With 2021's Best Supporting Actress Oscar going to Youn Yuh-Jung for her international breakthrough
performance in Minari, The LA Times took a shot at a respected actress who forfeited the win.
"After 8 Oscar losses, Glenn Close is now tied as the most nominated actor without a win."
But Close clapped back, making it clear, she is not a "loser"!
What other actors out there have received recognition but have never made it far
enough to hold the golden statue and give their life-long rehearsed speech? Whether the award
went to a more deserving performance or just genuinely being overlooked,
here is a list of Oscar-nominated actors who have been left empty-handed at the end of each night.
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The lady of the hour, Glenn Close: 8 Nominations - 0 wins
After the acclaimed actress was discreetly called an Oscar loser,
many came to her defence, including Emmy Award-winning actress Sarah Paulson.
"I wish this conversation would cease. She's brilliant and continues to have
an extraordinary and enviable career. Nighty night to this clickbait convo to nowheresville."
Like most who are considered greats in the industry, the actress began her career on stage,
and it wasn't until the early 80s that she debuted in film.
Right from the beginning, Close had the Academy's attention.
She earned her first nomination with her first film debut, The World According To
Garp – where she played mother to Robin Williams despite only being four years his senior.
The actress immediately followed it up with two more consecutive Best Supporting Actress nods.
Having only just been introduced, Close gained a nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role
only four years later. Her performance in Fatal Attraction as the stunningly
disturbed Alex Forrest not only firmly secured the actress as a leading lady,
it was considered one of her most iconic roles and propelled the character to cult status.
Close's unique ability to play antagonistic roles earned her another Best Actress nod
as she portrayed a scheming aristocrat in the period drama. It's quite surprising then that
her next nomination came exactly two decades later. Though she went on to star in other
highly successful ventures after Dangerous Liaisons without receiving another recognition,
the fact that Close took a ten-year break from the big screen is part of the reason it took so long.
When a nomination for Best Actress finally came again, it was for her titular appearance as a
nineteenth-century transgender man named Albert Nobbs. The actress, who also wrote the screenplay,
shared that she had worked on the project for the past two decades.
Proving that her four-decade spanning talent is indeed not a fluke,
the actress then garnered critical acclaim for bringing Joan Castleman to life in The Wife.
Through her phenomenal portrayal of a woman living in her husband's shadow, Close goes on record to
become the woman with the most Oscar nominations in history. Though the film that gained
Close her recent nod received less-than-stellar reviews, the actress and her co-star, Amy Adams,
were both noted for their roles as a contentious mother-daughter pair in Hillbilly Elegy.
Close sees the record-breaking nominations count as an honour
rather than something to be ashamed of.
"Who in that category is a loser? You're there,
you're five people honored for the work that you've done by your peers.
What's better than that?" – Oscar or not – she is still one of the best actresses of our time.
Amy Adams: 6 nominees - 0 wins
It wouldn't be a proper 'snubbed actors' line-up without this actress.
In something that has become a humorous if not frustrating meme amongst film lovers, Amy Adams
has lost out on her own Oscar statuette six times. Amy's first nomination for Best Supporting Actress
came with her breakout role as a talkative pregnant woman who married young in Junebug.
Though she delivered worthy performances in
some of her following projects, The Wedding Date and Enchanted,
her portrayal of a wide-eyed nun catholic nun gained her a second nod in the same category.
The following two years saw Adams starring in roles that garnered her more recognition
and led to a third Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role as
a quietly aggressive girlfriend – though this was a departure from her usual 'girl-next-door' type.
Showcasing her versatility, the actress continued further in her rise, culminating in her powerfully
dark performance as the manipulative wife of a cult leader in The Master.
The following year saw her being nominated for playing yet another manipulative woman,
a con artist in the 1970s – this time, the nod was for Best Actress. By the time she received
her sixth and most recent nomination for her portrayal of the former vice president of
the United States’ wife, it had already become a widely spread internet 'joke'
to expect that the actress would be nominated but not awarded.
Saoirse Ronan: 4 nominations - 0 wins
Considered one of the best actresses in the new generation of Hollywood, it's no surprise that at
just 27-years-old, Saoirse Ronan has already been recognized by the Academy four times.
Having started her acting career on a local Irish medical drama, it was her breakthrough performance
in the 2007 period drama Atonement that earned a THIRTEEN-year-old Ronan her first Oscar nod. This
also made her one of the youngest actresses to be nominated in the best-supporting actress category.
She soon followed this with notable performances in successful films, such as The Lovely Bones,
Hanna and Grand Budapest Hotel, which gained her more recognition.
Proving she wasn't a one-hit-wonder, Ronan's next nomination was for her role
as a first-generation Irish immigrant living in 1950's New York in Brooklyn.
At twenty-one, she became the eighth youngest actress
ever to be nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
A short two years later, Ronan earned herself the third nomination for portraying yet another
strong young woman who moves to The Big Apple - this time in fellow actress Greta Gerwig's
coming of age directorial debut, Ladybird. The two women partnered up again for an adaptation of the
well-loved classic Little Women, which cemented Ronan as the queen of period pieces with the
FOURTH Academy nomination for her outstanding Leading Actress performance as Jo March.
Willem Dafoe: 4 nominations - 0 wins
With a career that spans more than three decades, including four nominations,
Dafoe is another seasoned actor who has evaded Oscar glory. The actor,
whose acting career also started on stage, was fired off his first film in 1980, Forget
This – chuckling at a joke before a tense scene and pissing the director off. Granted, Dafoe did
admit to also having lied about speaking Dutch, so perhaps it was a camel and straw situation.
Over the next few years,
the actor became something of a type-cast as a villain or antagonist.
Some even described him as having a ‘perfectly villainous face’ - but it wasn’t until his role
in Platoon playing a heroic soldier in the Vietnam War that he gained his first Oscar nomination.
Though many films highlighted Dafoe’s performances, it was nearly two decades later
that The Academy took notice again. This time for Dafoe’s exaggerated portrayal of Max Schreck
in Shadow of The Vampire, a dramatic retelling of the making of the German classic, Nosferatu.
According to a critic, the actor’s “enjoyably over-the-top, eye-rolling performance was
the only redeeming quality” and led to another Best Supporting Actor nomination.
Dafoe went on to establish himself as somewhat of a villainous household
name – most notably with his appearance as The Goblin in the first live-action
Spider-Man – but it seems his best work is in bio-pics or as a compassionate character.
His role as a level-headed but caring motel manager in The Florida Project received another
Best Supporting Actor nod almost two decades after the last. A year later, he was nominated
for his first-ever Best Actor in a Leading Role for his portrayal of Vincent Van Gogh.
Michelle Williams: 4 nominations - 0 wins
First appearing on screen at the tender age of thirteen,
Williams' penchant for independent features - which she did for the stable paycheck – may
be why she only received her first Academy Award nomination an entire decade later.
Starring as the emotionally complex wife of a closeted gay man played by
Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain, Williams secured a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nod.
She began a three-year relationship with Ledger that produced their daughter, Matilda.
A reluctance to be away from her daughter almost prevented her next nomination five years later.
With Ledger having passed just two years prior, Williams was afraid she would be away from Matilda
for long periods of filming in California. Wanting the actress involved in the project, the director
moved the filming to Brooklyn, which was much closer. Her heartbreaking performance in Blue
Valentine as yet another woman in an unsatisfied marriage gained her a Best Actress nomination.
Though she first doubted whether she could take the role on, her talent for playing emotionally
troubled young women gained another Best Actress nod only a year later. This time
it was for her sincere portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn, a dramatized
depiction of the events surrounding the making of the 1957 comedy The Prince and the Showgirl.
It is not surprising then that her most recent recognition from The
Academy for Best Supporting Actress was for her role as the ex-wife of a lonely janitor.
As the story reveals what led to the end of the marriage, Williams showcases herself once
again as a brilliantly intuitive actress when faced with such sensitive emotion.
Bradley Cooper: 4 nominations - 0 wins
Having made his introduction to the silver screen at the beginning of the millennium,
but only having his breakthrough role in the late 2000s, Cooper is another late bloomer who
has managed to fit four nominations in less than ten years. Cooper received his first Best Actor
nomination for his role opposite Jennifer Lawrence in the highly applauded Silver Linings Playbook.
A year later, he collaborated with the same director for American Hustle,
a black comedy that earned ten overall nominations,
including his own Best Supporting Actor nod. The film now shares a place as the
second film to receive the most nominations and not win after losing out in all the categories.
Cooper's next role portraying America's deadliest sniper earned him his third nomination in as many
consecutive years, making him the tenth man in Oscar history to do so. For the next four years,
the actor was involved in other projects while simultaneously developing his directorial debut.
The film received two Academy nominations – Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. His
portrayal of a deteriorating musician who helps a young singer with her career in A Star Is Born
brings his tally four to zero nominations to wins.
Our Honorary mention goes to none other than the Hollywood bachelor Leonardo Dicaprio.
Although being overlooked multiple times can be frustrating, it is probably less disheartening
than winning when half the world agrees it wasn't your most deserved performance.
Leo can attest to that after he finally won an Oscar three decades and six nominations later.
Here's to hoping that despite being continuously 'Amy Adamed' by The Academy,
these actors, and many others, continue to bless and entertain us with their artistry
and dedication to the film industry.