Awards season: It doesn’t always go the way you think it will! Snafus like 2017’s Moonlight/La La Land mix-up have proven as much—though sometimes Oscars night surprises are a bit more subtle. For instance, an actor that you could swear is drowning in Academy Awards actually has no wins to their name. Is it fair? No. Should you and all the attendees at your Oscars party fight for hours about why these actors actually deserve the industry’s biggest awards? Yes!
Below, find 21 hallowed Hollywood actors who are surprisingly Oscar-free (for now).
Laura Linney
Okay, we know Linney wasn’t likely to nab the Oscar for her performance in Love Actually, but…I wish she had! More seriously, the actress has been thrice-nominated (most recently for her role in The Savages in 2007), but hasn’t struck gold yet.
Michelle Pfeiffer
Pfeiffer, like Linney, is a member of the “three Oscar nominations but no wins to date” club, although she did take home a well-deserved Golden Globe for her performance in 1989’s The Fabulous Baker Boys.
Helena Bonham Carter
Bonham Carter has been nominated for an Oscar twice—first in 1998, for her role in Wings of the Dove, and more recently in 2011, for her performance as Queen Elizabeth in The King’s Speech—but so far, she has yet to bring home a little gold man. Puzzling!
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Gyllenhaal is one of the few actors on this list who has the distinction of earning a writing nomination for an Oscar as well as an acting one (she was nominated for her performance in 2009’s Crazy Heart and then in the best-adapted-screenplay category for her directorial debut, The Lost Daughter), but so far, no dice, win-wise.
Amy Adams
Six-time nominee Adams—recognized for her turns in Junebug, Doubt, The Fighter, The Master, American Hustle, and Vice—has, shockingly, never won an Oscar, though it feels like only a matter of time until she does.
Annette Bening
In the running for best actress in 2024 (for her barnstorming turn in Nyad), Bening has been nominated for an Oscar a total of five times…with no joy. (Coincidentally, Bening’s husband, Warren Beatty, has also never won an acting Oscar, despite four nominations—although he won the best-director prize for Reds in 1982.)
Glenn Close
Over the course of her storied career, Close has been nominated a whopping eight times for her roles in films including The Big Chill (1983), Fatal Attraction (1987), and Dangerous Liaisons (1988), but she’s never taken an Oscar home. (Yuh-jung Youn spoiled her most recent bid in 2021.)
Bradley Cooper
In the running for best actor, best original screenplay, and best picture statuettes in 2024 for his virtuosic work on Maestro, Cooper has now been nominated for an Oscar a jaw-dropping 12 times for his acting, writing, directing, and producing efforts across a wide range of projects, from Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle to American Sniper, A Star is Born, Joker, and Nightmare Alley.
Ralph Fiennes
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Like his Schindler’s List co-star Liam Neeson, Fiennes was nominated for an Oscar in 1994, but lost to Tommy Lee Jones. When he received a second nod, for his leading role in 1996’s The English Patient, he was shut out again, this time by Geoffrey Rush. Fiennes recieved a third nomination was for his work in Edward Berger’s Conclave, but sadly, that wasn’t to be, either, what with Adrien Brody’s win for The Brutalist.
Ethan Hawke
Hawke’s filmography is legendary, ranging from indie and arthouse favorites (Reality Bites; the Before trilogy) to mainstream hits (Dead Poets Society, Gattaca). He’s been up for an acting Oscar three times now—for Training Day in 2002, Boyhood in 2015, and now Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon—and twice more for adapted screenplay (for Before Sunset and Before Midnight), but never won. Could 2026 be his year?
Isabelle Huppert
For all of her astonishing work with the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, Maurice Pialat, Michael Haneke, Claire Denis, and Hong Sang-soo over the last 50 years, Huppert has been nominated for an Academy Award just once, for her performance in Paul Verhoeven’s erotic thriller Elle (2016).
Ian McKellen
The acting legend has been nominated twice, for his roles in 1998’s Gods and Monsters and 2001’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, but has yet to win. Don’t cry for him, though; he’s the proud recipient of six Olivier awards (including a special award in 2020), a Tony, and a Golden Globe.
Carey Mulligan
Mulligan has earned three Oscar nominations over the course of her career—for her turns in An Education, Promising Young Woman, and, most recently, 2023’s Maestro—but she hasn’t yet captured a statuette.
Liam Neeson
In 1994, Neeson was up for best actor for his career-defining role in the Holocaust drama Schindler’s List. When he didn’t win (that was the year Tom Hanks claimed the first of his two consecutive best-actor trophies, for Philadelphia and then Forrest Gump) many considered it a major upset.
Edward Norton
Despite four nods over four decades—for Primal Fear, American History X, Birdman, and A Complete Unknown—the actor has somehow never made it to the Oscars podium.
Guy Pearce
The star of best picture winners The Hurt Locker and The King’s Speech, not to mention Oscar nominees L.A. Confidential and Memento, Pearce celebrated his very first Oscar nomination last year, for his terrifying supporting turn in The Brutalist.
Saoirse Ronan
The 31-year-old has, remarkably, already racked up four Oscar nominations—for her moving performances in Atonement, Brooklyn, Lady Bird, and, most recently, Little Women—but no wins, as yet.
Isabella Rossellini
Her mother, silver screen icon Ingrid Bergman, scooped three acting Oscars (for Gaslight, Anastasia, and Murder on the Orient Express) and her father, the legendary director Roberto Rossellini, was nominated for co-writing Paisan, but Blue Velvet star Isabella Rossellini had never been recognized by the Academy until last year, when she earned a best-supporting-actress nod for her performance in Conclave.
Stanley Tucci
Despite memorable roles in films like Julie & Julia and Big Night (which he co-directed with Campbell Scott), Tucci has only been nominated once, for The Lovely Bones, walking away from the 2010 Oscars empty-handed. (Well, all the better to cook and eat his way across Italy.) The same role also earned Tucci a BAFTA and Golden Globes nomination.
Sigourney Weaver
Weaver has three Oscar nominations to her name for her roles in Aliens, Working Girl, and Gorillas in the Mist. Securing both of the latter in 1989, she became only the fifth actor ever to receive two acting nominations in the same year—but as of now, she still has no wins.
Michelle Williams
Nominated five times—for 2005’s Brokeback Mountain, 2010’s Blue Valentine, 2011’s My Week with Marilyn, 2016’s Manchester by the Sea, and 2022’s The Fabelmans—Williams hasn’t yet won an Oscar, although that day feels inevitable.