8 Performances Better Than What The Actor Won An Oscar For

7. Jeff Bridges

Won For: Crazy Heart, Best Actor in a Leading Role. Better In: The Big Lebowski. Jeff Bridges' 2009 win for Crazy Heart was basically the Academy presenting the actor with a lifetime achievement award, acknowledging that they probably should've honoured him already (prior to Crazy Heart, Bridges was nominated four times, three in the Supporting Actor category - The Last Picture Show; Thunderbolt and Lightfoot; The Contender - and once for Lead Actor, in Starman.) Crazy Heart is a decent film, elevated by Bridges pretty good performance. It's far from his best work, though, and while it's not necessarily original to say it, his best, most iconic performance obviously comes in The Coen Bro's The Big Lebowski, with Bridges entering the highest realms of quotable pop-culture with his lackadaisical turn as The Dude. Never likely to be Oscar nominated for such a quirky role, The Dude is a cult performance in the cultest of films, and no matter how many Oscar friendly performances he delivers, it's what Bridges will always be best remembered for. If the Academy truly wanted to reward Bridges, they should've done it a year later for his work in True Grit, a far more deserving role for which he was nominated, but lost out to, Colin Firth for The King's Speech. In a just world these two wins would be reversed, with Firth winning instead of Bridges in '09 for the previous entry on this list.