Since the first ceremony 85 years ago, the Academy has been giving out Oscars to actors and actresses. So naturally, some of those performances have gotten lost in the shuffle, either because the film around the performance hasn't stood the test of time or the winner of the award didn't do much else. Some of them remain unknown because the star played against type. No one thinks of the dreary Country Girl when Grace Kelly comes up in a conversation. Paul Newman is better remembered for his iconic role as the young 'Fast Eddie' in The Hustler than his performance as the old 'Fast Eddie' in The Color of Money. Of course, some of the performances also just don't hold up very well anymore and we can't understand what the Academy was thinking.

I've picked five performances from men and five from women that did win Oscars that we need to be reminded of.

Best Actor

Wallace Beery – The Champ – 1931/32
For some reason, boxers bring out the best of actors. It's just a fact, from Golden Boy to Rocky and Raging Bull. But the first actor to win an Oscar for playing a boxer may come as a surprise to some. Wallace Beery had been stuck in character roles since the talkies came in, but director King Vidor and writer Frances Marion knew that the role of worn-down Andy 'Champ' Purcell was perfect for the hulking actor. In the film, Beery is paired with Jackie Cooper who plays a son Champ can barely support. It's a shockingly modern performance, making it hard to believe that The Champ is from the early '30s.

David Niven – Separate Tables – 1958
David Niven was always this happy English chap that you'd want to have a cup of tea with. He's the guy who made it Around The World in 80 Days and co-hosted three Oscar ceremonies. Despite some brilliant performances in films like A Matter of Life and Death, The Bishop's Wife and The Guns of Navarone, he only earned one nomination in his entire career – for 1958's Separate Tables. Directed by Delbert Mann (Marty), Niven plays the hapless Major Angus Pollock, a philanderer hiding behind a false identity and running from reality. The delicate way that Niven reveals the truth at the end of the film is heartbreaking.

Peter Ustinov – Topkapi – 1964 - Best Supporting Actor
Amazingly, Peter Ustiov's leading and hilarious performance as the bumbling fool Arthur Simon Simpson in Jules Dassin's Topkapi was considered a supporting role by the Academy. I suppose it's for the best, because there was no way he would have beaten My Fair Lady's Rex Harrison for the lead actor Oscar. Topkapi is a fun, stylish caper film, the kind that could only be made in 1960's Europe. It hasn't aged too well, which might account for its obscurity, but it is worth seeking out for Ustinov alone.

Lee Marvin – Cat Ballou – 1965
Elliot Silverstein's Cat Ballou is probably the most bizarre Western parody you'll ever see. This is pre-Blazing Saddles and one could only assume that Mel Brooks saw this before making his masterpiece, which is easily the better movie. Cat Ballou is still interesting because tough-guy Lee Marvin gets to play two roles – the always-drunk Kid Shalleen and the villain Tim Strawn. He's priceless in his scenes as Shalleen and it makes you wish that he took some more comedic roles in his career.

Christopher Plummer – Beginners – 2011 - Best Supporting Actor
Can an award that was given only two years ago be considered forgotten already? I think so, because so much was made about the fact that Christopher Plummer was 82 when he won and not too many people were actually talking about Beginners and his great performance in it. This wasn't a lifetime achievement award for Plummer – he actually earned that Supporting Oscar for playing Ewan McGregor's dying grandfather, who just realized that he's gay.

Best Actress

Jane Wyman – Johnny Belinda – 1948
Today, Jane Wyman is better remembered by cinema fans for her roles in Douglas Sirk's best melodramas (All The Heaven Allows, Magnificent Obsession), but she won her Oscar for Johnny Belinda. In the film, directed by Jean Negulesco, Wyman plays the mute Belinda who is raped by a drunk and becomes pregnant, even further isolating her from the Canadian town nearby. Lew Ayers plays her doctor, the only person who cares for her and winds up marrying her. The great part about Wyman here is that she doesn't play just a dull plot device, but a fully formed character and that clearly takes skill to pull off.

Shirley Booth – Come Back, Little Sheba – 1952
Shirley Booth made just five films, which may account for the fact that Come Back, Little Sheba isn't a film that we hear a lot about. Booth recreated her Tony-winning role as Lola Delaney, an older woman stuck in a loveless marriage with her recovering alcoholic husband, played by Burt Lancaster. It's a role tailor-made for an Oscar, since she gets to show incredible pathos as a fragile woman always looking at the past until the moment she realizes that it's not a way to live.

Jane Fonda – Klute – 1971
Jane Fonda won two Oscars before her father, the legendary Henry Fonda, won his. Fonda's first came for Klute, a perfect example of paranoia that only All The President's Men director Alan J. Pakula could make. The title character is actually a detective played by Donald Sutherland, who has to solve the disappearance of a rich executive. Fonda is Bree Daniels, a call girl the executive had contact with. Bree is trying to run away from her connection to the executive, but Klute keeps pulling her in and Fonda is perfect in the role.

Beatrice Straight – Network – 1976 - Best Supporting Actor
For just over five minutes, Beatrice Straight gives one of the most shocking and heartbreaking performances to win an Oscar. In Sidney Lumet's classic Network - one of the best acted films ever made – Straight plays William Holden's wife, who he leaves for Faye Dunaway. Straight has just one scene and she nails it, breaking the truth to Holden. The fact that the Academy remembered that scene proves that they do get it right sometimes.

Emma Thompson – Howards End – 1992
Howards End may seem a bit stuffy today, especially since E.M. Foster's brilliant novel isn't really tailor-made for the movies. The fact that director James Ivory could make Foster's novel work on screen hinged on the performances by Helena Bonham Carter, Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, who practically caries the film as Margaret Schlegel, the bridge between the upper-class Wilcoxes and the middle-class, art-loving Schlegels. Her scenes in the last portion of the film are amazing. Now, that's acting.

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