Have any of the British films or the performances of actors/actresses who won Oscars aged well ?

What do you mean by aged well?

Oscar recognized films rarely age well, because even at the time they were not good.

That is why some of the recent wins have been so surprising--they recognized films and performances that people actually liked.

All of them

Irons was good in Reversal of Fortune; Kingsley also very good in Gandhi. I admit I haven't seen either film since they came out.

Rex Harrison won an Oscar for My Fair Lady? It must have been for that scene where you wanted to kick him in the head...unless it was for the scene where you wanted to punch him in the balls. Or maybe it was that airy, not-at-all off-putting moment where he puts his teacup on his hat.

r2 Right. But there are a lot of Oscar winning films, actors and actresses that have aged well and have become iconic. When you look at the Oscar winning performances that are usually hailed as greatest of all time, rarely do you see a British performance among them. Except Vivien Leigh's both Oscars and Anthony Hopkins' Silence of The Lambs wins, none of the other wins were particularly great. As forgettable as they come.

[quote]Sir Hopkins

If you're not going to use his full name then he should be addressed as Sir Anthony.

That's all

Bridge on the River Kwai and Howard's Ends are two of my favorite movies. Other than that, two of those movies required the winners to act disabled -- so yeah. Gandhi and Lincoln are also Oscar bait. Not sure why Churchill doesn't feel the same way to me.

Take out Rex Harrison, the movies about random royals, and Reversal of Fortune. It seems deservedly obscure now, although I watched it during a hookup so maybe I was distracted.

Paul Scofield was magnificent in "A Man For All Seasons." He was perfect in it. So was Ben Kingsley in "Gandhi."

Glenda Jackson shouldn't have won for "A Touch of Class." It was a dumb, frothy comedy and her performance wasn't really Oscar worthy.

Oh yeah, The Reader had a horrible premise.

The Wikpedia page on British Oscar winning actors features Julianne Moore (daughter of a Scottish born woman) and CHER.

CHER

CHER

CHER

British actress CHER.

I suspect the person who added Cher was confusing the Oscars and the BAFTAs.

These are memorable AND good:

Colin Firth - The King's Speech

Jeremy Irons - Reversal of Fortune

Daniel Day-Lewis - My Left Foot

Ray Milland - The Lost Weekend

Emma Thompson - Howards End

Glenda Jackson - A Touch of Class

These are memorable, but not very good:

Ben Kingsley - Gandhi

Rex Harrison - My Fair Lady

Helen Mirren - The Queen

Next question, please.

"The Reader" had such a terrible premise. The viewer was supposed to feel compassion and sympathy for a woman who was a Nazi, a Nazi who locked several hundred women in a burning church, cooking them alive. She was also a sexual predator, seducing an underage teenage boy. But you were supposed to feel sorry for her because she was illiterate. Such crap.

Ray Milland and Ronald Colman were basically American movie stars.

Also I guess you meant to write David Niven (Best Actor) in Separate Tables. Rex Harrison wasn't in it. (Wendy Hiller won Best Supporting Actress For Separate Tables, also, but you're not doing supporting actors). You also didn't include Vivien Leigh for Gone With The Wind or A Streetcar Named Desire, or Laurence Olivier for Hamlet.

Also - Robert Donat (Goodbye, Mr. Chips), Charles Laughton (The Private Life of Henry VIII), Greer Garson (Mrs. Miniver), Peter Finch (Network), Jessica Tandy, Driving Miss Daisy), Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins), Julie Christie (Darling), Maggie Smith (The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie), and we might even include Joan Fontaine and Olivia De Havilland for being born British subjects.

Colin Firth is a completely ordinary actor. Not particularly bad or good, just competent. And very lucky.

I enjoyed The Favourite and saw it a few times but really the only film listed here I watch over and over is Howard's End. Emma and Vanessa Redgrave are both wonderful in it.

OP, you are ridiculous, once you said Burton was English you lost me, everyone knows he’s a Welshman.

[quote] "Yes, I know Richard Burton is also English"

Oh, dear.

I came here to say the same thing* R18.

[quote] and we might even include others, like Dame Olivia De Havilland for being born British subjects. And also, Dame Olivia should have been nominated in the leading actress category in GWTW, because Melanie WAS the lead and many , many people preferred her.

Corrected for you R15

I thought Helen Mirren was excellent in The Queen. And IIRC, Kate Winslet’s character did *not* lock the women in the church, but she took the blame because to exonerate herself would have revealed her great shame, being illiterate.

Kate Winslet is fat, ugly and stupid

Um, OP, you left off Vivien Leigh who won two Oscars for best actress and has won the DL poll for best female Oscar-winning performance of all time.

Helen Mirren is an old whore who used her tits to advance her career. I had to sit through her horrible performance as Cleopatra at the NT, and of course she served them saggy desiccated dried udders, and I almost threw up

Howards End is a wonderful movie and Emma and Vanessa were wonderful in it.

One Brit who didn't win an Oscar and should have was Helena Bonham Carter in Wings of the Dove. Fucking Helen Hunt won.

You rang OP ?

"Emma" is an unsufferable cunt, and Vanessa Redgrave is fucking crazy. HARD PASS

[quote]Yes, I know Richard Burton is also English

No, he was not.

I watched Ryan's daughter a few years ago, and I missed to first 5 minutes . When the end credits rolled I saw "John Mills as" and I scratched my head for 10 minutes trying to remember who he was playing. Couldn't . Then I thought, maybe an officer at the beginning I missed, but his name was too high in the credits . had to google that one . When it was clear he was playing the village idiot, my jaw dropped. Best performance I 've ever seen by a male actor, anytime, anywhere. I thought it wasn't an actor, but a real extra from the village, a real simpleton to add authenticity to the movie

You left out Maggie Smith's Oscar in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie". She knocked that out of the park and it's still a mesmerising performance.

Paul Scofield was ten times the actor Burton was. I don't say Burton wasn't good, but he was phoning it in frequently by then.

Scofield was a great actor in a great part in the kind of film Hollywood eats up. I can't quarrel with the award.

Personally, I found Burton far more overlooked for performances I found more memorable, like the doomed disillusioned operative in the grim, "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold".

Sometimes it's a good performance in the wrong film.

Scofield got less attention than he merited in films as it was. Burton had lots more opportunities and blew many of them.

R25 Thank God I'm not the only person on the planet still fuming over the Helen Hunt crime against Bonham Carter, who should have gotten it just for her last five minutes onscreen. Hunt could live another 100 years and not reach that level of dramatic talent.

You can't take the Oscars seriously because too much shit like that happens.

Bonham Carter has cankles

Mills' performance in "Ryan's Daughter" was fantastic. One of those small parts great actors turn into memorable experiences. Thanks to poster upthread for bringing it up.

Julie Andrews' best films were The Americanization of Emily, and Victor/Victoria - both interestingly with the late lamented James Garner.

Oh, and Guiness's performance in Bridge on the River Kwai absolutely stands the test of time.

R32 You can go home now, Fredo, whilst the adults discuss art.

I love A Man for All Seasons, the play and the film. I even visited the filming locations. Paul Scofield was also good in The Train (1965) and Quiz Show (1994).

For OP

To carry on the Colin Firth assessment, apart from (arguably) The King’s Speech, he gives the EXACT same performance in every single film. I’d like to see a mash-up of all his different roles. They’re indistinguishable. He’s the kiss of death.

Yes, he’s very, VERY lucky.

yeahhhhhhhh R38 let's go on tearing apart a beautiful MAN in a board that's already invaded by fraus like they're talibans in kabul

I only found Colin Firth great in Pride & Prejudice as Mr. Darcy.

No actor since Firth in subsequent adaptations has been better than him in that role.

Okay, R39. “BEAUTIFUL “?? (Hi, fraus!)

R40, then you need to watch Colin in "Another Country" (1984) and "Fever Pitch" (1997).

"Kate Winslet’s character did *not* lock the women in the church, but she took the blame because to exonerate herself would have revealed her great shame, being illiterate."

She was one of the Nazi guards who made the decision to lock the women in the church to keep them from escaping. All the guards were responsible for the women's fate, but they put the blame on her so they would get lighter prison sentences. I read the novel "The Reader"; a survivor of the church burning said this of her: "That woman was truly brutal." And the audience should feel compassion for her? That's disgusting.

Leo should have throwned that fat cunt off the flotting board. I don't know why I had to sit through that "Nazis-were-also-tender-human-beings-underneath" crap with that greasy moron who couldn't act to save the fuhrer, AND she flaunted her lensDunham's like disgusting body and her face full of moles. Ewww.

R20 Hahaha! ...what about Dame Eliz. Taylor, then?

Burton was Welsh, so was Ray Milland, so is Anthony Hopkins; Peter Finch was Australian, Deborah Kerr (not a competitive Oscar winner) was Scottish, so was Victor McLaglen, another Best Actor Oscar winner. But most of them were stars of theater or film in England and are usually thought of as British actors, aren't they?

I don't think any of Dame Liz's oscar winning performances aged well. She was at her best in Secret ceremony and, very good for a classic star in Cat on a hot tin roof and A place in the sun. Butterfield 8 is tripe and she's bad in it. It was a part that nat Wood could have played standing on her head. She was spectacular as Martha, at this point in her career, but if you land from another planet and watch the movie without knowing who Elizabeth Taylor is, you just see a ridiculously hammy circus show; Richard Burton, it has to be said, was an ATROCIOUS actor. He sure loved to hear his own voice, and 100% believed in his own hype, but what a bore and what a pretentious cunt he was.

I should add, in fairness, that Scofiled's primary interest was the stage, not the screen. He never sought screen stardom, and turned down a knighthood not once, but three times. He was probably the greatest Shakespearian of his generation. He really didn't give a fuck about awards or stardom. Besides "A Man for All Seasons", you can also catch the greatness of his voice in "The Crucible" as Danforth, the prosecutor. His Lear and his Hamlet, which I was too young to catch, were said to be matchless. Olivier said Scofield's Lear was the best he ever saw.

The Academy should have been honoured to have the chance to hand him an Oscar. Burton was good in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, but, please! That wasn't robbery: that was justice.

R30

^*Scofield (not Scofiled)

are canadians British ? they should be, since they're subjects of HRH Bessie the Lizzard. I want to say that Genevieve Bujold's perf in ANNE OF THE 1000 DAYS should have won her an oscar, and in that ase, would be on the list

Julie Andrews only won an Oscar for being passed over by Jack Warner. Talk about your pyrrhic victories. The bottom fell out of movie musicals just as Hollywood started to put more and more money into them. That would not have happened if it was not for her.

And then three decades later, she pissed away her last chance at a Tony, the award Angela Lansbury has five of, with that stupid speech of hers.

And now that she has wrecked her voice, there is nothing left about her that is interesting in anyway. She should’ve been canceled for that stupid Netflix puppet show.

Julie Andrews actually deserved the Razzie award they gave to Aileen Quinn for [italic]Annie.[/italic] Lucky for her they didn’t exist in 1964.

R2, poor logic. Films that win Oscars are almost always films that are acclaimed by the critics and won other awards besides the Oscar. That has always been the case

R46, Natalie Wood was hardly a better actress than Liz. She was always fake and melodramatic in everything she did

R39, you have low standards to think Colin Firth is beautiful. He's a typical padsty, thin-lipped Englishman

And you think criticizing an actor makes someone the Taliban? I can't get over how dumb that is

You light up my fucking life won a goddamn Oscar.

[quote] Films that win Oscars are almost always films that are acclaimed by the critics and won other awards besides the Oscar.

Most critics are sheep who like crap.

We see you, loon at 50/51.

[quote] Natalie Wood was hardly a better actress than Liz

Apples and oranges. Nat was not a better actress than Liz, they both were manufactured to death by the studios and still could survive the Hollywood system and give decent performances from time to time, which is a miracle in itself, but Nat was better suited for the "good girl gone bad" heroin of B8.( just my opinion of course I'm not saying here that you don't deserve to be alive and your mother should have aborted when she was pregnant with you, like some posters would). Liz could be very good, but Nat could be sweet, natural and alive on screen in a way that Liz couldn't IMO, especially after Burpton convinced her that she needed to ACT. Even in a turd like "the girl he left behind, " Nat could manage little moments of spontaneity and grace.

r59 Natalie Wood wasn't a better actress than La Liz, you moron. Not in any kind of role, do you get it ? Shoo.

WE SEE YOU, WHITE JULIE ANDREWS

R60 Moron yourself, Nat is 1000 X the actress Liz tried to be and failed. Fat whale fail.

This thread reminded me of A Man for All Seasons and I'm rewatching it. Scofield was fantastic. I wish I could have seen the play. Is it online?

[quote]Elizabeth Taylor is, you just see a ridiculously hammy circus show

That describes every performance that Dame Elizabeth has ever given.

Oliva Colman's win is so annoying. She was a supporting actress. Emma Stone was the star but apparently felt she might not get nominated in lead so Colman being the least famous and having the least clout got pushed to lead.

Had Colman been in supporting she could have won there and Glenn Close could have finally won lead. I would have loved to hear her speech. She was so great at the Golden Globes.

Regina King won Supporting for a bland little effort performance. I think she won based on good will from all the great TV performances she has given recently.

R65, don't make me slap you!

R64 Young Bess was very good, before she met Clift and all the method crap . I remember watching an obscure movie where she's married to R.Taylor, who's secretely a commie, and she was really terrific. She was a natural, all the pretentious thespians she met later spoilt her. Natalie OTOH was not spoilt. SPOILT? NO MAMA SHE WAS NOT SPOILT SHE WAS NOT SPOILT MAMA SHE WAS A GOOD LITTLE GURL I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOUUUUUU

Vivien Leigh's work in Streetcar is unimprovable.

He is Sir Anthony. Never ever ever does the title "Sir" go with the surname of the honoree. It always and only goes with the first name.