be no surprise that Lionel Barrymore won the Best Actor Oscar in his respective year. Playing an alcoholic lawyer who, after successfully defending a gangster, must defend the gangster's killer (who is also his daughter's boyfriend), this is a role that is ripe with Oscar potential, but at the same time this is a role that can be done poorly if put in the hands of the wrong actor (like, say...Richard Dix).

Richard Dix, Cimarron

as YANCEY CRAVAT

I have never read Cimarron, nor do I ever plan to. A lot of people think that Richard Dix's performance in the film is terrible and one of the worst to be nominated--but a few folks online have said that he plays the character of Yancey just the way it was written in the novel. I for one, am indifferent. This is very much your typical overacted, hammy performance that was very prevalent in films of the time. But on the other hand, I thought Dix captured the passion and the charm of the character quite well.