8 Performances Better Than What The Actor Won An Oscar For

2. Jack Nicholson

Won For: As Good As It Gets, Best Actor in a Leading Role. Better In: The Pledge. Jack Nicholson actually has three Oscars (from twelve nominations, the most ever by a male), and while his wins for One Flew Over The Cuckoo Nest (Lead), and Terms Of Endearment (Supporting) can't really be questioned, the last of his three certainly can. Again, 1997 was a weak year, and Nicholson picked up the gong for his depiction of the grumpy, OCD-ridden writer, Melvin Udall, in James L. Brooks' As Good As It Gets. It's a good performance from Nicholson, and the first hour especially is hilarious, with the actor putting in some of his funniest, nastiest work. After that the film descends into a somewhat formulaic love-story, though, and while Nicholson is never anything close to bad (has he ever been?), it doesn't feel quite on the same level as his best work. I've been writing about The Pledge quite a bit on here lately, and I'll do so again now, for it really is Top Five Nicholson, maybe Top Three. The Pledge marked the actor's first film since As Good As It Gets, and it makes for a much worthier Oscar winner, despite the fact that Nicholson wasn't nominated for it - the film in general is still overlooked today. But Nicholson is phenomenal as Jerry Black, the retired cop driven to madness by his obsessive belief that the final case he worked on remains, in his eyes, unsolved. If the Academy wanted to reward Nicholson one final time with an obligatory late-career Oscar, they'd have been better off doing it here. (He would be nominated one more time after The Pledge, for his touching turn in Alexander Payne's About Schmidt. That too would've made a better Oscar winner, but, alas, it didn't happen.)