Won For: Kramer vs. Kramer Should Have Won For: The Graduate/Midnight Cowboy Dustin Hoffman is one of Hollywood's most celebrated actors. The two-time Oscar winner's deep nasal voice is instantly recognizable. He has acted in a myriad of famous films and he has played an impressive assortment of great roles. Hoffman nabbed his first Oscar for playing Ted Kramer in Kramer vs. Kramer, a film about the effect a divorce has on a couple and their son. The film holds the dubious distinction of beating out Apocalypse Now for Best Picture, and while Hoffman's performance is very good, he had two earlier performances that were far more Oscar-worthy. In Mike Nichols' The Graduate, Hoffman plays Benjamin Braddock, a directionless recent college graduate who gets caught up in an affair with a married woman, Mrs. Robinson, and then falls in love with her daughter. It is an outstanding and iconic performances and it was in one of Hoffman's first feature films. Another remarkable Hoffman role is in John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy, the first and only X-rated (it was later re-rated R) film to win Best Picture. He plays Ratso, an ailing street hustler. In what is supposedly an ad-lib, Hoffman uttered one of film's most famous lines - "I'm walkin' here!" - after nearly being hit by a taxi.
