There are actors such as Lupita Nyong’o, AnnaPaquin and Mark Boal who went home with the Academy Awards for their performances in early films. On the other hand, there are plenty of other popular actors who have never won an Oscar, even with three nominations. The biggest accolade when it comes to the silver screen, the Oscar accolade is the celebration of the best of Hollywood. However, many actors have set and broken records and are some of the best the entertainment world has ever seen but have yet to earn it.
Popular actors who have never won an Oscar
1. Will Smith
Will Smith is undoubtedly one of the best actors you would find. In a career that spanned more than three decades and with more than 50 acting credits, Smith has yet to win an Oscar. He was nominated for two Oscars in 2002 and 2007 in the Best Actor category. Unfortunately, he didn’t win either.
2. Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp has been acting since 1984 and has appeared in over 70 films and television productions. More so, he has won numerous awards including 14 People Choice Awards out of 18 nominations. In 2008, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street gave him his only Golden Globes award among 10 nominations. However, he is still yet to win the Oscars and was nominated for the most coveted award only three times in 2004, 2005 and 2008, all in the Best Actor category.
3.Robert Downey Jr.
He has always remained among the highest paid actors in the world and has appeared in some of the biggest films around. Robert Downey Jr. started playing since the age of 5 and has nearly a hundred credits on his resume. He has won numerous awards, including three Golden Globes out of five nominations. Nevertheless, he was unable to convert either of his two Oscar nominations in 1993 and 2009.
4. Sigourney Weaver
Sigourney Weaver is the actress who has proven herself beyond reasonable doubt as an actress who will always be important. She began her career in 1971 and has appeared in over a hundred theatre, film and television productions. She has won numerous awards, including two Golden Globes out of seven nominations. However, the famous golden statuette eluded her even after three nominations in 1986 and in 1988 when she had two.
5. Harrison Ford
Your favorite actor, Harrison Ford, is also one of the famous actors who have never won an Oscar. Ford, who has been acting since 1966, has appeared in more than 80 television and film gigs. In 1985, he was set to win the Oscars with a Best Actor nomination for his role in Witness. However, Hollywood Walk of Fame lost to William Hurt for his portrayal of Luis Molina in Kiss of the Spider Woman.
6. Annette Bening
Bening was 22 when she started acting professionally in 1980. In the years that followed, she appeared in more than 40 television productions and films. In total, she received nearly a hundred nominations for her various roles and won nearly 30 awards. She is still missing Oscars, although she was nominated four times in 1990, 1999, 2004 and 2010.
7.Samuel L. Jackson
Of the famous actors who have never won an Oscar, Samuel L. Jackson is probably the most surprising. This is all the more so as he is the most profitable actor in Hollywood with a turnover of more than 7.42 billion dollars in box office receipts from 68 films. More surprisingly, it only received one Oscar nomination, which came in 1994 for Pulp Fiction. Also, he never won a Golden Globes, only managing to get four nominations.
8. Michelle Williams
Williams started acting when she was just 13 years old. At the age of 15, her parents emancipated her. Just two decades into her career, she has been nominated for nearly a hundred awards, winning over 20 awards from more than 50 works on stage, television and film. She was nominated for the Oscars four times in 2006, 2011, 2012 and 2017, but did not win any.
9. Amy Adams
Amy Adams became the highest paid actress in the world three times in her career which began in 1994, at the age of 20. Like many others, her career has spanned theatre, television and film. In terms of the accolades she has received so far in her highly successful career, Adams has been nominated for over 130 awards and has won nearly forty awards, including two Golden Globe Awards out of nine nominations. However, she couldn’t win the Oscars even after being nominated six times.
10. Glenn Close
In the class of top Hollywood stars like MerylStreep (who won 3 Oscars), that’s where you’ll find people like Glenn Close, who had a career spanning nearly 5 decades. She has performed roles both on screen and on stage. With nearly 120 nominations, Close has won almost 50 times in her career, including 3 Golden Globes and 3 Primetime Emmys. However, even with 7 nominations, she still hasn’t won the Oscars.
11. Tom Cruise
When Born on the 4th of July was released in 1990, many people believed that Tom Cruise, who was only 9 years into his acting career, was going to go home with an Oscar for his role in the film. At the end of the day, however, it only earned him one of his three Golden Globe Awards. Cruise came close to winning Oscars again in 1997 and 2000, when he was nominated, but he lost again. Without a doubt, he had a very successful career with over 30 awards, but the Oscars remain elusive.
12. Ian McKellen
Among the actors who have never won an Oscar, there is also the English actor Ian McKellen who one would easily have thought had had more than one Oscar to his name. Ian started his acting career at the age of 20 in 1959. In the years that followed he presented some very good films, two of which earned him Oscar nominations but did not come back from them.
13. Liam Neeson
Liam Neeson caught the eye of moviegoers in the 1993 Oscar-winning film, Schindler’s List. However, he started his career in 1976 and appeared in over a hundred movies and TV shows. Despite being a fan favorite, he received only one Oscar nomination, that of Schindler’s List which he did not convert.
14. Laura Linney
In 1990, Linney, who was 26, made her Broadway debut. Two years later, she got her first role in Lorenzo’s Oil. Nearly three decades later, she not only has numerous appearances on her resume, but also several awards, including 2 Golden Globe Awards and 4 Primetime Emmy Awards. Nevertheless, the Oscars have yet to win, even with three nominations in 2001, 2005 and 2008.
15. Edward Norton
Considered one of the most versatile and talented actors of his generation, Edward Norton has played almost every role, delivering as easy acting as any. He started his career in 1993 and has since appeared in over 40 films. With all he has achieved including the Golden Globes, Norton is also one of the actors who has never won an Oscar despite being nominated for the awards three times.
16. Alfred Woodard
In 2013, Alfre Woodard made history when she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Awards for the 17th time. She was later described as the most versatile performer on television. Much more than that, she also received three Golden Globe nominations, one of which was won at home. Even then, she was only able to get one Oscar nomination in an ongoing career since 1978.
17. Joaquin Phoenix
As an actor, Phoenix has pretty much paid his due. He started acting in 1982 and since then he has appeared in many successful films. Moreover, he has won numerous awards, including the Golden Globe Awards and the Grammy Awards. However, the Oscars eluded him for the three times he was nominated in 2001 for Gladiator, 2006 for Walk the Line and 2013 for The Master.
18. Angela Bassett
Bassett has over a hundred acting credits in a career that spanned over three decades. She has won numerous awards, including the Golden Globe Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards. However, she was unable to capture a golden statuette. She was only nominated once for the highly regarded award for her role in What Love Has To Do With It in 1993 but lost it to Holly Hunter.
19. Ralph Fiennes
English actor Ralph Fiennes almost won the golden statuette four times, but sometimes it managed to escape him. He was nominated twice. for Schindler’s List in 1993 and then The English Patient in 1996. Fiennes, who began his career in 1985, has numerous acting credits and won several awards, including the BAFTA award.
20. James Franco
James Franco has been snubbed by the Oscars many times in the past. He has been an actor since 1997 and has done everything from TV shows to movies. Despite winning numerous other awards, including two Golden Globes out of four nominations, Franco only managed one Oscar nomination in 2011 for 127 Hours which he ultimately didn’t win.