Awards season: it doesn’t always go the way you think it will! Snafus like 2017’s Moonlight/La La Land mix-up have proven that – although sometimes Oscar night surprises are more subtle. For instance, an actor that you could swear is drowning in Academy Awards actually has no wins to their name. Is it fair? No. Should you and all the attendees at your Oscars party fight for hours about why these actors actually deserve the industry’s biggest awards? Yes. Below, find 19 hallowed Hollywood actors who are surprisingly Oscar-free.
Amy Adams
Six-time nominee Adams – recognised for her turns in Junebug, Doubt, The Fighter, The Master, American Hustle and Vice – has, shockingly, never won an Oscar, though it feels like only a matter of time until she does.
Edward Norton
Despite four nods over four decades – for Primal Fear, American History X, Birdman and A Complete Unknown – the American actor has somehow never made it to the Oscars podium.
Guy Pearce
The star of Best Picture winners The Hurt Locker and The King’s Speech, not to mention Oscar nominees LA Confidential and Memento, Pearce, to the astonishment of many, celebrated his very first Oscar nomination last year, with his terrifying supporting turn in The Brutalist.
Isabella Rossellini
Her mother, silver screen icon Ingrid Bergman, scooped three acting Oscars (for Gaslight, Anastasia and Murder on the Orient Express) and her father, the legendary director Roberto Rossellini, was nominated for co-writing Paisan, but Blue Velvet star Isabella Rossellini had never been recognised by the Academy – that is, until last year, when she secured her first nod, for her supporting performance in Conclave.
Bradley Cooper
In the running most recently for Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture for his virtuosic work in Maestro, Cooper has now been nominated for an Oscar a jaw-dropping 12 times for his acting, writing, directing and producing on a wide range of projects, from Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle to American Sniper, A Star is Born, Joker and Nightmare Alley.
Saoirse Ronan
The 31-year-old has, remarkably, already racked up four Oscar nominations – for her moving performances in Atonement, Brooklyn, Lady Bird and, most recently, Little Women.
Carey Mulligan
Earning her third Best Actress Oscar nod for Maestro in 2024, Mulligan (previously recognised for her work in An Education and Promising Young Woman) is certainly deserving of an Academy Award.
Annette Bening
Also in the Best Actress category in 2024 with her barnstorming turn in Nyad, Bening has been nominated for an Oscar a total of five times. (Coincidentally, Bening’s husband, Warren Beatty, is also 0-4 for acting Oscars, although he won the Best Director prize for Reds in 1982.)
Glenn Close
Over the course of her storied career, Close has been nominated a whopping eight times for her roles in films including The Big Chill (1983), Fatal Attraction (1987) and Dangerous Liaisons (1988), but she’s never taken an Oscar home. (Yuh-Jung Youn spoiled her most recent bid in 2021.)
Michelle Williams
Nominated five times – for 2005’s Brokeback Mountain, 2010’s Blue Valentine, 2011’s My Week with Marilyn, 2016’s Manchester by the Sea, and 2022’s The Fabelmans – Williams hasn’t yet brought an Oscar home, although that day feels inevitable.
Isabelle Huppert
For all of her astonishing work with the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, Maurice Pialat, Michael Haneke, Claire Denis and Hong Sang-soo over the last 50 years, Huppert has been nominated for an Academy Award just once, for her performance in Paul Verhoeven’s erotic thriller Elle (2016).
Ethan Hawke
Hawke’s filmography is legendary, ranging from indie and arthouse favourites (Reality Bites; the Before trilogy) to mainstream hits (Dead Poets Society, Gattaca). Still, he’s been up for an acting Oscar just three times – for Training Day in 2002, Boyhood in 2015, and Blue Moon this year – and never won before.
Stanley Tucci
Despite memorable roles in films like Julie & Julia and Big Night (which he co-directed with Campbell Scott), Tucci has only been nominated once, for The Lovely Bones, walking away from the 2010 Oscars empty-handed (all the better to cook and eat his way across Italy). The same role also earned Tucci a BAFTA and Golden Globe nomination.
Ian McKellen
The acting legend has been nominated twice, for his roles in 1998’s Gods and Monsters and 2001’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, but has yet to win. Don’t cry for him, though; he’s the proud recipient of six Olivier awards, a Tony and a Golden Globe.
Samuel L Jackson
Despite having one of the most recognisable voices in Hollywood, Jackson didn’t win in the Best Supporting Actor category when he was nominated for his 1994 performance in Pulp Fiction. Years later, after he failed to get a nod for 2015’s The Hateful Eight, Jackson’s wife, LaTanya Richardson, said that she and her husband had “moved on” from the snub. “I’m disturbed by it all, but we gotta remember: the Oscars is one night,” she added.
Liam Neeson
In 1994, Neeson was up for Best Actor for his career-defining role in the Holocaust drama Schindler’s List. When he didn’t win (that was the year Tom Hanks claimed the first of his two consecutive Best Actor trophies, for Philadelphia and then Forrest Gump) many considered it a major upset.
Ralph Fiennes
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Like his Schindler’s List co-star Liam Neeson, Fiennes was nominated for an Oscar in 1994, ultimately losing to Tommy Lee Jones. When he received a second nod, for his leading role in 1996’s The English Patient, he was shut out again, this time by Geoffrey Rush. Last year, he was back in contention with his masterful work in Conclave, but lost to The Brutalist’s Adrien Brody.
Angela Bassett
A Hollywood fixture for 30 years and counting, Bassett received her first Oscar nomination for leading the 1993 Tina Turner biopic What’s Love Got to Do with It, and her second in 2023, for her supporting turn in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, losing out both times.
Sigourney Weaver
Weaver has three Oscar nominations to her name for her roles in Aliens, Working Girl, and Gorillas in the Mist. Securing both of the latter in 1989, she became only the fifth actor ever to receive two acting nominations in the same year – but as of now, she still has no wins.
