32 top actors who still haven't won an Oscar

Oct. 13, 2023

Even some of the most famous actors in Hollywood have never taken home an Oscar

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As the saying goes: It’s nice to just be nominated. It may surprise people to learn that even the most famous actors in Hollywood have not yet received an acting Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Fun fact: Did you know no one knows for sure where the “Oscar” nickname comes from? Bette Davis is sometimes credited for it because she said the statuette looked like her husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson. Another theory claims Academy librarian Margaret Herrick came up with it on the basis the statues resembled her own uncle Oscar.

Actors don’t really need trophies to cement their status as the cream of the crop. But it’s still surprising to learn which A-listers haven’t received golden recognition. Given that, here are 32 top actors who still haven’t won an acting Oscar, excluding lifetime honors and awards in other crafts.

32. Keanu Reeves

Once a teen heartthrob before graduating to blockbuster status, Keanu Reeves has not previously been nominated for anything from the Academy. But given his prominence in action fare like Speed and franchises like The Matrix and John Wick, which are typically ignored by the Oscars, it’s actually easy to see why Reeves has never taken home gold.

The Alien and Ghostbusters star was previously nominated for Best Actress for both Aliens (1987) and Gorillas in the Mist (1989), and for Best Supporting Actress in Working Girl also in 1989. She holds awards from other major entities like the BAFTA Awards and Golden Globes. When you’ve burned aliens and dumped a Ghostbuster, an Oscar seems like an afterthought.

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Renowned as a character actor, Stanley Tucci has taken home five Emmys and two Golden Globes. He was nominated by the Academy for Best Supporting Actor in the 2009 movie The Lovely Bones. With more roles in acclaimed dramas like Spotlight and Supernova and franchise pictures like Captain America: The First Avenger and The Hunger Games, his face isn’t one to forget.

The Australian dynamo burst into Hollywood in her star-making role in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street before embodying both Harley Quinn and Barbie, not to mention an angelic Sharon Tate in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Robbie has been previously nominated for her roles in I, Tonya and Bombshell.

From strutting around New York in the TV show Girls to trying to rule over a galaxy far, far away in the Star Wars movies, Adam Driver has made his mark in Hollywood in a relatively short time. He has been previously nominated twice for his roles in BlacKkKlansman and Marriage Story. His other films include Frances Ha, Lincoln, Logan Lucky, The Last Duel, House of Gucci, and Ferrari.

Bryan Cranston came a long way from voicing monsters on Power Rangers. His thunderous performance in the TV juggernaut Breaking Bad gave the actor a truckload of Emmys. But as far as the cinematic Oscars go, Cranston has been previously nominated once for Trumbo. That year, he lost to an actor whose name used to top these lists: Leonardo DiCaprio, for The Revenant.

You know you’re a big deal when you have an entire movie named after you. The celebrated actor has previously received two Oscar nominations, for his roles in the movies Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire. He’s also starred in the films Empire of the Sun, Dangerous Liaisons, Of Mice and Men, Con Air, and Red. On top of that, audiences know what it’s like to be John Malkovich.

Sandra Oh is beloved across TV and film, but her most celebrated work comes from TV. She starred in seven seasons of the HBO comedy Arliss before her star-making gig in the ABC medical drama Grey’s Anatomy. She gained further acclaim in the BBC spy thriller Killing Eve. Her film work includes The Princess Diaries, Under the Tuscan Sun, Raya and the Last Dragon, and Umma.

He trained Obi-Wan and Batman, and has a set of very specific skills. But the towering Irish actor (he stands 6-foot-4) was previously nominated for an Oscar for a more noble character: Oskar Schindler, a real-life German businessman who saved over a thousand Polish-Jewish refugees during World War II in Steven Spielberg’s classic Schindler’s List.

Actor and race car driver Michael Fassbender has been nominated for movies like 12 Years a Slave (in the category of Best Supporting Actor) and for Steve Jobs, in his transformative performance as the Apple founder. He is also known for movies like Inglourious Basterds, Jane Eyre, Macbeth, Prometheus, The Killer, and Marvel’s X-Men films.

Since his star-making performance in Inside Llewyn Davis, Oscar Isaac has been an in-demand talent appearing in adult dramas and franchise blockbusters alike. His accolades include a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy nomination. He’s also starred in the films Drive, A Most Violent Year, Ex Machina, Triple Frontier, The Card Counter, Dune, and the Star Wars sequel trilogy.

Keira Knightley boasts worldwide fame from her roles inDisney’s Pirates of the Caribbean series, the enduring rom-com Love Actually, and really any movie that requires British accents. She’s been previously nominated by the Academy for both Pride and Prejudice and The Imitation Game.

An acting heavyweight whose career spans decades, Annette Benning has been nominated several times for movies like The Grifters, American Beauty, Being Julia, and The Kids Are All Right. She’s also received nominations from the Emmys and Tonys, and has won Golden Globes.

Michelle Pfeiffer was nominated three times in the span of four years, for the films Dangerous Liaisons, The Fabulous Baker Boys, and Love Field. But the fact she pulled off her whip tricks as Catwoman (for Tim Burton’s Batman Returns) in just one take means she’s always a winner.

One of the most prolific movie stars in the world, Robert Downey Jr. has been previously nominated by the Academy for his roles in Chaplin and Tropic Thunder. Tragically, there is no Oscar for Best Heartbreaker, which RDJ would have clinched from Avengers: Endgame.

A modern movie star in every sense, Amy Adams has a whopping six nominations for movies like Junebug, Doubt, The Fighter, Vice, and more. Her other major movies include Catch Me If You Can, Enchanted, Sunshine Cleaning, Julie & Julia, The Muppets, Nocturnal Animals, and several DC superhero movies.

One of Boston’s finest guys has been nominated several times by the Academy, for movies like Good Will Hunting, The Martian, and Invictus. Damon does in fact have an Oscar, just not for acting; he co-wrote the screenplay of Good Will Hunting with his BFF, Ben Affleck, which the Academy awarded both men for.

Willem Dafoe has literally been Jesus Christ (for a movie), and has previously been nominated for his roles in Platoon, Shadow of the Vampire, The Florida Project, and At Eternity’s Gate. However, his true victory in Hollywood rests in his eerie ability to be an endless source of memes.

From Star Wars to Indiana Jones to Jack Ryan, Harrison Ford has captivated generations of moviegoers. He has been within spitting distance of an Oscar before, for the 1986 film Witness. Late in his career, he has made an unexpected move into television as the co-star of the comedy-drama Shrinking on Apple TV+.

Michelle Williams was not new to acting when she starred in the teen drama Dawson’s Creek, but her work in adult dramas and collaboration with auteurs has given her rarified air as an actor’s actor. She boasts multiple nominations for movies like Blue Valentine, My Week with Marilyn, Brokeback Mountain, and The Fabelmans.

A true titan of industry whose career spans four decades, Glenn Close has numerous Oscar nominations for movies like The Big Chill, Fatal Attraction, and Dangerous Liaisons. In the 2000s, Close made the transition to TV and was one of the first major Hollywood movie stars to do so in that era. She won further acclaim in the medium as the star of the FX legal drama Damages.

Arguably the complete embodiment of the Hollywood movie star, Tom Cruise has received four nominations for movies like Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire, and Top Gun: Maverick. His filmography boasts equal parts popcorn fare like the Mission: Impossible series and more challenging films like Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut and Cameron Crowe’s Vanilla Sky. He’ll win an Oscar should he choose to accept it.

Eric Francisco is a freelance entertainment journalist and graduate of Rutgers University. If a movie or TV show has superheroes, spaceships, kung fu, or John Cena, he’s your guy to make sense of it. A former senior writer at Inverse, his byline has also appeared at Vulture, The Daily Beast, Observer, and The Mary Sue. You can find him screaming at Devils hockey games or dodging enemy fire in Call of Duty: Warzone.

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