Oscars 2019: Best actors of all time who have never won an Academy Award, but definitely deserve one

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Harry Fletcher13 January 2020

If there’s one thing to know about the Academy, it’s that it doesn’t always get things right.

Illustrious and divisive in equal measure, the Oscars continue to split opinion every year — something which, ultimately, testifies to the Awards’ enduring relevance and influence in Hollywood.

While things are rarely black and white in the world of film criticism, there are times where it is clear that the Academy made a clear mistake.

It goes beyond the likes of J-Lo being snubbed at this year's awards; certain oversights can take place over years, or even decades, with some of the biggest talent in Hollywood continually overlooked.

From groundbreaking filmmakers to screen legends, these are the people who deserve an acting Oscar, but have never been awarded one.

Amy Adams

PA

Amy Adams is one of the most critically lauded actors of her generation, and yet an Academy Award win still eludes her.

After first making a big impression in Hollywood with roles in Catch Me If You Can and Junebug, Adams racked up six Academy Award nominations for turns in The Master, American Hustle, Doubt, The Fighter and, in 2019, Vice. However, it's the films she wasn’t nominated for that seem the biggest oversights.

While she could have simply counted herself a little unlucky before, things took a pretty baffling turn in 2016. The Academy refused to acknowledge her career-best performances in both Denis Villneneuve’s excellent sci-fi Arrival, and Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals. Either would have been deserving winners, and Adams’s performances arguably justified two nominations that year. Instead, Brie Larson won for her performance in Room.

Peter O’Toole

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British acting royalty Peter O’Toole was nominated eight times for the Best Actor Oscar, including a run of four nominations between 1962 and 1969, starting with his career-defining turn in Lawrence of Arabia.

While losing out to the likes of The Godfather’s Marlon Brando in 1972 and Raging Bull’s Robert De Niro in 1980 was understandable, O’Toole was incredibly unlucky to miss out against the likes of My Fair Lady’s Rex Harrison and Charly’s Cliff Robertson during the mid 60s.

The Academy, perhaps recognising that O’Toole had been unfairly treated down the years, presented him with an honorary Academy Award in 2002 — something the actor initially resisted, saying he wanted to win one outright. In fairer circumstances, perhaps he would have done.

Lauren Bacall

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Regarded as one of the leading actresses of Hollywood’s golden age, with performances alongside Humphrey Bogart in To Have And Have Not and The Big Sleep, it’s surprising that Lauren Bacall was only ever nominated for one Oscar over the course of her career.

Her performance in The Mirror Has Two Faces was the clear favourite for the Best Supporting Actress category ahead of the 1997 ceremony. The role was extolled by critics, and the award was seen as the ideal recognition of Bacall’s illustrious career. Is wasn’t to be though, as Harvey Weinstein’s campaigning for The English Patient is thought to have swayed the Academy, resulting in Juliette Binoche picking up the prize. A surprised Binoche herself recognised the injustice, acknowledging Bacall during her speech, saying: “I thought Lauren was going to get it, and I think she deserves it”.

Richard Burton

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As with O'Toole, Richard Burton was nominated a staggering seven times without finding success at the Oscars — remarkable, given he was arguably the most influential British actor of his generation.

His first nod came for My Cousin Rachel in 1953, which earned him a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the age of 28. Seven Best Actor nominations then followed, for performances in films including The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? His biggest snub came in 1978 though, when his performance as Dr. Dysart in Equus — one of the strongest of his career — was overlooked in favour of Richard Dreyfuss’s turn in The Goodbye Girl. His laughable performance in Exorcist II: The Heretic just a few months before could have swayed the opinion of the Academy, but it’s still a travesty he was never recognised with an award.

Orson Welles

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For a picture widely regarded as the greatest film ever made, Citizen Kane fared poorly at the Academy Awards. Despite receiving nine nominations, the movie missed out to How Green Was My Valley for Best Picture in 1942 and picked up just one award for Best Original Screenplay — scant consolation.

It was critically lauded at the time and is now recognised as one of the finest movies ever made, but its director and star Orson Welles missed out on individual awards, with John Ford picking up the Best Director award instead for How Green Was My Valley.

His luck didn’t change in the years that followed either — Welles’ follow-up The Magnificent Ambersons completely missed out after receiving four nominations in 1943, and it took until 1970 before he received an Academy Honorary Award for services to the industry — which Welles decided against picking up in person. Seventy-seven years on, Citizen Kane marks the biggest Oscars snub of all time, and Welles’s genius was never fully recognised by the Academy with the Best Director or Best Actor prize that he deserved.

Matt Damon

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Matt Damon’s films don’t always align with the Academy’s tastes — we can’t imagine a world where We Bought a Zoo, EuroTrip or the awful Great Wall pick up Best Picture gongs.

That said, he’s earned a reputation as an impressive and versatile actor over the years, and he can count himself a little unlucky when it comes to the Oscars.

Damon was unfortunate to miss out on Best Actor to Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets back in 1998, after being nominated for his engrossing performance in Good Will Hunting. Nicholson had a huge amount of fun playing misanthropic writer Melvin Udall, but it pales a little in significance compared to Damon’s striking performance, which announced him on the world stage. He might have shared the Best Original Screenplay Oscar with Ben Affleck for the film, but we think he deserved more, and he’s been unsuccessful ever since, despite being nominated for performances in Invictus and The Martian.

Glenn Close

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Glenn Close has achieved seven Oscar nominations to date, and many critics — including the Standard’s Matthew Norman — predicted that 2019 could finally be the year the actress came in from the cold. Her stunning performance in The Wife was a timely reminder of Close’s status as one of the most assured actors in Hollywood, having sustained an impressive career over the last five decades.

Despite having never picked up an award, she proved most popular with the Academy during the 80s, racking up five nominations in the space of just seven years. The most high-profile of those roles — her turn as the unnerving Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction — should have won the Best Actress award, which instead went to Cher for her work on Moonstruck — a charming but less substantial performance. A few years later, she lost out for Best Actress for her turn in Dangerous Liasons; Jodie Foster claimed the Oscar for her powerful role in The Accused.

While she faced tough competition once again in 2019, ultimately losing to Olivia Colman for the top prize, the Academy may one day yet recognise Close’s career as a whole with the award. If they do, it’ll be richly deserved.

2019 Green Book
2018 The Shape of Water
2017 Moonlight
2016 Spotlight
2015 Birdman
2014 12 Years a Slave
2013 Argo
2012 The Artist
2011 The King's Speech
2010 The Hurt Locker
2009 Slumdog Millionaire
2008 No Country for Old Men
2007 The Departed
2006 Crash
2005 Million Dollar Baby
2004 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2003 Chicago
2002 A Beautiful Mind
2001 Gladiator
2000 American Beauty
1999 Shakespeare in Love
1998 Titanic
1997 The English Patient
1996 Braveheart
1995 Forrest Gump
1994 Schindler’s List
1993 Unforgiven
1992 The Silence of the Lambs
1991 Dances With Wolves
1990 Driving Miss Daisy
1989 Rain Man
1988 The Last Emperor
1987 Platoon
1986 Out of Africa
1985 Amadeus
1984 Terms of Endearment
1983 Gandhi
1982 Chariots of Fire
1981 Ordinary People
1980 Kramer vs. Kramer
1979 The Deer Hunter
1978 Annie Hall
1977 Rocky
1976 One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
1975 The Godfather Part II
1974 The Sting
1973 The Godfather
1972 The French Connection
1971 Patton
1970 Midnight Cowboy
1969 Oliver!
1968 In the Heat of the Night
1967 A Man for All Seasons
1966 The Sound of Music
1965 My Fair Lady
1964 Tom Jones
1963 Lawrence of Arabia
1962 West Side Story
1961 The Apartment
1960 Ben-Hur
1959 Gigi
1958 The Bridge on the River Kwai
1957 Around the World in 80 Days
1956 Marty
1955 On the Waterfront
1954 From Here to Eternity
1953 The Greatest Show on Earth
1952 An American in Paris
1951 All About Eve
1950 All the Kings Men
1949 Hamlet
1948 Gentleman's Agreement
1947 The Best Years of Our Lives
1946 The Lost Weekend
1945 Going My Way
1944 Casablanca
1943 Mrs. Miniver
1942 How Green Was My Valley
1941 Rebecca
1940 Gone with the Wind
1939 You Can't Take It with You
1938 The Life of Emile Zola
1937 The Great Ziegfeld
1936 Mutiny on the Bounty
1935 It Happened One Night
1933/1934 Cavalcade
1932/1933 Grand Hotel
1931/1932 Cimarron
1930/1931 All Quiet on the Western Front
1929/1930 The Broadway Melody
1928/1929 Wings

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