Pacino should have won Best Actor for Serpico

Jack Nicholson in The Last Detail - perhaps his greatest performance - would be my pick. Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris would have a lot of advocates, too.

I remember it & watched it again just a few months ago. It's still a fine, heartbreaking film, too. Though I agree that it was a great year for fantastic performances; I wish they could have given out more than just one Best Actor award that year.

I agree. Lemmon did well, but I do feel Pacino gave a more timeless performance (which is still remembered today; whereas people have forgotten this movie)

The Academy ended up giving Pacino the award for "Scent of a Woman" decades later, to make-up for his failure to ever win an award. Serpico would have made a better win in his resume than Scent of a Woman

But at the same time --- I think the Academy felt that Lemmon was due; at the time, Lemmon had never won for Best Actor (only once for Supporting Actor). The Academy couldn't let him go winless, they felt