11 Amazing Actors Who Have Never Won An Oscar

An old-school movie star and, to say the least, not the world’s most consistent actor, Gere has still been unlucky not to enjoy even one Oscar moment (where the likes of George Clooney have had a fistful). He’s not been far off lately with The Hoax and Arbitrage – it’ll come, maybe, when he finds his Wall Street.

Many of his films (The Grifters, Bullets over Broadway, Being John Malkovich) have been rather big hits with the Academy, but Cusack’s neurotic protagonists never quite charge to the front. You feel he’s still waiting for the signature, mid-career role that will bring him into the fold.

The “American History X” star was nominated for Oscars three times. In 2015, he was nominated for his turn in "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)". Previously, he was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 1999 for “American History X.” Before that, Norton was nominated in 1997 for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, for “Primal Fear.” Surprisingly, Norton was not recognized by the Academy for his roles in other Oscar-nominated pictures like “Fight Club” and “The Illusionist.”

1994: Nominated for Best Supporting Actor, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
2005: Nominated for Best Actor, The Aviator
2007: Nominated for Best Actor, Blood Diamond
2014: Nominated for Best Actor, The Wolf of Wall Street
2014: Nominated for Best Picture (as producer), The Wolf of Wall Street

We needn’t pretend all of Carrey’s comic roles are nomination-worthy – The Grinch, anyone? – and he’s made a lot of dross amid the jewels. When he really digs deep, though, it’s surprising what emotional resources he finds to depict Everymen in sorry crisis, discovering the limits of what they’ve been handed.

For years best-known as that weaselly guy in the films with all those other guys, Buscemi is legitimately the great American character actor of the 1990s, more or less the Elisha Cook, Jr of that era. No nominations for either? Some faces find it hard to get respect.

Daniels was about the only person not recognised for James L. Brooks’s Terms of Endearment (1983), and he’s managed to cruise his way though a durable Hollywood career, clowning it up here and there, supplying a bitter gravitas elsewhere, without bagging one.

Hugh Grant is amazing at what he does, and basically terrible, as he’d be the first to admit, at being asked to do anything else. His whole career hinges on seeming to make a pig’s ear of being a romantic lead, and making that hilarious, which he does with a natural skill and timing we admit without appreciating quite enough.

Ryan’s in the Carrey/Grant category of someone whose ticks can grate in her lesser vehicles, but when she’s on, she’s really on – star wattage, comic timing, and nutso charm like no one else’s. Her CV’s missing one hand-slap-to-forehead non-nomination that would make up for everything.

Believe it or not, Murray has only been nominated for an Oscar once for his role in “Lost in Translation.” Of course, this was a great performance by Murray, but certainly not the only one. Murray has been in several other Oscar-nominated films including “Moonrise Kingdom,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” and “Ghostbusters.” A great performance on Murray’s part also not recognized by the Academy is the 2004 Wes Anderson film “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.”

This veteran actor has never won an Oscar, despite being nominated three times (though, not since the ’80s). In 1987, Weaver was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role for “Aliens.” Then, in 1989, she was nominated for two separate movies—“Working Girl” and “Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey”—but won neither award.