David Niven, Separate Tables (1958)
In the romantic melodrama Separate Tables, the stories of several people are told as they stay at a seaside hotel during the off-season, run by Wendy Hiller.
In such large-cast films, it’s often a problem trying to choose who exactly can be considered a lead, and who a supporting role.
My Oscar Book:
David Niven limited screentime qualified him as a Supporting Actor, but even then, he won the Best Actor Oscar in 1958.
Niven’s win is considered to be one of the shortest and most disappointing in the entire Oscars’ history.
The best lead performance that year was Paul Newman’s in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which earned him the first of nine Oscar nominated roles.
Newman would finally win the Best Actor Oscar for a lesser work, in Martin Scorsese’s The Color of Money (1986), a weaker sequel to his terrific 1961 turn in The Hustler.
