The Great Oscar Snub: Legendary Talents the Academy Overlooked
Where the name Oscar came from has many competing stories. The statuette, designed by Cedric Gibbons, was said by Bette Davis to resemble her uncle Oscar, thereby giving the trophy its enduring nickname.
Ninety five years ago, Louis B. Mayer of MGM fame, along with several of his cinema colleagues, came up with the idea of forming the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The original honors were simply that, awards. You won an award. Later, you won an Academy Award.
Over the past ninety five years, roughly 3,000 awards have been handed out, some more deserved than others. This year, an estimated one billion people will watch, gasp, and either cheer or grumble at the results, because no ceremony can please everyone. For every winner, there are far more talented performers left without a trophy. While attention naturally gravitates toward the red carpet and the acceptance speeches, it’s worth pausing to recognize a remarkable group of performers Oscar simply overlooked.
Two Legends, Fifteen Nominations, Zero Wins
Consider the 1964 film Becket, starring two of the greatest English speaking actors in history, Peter O’Toole and Richard Burton. Both men were nominated for Best Actor, and neither won. The real tragedy isn’t the loss itself, but the fact that between them, these two actors hold the record for the most Best Actor nominations without a single victory.
Peter O’Toole earned eight nominations over his career, while Burton collected six. Adding insult to injury, Burton had also been nominated early in his career, in 1952, for Best Supporting Actor for his role in My Cousin Rachel, a nomination that also came up empty. That brings their combined total to fifteen nominations and zero wins.
The women of Hollywood have fared no better. Scottish born Deborah Kerr, a truly wonderful actress, received an Honorary Academy Award in 1994, with the Academy praising her as an artist of impeccable grace and beauty whose career always stood for perfection, discipline, and elegance.
Despite that honor, Deborah Kerr was nominated six times for Best Actress and never won competitively, giving her the record for the most Best Actress nominations without a win.
Thelma Ritter shares a similar fate, holding the record for the most Best Supporting Actress nominations without a win, also totaling six. Unlike Kerr, Ritter never received an honorary award to soften the blow.
A Quick Quiz
Which of the following never won a competitive Academy Award: Sigourney Weaver, Alfred Hitchcock, Meg Ryan, Cary Grant, or Stanley Tucci? The answer is all of them. None of these performers has ever taken home an Oscar.
Joining Deborah Kerr and Thelma Ritter among today’s most nominated non winners is Glenn Close, one of the finest actresses working today. A Connecticut Yankee in the spirit of Katharine Hepburn, Close has been nominated four times for Best Actress and three times for Best Supporting Actress. Still active in her career, she remains one of the few on this list with a genuine shot at finally shedding the distinction.
When Entire Films Get Shut Out
Films themselves have suffered the sting of the Oscar snub as well. Steven Spielberg found himself on the losing end of fate at the 1985 awards ceremony. Despite the fact that he wasn’t even nominated for Best Director for a film that was simultaneously nominated for Best Picture, itself a curious oversight, his cast in the groundbreaking film The Color Purple received eleven nominations across ten categories, including a Best Actress nod for Whoopi Goldberg and two Best Supporting Actress nominations for Margaret Avery and Oprah Winfrey. The film walked away with none of its eleven nominations converted into wins.
That dubious record is shared with director Herb Ross’s The Turning Point, the 1977 ballet drama starring Shirley MacLaine and Anne Bancroft, both nominated for Best Actress, neither one victorious.
Everything Everywhere All at Once may want to take note.
A First and Only in Academy History
Finally, there is the curious case of Mutiny on the Bounty. This 1935 sea epic, directed by Frank Lloyd, starred Clark Gable as Fletcher Christian and Charles Laughton as the fearsome Captain Bligh, with Franchot Tone in a smaller supporting role. Since there was no Best Supporting Actor category at the time, Tone was also nominated for Best Actor, making this the first and only instance in Academy history where three male stars from the same film were all nominated in the same acting category. All three performances were ultimately passed over in favor of Victor McLaglen’s powerful performance as the Irish informant Gypo Nolan in John Ford’s classic film The Informer.
