Jeremy Davies - "Dickie Bennett", Justified
Jack Huston - "Richard Harrow", Boardwalk Empire
Lennie James - "Morgan", The Walking Dead
David Morse - "Jerry Raines", Lights Out
Eamonn Walker - "Ed Romeo", Lights Out
Cristofer, besides delivering one of the year's best monologues in the Tie Speech, made for an alternately magnetic and fearsome conspiracy-mongerer. Davies regularly made my skin crawl with his depiction of a man-child unafraid to resort to violence when his ambitions outpaced his intelligence. The mask made Huston stand out initially, but his haunted, hollowed-out performance was striking even within Boardwalk Empire's attention-getting ensemble. In a season with a lot of great drama pilots (with varying degrees of shows then delivering on the promise of those pilots), James gave a fairly perfect pilot-only performance, capably handling the task of introducing viewers to the new zombie-dominated world. Though Lights Out was short-lived, I feel like Morse and Walker's performances will stick with me for a long time. Morse embodied the tragedy the show saw in the threat of pugilistic dementia, and Walker continues to stun me with his ability to grant great humanity, spirituality, and depth to characters who in other hands would come across as "magical Negro" stereotypes.
Honorable Mention: Greg Antonacci, Boardwalk Empire; Raymond J. Barry, Justified; Nicholas Brendon, Private Practice; Reg E. Cathey, Lights Out; Bruce Dern, Big Love; Noah Emmerich, The Walking Dead; Jay R. Ferguson, Mad Men; Scott Foley, Grey's Anatomy; Michael J. Fox, The Good Wife; James Frain, True Blood; Zach Gilford, Friday Night Lights; Tim Guinee, The Good Wife; Brad William Henke, Justified; Hal Holbrook, Sons of Anarchy; Bill Irwin, Lights Out; Joe Manganiello, True Blood; Robert Morse, Mad Men; Mark Moses, Mad Men; Denis O'Hare, The Good Wife; Dallas Roberts, The Good Wife; Christopher Stanley, Mad Men; Joseph Lyle Tayor, Justified; Titus Welliver, Sons of Anarchy
Can you tell this was a tough one to narrow down? Mark Moses almost made it - I love Duck Phillips' ongoing downward spiral so much.
I wouldn't be surprised to see: Beau Bridges, Brothers and Sisters; Richard Dreyfuss, Parenthood; Michael Emerson, Parenthood; Paul McCrane, Harry's Law; Jonny Lee Miller, Dexter; Scott Porter, The Good Wife
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