The 84th Academy Awards: Best Actor Preview

Demián Bichir for A Better Life (2011) - (Oscar O-Meter: 3/5)

Demián was born in Mexico to Alejandro, a theatre director, and Maricruz, an actress. His parents met in the theatre. He has two brothers who are also actors.

Demián began acting, at age 14, in the telenovela Rina with Ofelia Medina. At age 22, he moved to New York. He decided he wanted a break from acting, so that he could experience life and learn English. He got a job as a busboy at Rosa Mexicano, where he would make guacamole at customer's tables. He then moved to Los Angeles for four years, attempting to land acting roles. But, unsuccessful, he was tempted back to Mexico with the offer of role in Hasta Morir, for which he won an Ariel (the Mexican equivalent of an Oscar). His career took off in Mexico. In 1991, his movie Sexo, pudor y lágrimas broke Mexican box-office records becoming the #1 movie in the history of Mexican cinema.

He went on to play Fidel Castro in Che: Part One (2008) and Che: Part Two (2008). In 2012, he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in A Better Life (2011).

George Clooney for The Descendants (2011) - (Oscar O-Meter: 4/5)

Born in Lexington, Kentucky, as son of Nick Clooney, a TV newscaster of many years, who hosted a talk show at Cincinnati and often invited George into the studios already at the age of 5. Avoiding competition with his father, he quit his job as broadcast journalist after a short time.George studied for a few years at Northern Kentucky University. He failed to join the Cincinnati Reds baseball team. He came to acting when his cousin, Miguel Ferrer, got him a small part in a feature film. After that, in 1982, he moved to LA and tried for a whole year to get a role while he slept in a friend's closet. His first movie, together with Charlie Sheen, stayed unreleased but got him the producers' attention for later contracts.

During the 2012 Newsweek Magazine Oscars Roundtable, "That ego issue, which is always an interesting thing. What happens is, you get a modicum of success, and then it becomes about the strangest shit you've ever seen. I am from Kentucky, okay? We try not to live in trailers. That is not something that...we don't brag about being in a double wide, or the largest trailer. And all of a sudden, somebody will come up on the set--and I've had this happen, where it's like, they're upset because their trailer isn't the same size. And you go, 'take my trailer,' because, honestly, that's not what I would consider something to brag about. And it becomes about certain things, and oftentimes it is people who haven't experienced it for a period of time, or people who are trying to hold on to something...being in a trailer is not fun."

Jean Dujardin for The Artist (2011) - (Oscar O-Meter: 5/5)

In 1995 he began his first one man show, the same year he met Bruno Salomone, Eric Collado, Emmanuel Joucla and Eric Massot with whom he created the "Nous C nous". In 1999, he became "Loulou" in "Un gars, une fille" (1999). This part permitted him to show his talent to a larger public. Since the end of "Un gars, une fille" in 2003, he has appeared in many films.

In his acceptance speech for the Best Actor BAFTA for The Artist (2011), Dujardin mentioned, Laurence Olivier, Benny Hill and, curiously, William Webb Ellis (the clergyman who allegedly invented the game of Rugby) (Royal Opera House London/12 Feb. 2012).

Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) - (Oscar O-Meter: 3/5)

Gary Oldman, the son of a welder and a homemaker, won a scholarship to Britain's Rose Bruford Drama College, where he received a B.A. in theatre arts in 1979. He subsequently studied with the Greenwich Young People's Theatre and went on to appear in a number of plays throughout the early '80s, including "The Pope's Wedding," for which he received Time Out's Fringe Award for Best Newcomer of 1985-1986 and the British Theatre Association's Drama Magazine Award as Best Actor for 1985. 

His film debut was Remembrance (1982). In 1986, he played Sex Pistol Sid Vicious in the biopic Sid and Nancy (1986), picking up the Evening Standard Film Award as Best Newcomer. In 1988, he received a Best Actor nomination from the British Academy of Film and TV Arts for his portrayal of '60s playwright Joe Orton. His ability to transform himself physically and his command of accents have allowed him to play a broad range of characters and a number of historical figures, including, in addition to those mentioned above, Lee Harvey Oswald (JFK (1991)) and Ludwig van Beethoven (Immortal Beloved (1994)).

Brad Pitt for Moneyball (2011) - (Oscar O-Meter: 3/5)

Brad Pitt was born in 1963 in Oklahoma and raised in Springfield, Missouri. His mother's name is Jane Etta Hillhouse. His father, William (Bill) Pitt, worked in management at a trucking firm in Springfield. He has a younger brother, Douglas (Doug) Pitt and a younger sister Julie Neal Pitt. At Kickapoo High School, Pitt was involved in sports, debating, student government and school musicals. Pitt attended the University of Missouri, where he majored in journalism with a focus on advertising. He occasionally acted in fraternity shows. He left college two credits short of graduating to move to California. Before he became successful at acting, Pitt supported himself by driving strippers in limos, moving refrigerators and dressing as a giant chicken while working for "el Pollo Loco."

While accepting the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor for Moneyball and The Tree of Life, "This is a really big honor for me, considering I'm a guy who had never ridden in an airplane until I was 25. That first trip was here in 1989 to New York. I had an audition for a soap opera. But I had to put myself up, and I stayed at a friend's apartment. That apartment was in the Village on Christopher Street. My first impression of the city was: my god, there's a lot of guys around here. But they're so _nice_....This is a real pleasure for me to see some of the faces behind the formidable names that instill such fear and reverence in the film industry, although I thought you'd be taller....We are complex, we are mysteries to ourselves, we are difficult to each other, we live in continual flux and instability and conflict. Christians and Muslims, Democrats and Republicans, Denby and Rudin."