Which was the best performance given of the Best Actor Oscar winners of the 1970s?

What a motley collection of has-beens and no-hopers.

The only man of distinction was the late Peter Finch.

This one is a striking contrast to the sixties. This decade featured some of Hollywood's greatest actors earning awards for performances that either their career-best or close to it. It's not perfect (Lemmon was well past his best work, Carney was a sentimental choice, and the awful Dreyfuss was at his coked-out hammiest) but the batting average here is well above the Academy average.

It still amazes me that Al Pacino didn't win multiple Oscars during this decade. He should have replaced by Lemmon and Carney instead of winning for that ridiculous performance a few decades later.

The Goodbye Girl and Save the Tiger were execrable films.

Agree that Al Pacino should have won multiple Oscars this decade - namely for either of The Godfathers and Dog Day Afternoon, the latter of which is my favorite male performance ever committed to film. Any competent actor could have pulled off what ol' Jack did in Cuckoo's Nest.

A mixed bag but some great performances. Hackman, Nicholson, Voight and Finch in particular.

Lemmon was at his hammiest, Brando didn't have to do much and Hoffman was better in Midnight Cowboy.

Sorry.

Scott gave the best performance, no matter what a shit he was and what the film was, followed by Hackman. I loved Brando, whose tricks for once served the film, but it wasn't a lead role.

The rest, not so much. Finch's crazy man was just a crazy man - no connection with other characters, really. Carney was fine playing Carney, less the goofus schtick. Hoffman was good only in his earliest films. Voight made a lot in his early and middle career out of blank stares, and now is loathsome. Lemmon did Lemmon in a crap film. Dreyfuss was least deserving.

Pacino or Nicholson should have won in 1974.

[quote] What a motley collection of has-beens and no-hopers.

Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman??

You have the worst taste in the world.