10. Henry Fonda for On Golden Pond (1981)
When Henry Fonda won his 1981 Oscar for his Very Special Oldie role as a bitter coot of a father in On Golden Pond, he was too ill to attend the ceremony. Too bad the star had to wait so long for his only win: Fonda should have been handed the golden prize 40 years earlier when he was nominated for his great performance in The Grapes of Wrath. (But Jimmy Stewart took the honors that year; more on that mistake in a minute.) Lisa Schwarzbaum