Playing Oscar trivial pursuit is probably more fun than watching the actual event live on TV. HollywoodWinners & Losers A to Z (published by Limelight Editions) is an almost up to date guidebook for Oscar trivia: actors department. The book went to press before this year’s nominees were announced.
Author Mark Thise (described only as “a lifelong movie aficionado”) has produced entries on everyone ever nominated for the Best Actor or Best Actress prize before 2008. He doesn’t discriminate between winners and losers and one may say that being nominated for the industry’s top trophy is no loss.
The alphabetical entries include listings of movies for which the actor was nominated and short biographical summaries. Who knew that Philip Seymour Hoffman once worked as a waiter? One imagines him arching a supercilious brow at the customer every now and then. And the great Claude Rains taught acting to Laurence Olivier while an instructor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts? Stump your movie buff friends with that one!
