Universal (Ithaca Enterprises Production)
Oscar Nominations: 2
Actor: Albert Finney
Original Score: Alex North
Oscar Awards: None
Oscar Context:
Albert Finney received his a well-deserved Oscar nod for playing the alcoholic British consul in “Under the Volcano,” John Huston’s screen version of Malcolm Lowry’s challenging novel (considered by many unfilmable), Adapted to the screen by Guy Gallo.
The winners in those categories were F. Murray Abraham for Milos Forman’s Mozart musical extravaganza “Amadeus,” which swept the Oscars including Best Picture, and Maurice Jarre for his Oscar for David Lean’s epic “A Passage to India,” which turned out to be his very last picture.
The other Best Actor nominees were: Jeff Bridges in “Starman,” Tom Hulce also for “Amadeus,” and Sam Waterston for “The Killing Fields.”
It’s worth noting that in the previous year, 1983, all five Best actor nominees played drunken roles of one sort or another, including Robert Duvall, who won his first and Only Oscar for Bruce Berseford’s “Tender Mercies,” based on Horton Foote’s screenplay, in which he played a boozy country singer rehabilitated through the love of a good woman.
