2 actors with Utah ties nominated for Best Actor honors


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SALT LAKE CITY — The movie award season is well underway, and two veteran actors with ties to Utah are duking it out for Best Actor honors.

You probably know Robert Redford, but you may not have heard of Bruce Dern.

For over half a century, we watched Robert Redford grow old in many memorable movies, maturing as an honored film director and spearheading our Sundance Film Festival. Even Redford's environmental activism seems to have gone on long enough to mellow out some of his natural opponents.

In November he was honored by Republican Governor Gary Herbert.

"There's not anybody, really, any bigger. And he lives just up the street. He calls Utah home," Gov. Herbert said at the time.

Now at age 77, Redford is getting the best reviews of his career for "All Is Lost." Battling for survival alone on a sinking yacht, he's the only actor in the movie and speaks only one word on camera. He's nominated for Best Actor in the Golden Globes and is widely expected to get an Oscar nomination.

The same is true of Actor Bruce Dern, also 77. In for "Nebraska" he plays a grizzled old drunk who thinks he won a sweepstakes and wants to claim his prize in Nebraska.

Dern also has half a century of movies under his belt, acting in many memorable, often crazy, roles.

These days he's probably known mostly as the father of actress Laura Dern.

But in Utah, his grandfather is a better story, which connects Bruce Dern to one of the most memorable campaign slogans in Utah history.

George Dern was governor of Utah from 1925 to 1933, three years before Bruce was born in Chicago.

The man he beat was Gov. Charles Mabey.

Mabey's portrait looms over his grandson, University of Utah law professor Ralph Mabey. He believes Dern's grandfather benefited from a killer campaign slogan.

"'We want a Dern good governor. And we don't mean Mabey.' That slogan, I don't know if you can beat that slogan," Mabey said.

So, that took care of Dern versus Mabey in 1924.

The real showdown for Dern versus Redford will likely be in the Oscars, not the Golden Globes. They don't directly compete in the Golden Globes because there are separate categories for Best Actor/Drama and Best Actor/Comedy & Musical. In theory, they both could win at the Golden Globes Jan. 12.

The Oscar nominations will be announced Jan. 16. If Bruce Dern and Robert Redford are nominated, they will go head-to-head for the Best Actor Oscar March 2.

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John Hollenhorst

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