Academy Award Nominee Hal Holbrook

Long Beach, CA — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:29:12 GMT

American Gangster was shut out, as was Into the Wild, A Mightly Heart and Breech. What happened to the time when there were many more nominee's per catagory?

Academy Award Nominee Hal Holbrook

The Fat Lady Sings — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:48:05 GMT

I want to congratulate Mr. Holbrook on his well-deserved nomination. I had the privilege of seeing him do his one man show a number of years back. He has been one of my favorite actors ever since.

Mr. Holbrook - I do hope you plan on campaigning for this award. The other actors nominated are, of course, truly wonderful - Javier Bardem especially - but their performances lack the subtlety and depth you brought to what on the surface could have simply have been a lonely man. In your hands the character blossomed into someone who brought tears to my eyes. It was fabulous.

So please, make yourself known. Appear on Letterman, Leno sand The View. Have Barbara Walters interview you. I know the venues are limited due to the strike. Be creative. The more people see this film, the more they will be awed and inspired by your singular performance.

Good luck, sir. I will be pulling for you!

Academy Award Nominee Hal Holbrook

Susan - Philadelphia, PA — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:47:26 GMT

To Long Beach, CA. - There's always been 5 nominations per category for the Oscars; except the Best Animated feature. You may be thinking of the Golden Globes.

Academy Award Nominee Hal Holbrook

Robert Andropolis, Montgomery, IL — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:49:23 GMT

If Hal Holbrook were British he would have "Sir" preceding his name. Talk about a class guy. His resume is thick with characters he has rendered real and truthful; non-acting performances one might say. Like a lot of middle agers, I grew up admiring this man's rare talent. From the corrupt Lieutenant Briggs in "Magnum Force" to the impeccably honest Lou Mannheim in "Wall Street," Mr. Holbrook has always presented himself believably. The fact that he is magnanimous, that he never fails to honor his fellow thespian partners, is no surprise. Today's young, self-absorbed, media-starved celebrities could do much worse than to take their cue from this underappreciated giant on how to present themselves both on and off the screen.

Academy Award Nominee Hal Holbrook

gary, san francisco, calif. — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 21:05:17 GMT

thank goodness for hal holbrook and others of his generation, who live up to the equal virtues of hard work and humility. the prima donnas in hollywood and in sports would do well to follow his example. the lessons they can learn are simple:

1) success in show business does not qualify you for sainthood.
2) every up in life is accompanied by a commensurate down, and the true measure of a person is his/her ability to ride the wave with grace.

thanks, hal, and congrats, my good man.

Academy Award Nominee Hal Holbrook

Patrick, Houston,TX — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 21:52:52 GMT

To paraphrase Commander Joe Rochefort, Mr. Holbrook's character in Midway - "Hot diggity damn!"

Hal Holbrook has long been one of my favorite actors. I'm happy that he's still working at 82 hope that he continues to bless us with his talent for years to come.

Good luck, Mr. Holbrook. I'll be rooting for you.

Academy Award Nominee Hal Holbrook

Charity, Princeton, NJ — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:07:56 GMT

Hooray for Mr. Holbrook! I hope he wins!

Academy Award Nominee Hal Holbrook

Patrick, Houston, TX — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:24:26 GMT

To Susan in Philadelphia, PA.

The limitation to 5 nominees in a category has not always existed. In the earliest year of the Academy several names appeared on the judges ballots for the acting awards with only the names of the winners announced. As the years went by the list of nominees to the judges was pared down to the top 3 who were invited to the announcement. Check 1934 when Clark Gable won for lead actor in It Happened One Night beating out Frank Morgan and William Powell. That expanded to 5 in 1935, a year in which the runner-up was Paul Muni for Black Fury which is noteworthy since he wasn't really nominated but was second on the basis of a write-in campaign.

Conversely the Best Picture award in 1934 had 12 nominees and had at least 10 nominees until 1944 when the limits for 5 seemed to take hold in most major categories.

The Academy has a great website with cool search features and historical nuggets...like the fact that the rules (at least at some point) indicated that should a category be decided by fewer than 3 votes the result would be declared a tie. That happened to be the case in the 1931-32 Lead Actor category when Wallace Beery and Fredric March tied even though March had 1 more vote than Beery. Check it out.

Academy Award Nominee Hal Holbrook

Dennis Buck, Bloomington Illinois — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 01:05:05 GMT

Good Job Hal, I am looking forward to seeing you on stage in March doing your Mark Twain piece. I will feel Honored getting to watch you.

Academy Award Nominee Hal Holbrook

Marie, Fairbanks, Alaska — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:23:14 GMT

Hal, your work in the movie was simply, "inspirational." Your role in this movie was a match to your true character!