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As Hollywood’s biggest night descends on us once more, and new Academy Awards statues are engraved with new names, we look back on its almost 100-year history.
You might be surprised to learn that some of these industry icons have never won their own award, although some have gotten agonizingly close over the years. Whether it’s a lack of respect at the time or fierce competition, here are some Hollywood icons who have never held their own golden Oscar statuette.
Glenn Close
Glenn Close currently holds the most nominations for a living actor without a single win at the Academy Awards, having earned eight nominations since her first in 1982.
Close earned nominations for best supporting actress three years in a row for The World According to Garp (beaten by Jessica Lange in Tootsie), The Big Chill (Linda Hunt won for The Year of Living Dangerously), and The Natural (beaten by Peggy Ashcroft for A Passage to India). She also earned four best actress nominations: Fatal Attraction (beaten by Cher in Moonstruck), Dangerous Liaisons (Jodie Foster won instead for The Accused), and Albert Nobbs (Meryl Streep beat her for playing British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady). Many predicted she would finally win in 2019 for The Wife (Olivia Colman ultimately won for The Favourite). Most recently, she lost her 2021 supporting actress nomination to Minari’s Youn Yuh-Jung for her role in the not universally loved Hillbilly Elegy.
Some wondered if 2026 would become her year. Her role in Knives Out threequel Wake Up Dead Man earned her almost universal praise, and in a less competitive category than normal, some wondered if it would finally earn her a win. Sadly, she didn’t make the cut, no thanks to Netflix’s lack of FYC promotion.
Luckily, the actor isn’t too defeated about her lack of an Academy Award. Speaking in 2021, she joked that she would rather win a Lifetime Achievement instead of an Oscar: “It might be cool to never get one. I wouldn’t mind being wheeled out when I’m old and drooling, and I have a grey wig to cover my bald head.”
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Peter O’Toole
Alongside Glenn Close, Peter O’Toole holds the record for the most Academy Award acting nominations without a competitive win, earning eight Best Actor nods between 1962 and 2006. He would, in 2003, win an honorary Oscar, something the screen icon was reluctant to take, believing he was “still in the game and might win the lovely bugger outright”.
It’s hard to imagine a performance better than those delivered by O’Toole, but when you look at his nominations, he was against some of the most iconic roles of all time. Lawrence of Arabia might be one of the most praised performances of all time, but he lost to Gregory Peck’s powerhouse Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, a win that is hard to criticize.
His other nominations include for roles in Becket (also beaten by Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady), The Lion In Winter (Cliff Robertson won for sci-fi drama Charly), musical Goodbye My Chips (won by John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit), black comedy The Ruling Class (understandably lost to Brando’s iconic performance in The Godfather), satire The Stunt Man (once again lost to an iconic performance, this time Robert DeNiro in Raging Bull) and comedy My Favorite Year (Ben Kingsley’s Gandhi beat him and it’s hard to argue against that). His last nomination came in 2006 for his role in Venus, which he ultimately lost to Forrest Whitaker for his performance as Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland.
Amy Adams
Amy Adams might be one of the greatest acting talents of the 21st century, but sadly, this has never equalled a nomination. She’s been nominated six times for an Oscar (five for Best Supporting Actress, one for Best Actress), yet the golden statue has somehow eluded her.
Her nominations include Best Supporting Actress nods for Junebug (she lost to Rachel Weisz in The Constant Gardener), Doubt (Penelope Cruz won for Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona), The Fighter (Amy was beaten by her co-star Melissa Leo), The Master (Anne Hathaway won the category for her role in Les Misérables), and Vice (Regina King won that year for her performance in If Beale Street Could Talk). Her only Best Actress nomination came in 2013, for her role as loan fraud Sydner Prosser in American Hustle, which she lost to Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine.
Although in the top nominees of all time, Adams really should have earned even more nominations over her career. Her performance in 2016’s Arrival is one of the biggest snubs in recent Oscar history, plus she also missed out on nominations for 2007’s Enchanted, 2014’s Big Eyes (despite a Golden Globe win), and 2024’s Nightbitch. Still, there is plenty more time for the 51-year-old, who can next be seen in Taika Waititi’s Klara And The Sun. For Amy Adams, it feels like she hasn’t won an Oscar- yet.
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Annette Bening
Despite 2024’s Nyad marking her fifth Oscar nomination, Annette Bening has never won the award. The actor earned her first nomination in 1991, for her supporting role in The Grifters, which she ultimately lost to Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost.
She would later (perhaps controversially) lose the 2000 best actress gong to Hilary Swank in Boys Don’t Cry, despite her acclaimed performance in American Beauty. Bening was later nominated for her role in Being Julia (losing once more to Swank, who won for Clint Eastwood’s boxing drama Million Dollar Baby), The Kids Are Alright (beaten by Natalie Portman in Black Swan), and, most recently, for Jodie Foster’s swimming drama Nyad (losing to Emma Stone’s Poor Things performance after a surprise nomination).
Coincidentally, Annette’s husband, Warren Beatty, has also never won an acting Oscar, although he did land the Best Director prize for Reds in 1982. Annette commented on her long run without a win and appreciated the “rage” people had for it, although she didn’t share the sentiment. “You have to have a sense of humor about it,” she told CNN.
Michelle Williams
Michelle Williams has five Oscar acting nominations, but her string of moving performances has gone unrewarded by The Academy. One of the most nominated actresses in history, her first nomination came aged just 25 for her role in 2005’s Brokeback Mountain. While she lost the race to Rachel Weisz in The Constant Gardener, it marked the start of Michelle’s two-decade rise to awards-stalwart status.
Michelle’s awards came in an era when she was up against acting heavyweights. Her role in Blue Valentine would lose to Natalie Portman’s Black Swan, and her beautiful performance as Marilyn Monroe in the biopic My Week With Marilyn would lose to the other big biopic that year The Iron Lady, with Meryl beating Michelle. Although Manchester By The Sea won big (winning best actor for Casey Affleck and best original screenplay), Michelle sadly lost out that award season to Viola Davis’ powerhouse performance in Fences. After some years away from the ceremony, Michelle was nominated once more for Spielberg’s The Fabelmans (losing to Michelle Yeoh’s Everything Everywhere All At Once).
The actor promises that the awards season isn’t as competitive as it looks, speaking in 2024 to The Hollywood Reporter: “If it appears like a competition, that’s maybe what it looks like from the outside, but it isn’t what I experience with my peers. I experience a lot of warmth, friendly feelings and support for each other’s work.” Aged just 45, there are plenty more years left for Michelle to finally take home an Oscar.
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Ralph Fiennes
Despite three Oscar nominations and multiple memorable performances of the last three decades, Ralph Fiennes has never won an Oscar. He was nominated for both Schindler’s List and The English Patient (he lost to Geoffrey Rush in Australian biopic of piano David Helfgott. Shine), as well as in last year’s papal thriller, Conclave (beaten by Adrien Brody for The Brutalist). Still, the award has never landed in his lap.
His performance as the brutal Nazi commandant in Schindler’s List is considered one of the biggest Oscar misses in award history. The gong went to Tommy Lee Jones for The Fugitive, a performance that has nowhere near the same legacy as Fiennes’s as Amon Göth.
The actor is also a good luck charm for his co-stars. Nine of Fiennes’ co-stars have received Oscar nominations for their work opposite him, with three of them winning. Juliette Binoche for The English Patient, Rachel Weisz for The Constant Gardener and Kate Winslet for The Reader all triumphed at the ceremony when co-starring with the actor.
Richard Burton
Iconic Welsh actor Richard Burton famously never won a competitive Academy Award, despite being nominated seven times. He is considered one of the best actors of all time to never win an Oscar, despite multiple nominations spanning 1952 to 1977. He won the Tony, Grammy, Golden Globe, and BAFTA, but for some reason, the Academy Award stayed out of his grasp, making him one of the few 20th-century icons never to win.
With six best actor nominations, three of them consecutively) for biblical epic The Robe (William Holden won for Stalag 17), historical drama Becket (Burton was beaten by Rex Harrison’s role as Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady), The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (Lee Marvin beat him out for his role in Cat Ballou), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Paul Scofield perhaps rightfully won for A Man for All Seasons for his role of Sir Thomas More) and Anne Boleyn drama Anne of the Thousand Days (John Wayne won his only Academy Award that year for True Grit), plus one for Best Supporting Actor for My Cousin Rachel (which he lost to Anthony Quinn in Viva Zapata!). His last nomination came in 1977, for his role as a psychiatrist in Equus, ultimately missing out to Richard Dreyfuss’ performance in The Goodbye Girl as Elliot Garfield.
Although some will argue that his finest performance came in The Night Of The Iguana, which he was not even nominated for. To a modern cinephile, Burton is one of the best ever to do it, but during this time period, his frequent appearances in the gossip columns and his turbulent romance with Elizabeth Taylor may have stopped The Academy from taking him seriously enough to award the actor a win.
Angela Bassett
It’s hard to think that, with hundreds of acting credits, Angela Bassett has never won an Academy Award; in fact, she has only been nominated twice. Her first nod came in 1994, when she played Tina Turner in the biopic What’s Love Got To Do With It, losing to Holly Hunter in The Piano.
In 2023, it felt like the underrated actor would finally get her dues for her performance in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and then Jamie Lee Curtis pulled off a surprise win for her eccentric role in Everything Everywhere All At Once.
The internet exploded with complaints about her snub, which many felt symbolized the years of black women being snubbed by The Academy. “Of course, in the moment you’re hoping and praying and wishing [you’ll win],” the actress said. “But I never – I don’t walk away thinking ‘I’ve been robbed,’ ” Angela later told Gayle King about the loss.
Additionally, last year, Bassett addressed the controversy that she didn’t feign excitement at Curtis beating her. “Interesting that I wouldn’t be allowed to be disappointed at an outcome where I thought I was deserving,” she said.
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Ed Harris
In Ed Harris’s over-40-year career, he has surprisingly never won an Oscar or an Emmy, despite four Academy Award nominations. Even more shockingly, some of his best performances have been ignored by the awarding body. Nixon, A Beautiful Mind, Glengarry Glen Ross, and Gone Baby Gone are just some of the roles the Oscars snubbed him over.
Ed Harris’ first nomination came for his role in Apollo 13 (he lost, perhaps now unfortunately, to Kevin Spacey in The Usual Suspects). In 1999, he was nominated once more for his supporting role in The Truman Show (losing to James Coburn’s role as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction) and later for playing the iconic artist in Pollock (beaten by Russell Crowe in Gladiator). His last nomination came in 2003 for The Hours alongside Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman (Chris Cooper won that year for Adaptation).
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe has to be one of the most iconic stars in film history, but being the face of Hollywood didn’t equal awards. In her all too short career, Marilyn never earned a nomination for an Academy Award. In fact, she only ever appeared at one ceremony, announcing All About Eve for Best Sound Recording.
In her lifetime, Marilyn never received the praise she deserved from her peers. At the time, she was better known for her frothy roles. These comedic roles weren’t the type of performances that interested The Academy. Now, it’s hard to imagine anyone more on top of their game than Marilyn in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes or Some Like It Hot.
Tragically, Marilyn was only 36 when she passed away, so she never got the time to mature into roles that may have earned her award recognition. Maybe if she had lived on, she would have finally landed a role that would have earned her the respect she desperately wanted from Hollywood. Look at her in films like Bus Stop, there was more substance to the star than many give her credit for.
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Paul Giamatti
Paul Giamatti came close to his first Oscar win in 2024 for his role as a curmudgeon teacher in The Holdovers, before Cillian Murphy picked him at the post for his leading role in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. Even more shocking, over his career, he has only been nominated for two Academy Awards.
While Sideways, 12 Years A Slave, Barney’s Version, and Straight Outta Compton have earned his awards elsewhere, the Oscars have been strangely cold towards one of the finest actors of our generation. Even stranger, his Sideways co-stars Thomas Hayden Church and Virginia Madsen were nominated, but Giamatti in his career-best performance, was missing from that Oscars line-up.
Aside from The Holdovers, Paul was nominated for his supporting role in the Russell Crowe boxing biopic Cinderella Man, though he lost to George Clooney’s performance in Syriana. Frankly, he should have lost that year to Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain, but that is another conversation.
Toni Collette
Not only is criminal that Toni Collette has never won an Oscar, but she has only ever been nominated once. Her one and only nomination came in 1999 for The Sixth Sense, losing to Angelina Jolie for her role in Girl Interrupted.
Toni has been regularly snubbed throughout her career, largely due to taking offbeat roles in indie films. She was overlooked for her work in The Hours (largely overshadowed by Nicole Kidman’s performance), ignored for her subdued work in Little Miss Sunshine (Abigail Breslin and Alan Arkin were rightly nominated), and most notably ignored for her generational performance in Hereditary.
Hereditary has gone down as one of The Academy’s biggest fumbles, likely ignored due to their snobby attitude towards the horror genre. “It’s very sweet that people get so irate that I wasn’t nominated for an Oscar. It’s really nice, people care,” she told WWHL when asked about the lack of nomination.
Edward Norton
Despite four nominations and years of acclaim, an Oscar has eluded Edward Norton. His first nomination came in 1997 for his role alongside Richard Gere (another non-winner and non-nominee) in Primal Fear, losing to Cuba Gooding Jr’s surprise win for Jerry Maguire.
In one of the biggest surprises in modern Oscar history, Norton didn’t win for her performance as a white supremacist in American History X, losing to Roberto Benigni for Life Is Beautiful. The first actor to win a best actor gong for a non-English speaking role not only beat out Norton’s career-defining role, but he also shockingly beat Tom Hanks’ performance in Saving Private Ryan. Some decisions by The Academy really do not age well.
More recently, Norton was nominated for supporting performances for Birdman (unsurprisingly beat by J.K Simmons in Whiplash) and last year for playing Pete Seeger in Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown (losing to Kieran Culkin in A Real Pain). Norton is another actor on the list that feels like their time is yet to come and they’re sure to have many years of fantastic performances left in them.
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Willem Dafoe
Willem Dafoe is an actor whose Oscar win feels long overdue, but his taste in more eccentric roles may be holding him back. While Dafoe has four supporting actor nominations, that feels all too few for a man with a long career of memorable performances. His performances in films like The English Patient, Wild at Heart, The Lighthouse, and Poor Things were all ignored by The Academy, perhaps too out there for the sometimes too conservative awarding body.
Dafoe’s first nomination came in 1987 for Platoon (won by Michael Caine for Hannah and Her Sisters), and he shockingly would not be nominated again until 2001’s Shadow of the Vampire (losing to Benicio Del Toro in Traffic). It was once again a long wait until Dafoe would be nominated again, in a shock nod for his role in Sean Baker’s The Florida Project (losing consistently that season to Sam Rockwell in that year’s heavyweight Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri).
His most recent nomination came in 2019 for his role as Vincent Van Gogh in At Eternity’s Gate, where he was beaten by Rami Malek’s performance as Freddie Mercury in the mostly disliked Bohemian Rhapsody, a win that angered many film fans.
Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter is one of the most decorated living actresses, having won BAFTA, Emmy, and SAG awards, but an Academy Award has eluded her. In fact, Carter has only been nominated twice over her three-decade career.
Her only nomination came from The Wings Of The Dove in 1998 (beaten by Helen Hunt in As Good As It Gets) and The King’s Speech in 2011 (beaten by Melissa Leo in The Fighter, although many would argue that the award belonged to her co-star Amy Adams).
That means all her iconic collabs with Tim Burton (a director who has never been nominated for best director, let alone won an Oscar) have failed to earn awards recognition. Even more criminal, her sublime work in Fight Club, Howards End, and A Room with a View was ignored by The Academy.
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