His performance as Gandalf...

That whole trilogy was so overwhelming it is easy to overlook McKellen's actual performance. So much color and so much going on, with Frodo and Viggo and the gorgeous women and the Orcs and the evil Wizards and Gollum (sp?), what makes Gandalf so special? But he really did dominate his scenes. He had an edge because he was made to be very big as compared to his compatriots, but I remember always being riveted when IMac was on the screen. What a voice !

I didn't care for Broadbent's performance - a one-note stuffy professor - but I thought Kingsley was easily the finest of the nominees that year. i wouldn't have minded a win for McKellen, though. He brought such warmth and wisdom to the role, and it would have been an acceptable consolation for having lost for his great performance in Gods & Monsters a few years earlier.

Thank goodness Sean Connery (whom I have heard was rumoured to be an early choice) wasn't cast... the thought of Gandalf with Connery's Glaswegian burr makes me shudder.