Daniel Day-Lewis fully deserved the 1989 Best Actor Oscar for his performance in My Left Foot — no dispute. But Academy voters were way wrong in denying Nicolas Cage a Best Actor nomination — at least that! — for his hilarious landmark performance in Vampire’s Kiss.
Tom Cruise killed that year as Ron Kovac in Born on the Fourth of July, and fully deserved a nomination. Ditto Robin Williams for his wise-teacher performance in Dead Poet’s Society, and Kenneth Branagh‘s electrifying turn in King Henry V of England. But who today would argue with a straight face that Morgan Freeman‘s performance in Driving Miss Daisy deserved a nomination as much as Cage’s?
