Playing real-life roles is the key to winning here, as it is at most showbiz awards. That's paid off for eight of the last 10 victors in this category. Standout examples this year include Brendan Gleeson as Winston Churchill in "Into the Storm" and Kevin Bacon in "Taking Chance" as a Marine officer who escorted the body of a slain soldier from Iraq to his hometown in Wyoming. Alexander Skarsgard shines as a Marine sergeant fighting in the 2003 Iraq war in "Generation Kill."

LEAD ACTOR IN A TV MOVIE / MINISERIES
(Front-runners)
Kevin Bacon, "Taking Chance"
Kenneth Branagh, "Wallander: One Step Behind"
Paddy Considine, "My Zinc Bed"
Brendan Gleeson, "Into the Storm"
Cuba Gooding Jr., "Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story"
Kevin Kline, "Cyrano de Bergerac"
Ian McKellen, "King Lear"
Iqal Naor, "House of Saddam"
Jonathan Pryce,"My Zinc Bed"
Tom Selleck, "Jesse Stone: Thin Ice"
Alexander Skarsgard, "Generation Kill"
Kiefer Sutherland, "24: Redemption"

http://goldderby.latimes.com/awards_goldderby/2009/07/tv-news-382591057-...