Oscar snub club: Should there be Oscars for non-winners?
Leonardo DiCaprio…shoulda won for Gilbert Grape and The Aviator…
Here’s an idea that might stoke some interest in the Academy Awards. How about Oscars for the worthy performers who, unimaginably, never won a competitive statuette? And even more unimaginably, for those who were never nominated?
Among the never nominated: Joseph Cotten, Mia Farrow, Danny Glover, Myrna Loy, Maureen O’Hara, Kim Novak and Donald Sutherland.
Among the most-nominated non-winners: Peter O’Toole (8 nominations), Richard Burton (7), Deborah Kerr (6), Glenn Close (6), Albert Finney (5), Annette Bening (4), Greta Garbo (4), Julianne Moore (4), Barbara Stanwyck (4), Leonardo Di Caprio (3), Kirk Douglas (3), Gena Rowlands (2).
Most glaring omissions among non-nominees and non-winners? Among the never-nominated, I’m going for Joseph Cotten (Citizen Kane, I’ll Be Seeing You) and Mia Farrow (Rosemary’s Baby, Purple Rose of Cairo, Crimes and Misdemeanors). Among the non-winners, I’d say Albert Finney (Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Gumshoe, Big Fish) and Barbara Stanwyck (Baby Face, Ladies of Lesiure, Annie Oakley, Stella Dallas, The Lady Eve, Ball of Fire, Thelma Jordan, Clash By Night).
Your votes? Which films? Why?
Mia Farrow. Great in every movie. Julie Christie deserves at least one additional Oscar besides the one she has. Zhivago, Madding Crowd, and Away from Her.
Sorry, I don’t think di Caprio is much of an actor.
Irene Dunne. She was nominated five times, for Cimarron (1931), Theodora Goes Wild (1936), The Awful Truth (1937), Love Affair (1940), and I Remember Mama (1948). She should have won for The Awful Truth. She also should have been at least nominated for Back Street and Penny Serenade.
Oh – and for the “Never Even Nominated” category, I’d choose Edward G. Robinson. It’s astonishing he was never nominated.
Luis Guzmán his Filmography is impressive to say the least. Loved him The Bone Collector ,Traffic, Boogy Nights ,The Count Of Monte Cristo,The Taking of Pelham 123. His Tv Credits are nothing to sneeze at either.If Viola Davis can win an Oscar for being on screen less than 20 minutes and the Academy FINALLY gave Richard Jenkins a break then Luis should be given some consideration.
For me the most glaring omission in any category is IDA LUPINO! Not only was she a trailblazing writer/producer/director, she was a standout actress who never got any recognition from the Academy. Her one major award was for Best Actress in THE HARD WAY (1942), from the New York Film Critics Circle. She knocked it out of the park in THE MAN I LOVE (1946), ROAD HOUSE (1948) THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT (1940), HIGH SIERRA (1940), ON DANGEROUS GROUND (1951), and WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS (1956), and others. She could sing, dance, write music, and have an onscreen nervous breakdown like nobody’s business. And that doesn’t even begin to describe her prolific career as a television director, writer and actress, covering every genre from Westerns to crime thrillers to comedy to suspense to drama to her own domestic sitcom series, Mr. Adams and Eve, which had a two-year run. Maybe the Academy was afraid of setting the bar too high for themselves…
Deborah Kerr. 6 times nominated, she should have won for her superb Aussie drover’s wife in ‘The Sundowners’. Disgracefully, she was not even nominated for her brilliant performances as Sister Clodagh in ‘Black Narcissus’, Hannah Jelkes in ‘The Night of the Iguana’ and one of cinema’s greatest triumphs, Miss Giddens in ‘The Innocents’. Fully expecting Deborah to be nominated for the latter film, columnist Joe Hyams credited her with her 7th nomination. It didnt happen, and Deborah said : ‘If i cant win one without begging, then I dont weant one at all.’ Ironically, in the only national Oscar poll conducted in Australia by the long-defunct magazine ‘New Screen News’, Aussies voted Deborah a 1964 Oscar for ‘The Night of the Iguana’. Her Lifetime Achievement Oscar in 1993 was long-overdue, and she was awarded two of the longest standing ovations in Oscar history. Frail and terrified, Deborah gave a speech which was elegant, gracious, generous and supremely moving, intending it to be her public ‘farewell’. Her cinematic legacy is incredibly rich, full of beautifully subtle work. Never has an Oscar been more deserved.
Carrie, this is inspired. I second all of your recommendations. Especially Garbo for Queen Christina, Camille & a number of silents. One of the biggest oversights has to be Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, not even nominated for best picture (the winner that year the petrified Driving Miss Daisy)