Voted – Listorati https://listorati.com Fascinating facts and lists, bizarre, wonderful, and fun Thu, 05 Oct 2023 08:18:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://listorati.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/listorati-512x512-1.png Voted – Listorati https://listorati.com 32 32 215494684 10 Screen Greats Never Voted Oscar’s “Best” https://listorati.com/10-screen-greats-never-voted-oscars-best/ https://listorati.com/10-screen-greats-never-voted-oscars-best/#respond Thu, 05 Oct 2023 08:18:34 +0000 https://listorati.com/10-screen-greats-never-voted-oscars-best/

And the Oscar goes to…somebody else. What could be a better demonstration of acting chops than to smile graciously into the camera when that special envelope is torn apart and another’s name is announced?

James Stewart was so modest about the Best Actor award he won for The Philadelphia Story that the statuette was displayed in the window of his father’s hardware store in Indiana, Pennsylvania, for decades. But Stewart’s humility aside, while it may be an honor just to be nominated for a competitive Oscar, it must be an even bigger honor to win. Unfortunately, some of Hollywood’s finest have not.

Here are 10 Hollywood greats that never won a Best Oscar for Picture, Actor, or Director.

Related: 10 Films Where The Supporting Role Was Better Than The Lead

10 Richard Burton

Richard Burton is known for playing powerful men in films such as Becket, The Robe, and Anne of a Thousand Days. He married Elizabeth Taylor—twice—and starred opposite her repeatedly as well. When they teamed up for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, the no-holds-barred look at two couples and a toxic marriage earned Oscar nods for all four cast members. Taylor and supporting actress Sandy Dennis took home the prizes; Burton and George Segal struck out.

Throughout Burton’s career, he did Shakespeare (Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew), historical epics (Cleopatra), and adaptations of popular books and plays (The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, Equus). He racked up seven nominations over twenty-five years. A win? Nope. During that time, he also played himself on the TV sitcom Here’s Lucy and Man in Strip Club (uncredited) in What’s New Pussycat?, but surely, the Motion Picture Academy did not hold those against him.[1]

9 Peter O’Toole

Peter O’Toole surpassed Burton by earning eight nominations over forty-four years without a win. Like his countryman, he played royalty, including Henry II—twice. But the second time was not the charm, even as Katharine Hepburn, his costar in The Lion in Winter, won her third of four Oscars playing opposite him. He was recognized for performances in drama (Lawrence of Arabia), comedy (My Favorite Year), and whatever one might call the fascinating mishmash that is The Ruling Class.

When the Academy announced in 2003 that it would present O’Toole with an Honorary Award for his body of work, he replied that since he was “still in the game and might win the lovely bugger outright, would the Academy please defer the honor until I am 80?” The Academy said it would give it to him anyway, and O’Toole ultimately accepted. Before that milestone birthday, he did get one more shot with a nomination for Venus. But…he lost again.[2]

8 Glenn Close

Glenn Close already had a Tony nomination under her belt when she landed her first screen role in The World According to Garp. That film debut earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination. She would be similarly honored the next two years for The Big Chill and The Natural before moving on to Best Lead Actress nominations for Fatal Attraction and Dangerous Liaisons.

Perhaps she has her own love/hate relationship with Oscar. Three more nominations in recent years, but still no win. Quite surprising since, during her long career, she has won three Tony awards for two plays and the musical Sunset Boulevard, Golden Globes, Prime Time Emmys, and everything from Cable Ace Awards to an AARP Movies for Grownups Award.

And what honor could match having her image as Norma Desmond selected by the nonprofit group Broadway Cares to be the model for its 2020 Broadway Legends Holiday Ornament?[3]

7 Cary Grant

If the Motion Picture Academy had given an award for Most Charming, Cary Grant, born Archibald Leach, would have filled his trophy case. After a string of forgettable films, his breakout role came in 1933’s She Done Him Wrong, where Mae West asked him the famous, and often misquoted, question, “Why don’t you come up some time…”

Over the next thirty years, he starred opposite dazzling leading ladies, including Marlene Dietrich, both Hepburns (Katharine and Audrey), Myrna Loy, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, and Sophia Loren. He was nominated twice during the 1940s for dramatic roles. He outran a crop duster’s plane in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, but he also won hearts in classic comedies such as The Philadelphia Story, His Girl Friday, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dreamhouse, and Arsenic and Old Lace.

Finally, in 1970, he was given an Honorary Award “For his unique mastery of the art of screen acting with the respect and affection of his colleagues.” By chance, that was the same year Burton and O’Toole lost yet again, and Grant’s wife Dyan Cannon, thirty-three years his junior, was nominated but did not win for Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.[4]

6 Ian McKellen

British actor Ian McKellen played King Lear and Richard III on the stage and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his service to the performing arts. On this side of the Atlantic, he scored an Oscar nomination for Gods and Monsters. However, he is best known for a single role: Gandalf, whom he brought to life in the three-part fantasy epic The Lord of the Rings, which earned him a second nomination and roles in the three movies based on The Hobbit.

Although he did not win, following his first turn as the wizard, he had the consolation prize of hosting Saturday Night Live in 2002. Needless to say, Sir Ian did not walk the red carpet for his work in the recent film version of Cats.[5]

5 George Lucas

In what galaxy has George Lucas never won an Oscar? Uh…this one. That is not to say the Academy has ignored the man who gave us Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, and the rebirth of science fiction on the big screen. Lucas’s first of two nominations for Best Director and Best Writing came for 1973’s American Graffiti, in which he cast an unknown actor whose previous work had been primarily on TV shows such as Mod Squad, The F.B.I., and Love, American Style: Harrison Ford.

Lucas’s disappointment at his lack of trophies may be eased by the fact that the first three movies in the Star Wars universe (based on their release dates, or Parts IV, V, and VI in the story sequence) raked in a combined gross of more than $750 million, and that was at 1970s-1980s ticket prices.

In 1992, he received the Academy’s Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, with appropriate presenters: the orbiting crew of the space shuttle Atlantis. If all this was not enough, in 2012, Disney bought Lucasfilm and the extra goodies of Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound that went with it for over $4 billion in cash and Disney shares. That will buy a lot of popcorn for when he watches his Oscar-less films.[6]

4 James Earl Jones

The hands-down favorite for Best Baritone has to be James Earl Jones. The man with the big voice first hit the big screen in 1964 as a member of Slim Pickens’s flight crew in the outrageous dark comedy Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, released at the height of the Cold War.

His only Oscar nomination came six years later for The Great White Hope, where he played boxer Jack Jefferson, the role that had earned him a Tony the previous year. Jones used his rich tones to portray the villainous Vader, the heroic Mufasa, and everything in between, but not to say, “I’d like to thank the Academy…” until his well-deserved Honorary Award in 2012.[7]

3 The Color Purple

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker, the 1985 film version of The Color Purple was showered with a whopping eleven nominations ranging from Best Picture to Best Costume Design and Original Score, plus recognition for the performances of Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey.

Notably absent from the nominees was the movie’s director, Steven Spielberg, who had already established himself as a box office winner with the blockbusters Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Still, his snub was the least of it. On Oscar night, The Color Purple was skunked, finishing 0 for 11, matching only 1977’s The Turning Point for that dubious distinction.[8]

2 The Wizard of Oz

Everybody loves this timeless tale of munchkins, witches, brains, heart, and courage—okay, maybe not so much love for the flying monkeys but definitely for Toto too. And while there may be no place like home, it is also true that timing is everything.

When competing for the 1939 Oscar honors, The Wizard of Oz ran into a cultural buzzsaw, losing Best Picture to the movie mega-event that was Gone With the Wind. But then so did the enduring favorites Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, Wuthering Heights, and Stagecoach. The Wizard of Oz did win Best Original Score and Best Song for the magical “Over the Rainbow,” showcased by the golden voice of Judy Garland, who was recognized with a special Juvenile Award. But Dorothy and her pals can be satisfied that their impact has aged better than that of Rhett and Scarlett.[9]

1 Citizen Kane

Hard to believe, but Citizen Kane, perched atop many Best of … lists, including the American Film Institute’s ranking of The 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time, was not voted Best Picture in its own time. Perhaps there were a lot of Donald Crisp fans in the Academy because Orson Welles’s masterwork lost to How Green Was My Valley.

While Welles was nominated for Best Actor and Best Director, he had to settle for sharing the Best Original Screenplay award with Herman Mankiewicz. Over the next four decades, the multi-talented Welles never received another nomination as an actor, writer, or director. At the 1971 ceremony, he was given an Honorary Award “For superlative artistry and versatility in the creation of motion pictures.” [10]

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10 More Screen Greats Never Voted Oscar’s “Best” https://listorati.com/10-more-screen-greats-never-voted-oscars-best/ https://listorati.com/10-more-screen-greats-never-voted-oscars-best/#respond Wed, 08 Mar 2023 23:28:29 +0000 https://listorati.com/10-more-screen-greats-never-voted-oscars-best/

Yes, it is an honor just to be formally recognized as among the best in one’s field. But competition for the Academy Award of Merit, the statuette known affectionately as Oscar, is not the Olympics. No one will take home silver or bronze. Only gold. In this case, a 24-karat plate over solid bronze. While these ten filmmakers have entertained audiences across generations, none of them ever won that shiny, bald guy in competition with their peers.

10 Greta Garbo

When Greta Garbo came to Hollywood from Sweden in 1925, English language skills were not required for stardom. But while many big names of the silent era flamed out when “talkies” arrived, fans flocked to Anna Christie (1930) to hear if Garbo’s voice would match her image. And they were not disappointed when she sat down at a restaurant table and said, “Gimme a whiskey, ginger ale on the side, and don’t be stingy, baby.” She received a combined Academy Award nomination for that movie and for Romance, released later the same year, as she would for three others, including the tear-jerker Camille (1936) and the comedy Ninotchka (1939).

Two years later, Garbo retired from acting without a win. In 1955, the Academy recognized her with an Honorary Award for “her unforgettable screen performances.” She did not attend the ceremony, but contrary to myth, Garbo did not become a recluse. Nor did she ever utter a phrase famously attributed to her. As she refuted in a 1955 Life Magazine article, “I never said, ‘I want to be alone.’ I only said, ‘I want to be let alone! There is all the difference.”[1]

9 Kirk Douglas

Though never an Oscar winner in a career that spanned more than half of his 103 years, Kirk Douglas brought his talent and distinctive cleft chin to varied characters. He received Lead Actor nominations for playing a boxer (Champion, 1949), an unscrupulous movie producer (The Bad and the Beautiful, 1952), and Vincent van Gogh (Lust for Life, 1956), but surprisingly not for perhaps his most famous role in the epic Spartacus (1960).

In pursuit of his own material, Douglas optioned rights to the 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but by the time a studio could be convinced to make the movie, he had aged out of the lead, and the part went to Jack Nicholson. When the film became only the second to sweep the top five Academy categories for 1975, Kirk’s son Michael took home his first Oscar as its producer, keeping it all in the family.

In 1996, Kirk received his own Honorary Award for “50 years as a creative and moral force in the motion picture community.” Truly a moral force in his contribution to ending the Hollywood blacklist of the 1950s and a force of nature in accepting his Oscar in person only weeks after suffering a major stroke.[2]

8 Barbara Stanwyck

Brains, beauty, wit, wickedness—Barbara Stanwyck could bring the complete package. Her four Best Actress nominations demonstrate her versatility in melodrama (Stella Dallas, 1937), romantic comedy (Ball of Fire, 1941), film noir (Double Indemnity, 1944), and suspense (Sorry, Wrong Number, 1948). She won hearts as a lovable card shark seducing Henry Fonda in The Lady Eve (1941) and as a popular food writer with no real-life domestic skills in the holiday classic Christmas in Connecticut (1945)… but no Oscar.

Though passed over by Academy voters, Stanwyck’s work on the small screen brought her Emmy awards for the series The Big Valley (1965) and the miniseries The Thorn Birds (1983). In 1982, the Academy caught up with critics and fans alike and gave her an Honorary Award for “superlative creativity and unique contribution to the art of screen acting.”[3]

7 Fred Astaire

A special award for Worst Talent Assessment goes to the studio underling who reviewed Fred Astaire’s screen test and purportedly wrote, “Can’t act. Slightly bald. Can dance a little.” Fortunately, producer David O. Selznick spotted Astaire’s on-screen charm and paired him with Ginger Rogers in the Delores del Rio vehicle Flying Down to Rio (1933). Their single dance number would make stars of them both in the nine additional films they made together, including Top Hat (1935) and Shall We Dance (1937).

In 1950, Astaire received an Honorary Award for “his unique artistry and his contributions to the technique of musical pictures.” He continued to enjoy box office success as a solo act, often featuring creative choreography such as his dance on the ceiling in Royal Wedding (1951). His lone nomination came two decades later for a supporting role in the distinctly non-musical disaster drama The Towering Inferno (1974). But contrary to the popular saying that Ginger did everything Fred did, only backward and in heels, Rogers went him one better, winning Best Actress for the drama Kitty Foyle (1940).[4]

6 Myrna Loy

Initially, Hollywood did not know quite what to do with this Montana native, born Myrna Williams. During the waning years of the silent era, Myrna Loy had a string of bit parts, playing a maid, slave girl, or vamp, and she appeared as an uncredited chorus girl in the first talkie, The Jazz Singer (1927). She finally found her groove as Nora Charles in The Thin Man (1934), a character she would reprise with costar William Powell five times over the next thirteen years.

She went on to own the role of smart, gracious, but takes-no-guff wife or love interest opposite the biggest leading men of her era. These included Clark Gable (Test Pilot and Too Hot to Handle, both 1938), Frederic March (The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946), Cary Grant (Mr. Blandings Builds His Dreamhouse, 1948), and Clifton Webb (Cheaper by the Dozen, 1950).

Yet despite this stellar career, not so much as an Oscar nomination. Finally, in 1991 she received an Honorary Award in “recognition of her extraordinary qualities both on screen and off, with appreciation for a lifetime’s worth of indelible performances.” At age eighty-five, she was too frail to travel across the country, but the Academy arranged a satellite hookup so she could make her acceptance speech from her New York City apartment.[5]

5 William Powell

William Horatio Powell, Loy’s costar in the popular Thin Man franchise and several other films, faired only slightly better with the Motion Picture Academy. Like her, he worked steadily during the 1920s before making his name as detective Philo Vance, starting with The Canary Murder Case (1929), a warmup for the Nick Charles role that would earn him an Oscar nod for 1934.

Over the next two decades, Powell would charm other leading ladies, including Jean Arthur (The Ex-Mrs. Bradford, 1936), Carole Lombard (My Man Godfrey, 1936), and Irene Dunne (Life with Father, 1948), and the latter two films rounded out his list of nominations. A class act right through to his final roles as a suitor to Lauren Bacall in How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) and confidant to Henry Fonda in the WWII comedy-drama Mr. Roberts (1955), he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 but never a statuette.[6]

4 Gene Kelly

Gene Kelly once said of himself, “If Fred Astaire is the Cary Grant of dance, I’m the Marlon Brando.” Yet the two hoofers share the fact that, despite their impressive film legacies, neither ever won an Academy Award. After scoring a hit in the 1940 Broadway musical Pal Joey, Kelly came to Hollywood on a one-picture contract and never looked back.

He received just a single Oscar nomination for Best Actor in Anchors Aweigh (1945) even though he directed and/or starred in the classic musicals On the Town (1949), An American in Paris (1951), and Singin’ in the Rain (1952). This last film tops the American Film Institute’s list of the 25 Greatest Movie Musicals of All Time. In 1952, he received an Honorary Award in “appreciation of his versatility as an actor, singer, director and dancer, and specifically for his brilliant achievements in the art of choreography on film.”[7]

3 Angela Lansbury

So much talent, yet no competitive Oscar to show for it. The late Angela Lansbury launched her Hollywood career with back-to-back nominations for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Gaslight (1944) and The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) while still in her teens. The Manchurian Candidate (1962) gave her a third shot, when at age thirty-seven, she portrayed the politically ambitious mother of a former POW played by Laurence Harvey, in reality only three years her junior.

In contrast, Lansbury won five Tony awards, including for leads in the Broadway musicals Mame (1966), Gypsy (1975), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), and for a featured role in Blithe Spirit (2009). She was nominated for a Prime Time Emmy each of the twelve seasons of Murder, She Wrote (1984-1996), and it remains a mystery how she never won. After work including Miss Marple in The Mirror Crack’d (1980) and the voice of Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast (1991), her big-screen performances were finally recognized in 2014 with an Honorary Award for being “an entertainment icon who has created some of cinema’s most memorable characters, inspiring generations of actors.”[8]

2 Alfred Hitchcock

Scary to think that a director who kept movie-goers on the edge of their seat for more than four decades never knocked off an Oscar win. Following success in Great Britain, Alfred Hitchcock moved to the States and earned a nomination for his Hollywood directorial debut, Rebecca (1940), which was voted Best Picture. Later nominations came for Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), Rear Window (1954), and Psycho (1960). In addition, classics such as Strangers on a Train (1951), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), and The Birds (1963) defined their genre. After Hitchcock, who could ever look at a crop duster, a flock of crows, or a shower curtain in quite the same way?

In 1968, the Academy gave him the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, presented periodically to “creative producers whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production.” At the ceremony, the honoree came on stage to the theme music from his popular TV show, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, accepted the award, and said simply, “Thank you.” After a dramatic pause, the master of suspense turned back to the microphone and added, “Very much indeed.”[9]

1 Robert Altman

Unlike Hitchcock, with director Robert Altman, audiences never knew what to expect, as his projects jumped all over the artistic map. After two decades of cranking out short subjects and TV shows as middle-America as Bonanza, Route 66, and Combat!, he burst into theaters with the big-screen adaptation of M*A*S*H (1970), which brought him his first Oscar nomination for Best Director. He promptly followed up that box office hit with the cult classic Brewster McCloud (1970) and the moody western McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971).

Additional nominations came for the country-music-meets-politics mix of Nashville (1975), a cynical skewering of Hollywood itself in The Player (1992), interlocking stories with an all-star cast in Short Cuts (1993), and murder at an English country estate in Gosford Park (2001). In between, he made a live-action Popeye (1980) with Robin Williams in his film debut and examined the world of Paris high fashion in Ready to Wear (1994).

Twice, Altman also earned a Best Picture nomination as producer, yet never a win. In March 2006, he received an Honorary Award “in recognition of a career that has repeatedly reinvented the art form and inspired filmmakers and audiences alike.” Yet despite the range of his subject matter, he stated in his acceptance speech, “to me, I’ve just made one long film.”[10]

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