As much as I want to say there were standout performances from the norm, there wasn't a Heath Ledger this year. He still stands so far as the only actor to receive an Academy Award for his comic book movie role. At least, for now.
That was such an anomalous performance! I've never seen any performance that good in a comic movie, or anything from Ledger even close to that. I mean, I haven't seen everything he was in, but A Knight's Tale and 10 Things I Hate About You didn't exactly telegraph that he had something like The Joker in him. Even in Brokeback.
A Knight's Tale was such an oddball movie. Ledger's role put him in the spotlight as the next big girl toy. What a shocker what he pulled off as The Joker.
That is why I bet he would have been in the running for an Oscar anyway. It was so different from his other films. Even his role in The Patriot couldn't compare.
Yeah, I of course don't know how his death affected the voting, but his winning in not undeserved. And I'm a pretty harsh critic of comic movies. IMHO The Dark Knight was pretty mediocre except when he was on screen.