10 Great Hollywood Actors Who Have Never Won an Oscar

Academy award is the greatest honorary award that any person working in Film industry can receive. But despite giving excellent performances in many films and getting nominated multiple times some great actors yet to get their hands on that little yellow statuette. We’ve made the list 10 great Hollywood actors who have never won an Oscar in Best acting category.

The 10 Great Hollywood Actors Who Have Never Won an Oscar:

Some actors are great at playing different characters in their movies and some are great at playing the same character in different movies.

Actors are the most sought-after professionals in Hollywood. They have a huge number of fans and a lot of admiration and respect. Yet, they are not as famous as they should be because they have never won an Oscar.

In this article, we will discuss the actors who have never won an Oscar but are great in their respective fields. We will also look at some of the reasons why they did not win an Oscar.

10. Robert Downey Jr.

Robert Downey Jr. Great Hollywood Actors

Robert Downey Jr. Best known for his role as Iron Man in Marvel Cinematic Universe. Right from the beginning, he caught critics attention for having excellent acting abilities. He played “Charlie Chaplin” in 1992 film “Chaplin”, which would be surprising for his fans, because today we can’t imagine him playing that kind of role. But he not only excelled in that role, but also received his first Oscar nomination. Soon after that, his career went into downward trajectory due to drug addictio

He made comeback after fighting his personal problems with films like “Kiss Kiss Ban Bang” and “Iron Man“. In 2008 academy again noticed his acting capabilities for his role in “Tropic Thunder”, and gave him an Oscar nomination for Best actor, but he missed again. But we’re hoping that he would crack an Oscar soon in future.

9. Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise Never Won An Oscar

Tom Cruise certainly is the most popular Hollywood actor, worldwide. Although he can’t be compared with Marlon Brando or Robert De Niro in terms of acting, but certainly is a great actor.

Even though, he’s more of an action guy, does most of his stunts in movies and suits best movies like “Mission Impossible”, but he has also proved himself to be an actor with immensely mature acting skills. Even Academy has nominated him three times for Oscar in Best actor category, but he missed all the time.

8. Albert Finney

Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn.
Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn.

Albert Finney is one of greatest actor of 20th century. He has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor four times, for Tom Jones (1963), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Dresser (1983), and Under the Volcano (1984); and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Erin Brockovich (2000). All these nominations prove that he’s an extraordinary actor but could never win an Oscar.

7. Edward Norton

Edward Norton Great Hollywood Actors

Edward Norton is one of those people who were born to be actors. He has been praised for acting for almost all of his movies. But Academy nominated him for his work in the films like Primal Fear (1996), American History X (1998) and Birdman (2014). He’s an excellent actor, and certainly deserve to win an Oscar. His fans can only hope for his to receive that award sometime in future.

6. Will Smith

Will Smith Never Won An Oscar

Will Smith is without a doubt one of the most popular actors of Hollywood. He’s also one of richest actors in the world, and undoubtedly one of the best too. Although he has done acting in more than 20 Hollywood movies but his performance in two movies caught Academy’s attention. As Muhammad Ali in “Ali (2001)” and as a stockbroker Chris Gardner in the Pursuit of Happyness (2006), he received nominations for Best Actor in Academy Awards for both of these movies but missed.

5. Johnny Depp

Johnny Depp Never Won An Oscar

Best known for his role in “Pirates of the Caribbea franchise” as Jack Sparrow, Johny Depp is highly acclaimed and ridiculously successful actor. Depp has been nominated for many major acting awards, including three nominations for Academy Award for Best Actor. His recent feature Black Mass proved that even at the age of 53, he got more than enough strength to crack an Oscar.

4. Brad Pitt

Brad Pitt Great Hollywood Actors

Brad Pitt has been cited as one of the most influential and powerful people in the American entertainment industry, as well as the world’s most attractive man, by various media outlets, but more than anything else, he’s a great actor. He has received nomination for Best Actor twice and once for Best supporting actor by Academy Awards.

3. Richard Burton

Richard Burton with Angie Dickinson in The Bramble Bush
Richard Burton with Angie Dickinson in The Bramble Bush.

Richard Burton was a great, actor, he caught critics attention during 1950s, and many of them declared him one of Best actors of his generation.

But due to alcoholism, Burton failed to live up to those expectations, disappointed critics and colleagues and fueled his legend as a great thespian wastrel. Burton was nominated for an Academy Award a whopping seven times, but unfortunately never won.

2. Gary Oldman

Gary Oldman Never Won An Oscar

There are very few actors on earth who has done more diverse roles than this man. There are more than a dozen movies in which he has delivered an Oscar worthy performance. But surprisingly academy has nominated him only once for Best actor. A part of the reason could be him controversial personality and his vocal criticism towards this kind of Awards. But this 58 year old English actor, is to this day one of the Best actor working in Hollywood, and giving him an Oscar is the least they can do.

1. Peter O’ Toole

Peter O' Toole Great Hollywood Actors

This Shakespearean actor holds the world record for most Academy Award nominations for Best actor without win. He achieved international recognition through Lawrence of Arabia (1962) for which he received his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor, after that he received another 7 nominations but never won. Peter O’ Toole was one of greatest actors of all time, but Academy never honoured with Oscar for Best actor.