Paul Newman’s Oscar
They gave it to him because they realized they’d messed up by not giving it to him for more deserved performances like in Cool Hand Luke (1967) or Hud (1963).
shareOr The Hustler(for which he was also nominated, and to which this movie is a 25-years later sequel) or Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, or The Verdict(1982 -- everybody thought this was going to be THE WIN, and they gave it to newbie Ben Kingsley for Gandhi the first time over Newman for the umpteenth time).
Newman bagged this Oscar for The Color of Money ONLY A YEAR after the Academy had given him one of those honorary Oscars ("Sorry we missed you") for his films. And this time, after years of showing up in person(most humiliatingly to lose his sure thing to Gandhi), he didn't come.
I'd say of all of them, he should have won most for The Verdict. Then Cool Hand Luke.
Then all of them ...The Color of Money, last choice. But he WAS good in that, too.