The Last of the Mohicans

DANDY: Daniel Day-Lewis, 62nd Annual Academy Awards, 1990
It was never in the cards that Day-Lewis, son of an English poet laureate and an actress, would act or look like anyone else. This superintense performer dives deep inside his characters, hot to explore terra incognita. ... more A fine kind of madness, this soul-searching -- and sometimes Day-Lewis finds it hard to come back from his dramatic excursions. British-born, Irish by choice, he loves American stories, and his gallery of flawed, conflicted New World heroes shows a remarkable grasp of our evolving national character. Fashion sense? Maybe not so much. For a recent Newsweek Oscar roundtable discussion, "the f***er all actors bow to" (George Clooney's phrase) arrived in porkpie hat, earrings, jeans, denim jacket and a black-and-white Western shirt with red roses embroidered on the collar. But, back in 1990, accepting his first Oscar, for "My Left Foot," Day-Lewis nailed the Bohemian dandy look: long, elegant waistcoat, soft bowtie and the shoulder-length mane his Hawkeye sported in Michael Mann's "The Last of the Mohicans." (Barry King/Getty Images)