Sal Mineo was ripped off!!!

You don't know the half of it. That year the Academy voters were treated to a
publicity campaign by a third nominee, Chill Wills for The Alamo. This was
John Wayne on one of his right-wing kicks and the publicity campaign for Wills
and other categories The Alamo was up for and went something to the effect that
anyone who didn't vote for Chill Wills was not a good patriotic American. This
had the opposite effect of turning a whole lot of people against The Alamo and
not judging it on its merits. It's not a bad film.

However Groucho Marx had the next to last word. When Wills sent out a letter to
the Academy voters addressing them as "cousin", Groucho replied something to the
effect that he was unaware of their relationship, but related or not, he was
going to vote for Sal Mineo for Exodus.

Of course Peter Ustinov won it that year and he was good in Spartacus. Notice
Wills, Mineo, and Ustinov, all in big budget epics. Chill Wills was not a bad
western character actor, but he wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary in
The Alamo.

The other nominees in 1960 for this category were Jack Kruschen in The Apartment and Peter Falk in Murder, Inc.

I compleatly agree. I love Sal Mineo (hence the user name) and this was defenatly his best preformance ever. Although, I also loved him in Rebel Without A Cause (he was also nominated for that roll, and lost). There is a biography of him that has some stuff he said about the Academy's decision. He attributed it alot to anti-semitism, something I don't totally agree with, but I guess you never know.

What are your other favorite Mineo preformances?

It meant that the guards used him sexually, they molested him. In those days (1960) they couldn't be obvious about it. That scene is considered some of his best work. Hope that cleared things up for you. :-)


Spike: Yeah, I could do that, but I'm paralyzed with not caring very much.

Hollywood is a strange place. Some people--Marlee Matlin, Stallone at the time, Roberto Benigni and others--bop into Hollywood and walk out with an Oscar.

But most must pay their dues, simply because of the shallow jealousy and pettiness that pervades the place. Unfortunately, Mr. Mineo was not deemed to have yet paid his dues.

[deleted]