Oscar's Funniest Moments -- #3 of 5

This next one in our voluminous series of five, culled from a long-forgotten article, is really more in the "most memorable" category, rather than fall-down funny. Though it's still pretty funny. And "fall down" is oddly appropriate. It comes from the 64th Oscars in 1992, when Jack Palance won Best Supporting Actor in City Slickers.

(To show how memorable his acceptance speech is, the winner that year for Best Supporting Actress was Mercedes Ruehl, in The Fisher King. And though that was a very good, intriguing movie, it's probably not as well-remembered as this acceptance.)

In some ways, Jack Palance was an equivalent of Lee Marvin in the just-mentioned Cat Ballou. Both had had long careers playing tough guy supporting roles in some very good movies, but lots of B-movies. And then deep into their careers they won an Oscar for a comic western. The similarities largely end there. After all, Marvin not only won for Best Actor, but was a mere 41 when he won -- old by leading man standards, but young enough to go on to suddenly develop a new career as a star. Palance by contrast was 73.