I'm following liamenator's excellent pick with a very similar one in the It's an Honour Just to be Nominated category. Like Kubrick, he's a widely acclaimed writer/director whose movies are on pretty much everyone's top 10 lists. Like Kubrick, he won once for writing, but it was a shared award. Unlike Kubrick he was only ever nominated in any category for one of his many great films, which I think is a travesty. Unlike Kubrick he was also an excellent and prolific actor. And, unlike Kubrick he did get a "Lifetime Achievement" award - the "we didn't really appreciate you enough during your career, but you showed us" award.
If you guessed Orson Welles, you're correct. In particular, I'm thinking about Touch of Evil, which was considered a failure in its day, but now (partly thanks to a new edit based on Orson's production notes, and not the studio's hack job) is considered his masterpiece, even over Citizen Kane. IMHO, he also should have won best supporting actor for The Third Man.
Newly edited amazing crane shot from the opening sequence of Touch of Evil:
|