How is it that the two actors who had the worst track record with the Oscars sterred in the same film?

It's clear now that the biggest robbery in Burton's career came when he lost for his work in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf to PauL Scofield for A Man for All Seasons. This may have been the last time that the old guard of Hollywood managed to succeed at stamping out the revolution that was fast approaching - they knew what Virginia Woolf represented and it scared the hell out of them. Man For All Seasons was their saint in a white horse. But they couldn't stop the tide. The next year The Graduate and Bonnie and Clyde dominated the Oscar nominations and the zeitgeist and the studio system started to crack. Mike Nichols got the Oscar he should have gotten the previous year but Burton never got recognized or had nearly as great a role again.

O'Toole had better luck going forward - some of his best roles were still ahead of him. Much of his problem was difficult competition. He should have won for Lion in Winter: there's no excuse for that. Playing a Henry II as an older but no less vital ruler was one of the greatest roles I've ever seen. As for Becket, I suspect he and Burton split the vote and I have to say their were a lot of great performance nominated: in addition to them and Harrison, Peter Sellers was in Dr. Strangelove and Anthony Quinn played Zorba the Greek. The Oscars had a tough choice that year for Best Actor.