Favorite Non-Oscar Nominated Performances: Actor, 2008

[SelwynMcGinty]

As the title of the thread suggests, we're looking to pinpoint the Next Best Celebrated Acting Performances of film history. Plenty of great turns get ignored or forgotten through the sands of time, and this is a quick way to review and vote for our favorites.

This is for the North American calendar release year of 2008, so to save us clicking on Wikipedia, the following Oscar nominees are exempt:

Best Actor - Sean Penn, Milk
Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

Best Supp. Actor - Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Josh Brolin, Milk
Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road

Anything else is fair game! You may notice that the choices are primarily Leading roles, but I'm not going to disallow other selections. It doesn't seem fair or sensible to quibble about Lead/Supporting categories.

Feel free to discuss these or other choices, 2008 the movie year in general, or any other rankings or opinions.

Thanks to everyone participating in these crazy polls! Cheers!!