This list contains men and women who never received Oscars in their respective fields but definitely at some point deserved one. This list does not include Honorary Oscars or Lifetime Achievement Award Oscars.
Albert Finney has been nominated for 5 Oscars in his lifetime. His most notable performance came in one of his first, Tom Jones. He was also nominated for Erin Brokovich, The Dresser, and Volcano. If you have never seen Finney in a film, I strongly recommend you watch him in The Browning Version – a lesser known but fantastic film about a teacher of classics.
Richard Burton was nominated 7 times for an Oscar and of those 7; six were in the best actor category. His most famous role was in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf.
Ah, Mrs. Lovett. How I love her, and how the Academy Awards do not. This star was nominated 3 times for Oscars, most notably for Portrait of Dorian Grey, and The Manchurian Candidate. She is probably most famous amongst the thespians as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd (the GOOD one, not the crappy one with Helena Bonham Carter who I do usually enjoy).
Peter O’Toole holds the record for most nominations without ever winning, he has been nominated 8 times, most recently in 2006 with his amazing performance in Venus. He would have won in 1962 for Lawrence of Arabia, if it had not been for Atticus Finch aka Gregory Peck.
He was nominated only once in his long career. He is ranked fifth on AFI’s best actors of all time. He was nominated for Towering Inferno but did not win. He was later awarded honorary awards. He was most famous for his musical movies with Ginger Rogers!
Recently ranked fifth on AFI’s greatest female stars of all time. She was the queen of silent film and is credited as having some of the most unforgettable movie performances ever. She was nominated four times and never won. The nominations were for films such as Anna Christie, Romance (nominated for both in 1930), Camille, and Ninotchka.
You may know Deborah Kerr best as Anna Leonowens from The King and I. She was nominated 6 times for an award and never won. She is considered one of the best female actresses of all time. She has the most nominations for a woman in the Best Actress role with six. She was also nominated for Edward My Son, From Here to Eternity, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, Separate Tables and The Sundowners.
Cary Grant is ranked second on AFI’s best actors of all time. He is most known for some of the greatest movies of all time including North by Northwest, The Philadelphia Story, and To Catch a Thief.
Hitchcock is widely viewed as one of the greatest directors of all time; he never won an Oscar. Known for classics such as Rear Window, The Birds, Rebecca, Lifeboat, and Spellbound (all of those movies where ones in which he was nominated), this Sultan of Suspense deserved one, if not all-5 Oscars he was nominated for…. Boo on the Academy!
SURPRISE! Charlie Chaplin never won an Oscar, EVER! This is rumored to be because of his public disdain for the Oscars. Nonetheless, Charlie Chaplin is considered by many to be the most influential and greatest actor of all time. He received 2 honorary Oscars, but as I said earlier those don’t count. No doubt he should have at least won ONE!
Notable omissions (and there are a few): Glenn Close, Orson Wells, Rosalind Russell, Stanley Kubrick, Robert Altman, D.W. Griffith, and King Vidor
Contributor: Schiesl
Angela Landsbury is best known for Murder She Wrote. It’s alright to say it, it doesn’t take anything away from her talent. But there are so many people out there who know her from Murder She Wrote and only Murder She Wrote.
Stanley kubrick should have been on the actual list and not a notable omission. he did win a oscar and that was for visual effects in 2001 but he deserves much more.
I would add Barbara Stanwyck to this list. She is one of the greatest actresses of all time and lost all four of her Oscar nominations. How she didn’t win for ‘Double Indemnity,’ is something I’ll never understand.
Really? Alfred Hitch*****never got an oscar???
‘The General’. In 2002 voted the 15th best film of all time!!!
WOT, NO OSCAR FOR BUSTER ? NO BUSTER HERE? (Excuse the flabbergasted caps.)
You’ve got it, Chershey.
So may his neglectors be pursued by hordes of relentless women in full cry and great bouncing boulders for all eternity.
First off, it’s unfortunate that the Oscars are a joke. I’ve worked with numerous voting members of the academy, and I’ve heard, literally hundreds of times, the phrase, “Oh, I always vote for my friends.” That’s after they’ve been asked who they were voting for.
That said, D.W. Griffith was such a racist, it’s OK with me, him not getting anything. But, what about Glenn Close? She holds the record for most nominations. Her peers literally bow in her presence.
Well yes. O.K. So he did get a Special Award in 1959. And that certainly does disqualify him from this list.
Wasn’t that though a bit like saying, “Hey, this genius of the cinema might die without an Oscar. What would everyone say about us then? We’d better give him something quick.”?
So the women and boulders will still do for before 1959.
Very good list, it makes you realise that even the best of the best miss out.
Another good list I think would be stars that you would expect to have been nominated for an Oscar but never have, for example Kevin Bacon, John Cusack, Martin Sheen, Steve Martin, Donald Sutherland, Scarlet Johansen…
Check out Mr. Chaplin receiving his Honorary Award from the Academy. A very touching, moving moment. To make it easier, check out my YT page (http://uk.youtube.com/user/revolver04. It’s in my Favourites.
Ah, i love the General and yeah it was to bad that in 1927 it didnt win any. It didnt gain its fame till we saw its influence on cinema. Like “It’s a Wonderful Life” Bombed at the box office but now is one of the most cherished movies of all time
I’m so glad you do too, schiesl. Thank goodness we have it on DVD. What you say reminds me of the old saying about geniuses and the exceptionally talented often not being fully appreciated in their own lifetime.
Reaction here suggests that Oscars may perhaps be just another kind of controversial LV list!!
(Putting on my glasses and boater hat)
Chershey, Anon: I thought it was always _Harold Lloyd_ who got the snub when it was time to talk about the early greats.
Sure enough, Lloyd got the “We forgot” Honorary Oscar in ’53.
QDV.
I felt guilty about Harold Lloyd even as I was writing. Thanks for salving my conscience.
Lloyd neglectors can be condemned to cling on to a high-building clock hand for eternity.
A list of such Honorary Oscar ‘conscience’ winners might also be revealing.
great list, i was surprised to see many of the names. charlie chaplain for sure was a shock.
what angela landsbury wasn’t nominated for bedknobs and broomsticks? i guess being the woman behind murder she wrote isn’t good enough for the committee.
Stanley Kubrick definitely deserves a place on this list and not just on the bottom in smaill letters.
Great list except Charlie Chaplin won THREE Oscars, two of which should count. In 1928, his special Oscar for “The Circus” was the Academy’s way of saying the film was so good, no one else would have won if it was in the running for the regular awards. 1971 was an honorary award but in 1972, Chaplin won an honest to goodness non-honorary Oscar for Best Original Score for “Limelight”.
which was made in 1952…so i am really confused on it and therefore didnt count it…i think it was more of an honorary oscar then a “real” one
Alan Bates turned in some pretty nifty performances: ‘Butley’, ‘The Go-Between’, ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’,'The Fixer’ (nominated)and so on.
Angela Lansbury will always be Jessica Fletcher to me. Also, The Birds still scares me to this day.
Leo DiCaprio
I have to say, I’ve always thought Richard Burton was a giant ham!
Cary Grant should have won for Philadelphia story instead of Jimmy Stuart. In fact, wasn’t Stuart not even going to the Oscars that year until someone leaked it to him that he was going to win?
QDV and Anon : Harold Lloyd wasn’t “snubbed” by the Oscars. When the Oscars first began, the vast majority of his acting, and certainly his best performances (Safety Last!, The Freshman) had already been done years before. He only had 4-5 acting credits in the Academy Award era, in films that just weren’t as good as his previous works. They couldn’t have given him an award if he was no longer making movies! They did the right thing with the special award later on.
whatiswrong : D.W. Griffith really wasn’t as bad a racist as everyone has made him out to be. Sure, the undeniable overtones present in “Birth of a Nation” are difficult for modern audiences to defend. But his follow-up film “Intolerance” roundly denounced slavery in an effort to silence his critics. Even more telling is his later work “Broken Blossoms,” which tells the moving story of a romantic relationship between a white woman and a Chinese man. This was made in 1919, well before others in Hollywood seriously explored concepts like interracial marriage (“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” was released in 1967). This article from Slate talks about how Griffith was actually pretty apolitical, certainly not the raving racist modern critics often portray him as. http://www.slate.com/id/2076307/
Regarding this list, I was shocked to learn that Hitch*****never one an Oscar,nor the late,great Charlie Chaplin ( but he did lose a Chaplin look-alike contest so…) but you forgot the greatest actor of all time…ME!!! Granted, I’m still not an actress but I swear I will win one Oscar for those great talents that never got one!
Ohrmets: Knew that, and agree with you about “the right thing.” Lloyd tends to be forgotten, though, when there are discussions of early comic geniuses like Buster Keaton and Charles Chaplin. Pardon me for being loose and fast with my metaphors.
It IS a crime against humanity, though, that Peter O’Toole doesn’t have an award. :-/
QDV : You’re absolutely right, Lloyd always gets third billing to Chaplin and Keaton, even though they are all great in their own ways. I think Lloyd’s “The Boy” character is often much more relatable than Chaplin or Keaton–he’s always plucky and optimistic, not quite as lamentable and depressing as the Little Tramp.
And even if the only thing Peter O’Toole ever did was “Lawrence of Arabia,” he would still deserve to be on this list!
81, Iain,
Struggling to disagree.
Ohrmets,
Completely unspecialised though I am as a very low-level cinephile, the historical aspect did worry me, so thanks for adding a bit of perspective on Harold Lloyd. Perhaps though it’s simply a good opportunity to trumpet forgotten heroes.
Presumably people’s concepts of what amounts to a suitable film or role for an Oscar may have changed over the years as well? (A question, not a statement.)
Oh my god, PLEAZZE… Richard Burton most definitely was NOT one of the “best in Hollywood” and most definitely never DESERVED to win an oscar.
Please check your facts. And watch some of Burton’s performances. He did a handful that were good. Almost none were of a caliber higher than that. And he did a boatload of performances that were godawful. He was a screeching, overacting ham. But don’t take MY word for it… back in the early 80s Burton was nominated one of the top–if not THE top, memory escapes me now–bad actor of all time by Harry and Michael Medved in their book “The Golden Turkey Awards.” You’ll know Michael Medved from his stint on TV as a film critic. The Medveds are not alone in this appraisal of Burton’s “talents” (or lack thereof). He’s been panned by some of the top critics in the biz, including the ever-tasteful and ever hard-to-please but always on-the-money John Simon. Do not be mistaken by any hack, middlebrow, midcult critics who may have *liked* Burton (Pauline Kael, perhaps? But I don’t know what her opinion of him was) all one need do is watch some of his films, and pretty soon you know you’re in the presence of acting awfulness in line with Victor Mature or John Agar. Worse, in fact, since as the Medveds pointed out, Burton came from a respected background on the stage.
But on film, he truly sucked.
Albert Finney looks like William Shatner
good list
Charlie Chaplin did win one Oscar (for Best Musical Score) for a film 20 years after it was made. It qualified in the 1970s because it was never shown in Los Angeles for at least one week when it was originally made … a requirement for Oscar.
Coincidentally, I just created a list on Friday of Fun Facts about Chaplin, else I wouldn’t have known about the Oscar bit.
You can read more at:
7 Things You May Not Know About Charlie Chaplin:
http://www.stampsofdistinction.com/2008/07/7-things-you-may-not-know-about-charlie.html
They might create a new occasional (posthumous) Oscar category honouring and commemmorating those who were never honoured, and whom we now consider should have been. Eisenstein would also come immediately to mind. Who would collect their statues though, and where would they be lodged?
Anon : Yes, the Academy’s standards and general notions of what constitutes a great film have certainly changed over the years. The most obvious example is the snubbing of Charlie Chaplin. When the Academy Awards first began, the Academy and Hollywood in general were no longer keen on silent films. The “talkie” age had begun and most in the industry moved to embrace that format, deeming silent films as outdated. This, in part, explains why Chaplin did not win any awards (or even nominations) for two of his greatest works (City Lights and Modern Times).
[quote]She’ll most likely win one yet, but so far Kate Winslet has been nominated five times with no wins, which ties her with Olivia de Havilland for noms-w/out-wins. Both would be deserving for sure, though dear Olivia is in her 90’s now.[/quote]
Hi HS:
Actually, Olivia de Havilland was nominated for five Oscars –
1950 — Best Actress — The Heiress (1949)
1949 — Best Actress — The Snake Pit (1948)
1947 — Best Actress — To Each His Own (1946)
1942 — Best Actress — Hold Back the Dawn (1941)
1940 Best Actress in a Supporting Role — Gone with the Wind (1939)
and won two:
The Heiress
To Each His Own
(Both EXCELLENT films, btw.)
HAH! That picture of Peter O’Toole makes me think of when Bill Hader did him on Saturday Night Live. “Once, while gloriously drunk, I stole a train!”
Harrison Ford needs to be mentioned here. I believe he was only nominated once for The Witness. Other films include the Star Wars franchise, the Indiana Jones franchise, Patriot Games, and Blade Runner among more.
Interesting list though.
#8, while I like Angela Lansbury, I highly disagree with the swipe at Helena Bonham Carter in Sweeney Todd, which I enjoyed very much. I tried to watch the Broadway with Lansbury, and I just kept thinking of Ms. Potts. And now, I keep thinking of Craig Ferguson going ‘HAS THERE BEEN A MURRRDER?!’
Just because you didn’t like Burton’s version doesn’t mean you should mention it in an unrelated list.
Charlie: Oscar is a gift that hold beside door for don’t closed door!
Richard Burton sucks? Sorry Randall but in his WORST performance, he was better than anything Tom Hanks ever did, or will do, for instance – Ever see Burton perform Shakespeare? I thought not – He was peerless -
Cary Grant was so versatile, everything he did was GREAT. He could play any role, and to perfection consistently. No actor today, none, can even come close to being as good as he was -
Compare Kate Winslet with Olivia De Havilland? I hope you meant for Academy Award nominations only. If not, it just goes to show you that most people today have no clue about how great the actors of the past were.
Others mentioned here as deserving Oscars are so laughable: Harrison Ford, Alan Bates, Kevin Bacon, John Cusack, Martin Sheen, Steve Martin (you’ve got to be kidding!), Donald Sutherland, Scarlet Johansen et al. Hey, if they’re your only frame of reference, I feel sorry for what you’ve missed.
Charles Chaplin was ignored due to the politics of the times and his sordid personal life – some of you lament about Harold Lloyd not winning an Oscar – He was a result of what Chaplin did – Chaplin singlehandedly created an art form in film comedy, whereas, none existed before he came on the scene – everyone else save for Buster Keaton, my personal favorite, was an afterthought. Both Keaton and Chaplin respected each other tremendously, but both actors had totally different styles – Lloyd was mildly funny, but just regurgitated Chaplin. He even knew that.
This list is pathetic – It’s obvious that it was made with little or no knowledge of truly great actors – Where is Kirk Douglas (Paths Of Glory, The Bad & The Beautiful, Lust For Life, Lonely Are The Brave, not to mention that he gave jobs to blacklisted Hollywood writers like Dalton Trumbo, and insisted that he be billed using his real name in Spartacus – a completely underrated actor)? Tony Curtis? Edward G. Robinson, and many others you failed to list or are not aware of.
Actors back in the day HAD to be more versatile than the next guy – the competition was fierce – They all could sing, dance, and perform almost any role – they fought their way up from Vaudeville and hundreds of one-night-stands, they tread many boards honing their talents like the professionals they were – the actors of today are all one-dimensional – they find something that works and then play variations of it in every role they take, i. e., Robin Williams, Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford – they do not know what it was like to work as hard as actors before them did – Today, you have a hit film and you’re an instant legend……..sad
Even the character actors of the ’20s, ’30s, ’40s, ’50s, ’60s were leaps and bounds better than the top actors on the screen today. No, the bar has been set so low that a hole has been dug to accommodate it for what passes as talent today – How about a list of the greatest character actors of all time – I’ll bet that if you are honestly compiling a list of them, most would be from the Golden Age of cinema (Thomas Mitchell, Walter Brennan, Lionel Barrymore, to name a few). Oh, and by the way, whatever their personal politics were or how bizarre their personal lives were, that should not even figure in with their breadth of work. Old, lovable Walter Brennan was a virulent racist who danced a jig on the set of The Guns of Will Sonnet when informed that Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. I still am able to watch and admire him for the superb actor that he was, even though I find him to be personally reprehensible.
RL,
Actors of the past weren’t one-dimensional: John Wayne? Betty Grable?
Actors of the present are one-dimensional and play variations of it in every role they play: Dustin Hoffman? Meryl Streep?
Those are examples only. Lists could be compiled from both.
Have you listened to past actor-laddies trying to speak with pathetic cockney, Scottish or German inflections, by the way, and then listened to the perfect renderings of the same kinds by the likes of Robin Williams and Meryl Streep? How do you suppose the Brit, Hugh Laurie, got chosen to play the American Dr House? Incidentally he also has other, utterly different roles to his credit. (No, I’m not putting him up for an Oscar!)
Sorry, your post doesn’t in the slightest present itself as objective assessment, even to a minor, part-time film-buff with an enormous admiration for the past such as myself. That doesn’t prevent me from wholeheartedly backing your proposal of Kirk Douglas, for example.
I’m sure there are many others better qualified to take up the cudgels for modern cinema. This is just to hold the fort.
By the way, Sweeping generalisations are intellectually lazy and for the most part also tend not be true, except to the *converted*.
But in particulars, I’m with you all the way on Buster Keaton.
WTF?!?! Angela Lansbury never got an oscer. i’m only 17 not in here time and knows who she is. she’s an icon. why dosnt she have a oscer?
And, go figure, Walter Brennan was the first actor to win 3 academy awards!
RL,
By the way, some while back, out of sheer laziness, we made the grave mistake of sitting through ‘The Wild Geese’ for the second time in our lives. In which Burton goes through the motions, though of course always better than anything of Hanks. More recently, and with great delight, we watched ‘Big’ again, in which Hanks gives a delicious performance, although always worse than anything Burton did. We shall be watching ‘Big’ again, and perhaps again and again. Poor taste and judgement, of course. We’ll leave ‘The Wild Geese’ for your more discerning palate.
I’m kinda surprised Johnny Depp wasn’t even mentioned.
To my knowledge neither Marlene Dietrich nor Judy Garland received Oscars or honorary Oscars. And Deserved them.
Alan Bates was a fine fine actor. Can’t figure why anyone would take a mean swipe at him.
Hitch*****deserved a nomination, at least, for Psycho.
Rod Taylor. Any nominations? Certainly better actor than that nut job Russell Crowe.
Roddy McDowell. Any nominations…at least for supporting role?
Who can figure that Cher gets the Oscar but none of the above. Although she gave a good performance.
i know orson wells is considered a “notable omission”, but being a huge fan of his work, i believe he deserved a spot ont this list. overall nicely done, jf.
very few ladies on list
There are three ladies on this list, which is more than most. Plus many of the best female actresses have gotten their credit, thank god
Ditto Robert Mitchum
Hitch*****never won an Oscar?
Shameful…
And wow Albert Finney
I’ll only ever remember that guy as Daddy Warbucks xD
Angela Lansbury must had been great as Ms. Lovett!! BUT I LOVE HBC!
Heath Ledger anyone? Although that will most likely change come Oscar time this year.
Stage and screen legend Angela Lansbury is a great actress. Mrs. Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate is not only her best screen performance, but also one of the greatest female performances ever! It’s a shame she lost her third Oscar nomination to Patty Duke. Ms. Lansbury deserves to be recognized with an Honorary Oscar for her outstanding contribution to the art of film.
RL get over your self…you are obviously not a film buff your just a fan of movies that richard burton has done.
Hurrah! Finally someone who shares my love for Angela Lansbury’s Ms. Lovett!
Harrison Ford
Robert Redford-for acting
This is proof that the Oscars are worthless, they don’t even give it to ppl who REALLY deserve it.
Hey there guys…
i do agree with u about the oscar being a reward for great hits and not for masterpeices , this is shown in how my best films of all time has never won oscars, and actors in roles never won oscars, here is a little list that i want to add, and i want to know what do you think of it?
Malcolm McDowell, for Alex Delarge in A Clockwork Orange
Frank Darabont, For Both: the Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption
Peter Sellers for Dr.StrangeLove
David Fincher for Seven, and Fight club (Not Even Nominated)
and ofcorse the most underrated Director in the view of the oscars, Stanly Kubrick…. for atleast 8 of his movies (A Clockwork Orange, Dr.Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Paths of Glory, Full Metal Jacket, The Shining, Spartacus, Barry Lyndon)…I mean Com on??
how did this man never won an oscar???
he produced the best pictures of all time, his brilliancy in directing is just unachievable by any other director and the effect he leaves in his audince !!
this is my friend few of many people i see who deserve to win oscars
i am in a permenant state of releif that al pacino doesn’t have to be on this list.
I heart Angela Lansbury!!! Hope she’ll receive a Lifetime Achievement from the Academy!