David Niven, Separate Tables (1958)
In the romantic drama Separate Tables, the stories of several people are told as they stay at a seaside hotel during the off-season.
In such large ensemble films, it’s often a problem trying to choose who exactly can be considered a lead, and who a supporting role.
David Niven had little screentime to qualify as a supporting actor, but even then, he won the Best Actor Oscar in 1958.
For a long time, Niven’s win has been remembered as one of the most disappointing in the 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 many Oscar nominated roles.
Newman would finally win the Best Actor Oscar for a lesser work, in Scorsese’s The Color of Money (1986).
Share this:
