I will point out a few things before we begin our Top 8. For starters, it should be worth noting that four nominations is the cutoff for entry here, but there are a myriad of actors who still work very regularly that could make this list and are currently at three. Actors as varied as Nick Nolte, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tom Cruise, Bradley Cooper, and Laura Linney have amassed a trio of nominations in their careers and could always be good for one more, gaining entrance to the club. There are actors like Kenneth Branagh, not included below, who have been nominated in other categories and therefore have four or more nominations, but not enough acting nominations without a win to make the list. And then there's Warren Beatty (also not cited below) who has won Best Director but didn't emerge victorious on any of his four acting nominations. Therefore, we have just a paltry eight nominees who have been nominated at least four times and have absolutely no wins yet, proving how rare this is. Let's get started (ties are broken by whichever person achieved their latest nomination most recently):
Nominations: 4 (What's Eating Gilbert Grape?, The Aviator, Blood Diamond, and The Wolf of Wall Street); Leo also got a Best Picture nomination for The Wolf of Wall Street
Don't Feel Too Bad for Him...: Leo's won two Golden Globe Awards, for The Aviator and The Wolf of Wall Street
He Got the Closest On: DiCaprio decidedly got second place with The Aviator but he never had a shot of taking down Jamie Foxx. That's still probably his closest, though, as Tommy Lee Jones, Forest Whitaker, and Matthew McConaughey were all th surest of things.
Is This Ever Happening?: I have to suspect yes, even if he continually threatens to quit acting. The collective internet has made it their active duty to act like Leo (who is admittedly a very fine actor) not having an Oscar yet is a tragedy worthy of Shakespeare. As you can see he is on the list, but only in eighth so there are seven other actors who are still kicking and have been waiting longer and more often than Jack Dawson for their Oscars, so everyone needs some perspective. Though, yes, Leo needs an Oscar.
Nominations: 4 (The Grifters, American Beauty, Being Julia, and The Kids Are All Right)
Don't Feel Too Bad for Her: Bening also has two Golden Globes, one for Being Julia and the other for The Kids Are All Right
She Got the Closest On: This is harder to tell than for Leo, though I have to believe that it was American Beauty. Bening had an actual movement at the time to give her the Oscar because "it was time" which people frequently called ageist and sexist (since she was only 41 at the time, hardly a death's door situation). However, she hasn't won on her two chances since then (famously losing to Hilary Swank a second time in 2004), though she may well have been in second place all four nominations.
Is This Ever Happening?: I am not sure. Women have a tougher time past the age of fifty getting nominated and winning, as is evidenced by Julianne Moore, but who knows if Still Alice becomes a thing-people seem to have thoroughly enjoyed giving it to the long-respected Moore, which may well open up more doors down the road for older actresses who get character centerpieces. She certainly works in prestige projects and while she doesn't headline movies with great frequency, she gets a lot more quality work than some of her peers like Sigourney Weaver and Michelle Pfeiffer. I wouldn't bet against it in the way I would Weaver and Pfeiffer, but it's not as clear cut as Leo (the only person on this list I'm certain will win a competitive Oscar someday).
Nominations: 4 (Apollo 13, The Truman Show, Pollock, The Hours)
Don't Feel Too Bad for Him: Harris has two Golden Globes for The Hours and Game Change
He Got the Closest On: The Truman Show-he was actually a clear 50/50 shot in 1995 for Apollo 13 and had a lot of late-breaking momentum for Pollock (The Hours was never an option), but The Truman Show he was actually the frontrunner. Sentiment (and an admittedly strong performance) for James Coburn in Affliction upended Harris in what was clearly his best shot at the trophy (I remember Coburn being somewhere around fourth place for predictions that year, as Harris and Robert Duvall were clearly the two trying to take the trophy).
Is This Ever Happening?: Very doubtful. It's not like Harris doesn't work anymore (he's regularly doing bit parts in movies) and clearly still has a passion for acting, but he hates awards shows and isn't going to campaign for it in the way modern awards seasons demand, and I doubt anyone is going to give him a Mo'Nique level performance that would basically mandate the politically-outspoken actor win. An Emmy seems far more likely at this juncture.
Nominations: 4 (The Great White Hope, All the President's Men, Kramer vs. Kramer, and Testament)
Don't Feel Too Bad for Her: Alexander has two Emmy Awards, one for Playing for Time and another for Warm Springs
She Got Closest On: Halfway through the list we get two actresses from the 1970's who somehow managed major success but missed with Oscar and are little known today. I suspect that Alexander, by process of elimination, was closest in 1976 with All the President's Men. 1970's Great White Hope was never a realistic shot (though you have to check out the video of it being presented just to see her dress, which looks like something out of the court of Marie Antoinette), and Meryl/Shirley were always going to win her latter two. 1976, on the other hand, went to Beatrice Straight in a race that was pitting Alexander in a solid race against a young Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver, but the Academy's love of Network pushed the shortest performance ever into the light as a win. Had it not, there's a decent chance that Alexander, who was a major player at the time, might have trumped future movie star Foster and taken this for a very popular film that did win Best Supporting Actor, after all.
Is This Ever Happening?: Extremely doubtful. Alexander still works quite regularly (she turned 75 this past year), but it's almost always in bit parts or guest appearances on television. Her moments at the Oscars are over at this point.
Nominations: 4 (Cinderella Liberty, The Goodbye Girl, Chapter Two, and Only When I Laugh)
Don't Feel Too Bad for Her: Mason has won two Golden Globe awards, for Cinderella Liberty and The Goodbye Girl.
She Got Closest On: I know that Glenda Jackson was a bit of a surprise in 1973 when she won her second trophy, which leads me to think it might have been that one that she came the closest on (she did pick up the Globe for Actress in a Drama). One wonders if the Academy had known at the time that she'd be such a fixture in movies over the next decade (this was her big break) if they'd skipped Jackson, who never showed up for awards anyway, and given it to Mason who would become a mainstay at the Oscars and showed up all four times she was nominated (a rarity for a performer in the 1970's).
Is This Ever Happening?: I actually told a friend of mine that Mason was a four-time nominee and he was stunned (yes, I frequently work Marsha Mason into most of my conversations), which is sort of telling as he's a pretty connected film fan. So this seems doubtful, but she may well do something only one other actor ever has: be nominated for all four awards in the EGOT and not win one. Only Lynn Redgrave has ever done it, and Mason has already been nominated for (and lost) the Oscar, Grammy, and Emmy, and is constantly doing something on the New York stage. I think she should go for it!
Nominations: 5 (Junebug, Doubt, The Wrestler, The Master, and American Hustle)
Don't Feel Too Bad for Her: She has two Golden Globes for American Hustle and Big Eyes
She Got Closest On: Until American Hustle I claimed that Amy Adams had the distinction of being in fourth place every nomination she got. This seemed to end with American Hustle, where she was probably in second place (considering she was the only one of the nominees that year who didn't already have an Oscar on her mantle and she was in a Best Picture nominee). Still, beating Blanchett that year was a nearly impossible order so it wasn't a close second by any estimation.
Is This Ever Happening?: I'm starting to think no. It's weird-no performer has been more frequently crowned in the past decade with a nomination (outside of Meryl) than Adams, and yet she's never a frontrunner for the win. She's at that age for actresses where a lot of opportunities begin to disappear (she just turned 40), she missed for Big Eyes despite solid precursor support (her first time since Enchanted where that happened), and her only role on-deck right now is Superman v. Batman. She clearly wants it and has been playing hard for it in the past few years (perhaps even would move to that "infrequent work" stage of her career for a while like Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon did after their wins if she got the trophy), so she might just go extremely BAIT-y in a biopic soon to get it over with (though that may have ben what Big Eyes was supposed to be). She certainly has the momentum, but she needs to nail this down in the next year or two as Oscar will move on to another performer lwho keeps missing pretty quickly (look to Marsha Mason for proof).
Nominations: 5 (Tom Jones, Murder on the Orient Express, The Dresser, Under the Volcano, Erin Brockovich)
Don't Feel Too Bad for Him: Mr. Finney has three Golden Globes (for Tom Jones, Scrooge, and The Gathering Storm)
He Got Closest On: Surely his first, when he was headlining a Best Picture and lost to Sidney Poitier in a threeway battle between Finney, Poitier, and Paul Newman. He was probably also in second place for Erin Brockovich, but Benicio del Toro had that one locked up. It's worth noting that 1974 had arguably the biggest shock in Best Actor history with Art Carney trumping not only Finney in Orient Express but also Jack Nicholson in Chinatown, Al Pacino in Godfather II, and Dustin Hoffman in Lenny (at the time none of them had won yet), so who the hell knows what order that year was in.
Is This Ever Happening?: No-Finney still works sporadically (most recently in Skyfall) and is probably legendary enough that he could pull a Christopher Plummer/Beginners if he tried, but he's famously against awards shows (he doesn't campaign and never shows up) and that's not going to fly today (even with an Honorary Award where he'd be guaranteed to have his speech).
Nominations: 6 (The World According to Garp, The Big Chill, The Natural, Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons, Albert Nobbs)
Don't Feel Too Bad for Her: Despite famously missing one big award, Close has won three Emmys, two Golden Globes, and three Tonys.
She Got Closest On: So, so many. The back-to-back victories by Cher and Jodie Foster over Close's first two lead nominations were in insanely rich and competitive Oscar races. One could easily see Close winning either (particularly for the mammoth hit Fatal Attraction) without any eyelash-batting.
Is This Ever Happening?: I find it very likely that Close will end up with an Honorary Award at some point-she has the sort of stature in the filmic community to win a trophy there, and I think at this point that she will probably gladly take it. Still, she's in that position of someone akin to Paul Newman or Al Pacino or Geraldine Page quite frankly where if she were to finally get a frontrunner nomination (not something like Albert Nobbs where it was clearly she barely made the cut but a Color of Money or Scent of a Woman or Trip to Bountiful), she'd almost certainly win. She's too legendary to deny at this point if she just keeps trying. If I were her I'd try for some plum supporting role and see if that turns into anything. Cause it's a damn shame that Glenn Close doesn't have an Oscar.
And those are the Top 8-any surprises? Who do you think is the first to make it? Who do you think will eventually make it? And who ends up an unhonored statistic like Richard Burton and Thelma Ritter? Share in the comments!
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