10 Great Performances That Were Overshadowed By Their Co-Stars

5. Tom Cruise - Rain Man

Overshadowed By: Dustin Hoffman The film is called "Rain Man," Dustin Hoffman played the eponymous character, and he won an Oscar for playing that character, too... no wonder nobody really thinks about Tom Cruise when it comes to this motion picture. So although Rain Main was undoubtably Dustin Hoffman's triumph, you would have least thought that Cruise would have received some accolade for what is - without a doubt - one of his finest performances. As Charlie Babbitt, brother of the titular Rain Man, Cruise offers up another one of his cocky characters who learns there's more to life. And yet there's something sincere and genuine about this performance that allows it to ring far truer than any of the other times that Tom Cruise has played a character of this type (and let's face it, he has played said type a lot). Still, the drama between Charlie and Raymond would not have worked without Cruise's surprisingly acute work, and it's a shame that he was totally ignored by the Academy - and a lot of movie-goers, in fact, as it's fair to say this performance feels buried beneath Hoffman's. Which is greater, though? All these years later, it's still not entirely clear.