10 Worst Actors To Ever Win An Oscar

7. John Wayne

An entry onto this list that is sure to anger just about everyone's dad, John Wayne was finally awarded what most have accepted to be a consolatory Oscar for a lifetime of iconic roles, for his steely turn as Rooster Cogburn in the original True Grit (remade with even more steely efficiency, starring Jeff Bridges in 2010). The film has not aged well, nor has Wayne's performance, and though he is tailor-made for that role, it should simply be said that Wayne is not of the Oscar ilk (though he was nominated, similarly ludicrously, for Sands of Iwo Jima 20 years earlier), nor does he need to be; he is an exceptional performer of taut, stylish Westerns, and his working relationship with John Ford has become the stuff of legend. To instead snub far more deserving nominees like Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight in Midnight Cowboy, for the sake of mere sentiment - given that Wayne's career was evidently on the decline - seems silly and not at all indicative of the year of film. Wayne has an enduring, indelible popularity, but that doesn't mean he was a particularly good actor; he was a great mythic figure, however.