Diminutive star nominated as best actor

Diminutive actor Peter Dinklage has been nominated as best actor by the Screen Actors Guild for his role in The Station Agent.

The 4 ft 6 ins American, who studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Welsh School of Music and Drama, played a misanthropic dwarf who makes friends despite trying to isolate himself in an old railway yard.

Patricia Clarkson who played a lonesome artist in the same film was nominated as best actress.

Johnny Depp, a surprise Golden Globe nominee last month for playing a wobbly swashbuckler in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, picked up another best actor nomination from SAG – a significant boost for his Oscar chances.

Other big-name stars – Tom Cruise from The Last Samurai, Russell Crowe for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and Nicole Kidman from Cold Mountain – were among those snubbed by the actors guild.

Besides Depp and Dinklage, the lead actor contenders are Sean Penn for Mystic River, Bill Murray for Lost in Translation and Sir Ben Kingsley for House of Sand and Fog.

The lead actress contenders besides Clarkson are Diane Keaton for Something’s Gotta Give, Naomi Watts for 21 Grams, Charlize Theron for Monster and 16-year-old Evan Rachel Wood for thirteen.

The 10th annual ceremony will take place on February 22 in Los Angeles. The guild’s nominations are the last major awards announcement before the Oscar nominations.

SAG nominations are chosen by 4,200 randomly chosen members of the US union. The guild’s full membership of 98,000 is eligible to vote for winners.