Frank Langella

This year's lead actor and supporting actor categories offer no end of irony. Although certifiable leading men like Brad Pitt in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Leonardo DiCaprio in "Revolutionary Road," Clint Eastwood in "Gran Torino" and especially Sean Penn in "Milk" (by far the year's most lauded performance) are in the hunt, many of the other prime top-tier contenders likely to hear their names called when Oscar nominations are revealed on Jan.

Though the greatest special effect of "Frost/Nixon" came from Frank Langella's haunting ability to channel the essence of disgraced former President Richard Nixon, he did have some help from hair and makeup. Hairstylist Colleen Callaghan used old pictures of Nixon and a 1977 cover of Time magazine, in particular, to work with Favian Wigs by Natascha in re-creating the exact wave of the president's hair. The $5,000 wig, which was made from human hair, was applied to the actor in a 45-minute process that ended with Langella transforming himself internally.

Richard M. Nixon once said, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore . . . " It wasn't true, of course. That was in 1962 when he'd just lost a gubernatorial election. He came back to be elected president twice. And especially since his resignation on Aug.

Andrew Wagner ("The Talent Given Us") directed this small but fascinating character drama about an ambitious young grad student (Lauren Ambrose from "Six Feet Under") who convinces an aging novelist, Leonard Schiller (Frank Langella), that her thesis about him will resurrect his career. Based on a novel by Brian Morton, it's a seduction-and-abandonment story of an unexpected kind.

Frank Langella likes the way his acting "process" has evolved over the decades. "The older I get, the more the men I play inhabit me in ways that didn't as much as when I was younger," says the 69-year-old actor over the phone from New York City. "I just become them."

Scrutinized by the mass media and skewered by "Saturday Night Live," modern American presidents cry out to be impersonated. Some demand more finesse than others (George H.W. Bush's accent is harder than Jimmy Carter's). But when it comes to Richard Nixon, it seems as though everyone's a Rich Little. All it takes is three ordinary words -- "my fellow Americans" -- to get the party started. Throw in a victory salute and you're ready to book yourself on "The Tonight Show."