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
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.
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Great movie page Cogerson. Awards ceremonies everywhere leave much to question. Even local awards leave you shaking your head sometimes as it is who you know rather than talent that often clinches the award. I’m sure their is politics in the awarding of Oscars that would also make us shake our head at. Fantastic names brought forth. I have watched most of these folks with great pleasure in many of their movies. All are well deserving of an Oscar!
Hey Teresa….I agree too much politics in awards…..the thing I never understand is when somebody gets a nomination and the movie has not even opened yet…I know they send out DVDs to the voters…but it is still seems unfair that a movie that nobody has heard of can get a nomination over a mainstream. Usually when the Oscar people make mistakes they eventually fix them and give the actor/actress career nomination…but for the people listed here they never got the career nomination….which is sad for such a talented group of people. Thanks for your very well thought out comment.
A very interesting hub Bruce, of the names you’ve listed Edward G. Robinson not getting even a nomination surprised me the most. He was one of the most celebrated of the Warner ‘gangsters’ and an underrated actor too. I think the problem was Hollywood didn’t know what to do with him, he wasn’t handsome, he was short and he had a much-parodied whiny voice. But he was a solid support in good and bad films.
Critics poked fun at Cecil B. De Mille for casting Robinson and Vincent Price in The Ten Commandments but I enjoyed their performances in the film.
Vincent Price was labeled a horror star after House of Wax and that killed his chances of getting any love from the Academy. In my opinion Price, Lorre and Karloff are very underrated and better than some of the names we saw nominated in those days.
As for the other names on your list, well if acting greats like James Mason and Richard Burton found it hard to get Oscar glory what chance do Fred McMurray and Glenn Ford have? 🙂
Ironically Monroe has a good chance of winning the Oscar in 2012… or the actress playing her Michelle Williams has in the film My Week with Marilyn, she’s one of the faves for the awards season.
Hey Steve …I agree with you about Robinson…I read in a Charlton Heston(I think you have heard of him)…that Robinson was a complete pro and a great person to be around on a movie set….which makes the fact that he never got a nomination even more amazing.
I thought Robinson and Price were excellent in The Ten Commandments. Speaking of Price I have enjoyed many of his non-horror supporting roles….like Laura and Song of Bernadette.
How could Peter Lorre’s Joel Cairo not earn an Oscar nomination? True about Burton, O’Toole, Mason having nominations but no wins….which is worse….never being nominated or being referred to as the most nominated person never to win(O’Toole).
I think the Michelle Wlliams Oscar watch will start tomorrow when the Golden Globes get announced. Thanks for stopping by.
Regarding the sentence about one star films. It should read “IF they ever made any…” A couple of them did, sadly, near the end of their careers. Most of them did not, however.
I’m in a quandry of what to do here, because it is after midnight, I love all of these actors and actresses, and most of them do not have their own Cogerson hub. They need their own hubs for me to properly discuss them. You need to do hubs on all of them that you haven’t done yet. If you are taking nominations, I nominate all of them and your honourable mentions too that you were not already planning on doing because you are doing the top stars.
By the way, of the honourable mentions you list, Buster Keaton to me was the most worthy to be nominated. More than anyone else, silent comedians who directed themselves deserve to have at least Oscar nominations, if not wins. It shows how idiotic the Academy is about comedy.
Everyone on this list has made at least one if not a dozen movies which I watch several times a year. If I were to make a top 100 list of my favourite movie actors (I don’t plan to, unless again it were alphabetical), most of these would not only make the list but be very high on the list were they to be listed in preference.
Most of these people – even those who weren’t known for making suspense films – have made at least one mystery/suspense film-my favourite genre. Yes, even Errol Flynn did.
Oh, about your reference to Bob Hope getting honourary Oscars. I ran out of time to edit my first comment – but: I think my top ten would have to have actors who didn’t even receive honourary Oscars too. There are simply too many of them, that is why.
People on this list who I would watch in a one star film, even they ever made any (not all of them did, just saying Iwatch them in anything) – simply because they were in it -in the order you list them including honorable mentions:
Joseph Cotten
Glenn Ford
Bob Hope
Myrna Loy
Peter Lorre
Fred Macmurray
Vincent Price
Edward G. Robinson
Errol Flynn
Dean martin
Boris karloff
Buster Keaton
Hey Flora….I will add all of these actors/actresses to my list of people to do pages on….my list is getting very very long…lol.
I have to admit my Buster Keaton knowledge is currently very limited…but I am sure when I write his hub I will have a much better understanding of his career and why his no nomination is a huge mistake on the Academy’s part. I did notice on many other articles on this subject, that Keaton was nearly on every list out there.
Errol Flynn is an unusual one on the list…from numerous sources his acting skills seemed to be in serious question throughout his career….but looking at his resume he has many movies that are considered classics by most people….so maybe his acting skills were not so bad after all….seems like Orlando Bloom is following in Errol Flynn’s shoes.
Bob Hope and Myrna Loy would have fallen off the list if I excluded those who received Honorary Oscar…I think I would have added Boris Karloff and Dean Martin…my apology to Buster Keaton again.
Thanks for the list on one star movies…no comment on Edward G. Robinson? I thought he was one of your all-time favorites. As always thanks for your contribution to my classic hub….your comments are always greatly appreciated.
I did include Robinson in my list of one star films if they made one. But I am waiting for his own hub. That is why I said UI was in a quandry. I could literally write a 1000 word comment on Robinson, MacMurray and Lorre. But I went to bed at 1:30am…hey?
My comments on Robinson now.. briefly for now.
You may have seen my response to Leroy’s question about favuorite role? I had to give three – my favourite gangster drama, my favorite gangster drama, and my favuorite non-gangster film. These movies were – in that order – little Caesar, Slight Case of Murder, and Double Indemnity. He did not give a bad performance, period.
True too of his costar in Double Indemnity. This is my favourite of Fred’s films. He played a lot of nice guys, but he played some killers too. Pushover is another suspense film where he turned to crime because of a woman (Kim Novak). Oh, My Three Sons star, how you played some nasty people!
Joseph Cotten -Oh, the number of films he made I love. Besides his first Hitch film (we will forget Under Capricorn), there is Gaslight, and Citizen Kane, and Touch of Evil (cameo) and…
Peter lorre didn’t have a bad persormance either. He was essentially entirely in the mystery/suspense category, including some crime comedies.
I will have to talk about these people at another time. When they hace their own page.
Hey Flora…we have a deal when I write hubs on these actors/actresses then you can share your thoughts. I agree that Lorre and Robinson always made a movie better when they appeared on the scene. I have not seen very many MacMurray movies but I like how he can so easily play the guy willing to break the rules if it will get him what he wants. As a kid he was one of the great tv dads…between his Disney movies and My Three Sons. I did see his final movie at the theater…The Swarm….not his best movie….thanks for revisting this hub.
I think I messed up naming the two hubs so close….it looks like a duplicate hub unless you really look at the titles….trying to decide if I should just leave it alone….or go ahead and merge the two hubs into one very long hub….what do you think?
I’d leave them as separate I’d leave them as separate pages – you can always edit the titles. The fact that you have subtitles is a big help as far as google is concerned. an alternate title -Ten Classic Actors and Actresses Who Died Without Even a Single Oscar Nomination. – you can always edit the titles. The fact that you have subtitles is a big help as far as google is concerned. an alternate title -Ten Classic Actors and Actresses Who Died Without Even a Single Oscar Nomination.
Hey Flora….I have taken your suggestion for a title …thanks for that suggestion. So far these two hubs are performing very poorly…via comments and views….but if you add them both together then they are a little better than average…..live and learn I guess…I will not make that mistake again. No late night for me tonight….the 3 hours of sleep I got last night just does not seem enough. Thanks for the help.
Will comment on the actors themselves later.
I wouldn’t try to do a top ten list, but were I to do so…
The number of people who never won an Oscar is huge and would be impossible to narrow down to anyone’s top ten list, but never being nominated is another problem altogether.
I love all these actors and admire them. But this first post is regarding the type of qualifications I would consider when making up my top ten list which I can’t possible make.
Oscar has a tendency to think about age and dying when nominating and awarding Oscars. They have a hurry before it’s too late attitude. Because both Monroe and Hayworth were young when they died, Oscar thought they had lots of time. Really – voters are predominantly focused on this.
Therefore, the idea that so many actors and actresses never got nominated who were old when they died/retired – that is really shocking. And they would make up my top ten list based on what I expect the Academy to do.
So I am not surprised that Jean Harlow was not nominated (in your honourable mentions) Her death at 27 was a total shock.
The fact that Bob Hope was not young when he retired, for example, is what is really shocking about him not being nominated.
The same thing happens with winning Oscars. Lionel Barrymore himself thought that he won an Oscar because he was dying.As it was, he continued to live and act a long time in a wheelchair, but at the time no one knew this.
Hey Flora…yep the Oscar voters have a strange set of rules they follow….it sometimes gets them very strange results….for example…Paul Newman’s Oscar win is for The Color of Money…meanwhile he has ten performances that pretty much everybody agrees are much better than his Oscar winning performance….you could say the same thing about Al Pacino, John Wayne and so many more.
Lionel Barrymore surprised them by lasting so much longer than they thought….but you make good points about the performers that were taken much too early….as I am sure people like Harlow and Monroe would have followed the Burt Reynolds way of getting a nomination….in that case whatever good movie Reynolds found himself in his later years, they would give a nomination as a reward for all the years of movie entertainment…in his case the movie was Boogie Nights.
I wonder if this year the Academy will honor one of their older actors this year….I think the last time that happened was a couple years ago when Hal Holbrook and Christopher Plummer finally got nominations…it will be interesting.