Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1981: Results

5. John Lithgow in Blow Out- Lithgow gives an interesting turn as a hired killer who accomplishes his dirty job by pretending to be a murderous psychopath.

Best Scene: Burke explains his actions to his superior.

4. Paul Freeman in Raiders of the Lost Ark- Freeman gives an effective performance that makes Belloc the shadow to Indiana Jones.

Best Scene: "This, this is history"

3. Wilford Brimley in Absence of Malice- Brimley steals his whole film through his assured performance that basically wraps up the plot for his film.

Best Scene: His scene.

2. Bill Hunter in Gallipoli- Hunter gives a strong performance giving humanity to a man who continues with a futile and fatal charge because it is his order to do so.

Best Scene: Major Barton proceeds with the final charge.

1. Robert Prosky in Thief- Prosky gives my favorite supporting performance of 1981, apologies once again to my seemingly perpetual number 2 Jack Nicholson, by delivering a fantastic performance as a warm genial older man which hides the vicious gangster beneath.  

Best Scene: Leo threatens Frank.

Overall Rank:

1. Robert Prosky in Thief
2. Jack Nicholson in Reds
3. John Gielgud in Arthur
4. Ian Holm in Chariots of Fire
5. Bill Hunter in Gallipoli 
6. Wilford Brimley in Absence of Malice
7. Paul Freeman in Raiders of the Lost Ark   
8. Lee Van Cleef in Escape From New York
9. Mickey Rourke in Body Heat 
10. Sean Connery in Time Bandits 
11. John Gielgud in Chariots of Fire 
12. John Lithgow in Blow Out
13. Jerry Orbach in Prince of the City
14. Michael Ironside in Scanners
15. Klaus Wennermann in Das Boot
16. Michael Palin in Time Bandits 
17. Nigel Havers in Chariots of Fire
18. Kjell Nilsson in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior 
19. Harry Dean Stanton in Escape From New York 
20. Bruce Spence in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
21. Griffin Dunne in An American Werewolf in London
22. Christopher Walken in Pennies From Heaven
23. Burgess Meredith in Clash of the Titans 
24. Herbert Grönemeyer in Das Boot
25. Patrick McGoohan in Scanners
26. Howard Rollins in Ragtime
27. Bill Kerr in Gallipoli
28. Donald Pleasence in Escape From New York
29. Kenny Baker in Time Bandits 
30. Nicholas Farrell in Chariots of Fire 
31. Robert Grubb in Gallipoli
32. Lindsay Anderson in Chariots of Fire
33. John Cleese in Time Bandits
34. Brad Dourif in Ragtime
35. Warren Oates in Stripes
36. Nigel Davenport in Chariots of Fire
37. David Warner in Time Bandits
38. Bob Balaban in Absence of Malice 
39. Ralph Richardson in Time Bandits
40. Sean Penn in Taps
41. James Coco in Only When I Laugh
42. John Rhys Davies in Raiders of the Lost Ark
43. Tom Cruise in Taps
44. Patrick Magee in Chariots of Fire
45. Vernel Bagneris in Pennies From Heaven
46. John Woodvine in An American Werewolf in London
47. Michael Preston in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
48. Willie Nelson in Thief
49. Ernest Borgnine in Escape From New York 
50. David Rappaport in Time Bandits
51. James Cagney in Ragtime
52. Struan Rodger in Chariots of Fire 
53. Pierce Brosnan in The Long Good Friday
54. Ian Holm in Time Bandits
55. Ronald Lacey in Raiders of the Lost Ark
56. David Argue in Gallipoli 
57. Peter Egan in Chariots of Fire 
58. Isaac Hayes in Escape From New York
59. Barney Martin in Arthur
60. David Yelland in Chariots of Fire
61. Gene Hackman in Reds 
62. Alfred Molina in Raiders of the Lost Ark
63. James Olson in Ragtime
64. Dabney Coleman in On Golden Pond
65. Ted Danson in Body Heat
66. James Belushi in Thief
67. John Candy in Stripes
68. Dennis Farina in Thief
69. Denholm Elliot in Raiders of the Lost Ark 
70. J.A. Preston in Body Heat
71. Paul Sorvino in Reds
72. Gregory Hines in History of the World Part I
73. Dennis Franz in Blow Out 
74. Brad Davis in Chariots of Fire
75. Laurence Olivier in Clash of the Titans
76. Vernon Wells in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
77. Stephen Elliot in Arthur
78. Tom Signorelli in Thief
79. John Larroquette in Stripes
80. Doug McKeon in On Golden Pond 
81. Edward Hermann in Reds
82. Don Hood in Absence of Malice
83. Dennis Christopher in Chariots of Fire

Next Year: 1964 lead

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Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1981: John Lithgow in Blow Out

John Lithgow did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Burke in Blow Out.

Blow Out is an excellent thriller about a movie sound specialist Jack (John Travolta) who stumbles upon the careful murder of a politician. This film is pure 80's in the best kind of way.

John Lithgow portrays Burke the mystery hit man who causes the titular blow out to occur which kills a politician who threatened to take the party nomination from the current president. Burke is a strange man, and if you want someone strange well John Lithgow certainly can fit the bill. Burke is a most bizarre hit man who, like Frank in Once Upon a Time in the West, disobeys his bosses orders and kills feeling his bosses measures were not extreme enough to get the task done. Burke then goes on to take just as extreme of measures to cover up what happened the night the politician died, which actually goes beyond destroying the evidence and even killing the witnesses.

Burke, to make the cover up airtight, does not want to just kill the one of the main witnesses, but rather desires to create a serial killer to make it seem like she was merely one of the many people he murdered. This puts Burke as most oddly intriguing character which is a trained "sane" killer who pretends to be a more run of the mill psychopath. Lithgow plays this strange game very well with his performance that comes in out of the film as Burke basically builds his manufactured serial killer until he thinks it is time to finish the cover up. Lithgow is interesting because on the surface he makes Burke a man who is doing his job, and acts just as a man doing his job. He doesn't really take pleasures in the murders, but does them because he feels they are needed.

Lithgow is very effective in showing the way Burke creates the killer as an act. Up to the killing he portrays the stalker psychopath after his prey, but actually doing the killing itself Lithgow almost looks like he taking out the trash, as for Burke it is just part of his plan. After the murders Lithgow plays a part upon a part as Burke calls the police to fake a serial killer identity, making his serial killer some sort of deranged hill billy. Lithgow has the right efficiency in his portrayal of this with him being a completely believable psychopath as he informs the police, but as soon as he is ending the call Lithgow instantly returns to what Burke is which is trained fixer who does not have the emotional attachments like his false serial personality he has manufactured.

This is a very well handled turn by John Lithgow. Lithgow in a way is kind of a secondary lead, only kind of as it definitely is not Burke's story, because the film does allow us to see the whole implementation of Burke's plan to cover up the murder that coincides with Travolta's character's attempt to try to uncover it. Lithgow slowly builds up the menace of Burke slowly in his scenes that come in and out of the film until the point in which he finally decides to proceed with the target. The end of the film is an incredible tense sequence only made more so because of the way Lithgow has made Burke a properly chilling figure that makes his mere appearance something to fear.

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Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1981

And the Nominees Were Not:

Robert Prosky in Thief

Wilford Brimley in Absence of Malice

Bill Hunter in Gallipoli

John Lithgow in Blow Out

Paul Freeman in Raiders of the Lost Ark

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