He would've won the Oscar that year, but he was involved in a controversial scuffle with a producer at the BAFTAs. Ballots had just been send out to the American Academy members and Denzel got more votes because they disapproved of Crowe's thuggish behaviour in London. Crowe won all of the precursor awards that year. He was robbed, but, yeah, at least he won for GLADIATOR. He hasn't been back to the Oscars as a nominee since!

Oh I didn't know that! I don't read the Swedish tabloids, I guess that's why. Well at least I can comfort myself with the fact that he was considered a winner by the majority.

Indeed he hasn't been nominated, but in my honest opinion, he hasn't been cast in anything remotely Oscar worthy material since Cinderella Man. 3:10 to Yuma came close but no cigar. That said, the movies haven't all been bad it's just that the industry seem to have placed Russell on the second shelve.

I agree, he's been in nothing of note as a leading actor since A BEAUTIFUL MIND (2001). His nomination that year was his third Best Actor nod in a row; he was previously nommed for THE INSIDER (1999) and he then won for GLADIATOR (2000). I think his highly publicised affair with Meg Ryan also had a negative effect, on top of his reputation as being difficult to work with.

he was great in The Insider... He's one of the best actors around and was pretty good as a director for The Water Diviner...

Yeah it was a good directing debut. He didn't treat it like a vanity project; if anything he underplayed his role. Very moving too, at times.