Gene Hackman (The Royal Tenenbaums)

Despite an occasional placement in some awards ceremonies as supporting actor, our voters chose unanimously to place Gene Hackman in the Lead Actor performance, where his curmudgeonly patriarch of the Tenenbaum clan was able to edge out Russell Crowe's portrayal of a schizophrenic mathematician in A Beautiful Mind, mostly from the very high rating given to Hackman by almost all voters who did choose him (he received seven first place votes). Guy Pearce's tragic amnesiac in Memento had a strong showing for third place. Ewan McGregor sang and moped his way into fourth place while Billy Bob Thornton (my personal choice) was able to slip into fifth as a result of the high vote totals at the top of the category. Strong Oscar candidates Will Smith and Denzel Washington finished sixth and seventh respectively.

Top Five
Actor	Film	Total Points
Gene Hackman	The Royal Tenenbaums	243
Russell Crowe	A Beautiful Mind	240
Guy Pearce	Memento	188
Ewan McGregor	Moulin Rouge!	139
Billy Bob Thornton	The Man Who Wasn't There	75

Candidates receiving first place votes
Actor	Film	Number of First Place Votes
Gene Hackman	The Royal Tenenbaums	7
Russell Crowe	A Beautiful Mind	4
Guy Pearce	Memento	2
Ewan McGregor	Moulin Rouge!	2
Billy Bob Thornton	The Man Who Wasn't There	1
John Cameron Mitchell	Hedwig and the Angry Inch	1
Nicholas Lea	Lunch with Charles	1
Samuel L. Jackson	The Caveman's Valentine	1

Other actors receiving votes
Will Smith (Ali), Denzel Washington (Training Day), Josh Hartnett (Black Hawk Down, "O"), Haley Joel Osment (A.I. Artificial Intelligence), Ed Norton (The Score), John Goodman (Monsters, Inc.), Charles "Bud" Tingwell (Innocence), Jack Black (Shallow Hal), Kevin Spacey (K-Pax), Tom Wilkinson (In the Bedroom), Tony Leung Chiu Wai (In the Mood for Love), Jason Mewes (Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back), Anthony LaPaglia (Lantana), John Cusack (Serendipity), Pierce Brosnan (The Tailor of Panama), Mehki Pfifer "O"), Eric Bana (Chopper), George Clooney (Ocean's 11), Jet Li (Kiss of the Dragon), Jack Nicholson (The Pledge), Geoffrey Rush (The Tailor of Panama), Ray Winstone (Sexy Beast), Anton Yelchin (Hearts in Atlantis), Jean Reno (The Crimson Rivers), Jake Gyllenhaal (Bubble Boy, Donnie Darko), Brad Pitt (The Mexican), Ethan Hawke (Training Day), Stuart Townsend (About Adam), Johnny Depp (Blow), Sam Neill (The Dish), Robert DeNiro (The Score), Tom Cruise (Vanilla Sky)