The Golden Globe® nominations get announced in December every year. Then the buzz of this year’s Oscar® hopefuls will keep getting louder and louder until the Oscar® nominations come out in January. So while everybody gets excited about this year’s hopefuls, I thought I would take a look at some of the mistakes the Oscar® voters have made over the years.
This is my personal Top Ten list of classic actors or actresses that never received an Oscar® nomination for their entire career. I have added some honorable mentions at the end of those that just missed making my list. That being said, I acknowledge that there are many more people that could have made the list, but these are my top choices.
1. Joseph Cotten (1905-1994) appeared in 74 movies from 1941’s Citizen Kane (a nice way to start your film career) to 1981.
Joseph helped Ingrid Bergman win her first Oscar® in 1944’s Gaslight as well as helping Loretta Young win her Oscar® in 1947’s The Farmer’s Daughter.
Other classic movies he appeared in would include Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, Shadow of a Doubt, Since You Went Away, Duel in the Sun, and Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte.
According to film historian Danny Peary, in his book Alternate Oscars®, Cotten should have received nominations for The Magnificient Ambersons and Shadow of a Doubt.
2. Glenn Ford (1916-2006) appeared in 88 movies from 1931 to 1991. Some of the movies that Ford could have received an Oscar® nomination for: 1946’s Gilda, 1953’s The Big Heat, 1955’s The Blackboard Jungle, 1956’s The Teahouse of the August Moon, 1957’s 3:10 to Yuma and 1978’s Superman (I think he was easily the best Clark Kent dad ever!)
Ford did receive 3 Golden Globe® nominations for acting including winning Best Actor in Pocketful of Miracles. He was also nominated for 1956’s The Teahouse of the August Moon and 1957’s Don’t Go Near The Water.
My personal favorite performances of Glenn Ford were in Experiment in Terror, The Big Heat and Jubal. It would seem after 60 years of making movies that somewhere Oscar® would have come knocking at some point.
3. Rita Hayworth (1918-1987) appeared in 59 movies from 1934 to 1972. Hayworth appeared in numerous classic movies during her career.
1941’s The Strawberry Blonde and 1942’s You Were Never Lovelier helped make her a star. 1946’s Gilda turned her into a superstar. Proving she was more than a pretty lady she showed her acting skills in 1947’s The Lady from Shanghai, 1953 Miss Sadie Thompson, 1959’s They Came to Cordura and 1964’s Circus World.
Although she never received an Oscar® nomination she did receive a Golden Globe® nomination for Circus World as Best Actress. Sadly at age 42, Alzheimer’s disease limited her career to very small roles until she was almost helpless by 1981.
If I had to take one of these actors out of my Top Ten it would probably be Hope as they did after all give him 5 Oscars® along the way.
5. Myrna Loy (1905-1993) appeared in 121 movies from 1925 to 1980. She went from silent films to the “talkies” without an issue. She became one of the biggest female stars ever, yet managed not to get an Oscar® nomination.
Loy’s peak time was from 1932 to 1940, she would appear with William Powell in The Thin Man movies as well as many others with him.
Her greatest role was probably in 1946’s The Best Years of Our Lives…which was nominated for 8 Oscars® but not one for the star of the movie, Loy. Myrna Loy was also shut out of the Golden Globe® nominations as well….but she did receive an Honorary Oscar® in 1991.
6. Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) appeared in 27 movies from 1947 to 1961. She should have easily been nominated for the classic comedy 1959’s Some Like It Hot. According to Danny Peary’s book, Alternate Oscar®, not only should she have been nominated she should have won the Oscar® for Best Actress.
Other Monroe performances that should have gotten the attention of the Oscar® voters were 1953’s How To Marry A Millionaire, 1955’s The Seven Year Itch, 1956’s Bus Stop and 1961’s The Misfits.
The Golden Globe® voters gave Monroe a little more respect than the Oscar® voters did….she was nominated twice for Best Actress….the first time was in 1956’s Bus Stop and she won the Golden Globe® for Best Actress for Some Like It Hot. So I am curious …is anybody aware the performance that won the Oscar® for Best Actress in 1959? The answer is Simone Signoret in Room at the Top.
7. Peter Lorre (1904-1964) appeared in 84 movies from 1930 to 1964. During his career he appeared in some of the most famous movies of all-time.
Some of those movies would include: 1931’s M, 1941’s The Maltese Falcon, 1942’s Casablanca, 1944’s Arsenic and Old Lace, 1953’s Beat the Devil, 1954’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and many Mr. Moto movies from the 1930s.
One of the first famous supporting actors, he always brought something extra to his roles. It is amazing that he never received an Oscar® nomination during his entire career. I think if the voters were to re-vote, Peter Lorre would receive two Oscar® nominations…his first would be for his role as Joel Cairo in The Maltese Falcon and the second would be his role as Ugarte in Casablanca.
Film historian, Steve Lensman, agrees with me 100% on the selection of Peter Lorre for this list.
8. Fred MacMurray (1908-1991) appeared in 83 movies from 1935 to 1978. One of his first big breaks was starring opposite Katharine Hepburn Oscar® nominated performance in 1935’s Alice Adams. His greatest performance was probably in 1944’s Double Indemnity….which got co-star Barbara Stanwyck a nomination but not one for him.
He followed that with more stellar performances in 1945’s Where Do We Go From Here and 1947’s The Egg and I. By the late 1950s he was appearing in supporting roles but he was still giving strong performances. 1954’s The Caine Mutiny and 1960’s The Apartment are two of his strong supporting roles that should have caused some Oscar buzz. MacMurray did receive one Golden Globe® nomination for Best Actor in 1961’s The AbsentMinded Professor.
9. Vincent Price (1911-1993) appeared in close to 100 movies from 1938 to 1990. Before Vincent Price became one of the Masters of Horror…he was having a very nice career as a supporting actor.
In the 1940’s he gave quality performances in supporting roles in 1943’s The Song of Bernadette, 1944’s Wilson, 1944’s Laura, 1944’s Keys to the Kingdom and 1946’s Dragonwyck. The 1950’s gave Price more success with 1953’s House of Wax, 1956’s The Ten Commandments and 1958’s The Fly.
Rounding out his top ten roles would be 1960’s The House of Usher and 1990’s Edward Scissorhands. Vincent Price never received an Oscar® or a Golden Globe® nomination. I think a Edward Scissorhands nomination for Best Supporting Actor would have been a nice way to reward Price for all of his time spent in movies…..but I guess nobody else saw it that way in 1990.
10. Edward G. Robinson (1893-1973) appeared in 87 movies from 1923 to 1973. The first part of his career Robinson was a leading man and gave many great performances in movies like: 1931’s Little Caesar, 1940’s Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet and A Dispatch from Reuter’s and 1943’s Flesh and Fantasy.
With Double Indemnity in 1944, Robinson started appearing in more supporting parts. I think his performance in Double Indemnity should not only have received a nomination it should have won the Oscar® for Best Supporting Actor.
Robinson would provide many more fine performances over the next thirty years….some of those movies were: 1945’s Scarlet Street, 1948’s Key Largo, 1956’s The Ten Commandments, 1965’s The Cincinnati Kid, and his last role 1973’s Soylent Green.
Despite all of these great roles….Robinson never received an Oscar® or Golden Globe® nomination.
Honorable Mentions
6 More Actors/Actresses That Never Received An Oscar® Nomination.
Errol Flynn, Dean Martin, Dana Andrews, Boris Karloff, Jean Harlow, Buster Keaton, Danny Kaye
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You are right on the money with Errol Flynn. He was the greatest action hero of all time but a consummate actor to boot. He could master any role and his interpretation of the character he was portrayal was spot on. Marilyn Monroe was also a great actress who was skipped over numerous times. One of her best role was in Some Like it Hot. Then the iconic James Dean with only three movies to his credit and no Oscar nomination. That might all change real soon and all three of the aforementioned stars are featured in 3 great books, Errol Flynn: The Quest for an Oscar, Marilyn Monroe: The Quest for an Oscar, and James Dean : The Quest for an Oscar. Hundreds of photos are in each book all three are the best about the three icons.
Hey Jim….thanks for the visit and the comment. I agree with your assessment of Flynn 100%. Those three books sound interesting…I will keep an eye out for them.
What a travisity that Errol Flynn was never nominated. 2 movies I can think of right now captain blood & the dawn patrol & that was early in his career one of the greatest actors ever!
Interesting list. However, I can think of two other thespians who should have received Oscar nominations but didn’t!!! One is Robert Walker while the other is Ann Sheridan. Just my opinion but Mr. Walker should of been nominated in 1945 for his lead role in THE CLOCK while he TOTALLY DESERVED to win the award for his performance in Hitchcock’s STRANGERS ON A TRAIN in 1951. TORRID ZONE and I WAS A MALE WAR BRIDE are just two of the films for which Miss Sheridan should of been nominated. Kim Novak is another actress who deserved some Oscar nominations but didn’t get any. The lady was ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT in both 1955’s PICNIC and 1958’s VERTIGO. The fact that she didn’t get Oscar nominations for both those movies is just beyond me!!!
I don’t see Dana Andrews on your list. For ” Best Years of Our Lives” alone, he deserved an Oscar.
Hey Mark…..good suggestion….Dana was in the running…I will put him in the honorable mention section…thanks for checking out this page.
Vincent Price is one of my favorite actors. Like Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Katheryn Hepburn, Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Charlton Heston, & Bing Crosby. Any chance the Oscars finally give a total achievement to those well deserving but empty handed actors?
Joseph Cotten may be one of the most underrated actors of all-time, mainly because he was so good in movies where his performance was overshadowed by someone else. My favorite example of that is “The Third Man,” where he was clearly the star of the film but Orson Welles’ introduction and speech on the ferris wheel blew everyone away.
Hey KF Raizor….I agree 100% with you. I just got through watching Citizen Kane again, and I think he should have gotten one for that movie as Best Supporting Actor. I think he never could get out of Orson Welles shadow…which was a big shadow especially in The Third Man which Welles was only in the movie for a few minutes, while Cotten carried the whole movie….thanks for stopping by.