Losing the EGOT

Occasionally I find myself sorting through particularly random trivia (this happened a few days ago in a conversation with a friend), and one of my favorite bits of trivia surrounds the younger of the acting Redgrave sisters.  While Vanessa was the great actor of her generation, Lynn had something else special about her.  Lynn managed to be the only person in the history of entertainment to receive nominations for an Emmy, Oscar, Grammy, and Tony award...and not win any.

This is of course both a huge compliment and an enormous disappointment.  Redgrave managed to get nominated for three Tonys, two Emmys, two Oscars, and a Grammy in her career, something almost every actor would kill for, but you have to assume that she wishes she could have taken the stage just once to accept one of those major awards (to her credit, she did pick up a pair of Golden Globe Awards).

We took a look at Redgrave's record six years ago, but I was curious after the conversation with my friend if there had been any new additions to this list, if any people who had been on the list had migrated off of it, and most importantly, if someone had tied Redgrave's record.  Below you'll find that her record is still intact, though there's still room for some performers to go after it, and a few more have been added to the challenge since six years ago.  I've listed below every living performer I could find that has been nominated for (and lost) three of the four of Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, & Tony.  If you have a name I don't have on the list, please bring it to the comments (particularly for the Grammys, this is hard to research), and I'll update accordingly!

(Note: All of these are listed alphabetically)

Lauren Ambrose

Nomination She's Missing: Oscar

Emmys Lost: 2002 & 2003-Lead Actress in a Drama (Six Feet Under)

Grammys Lost: 2019-Best Musical Theater Album (My Fair Lady)

Tonys Lost: 2018-Best Actress in a Musical (My Fair Lady)

She Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: She won two SAG Awards for her work on Six Feet Under.

Can She Seal the Deal?: I would assume not.  Ambrose getting the lead in My Fair Lady is surprising in retrospect (her career had been relatively mixed since her breakout role in Six Feet Under ended, and I suppose this was a case of the "play" selling tickets more than any of the stars).  Currently she is on Servant for AppleTV, but hasn't done a film role in almost a decade, so an Oscar nomination would be a surprise.

Antonio Banderas

Nomination He's Missing: Grammy

Emmys Lost: 2004-Best Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie (And Starring Pancho Villas Himself), 2018-Best Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie (Genius)

Oscars Lost: 2019-Best Actor (Pain and Glory)

Tonys Lost: 2003-Best Actor in a Musical (Nine)

He Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: Banderas won a Drama Desk for Nine, and finally pulled off a Goya earlier this year for his work in Pain and Glory

Can He Seal the Deal?: Of all of the people on this list, Banderas has the most grounds to be mad, as under current awards rules he would have tied Lynn Redgrave for this award.  Banderas was a key vocalist on the cast recording on Nine, and that was nominated in 2004 for Best Musical Theater Album (but lost to the Bernadette Peters revival of Gypsy).  Today Banderas would've been nominated for a Grammy for the award as a principle vocalist, but at the time he wasn't because it was only the producers of the album that got nominated.  I don't know if Banderas has it in him to do another play (he hasn't gone back to either musicals or the theater in recent years), and so I kind of wonder if this is a trivia answer that will never be, but was very close to becoming reality.

Gabriel Byrne

Nomination He's Missing: Oscar
Emmys Lost: 2008 & 2009-Lead Actor in a Drama (In Treatment)
Grammys Lost: 1998-Spoken Word Album (The Nightingale and the Rose)
Tonys Lost: 2000-Lead Actor in a Play (A Moon for the Misbegotten), 2016-Lead Actor in a Play (Long Day's Journey Into Night)
He Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: He did win a Golden Globe for his work on In Treatment

Can He Seal the Deal?: The trick to "pulling a Lynn Redgrave" (patent-pending) is to be able to make positions second through fifth, but not manage to grab first.  I think that Byrne could well nab an Oscar nomination, considering he is a multi-hyphenate entertainer (he not only acts, but also writes, directs, and produces), and doesn't seem too likely to win any of the other awards anytime soon.  He rarely does Broadway and his television show isn't on anymore.

Adam Driver

Nomination He's Missing: Grammy

Emmys Lost: 2013, 2014, & 2015-Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (Girls), 2020-Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series (Saturday Night Live)

Oscars Lost: 2018-Supporting Actor (BlacKkKlansman), 2019-Actor (Marriage Story)

Tonys Lost: 2019-Lead Actor in a Play (Burn This)

He Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: Driver has failed to secure any major entertainment award in his career, so there should be some sympathy for him, but it feels doubtful he's going to end his career empty-handed considering its current trajectory, so don't worry if you're a fan.

Can He Seal the Deal?: I would assume that Adam Driver is the type that might randomly get a Spoken Word Album nomination at some point (not for a memoir, but more so for a table read recording of The Crucible or something similar).  But Driver's career trajectory (he has been nominated for three of these awards in the past two years alone) indicates that a win is more likely to stop him from reaching Redgrave's record than a missing Grammy nomination.  He seems certain to win one (probably the Oscar or Tony) in the next few years.

James Franco

Nomination He's Mising: Tony
Emmys Lost: 2002-Lead Actor in a Miniseries (James Dean), 2011-Outstanding Special Class Programs (The 83rd Academy Awards...yes, James Franco was nominated for an Emmy for his comically bad hosting of the Oscars...let that sink in for a second), 2016-Outstanding Short Form Variety Series (Making a Scene)
Oscars Lost: 2010-Best Actor (127 Hours)
Grammys Lost: 2014-Spoken Word Album (Actors Anonymous)
He Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: Franco missed the Emmy but picked up the Golden Globe for his work in James Dean, and he missed the Oscar but pulled off another Globe for The Disaster Artist.

Can He Seal the Deal? I'm starting to think no.  Franco has done stage work (he did a turn in Of Mice and Men six years ago), but he wasn't nominated for a Tony Award (instead they went for his costar Chris O'Dowd).  Franco's sexual misconduct allegations have hurt his career; after his surprise Oscar snub in 2017 for The Disaster Artist, he has made direct-to-video & unreleased films, and his only more mainstream work was a cameo in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and The Deuce, which was a middling success at best for HBO.  Winning an Emmy at this point seems more probable than a Tony nomination.

Ed Harris

Nomination He's Missing: Grammy
Emmys Lost: 2005-Lead Actor in a Miniseries (Empire Falls), 2012-Supporting Actor in a Miniseries (Game Change), 2018-Lead Actor in a Drama Series (Westworld)
Oscars Lost: 1995-Supporting Actor (Apollo 13), 1998-Supporting Actor (The Truman Show), 2000-Lead Actor (Pollock), 2002-Supporting Actor (The Hours)
Tonys Lost: 1986-Actor in a Play (Precious Sons)
He Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: He has two Golden Globe awards, for The Truman Show and Game Change

Can He Seal the Deal?: For a long time there, it seemed like Ed Harris would surely win an Oscar.  He received a staggering four nominations in the span of seven years, and one could make a pretty convincing argument that he was in second in two, if not three of those years (Amy Adams-take note).  Harris has since fallen on hard times with the Academy and has had no more luck with Emmy (not even his grand return to TV with Westworld has gotten him a trophy so far).  This of course could happen, as the Spoken Word Album category can slip someone in at almost any time, and Harris is famous enough that he could make it for some reading of Shakespeare or Arthur Miller.  However, he's never been a particularly "awards-seeking" performer (otherwise he would have beaten James Coburn in 1998), and I don't see this happening.

Marsha Mason

Nomination She's Missing: Tony
Emmys Lost: 1997-Guest Actress in a Comedy (Frasier)
Oscars Lost: 1973-Best Actress (Cinderella Liberty), 1977-Best Actress (The Goodbye Girl), 1979-Best Actress (Cinderella Liberty), and 1981-Best Actress (Only When I Laugh)
Grammys Lost: 2000-Best Comedy Album (The Prisoner of Second Avenue)
She Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: Mason won Golden Globes for both Cinderella Liberty and The Goodbye Girl

Can She Seal the Deal? The better question has to be how has she not?  Marsha Mason is one of my minor obsessions (she's been nominated for four Oscars, is still living, and yet somehow she disappeared off the face of the public sphere after her divorce to Neil Simon), and the real question was how was she ever going to get a Grammy nomination considering how minor her celebrity is.  With the Comedy Album citation, though, she's actually most well-known these days for her work on Broadway, as she's done six different productions in her career and is constantly working in the New York stage.  Make it happen Marcie!

Kate Nelligan

Nomination She's Missing: Grammy
Emmys Lost: 1989-Actress in a Drama Series (Road to Avonlea)
Oscars Lost: 1991-Supporting Actress (The Prince of Tides)
Tonys Lost: 1983-Actress in a Play (Plenty), 1984-Actress in a Play (A Moon for the Misbegotten), 1988-Featured Actress in a Play (Serious Money), 1989-Actress in a Play (Spoils of War)
She Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: She did win a BAFTA for Frankie and Johnny

Can She Seal the Deal?: The longtime Canadian stage actress enjoyed most of her awards-success at the Tonys, where in the 1980's she was a frequent contender but always missed (it can't feel too bad losing to the likes of Jessica Tandy and Glenn Close, though).  Her one-and-done nomination in 1991 at the Oscars makes her the person who has been on this list the longest, and as a whole she rarely acts anymore (on the stage or otherwise), so unless she has a particular penchant to get involved with an album and score a truly random nomination, this seems like the least likely of the list to happen.  It is interesting, though, how such a comparatively obscure (certainly the least well-known of these performers) actress could so quickly score 3/4 of an EGOT loss.

Kathleen Turner

Nomination She's Missing: Emmy
Grammys Lost: 2001-Spoken Word Album (The Complete Shakespeare Sonnets)
Oscars Lost: 1986-Lead Actress (Peggy Sue Got Married)
Tonys Lost: 1990-Actress in a Play (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), 2005-Actress in a Play (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)
She Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: She has two Golden Globes for Romancing the Stone and Prizzi's Honor.

Can She Seal the Deal?: Of the people on this list, I think this is probably the most shocking person on the list, considering that she almost certainly was close to getting nominated at the Emmys for playing Chandler's mother on Friends.  I would suspect, therefore, that she's also the most likely person to pull the Lynn Redgrave of anyone listed here.  She just needs a solid guest spot on a cable television series (probably not too hard considering their penchant for going for former headliners of a certain age for guest roles), and to not win the Tony Award (she probably would have won in 2005, but no one was going to take out Cherry Jones in Doubt).  I think that's manageable, and that she's probably going to make it thanks to the bizarre dozens-of-people-nominated Shakespeare Sonnets nomination she got in 2001.

Vanessa Williams

Nominations She's Missing: Oscar
Emmys Lost: 2007, 2008, and 2009-Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Ugly Betty), 2009-Performer in an Animated Program (Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies)
Grammys Lost: 1989-New Artist and Female R and B Performance ("The Right Stuff"), 1990-Female R and B Performance ("Dreamin"), 1992-Female R and B Performance ("Runnin' Back to You"), 1993-Record of the Year ("Save the Best for Last"), Female Pop Vocal Performance ("Save the Best for Last"), Female R and B Vocal Performance ("The Comfort Zone"), & Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals ("Love Is"), 1995-Female Pop Vocal Performance ("Colors of the Wind") & Female R and B Performance ("The Way That You Love"), 1997-Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album (Star Bright)
Tonys Lost: 2002-Actress in a Musical (Into the Woods)
She Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: She was Miss America, but umm, yeah, maybe she should get a little pity here.

Can She Seal the Deal?: Yeah, that list of Grammy losses is massive.  Williams is one of the most nominated women in the Recording Academy to never win.  Despite her seventeen year absence, I think her best shot would be to pick up one of the below-the-line Grammy Awards rather than take an Oscar nomination.  Williams did sing an Oscar-winning song, of course (1995's "Color of the Wind"), but she's not very much of a songwriter, and the movies have oddly never taken to her like music, television, and the theater.  So my gut says no, she can't quite get there (prove me wrong, casting directors), but may well win one of the other three awards before all is said and done.

And those are the ten!  Like I said, I researched pretty thoroughly, but if you trivia sleuths have an eleventh person let me know!

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)

Film: Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)
Stars: Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Charles Fleischer, Kathleen Turner, Amy Irving
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Oscar History: 6 nomination/4 wins (Best Film Editing*, Sound, Sound Effects Editing*, Visual Effects*, Art Direction, Cinematography...and a fourth Honorary Oscar for "animation direction")
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

When I write these articles, you might have noticed I put "Snap" or "(Not So) Snap" Judgment Ranking for my star rating.  This indicates whether or not this is the first time I've seen a movie or whether this is something that I'm revisiting for a second (or hundredth) time.  On rare occasions, though, I don't actually know the answer as to whether or not I've seen a movie.  I am really OCD about movie lists and spreadsheets, but when it comes to specific movies, I don't know if it's just a case where I've seen parts of the film or whether I saw the whole thing.  That's the case with Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, a landmark 1988 film that was nominated in both Sound categories amongst six Oscar citations (this week our review theme is Sound nominees at the Oscars).  So full disclosure-some parts of Roger Rabbit had an air of familiarity (I knew the twist, and not because I'd read about it before), but by-and-large after watching, I feel confident enough that I haven't seen this movie full-through to warrant a "Not So."

(Spoilers Ahead) But enough of my minutia-let's get to the film at hand.  Roger Rabbit is a live-action/animated film that takes a lot of its cues from film noir.  The movie takes place in the late 1940's, and it's a world where "toons" and humans live side by side with each other, though there is some animosity between the two worlds.  One of the humans who struggles with toons is Eddie Valiant (Hoskins), a washed-up detective whose brother was killed by a toon during a bank robbery, and he holds prejudices against them.  He is forced into a situation of defending a toon, though, when after being hired to track film star Roger Rabbit (Fleischer) and his voluptuous wife Jessica (Turner for speaking, Irving for singing), Roger is framed for murder by Judge Doom (Lloyd), and they form an unlikely alliance as they try to clear Roger's name.

Roger Rabbit was a landmark production that took almost a decade to come to light as Disney was handling its own nightmares in its animation department, and the film ended up finally happening due to Steven Spielberg & Amblin Entertainment getting involved.  While the film's visual effects were groundbreaking at the time, it's actually the cartoons that are featured in the film that are truly jaw-dropping considering the copyrights at stake.  While it's not shocking to see Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck in a Disney animated film, them being alongside the likes of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Woody Woodpecker, Betty Boop, & Porky Pig is insane, particularly since Spielberg amassed most of the voice actors that these characters are most associated with-the film is helped by adding in two instantly iconic cartoon characters (Roger & Jessica Rabbit), but even as a curiosity it's worth investigating.

That said, the movie's great-sure, it's cliche, but it's mining that cliche for some fun camp, and I loved it.  Bob Hoskins is perfectly cast as Eddie, using his tough guy persona to great affect and keeping the ridiculousness grounded, and Turner/Irving give a performance for the ages as Jessica, who gets away with jokes you couldn't dream are coming out of a Disney character's mouth.  It's a fun, joyous, predictable ride from start to finish.

The film won six Oscar nominations, as well as a special trophy for its landmark animation.  The visual effects are the best of these.  While the strings are clear still to modern audiences, this is a marked improvement on even a few years earlier where you had live-action figures alongside humans in Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Pete's Dragon.  The sound work is also strong-this requires a lot of seamless voiceover work to make it compelling (mad props again to Hoskins for interacting with essentially a green screen so well, and creating such chemistry with Roger/Jessica), and the toon town effects are delightful & witty; this is also a credit to the editors, who took a plot that could have been a slog (parodies of noir oftentimes are) and kept it bright, but still moody.  The Art Direction is fine, if a bit played for parody (there's no set that feels like it wasn't plucked out of a Dashiell Hammett novel, and not always in the best way as there could have been more fun in recreating aspects of Toontown), and the cinematography also could have had more ambience or leaned in a little heavier into the noir aspects of the picture.  All-in-all, though, whether it was for the first time or the second, Roger Rabbit holds up.

Body Heat (1981)

Film: Body Heat (1981)
Stars: William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, Richard Crenna, Ted Danson, JA Preston, Mickey Rourke, Kim Zimmer
Director: Lawrence Kasden
Oscar History: Turner received a Best New Star trophy at the Golden Globes, but otherwise the only awards for this movie were green (box office).
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Throughout the Month of June, as a birthday present to myself, we'll be profiling 15 famous film noir movies I've never seen (my favorite film genre).  Look at the bottom of this review for some of the other movies we've profiled.


We will conclude our look at the film noir classics (I've never seen) with 1981's Body Heat, a neo-noir thriller that is most well-known today for launching Kathleen Turner from virtual unknown (this was her film debut, if you can believe it) to movie star overnight.  By 1981, the noir had almost completely disappeared from the film market, as we were seeing more action-adventures and slapstick comedies becoming the norm in theaters, which is why it's relatively surprising that this was a big hit back in 1981, making three times its budget and getting Turner Globe & BAFTA nominations.  Also, like all films of the 1980's, when they tried to reinvigorate classic Hollywood formulas that appeared long dead, the film's reliance on sex is omnipresent, showing nudity that would have been impossible in the heyday of Gloria Grahame and Gene Tierney.  As a result, the noir likely could never be the same again, which makes it the perfect close to our series.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film follows Ned Racine (Hurt) a hapless lawyer who starts a steamy affair with Matty (Turner), the married trophy wife of businessman Edmund Walker (Crenna).  Early on in the movie, he hits on a woman named Mary Ann Simpson (Zimmer, in a rare pre-Reva Shayne role), which feels odd at the time but becomes crucial later in the film.  In a plot plucked out of Double Indemnity, Matty & Ned scheme to murder Edmund (she can't divorce him or risk losing the cash in a prenup), and Ned does this by meeting with Teddy (Rourke), an explosives friend who helps coordinate a bomb that can make it look like arson; Teddy tries desperately to convince Ned not to do this.  He does anyway, and after a clear series of missteps that feel perpetrated by Matty herself (where she basically was setting him up, upon the advice of a lawyer that hated Ned & thought he had some comeuppance coming for screwing him over), Ned is basically implicated in the crime by two investigators (Danson & Preston).  Ned's last shot at redemption goes up in smoke when Matty is supposedly killed in a boathouse explosion that was intended for Ned (or so we think at the time), sending him to jail.  From jail, we learn that Ned is convinced Matty was not Matty at all, but the real Mary Ann Simpson, who had taken on Matty's identity to marry Edmund for his money, and that the actual Matty Tyler (who is the Mary Ann Simpson we met at the beginning of the film) died in the boathouse explosion.  A look at her yearbook confirms this, and we see in the final closing moments of the film that Matty is now on a beach, her entire scheme working perfectly.

The film strays from the traditional noir trope in a couple of ways, almost entirely because of the lack of censors.  The film's sex scenes are extensive (though apparently they got even more lascivious in the initial cut of the picture), as we see both Hurt & Turner in various states of undress (they make a point, in a nod to Chinatown, to pronounce the weather being perpetually hot, matching the attitudes of the already randy leads).  Perhaps more damning is that Matty/Mary Ann gets away with everything.  In the days of Phyllis Dietrichson and Kathie Moffat, she'd either need to die or go to jail, but we aren't living in that world and as a result the film noir trope gets totally upended because the villain (though by far the film's most interesting character) is able to skate out of the room with no bruises, just a pile of money and a sexy new man next to her on the beach.

Turner owns the picture.  Hurt, Danson, Crenna, they're all good, but they don't come close to what she was doing here; about the only male cast member who comes near her is Rourke in a bit role, playing an undeniably sexy arsonist who is also the film's best voice-of-reason (that, because he's a convicted crook, no one listens to).  Turner would spend the next decade alternating between marital discord films like Peggy Sue Got Married & The War of the Roses and straight-up romantic comedies like Romancing the Stone & Jewel of the Nile, but she may never have been as good as she is here, playing Matty as the ultimate, successful femme fatale.  William Hurt never stood a chance the second she coyly jumps onto the screen-it's entirely her picture, and she nails a debut that hallmarked her as one of the 1980's most important screen idols.

Previous Films in the Series: The Long Goodbye, Sweet Smell of Success, The Killing, The Big Heat, Pickup on South Street, Gun Crazy, Night and the City, In a Lonely Place, They Live By Night, Nightmare Alley, Ride the Pink Horse, The Killers, The Woman in the Window, The Big Sleep

Flying Solo in Best Actress

Let's spread the wealth, shall we ladies?

My brother and I were talking the other day about the Best Actress field for 2015, as we are wont to do, and how strange the slate of women that will potentially be competing for the top prize is.  Amongst the leading contenders for the prize this year include Meryl Streep (Ricki and the Flash), Jennifer Lawrence (Joy), Cate Blanchett (Carol), and Julianne Moore (Freeheld).  You might recognize these names in particular because they also happen to be the last four women to win the Best Actress Oscar (Natalie Portman is hanging her chances on a Malick film and the ill-fated Jane Get Your Gun, so I doubt that they can go with a 5/5 situation).  My brother made a comment about how Best Actress may soon be as insular as Best Costume or Score, or at least that it will be again, which felt to me like an Oscar-trivia article.

The reality, is in fact, that Best Actress has long been one of the most insular categories at the Oscars, even in comparison with the very chummy Best Actor category.  If you only count people who would receive their sole Oscar nomination in that category, it's roughly 1 in 5 for both fields as an average in almost every decade.  The Best Actress race, however, has gone through weird spurts of repetitiveness, particularly in the 1940's, 80's and the current decade.  I figured it would be worth looking at every decade since the 1930's where a woman received only one nomination for Best Actress and was never heard from again.

Miriam Hopkins

1930's
Number of Solo Nominees: 12 (Nancy Carroll, Ann Harding, Lynn Fontanne, May Robson, Diana Wynward, Grace Moore, Elisabeth Bergner, Miriam Hopkins, Merle Oberon, Gladys George, Carole Lombard, and Margaret Sullavan)
Any Winners?: Not a one of them.  Luise Rainer, Marie Dressler, Viven Leigh, and Helen Hayes came the closest, each only receiving two Oscar nominations in their careers.
I'd Like An Explanation: One of the larger lists of actresses, this may be because only a couple of actresses really dominated the decade in terms of public consciousness, and one of those oddly didn't receive a nomination (Joan Crawford).  The early years of the cinema seemed to be kinder to emerging talents and in particular, crossover stars from the theater and opera like Fontanne and Moore.
Who Came Closest to Another Round?: A few of them probably came close.  Hopkins received a Golden Globe nomination for her work in The Heiress, so I suspect she was in the running, Lombard was a major player who definitely wanted an Oscar (and may well have gotten one if she hadn't died tragically so early in her career), and Oberon certainly came close with her lead role in Best Picture nominee Wuthering Heights, though she had the misfortune of contending in 1939 against Oscar titans like Bette Davis and Greer Garson.
Most Likely to Get a Second: Elisabeth Bergner was the last living member of the dozen solo nominees listed above, dying in 1986, so no one will be getting a second citation.

Jeanne Crain

1940's
Number of Solo Nominees: 7 (Martha Scott, Ginger Rogers, Jean Arthur, Gene Tierney, Celia Johnson, Dorothy McGuire, and Jeanne Crain)
Any Winners?: Ginger Rogers is one of the only women to win a Best Actress Oscar on her only nomination.
I'd Like An Explanation: The 1940's were dominated by a select 6-7 actresses (Rosalind Russell, Bette Davis, Kate Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, Olivia de Havilland, Barbara Stanwyck, and Greer Garson) resulting in very few openings for ambitious screen stars.  With the exception of perhaps Rogers (who was more noted for musical comedies) none of these are particularly stunning solo nominees, frequently getting upstaged even in their era by the more nominated women at the Box Office.
Who Came Closest to Another Round?: My money is on Tierney, who was a major dramatic actress for 20th Century FOX (her nominated film, Leave Her to Heaven, was the most successful film for the studio during the 1940's), and starred in major motion pictures of the era like Laura, The Razor's Edge, and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.  Behind her would be Jean Arthur, who starred in two major Oscar films (Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and Shane), but was famously press-shy which probably didn't help, even in a pre-Twitter era.
Most Likely to Get a Second: Both Martha Scott and Jeanne Crain died in 2003, the last living women on that list.

Lana Turner

1950's
Number of Solo Nominees: 10 (Judy Holliday, Shirley Booth, Julie Harris, Ava Gardner, Maggie McNamara, Dorothy Dandridge, Carroll Baker, Nancy Kelly, Lana Turner, and Doris Day)
Any Winners?: Judy Holliday and Shirley Booth both won on their only shots at the fair.
I'd Like An Explanation: We see a slight uptick in the 1950's, possibly because of the decline of the studio system, and possibly because certain women that normally wouldn't do well with the Oscars (glamour girls and romantic comedy leads) both saw a major increase in popularity.  Still, women such as Deborah Kerr, Elizabeth Taylor, and the Hepburns continued to prove that it's easy to repeat.
Who Came Closest to Another Round?: Ava Gardner was probably tops amongst the many legends on this list, with her performance in Night of the Iguana grabbing nominations at the Globes and BAFTA's but not the Oscars (Tennessee Williams-penned roles were a major Oscar draw for women of the era, with women ranging from Kate Hepburn toVivien Leigh to Anna Magnani to Geraldine Page all landing nominations for his plays).
Most Likely to Get a Second: Doris Day and Carroll Baker are still living, though both have been retired from acting for over a decade.  I suspect that if she actually was willing to show up and win it that an Honorary Oscar would be Day's for the taking, but she's very press shy and I doubt would attend.

Anouk Aimee

1960's
Number of Solo Nominees: 9 (Melina Mercouri, Lee Remick, Rachel Roberts, Debbie Reynolds, Samantha Eggar, Elizabeth Hartman, Anouk Aimee, Ida Kaminska, and Genevieve Bujold)
Any Winners?: Not a one.  Sophia Loren, Patricia Neal, and Barbra Streisand all only received two acting nominations in their careers, so that's the closest.
I'd Like An Explanation: The 1960's are a bit odd in that no woman received more than three nominations (that would be the ever dependable Kate Hepburn, as well as Mrs. Robinson-herself Anne Bancroft), but the decade is dominated by women who either were getting the final nominations of their oft-recognized careers (Bette Davis, Greer Garson, Deborah Kerr) or were starting a long affair with Oscar that would continue into the coming decades (Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Julie Christie).  That leaves a hodgepodge of foreign-born actresses (very much the rage in the 1960's) and random younger stars who never seemed to pop to get the sole nominations.
Who Came Closest to Another Round?: I would imagine it was Lee Remick, to be honest.  I know that Debbie Reynolds is the name everyone remembers from the above list, but Remick was nearly nominated in 1959 for Anatomy of a Murder where she played a rape victim and won a Globe nod.  It's worth noting that in a very odd year (1966) Elizabeth Hartman could have been cited for her bizarre turn in You're a Big Boy Now as pretty much anyone with a pulse was contending that year (she did get a Globe nod).
Most Likely to Get a Second: Four of these women are still living, and actually all of them have made films in the past five years: Debbie Reynolds, Anouk Aimee, Samantha Eggar, and Genevieve Bujold. Of the five, Reynolds would have the best luck both as the biggest movie star (in the US, at least) and as someone who picks the right material (she may well have been cited if Behind the Candelabra had played theatrically).  Either way, she should start campaigning for an Honorary Award as I think she'd be on the shortlist.

Diahann Carroll

1970's
Number of Solo Nominees: 11 (Ali MacGraw, Sarah Miles, Carrie Snodgress, Janet Suzman, Diana Ross, Cicely Tyson, Diahann Carroll, Valerie Perrine, Louise Fletcher, Carol Kane, and Marie Christine-Barrault)
Any Winners?: Louise Fletcher's nurse from Hell (which is pretty much a supporting turn, let's be honest) was the only victory for a sole nomination.
I'd Like An Explanation: This decade saw a number of women that could get nominated basically every time they opened a picture (Ellen Burstyn, Jane Fonda, Marsha Mason, Glenda Jackson), but like the years before we saw a combination of foreign actresses and movie star careers that didn't quite pan out.  It's also worth noting the unfortunate fate of black actresses in this category (only two of which have ever been nominated for a second trophy), which means that Ross, Tyson, and Carroll were all one-and-done nominees.
Who Came Closest to Another Round?: Sarah Miles headlined a Best Picture nominee in 1987 in Hope and Glory, which could well have been a contender in a less competitive year.  Diana Ross actually had buzz for Mahogany back in the day (1975 was a weird year), and there was some movement to make her the first black actress to win a Best Actress Oscar (that feat would happen 26 years later).  Otherwise none of these women came particularly close before or after.
Most Likely to Get to Second: Snodgress is the only woman on the above list to have passed away, but the only women who seem like they could someday score another nomination are Tyson and Kane, both of whom work extremely regularly, though more so on television than in the cinema.

Kathleen Turner

1980's
Number of Solo Nominees: 6 (Mary Tyler Moore, Marlee Matlin, Kathleen Turner, Sally Kirkland, Melanie Griffith, and Pauline Collins)
Any Winners?: Marlee Matlin became the youngest winner ever of the Best Actress award when she picked it up for Children of a Lesser God at the age of 21.
I'd Like An Explanation: No other decade will probably ever have a run quite like this.  Jessica Lange, Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, and Sissy Spacek dominated (there is no year of the decade where at least one isn't nominated) and routinely it was the bulk of them.  Most of the above women were either randomly-cited for tiny films (Matlin, Kirkland, Collins), matinee idols with quickly burnt-out movie stardoms (Turner, Griffith), or headlining a Best Picture winner (Moore).
Who Came Closest to Another Round?: Most assuredly Kathleen Turner, who was a major matinee idol in the 1980's and won back-to-back Golden Globes for Romancing the Stone and Prizzi's Honor, both mammoth hits that for some reason Oscar didn't really want to put his stamp on (the 1980's were very fond of drama, more so than usual, but even then Prizzi's Honor was a major Oscar-player with eight nominations and 1984 had a weird glut of similarly-themed farm-movies, so this one is had to explain).  Either way, there's a decent chance she was in second place twice before finally getting cited for Peggy Sue Got Married (when she probably came in second to Matlin, give-or-take Sissy Spacek).
Most Likely to Get to Second: All of these women are still alive and working, though none of them seem particularly prone to a second nomination.  Turner gets the most attention currently, but that's almost entirely on-stage and she rarely makes movies.  Perhaps it would be Pauline Collins?  She's British, of-a-certain-age, and does bit roles frequently in BAIT-y looking projects (Albert Nobbs, Quartet).  Perhaps she'll pull a Janet McTeer and randomly get in once more?

Catherine Deneuve

1990's
Number of Solo Nominees: 8 (Catherine Deneuve, Angela Bassett, Stockard Channing, Elisabeth Shue, Sharon Stone, Kristin Scott Thomas, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Fernanda Montenegro)
Any Winners?: In one of the weirdest moments in on-paper Oscar history, Gwyneth Paltrow's career totally stalled with Oscar after Shakespeare in Love.  Perhaps the Cate Blanchett curse?
I'd Like An Explanation: We continued to see a few actresses that totally dominated (Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon, Emma Thompson), but by-and-large this list was actually considerably larger a few years ago.  Actresses like Janet McTeer, Helen Hunt, and Helena Bonham Carter have made good in supporting roles in recent years, winnowing down the list a bit, something I suspect will continue to happen.
Who Came Closest to Another Round?: I mean, Gwyneth seems like the obvious choice, but she wasn't actually that close with Sylvia or Emma, so I'm going to go with Sharon Stone, who was such a big star in the 1990's and was very much in the HFPA's favor (scandalously so).  Basic Instinct or The Mighty might have been close possibilities.
Most Likely to Get a Second: We're now going from the possible to the plausible for "most likely to get a second."  All of these women are still living, and in the cases of Scott Thomas, Bassett, and Paltrow, so regularly make major films that it's difficult not to see at least one of them scoring again, if not all three.  Plus, I think Sharon Stone is going to be discovered by Quentin Tarantino any minute now and that could be not only a nod but a trophy.

Carey Mulligan

2000's
Number of Solo Nominees: 10 (Halle Berry, Salma Hayek, Diane Lane, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Imelda Staunton, Felicity Huffman, Ellen Page, Carey Mulligan, and Gabourey Sidibe)
Any Winners?: Halle Berry is the most recent woman to win an Oscar on her only nomination.
I'd Like An Explanation: Meryl Streep, Kate Winslet, Judi Dench, and Cate Blanchett may have been nominated in perpetuity, but the biggest explanation is that we're not far enough away for this list to be super small.  All of these women are still living and most of them are still very much in the hunt.
Who Came Closest to Another Round?: Carey Mulligan, probably, who somehow missed a lot of her buzz for Shame despite that seeming like a pretty plum part (then again, Fassbender missed there so the prudish Academy may just not have been feeling that sex addiction drama).
Most Likely to Get a Second: There are several women on this list that could not only make it again (anyone other than probably Castle-Hughes or Sandino Moreno have the star status still to pull this off), but could make it this year.  Carey Mulligan's Suffragette and Ellen Page's Freeheld both seem like prime contenders.  Imelda Staunton is entering her key "elderly British scene-stealer" years and both Diane Lane and Felicity Huffman are actors that consistently play supporting parts in big things-either one could luck into a Helen Hunt in The Sessions situation.

Emmanuelle Riva

2010's
Number of Solo Nominees (so far): 5 (Rooney Mara, Emmanuelle Riva, Quvenzhane Wallis, Felicity Jones, and Rosamund Pike)
Any Winners?: Not a one-Natalie Portman is the only winner with just two nominations.
I'd Like An Explanation: Too soon to tell, though the 2012 age record-breakers don't really seem as likely to make it again as the other three women.
Who Came Closest to Another Round?: Probably none of them.  Pike, Jones, and Mara have all had key roles in Oscar-nominated films in the past, but it's doubtful any of them made any sorts of waves prior to their nominations.
Most Likely to Get a Second: Hmm, it's obvious that this is a threeway race, but I'd argue that it's a two-way: Rosamund Pike doesn't give off the vibe of a repeat offender.  Jones and Mara, on the other hand, both seem like repeaters, particularly Mara who could be back again this year in Carol.

And there you have it-the few, the proud, the really-wishing-they'd-landed-one-more.  Who do you think is the most likely sole Best Actress nominee to repeat (I'm going with Ellen Page or Rooney Mara, but that's really playing the obvious)?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

Losing the EGOT

Occasionally I find myself sorting through particularly random trivia, and one of my favorite bits of trivia surrounds the younger of the acting Redgrave sisters.  While Vanessa was the great actor of her generation, Lynn had something else special about her.  Lynn managed to be the only person in the history of entertainment to receive nominations for an Emmy, Oscar, Grammy, and Tony award...and not win any.

This is of course both a huge compliment and an enormous disappointment.  Redgrave managed to get nominated for three Tonys, two Emmys, two Oscars, and a Grammy in her career, something almost every actor would kill for, but you have to assume that she wishes she could have taken the stage just once to accept one of those major awards (to her credit, she did pick up a pair of Golden Globe Awards).

I'm always struggling a bit here to get commenters, so I'm hoping some of you will see the chance for awards trivia and jump on it, as this list is likely not comprehensive despite my exhaustive Wikipedia efforts.  What I am trying to do is predict who would be the next person to pull off the feat of losing all four of the EGOT trophies will be.  As far as my research has discovered I have found five people who have been nominated for and lost three of these awards and are still kicking so they could go on to lose the fourth.  I am sure, though, that there must be more-if you know of one, share in the comments and I'll be happy to give you credit.  Until then, here are the five people who could follow in Ms. Redgrave's footsteps if they can make it to the top (almost).

Gabriel Byrne

Nomination He's Missing: Oscar
Emmys Lost: 2008 and 2009-Lead Actor in a Drama (In Treatment)
Grammys Lost: 1998-Spoken Word Album (The Nightingale and the Rose)
Tonys Lost: 2000-Lead Actor in a Play (A Moon for the Misbegotten)
He Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: He did win a Golden Globe for his work on In Treatment

Can He Seal the Deal?: The trick to "pulling a Lynn Redgrave" (patent-pending) is to be able to make positions second through fifth, but not manage to grab first.  I think that Byrne could well nab an Oscar nomination, considering he is a multi-hyphenate entertainer (he not only acts, but also writes, directs, and produces), and doesn't seem too likely to win any of the other awards anytime soon.  He rarely does Broadway and his television show isn't on anymore-this seems like one of the more likely of the five (I did the list alphabetically, so there was no leading toward the victor here).

Ed Harris

Nomination He's Missing: Grammy
Emmys Lost: 2005-Lead Actor in a Miniseries (Empire Falls), 2012-Supporting Actor in a Miniseries (Game Change)
Oscars Lost: 1995-Supporting Actor (Apollo 13), 1998-Supporting Actor (The Truman Show), 2000-Lead Actor (Pollock), 2002-Supporting Actor (The Hours)
Tonys Lost: 1986-Actor in a Play (Precious Sons)
He Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: He has two Golden Globe awards, for The Truman Show and Game Change

Can He Seal the Deal?: For a long time there, it seemed like Ed Harris would surely win an Oscar.  He received a staggering four nominations in the span of seven years, and one could make a pretty convincing argument that he was in second in two, if not three of those years (Amy Adams-take note).  Harris has since fallen on hard times with the Academy and has had no more luck with Emmy.  This of course could happen, as the Spoken Word Album category can slip someone in at almost any time, and Harris is famous enough that he could make it for some reading of Shakespeare or Arthur Miller.  However, he's never been a particularly "awards-seeking" performer (otherwise he would have beaten James Coburn in 1998), and I don't see this happening.  Picking up an Emmy at some point is probably more likely.

Kate Nelligan

Nomination She's Missing: Grammy
Emmys Lost: 1989-Actress in a Drama Series (Road to Avonlea)
Oscars Lost: 1991-Supporting Actress (The Prince of Tides)
Tonys Lost: 1983-Actress in a Play (Plenty), 1984-Actress in a Play (A Moon for the Misbegotten), 1988-Featured Actress in a Play (Serious Money), 1989-Actress in a Play (Spoils of War)
She Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: She did win a BAFTA for Frankie and Johnny

Can She Seal the Deal?: The longtime Canadian stage actress enjoyed most of her awards-success at the Tonys, where in the 1980's she was a frequent contender but always missed (it can't feel too bad losing to the likes of Jessica Tandy and Glenn Close, though).  Her one-and-done nomination in 1991 at the Oscars makes her the person who has been on this list the longest, and as a whole she rarely acts anymore (on the stage or otherwise), so unless she has a particular penchant to get involved with an album and score a truly random nomination, this seems like the least likely of the five to happen.  It is interesting, though, how such a comparatively obscure (certainly the least well-known of these five) actress could so quickly score 3/4 of an EGOT loss.

Kathleen Turner

Nomination She's Missing: Emmy
Grammys Lost: 2001-Spoken Word Album (The Complete Shakespeare Sonnets)
Oscars Lost: 1986-Lead Actress (Peggy Sue Got Married)
Tonys Lost: 1990-Actress in a Play (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), 2005-Actress in a Play (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)
She Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: She has two Golden Globes for Romancing the Stone and Prizzi's Honor.

Can She Seal the Deal?: Of the five, I think this is probably the most shocking person on the list, considering that she almost certainly was close to getting nominated at the Emmys for playing Chandler's mother on Friends.  I would suspect, therefore, that she's also the most likely person to pull the Lynn Redgrave of these five.  She just needs a solid guest spot on a cable television series (probably not too hard considering their penchant for going for former headliners of a certain age for guest roles), and to not win the Tony Award (she probably would have won in 2005, but no one was going to take out Cherry Jones in Doubt).  I think that's manageable, and that she's probably going to make it thanks to the bizarre dozens-of-people-nominated Shakespeare Sonnets nomination she got in 2001.

Vanessa Williams

Nominations She's Missing: Oscar
Emmys Lost: 2007, 2008, and 2009-Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Ugly Betty), 2009-Performer in an Animated Program (Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies)
Grammys Lost: 1989-New Artist and Female R and B Performance ("The Right Stuff"), 1990-Female R and B Performance ("Dreamin"), 1992-Female R and B Performance ("Runnin' Back to You"), 1993-Record of the Year ("Save the Best for Last"), Female Pop Vocal Performance ("Save the Best for Last"), Female R and B Vocal Performance ("The Comfort Zone"), and Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals ("Love Is"), 1995-Female Pop Vocal Performance ("Colors of the Wind") and Female R and B Performance ("The Way That You Love"), 1997-Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album (Star Bright)
Tonys Lost: 2002-Actress in a Musical (Into the Woods)
She Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: She was Miss America, but umm, yeah, maybe she should get a little pity here.

Can She Seal the Deal?: Yeah, that list of Grammy losses is massive.  Williams is one of the most nominated women in the Recording Academy to never win.  Despite her seventeen year absence, I think her best shot would be to pick up one of the below-the-line Grammy Awards rather than take an Oscar nomination.  Williams did sing an Oscar-winning song, of course (1995's "Color of the Wind"), but she's not very much of a songwriter, and the movies have oddly never taken to her like music, television, and the theater.  So my gut says no, she can't quite get there (prove me wrong, casting directors), but may well win one of the other three awards before all is said and done.

Whoops, I missed two (if you know of more, I read literally every comment on this blog, so mention them below and I'll be overjoyed):

James Franco

Nomination He's Mising: Tony
Emmys Lost: 2002-Lead Actor in a Miniseries (James Dean), 2011-Outstanding Special Class Programs (The 83rd Academy Awards...yes, James Franco was nominated for an Emmy for his comically bad hosting of the Oscars...let that sink in for a second)
Oscars Lost: 2010-Best Actor (127 Hours)
Grammys Lost: 2014-Spoken Word Album (Actors Anonymous)
He Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: Franco missed the Emmy but picked up the Golden Globe for his work in James Dean.

Can He Seal the Deal? Yes, I think he can.  Franco recently did a turn on Broadway in Of Mice and Men and while he missed out on a nomination there (instead the citation went to his co-lead Chris O'Dowd), he's the sort of person who probably saw the "Losing the EGOT" title (come on-James Franco is the sort of celebrity who googles himself) and thought it was a solid quirk to add to his To Do list, so I suspect that he'll be back relatively soon.  The question is whether or not he'll get a win in the meantime, and I have a feeling he won't.  His cinematic output is impressive, but it's usually staid adaptations of books you read in AP Lit, and he's never hosting anything ever again, so absent a Guest Actor win (which he couldn't even score for 30 Rock...and everyone scored those for 30 Rock), I think he's probably in the market for this title.

Marsha Mason

Nomination She's Missing: Tony
Emmys Lost: 1997-Guest Actress in a Comedy (Frasier)
Oscars Lost: 1973-Best Actress (Cinderella Liberty), 1977-Best Actress (The Goodbye Girl), 1979-Best Actress (Cinderella Liberty), and 1981-Best Actress (Only When I Laugh)
Grammys Lost: 2000-Best Comedy Album (The Prisoner of Second Avenue)
She Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: Mason won Golden Globes for both Cinderella Liberty and The Goodbye Girl

Can She Seal the Deal? The better question has to be how has she not?  Marsha Mason is one of my minor obsessions (she's been nominated for four Oscars, is still living, and yet somehow she disappeared off the face of the public sphere after her divorce to Neil Simon), and the real question was how was she ever going to get a Grammy nomination considering how minor her celebrity is.  With the Comedy Album citation, though, she's actually most well-known these days for her work on Broadway, as she's done six different productions in her career and is constantly working in the New York stage.  Make it happen Marcie!

And those are the seven!  Like I said, I researched pretty thoroughly, but if you trivia sleuths have a sixth person let me know!  And of course, if you don't, please discuss-which of these performers is most likely to score the fourth nomination and "pull a Lynn Redgrave?"  Share in the comments!