PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN
Past Gem: Flawless (1999)

The Academy had to choose between three wildly different Hoffman performances this year, picking his supporting role as a rumpled spy in Charlie Wilson's War over his showier lead roles in The Savages and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. Hoffman fans faced a similar dilemma in 1999, when the actor was featured in The Talented Mr. Ripley, Magnolia, and Flawless. This last saw him play Rusty, a drag queen who uses music lessons as speech therapy for his stroke-afflicted neighbor, a homophobic cop (Robert De Niro). It's an unlikely conceit, but Hoffman plays it straight (so to speak) and pulls it off.