The actors with the most Oscar nominations without winning
It’s always a great honour in any actor’s career to get nominated for an Academy Award, the crowning achievement of the film industry. But just as joyous as the act of recognition is, the process can be equally as frustrating, even heartbreaking, when a given actor doesn’t actually win their nominated Oscar, especially if it’s a repeat occurrence.
Meryl Streep holds the record for most Academy Award nominations with 21 in the bag, but she’s won three of them in the process. There are several other star performers over the years who have been given that initial nod and put in the running to take home the highly coveted prize on a number of occasions, only to have their hopes dashed at the last moment.
For instance, Richard Burton was nominated for an Oscar on seven occasions. The first time was in 1952 for My Cousin Rachel and the Welsh film icon received high praise from the Academy over the proceeding decades, always giving excellent performances that were well deserving of his multiple nominations.
In the modern cinema era, we find Amy Adams has been nominated for an Academy Award on six fruitless occasions, the most recent being for 2018’s Vice. Adams’ contemporary Michelle Williams has had five Oscar nods throughout her career, including the recent Steven Spielberg film The Fabelmans, but again, no dice.
While Burton, Adams and Williams’ respective plights might garner sympathy, we ought to reserve our most immense pity for the two actors at the top (or bottom, depending on which way you look at the situation). We’re terribly regretful to reveal that the two actors with the most Academy Award nominations without winning are Glenn Close and Peter O’Toole.
Close boasts one hell of an acting career, one that has garnered eight Oscar nominations – four for ‘Best Supporting Actress’ and another four for ‘Best Leading Actress’. The first arrived back in 1982 for The World According to Garp, and the most recent came in 2020 for her effort in Hillbilly Elegy.
While Close can certainly consider herself unfortunate not to have taken home an Oscar (yet), perhaps her load will be lightened by the fact she’s at least won three Golden Globes and a further three Primetime Emmys. But, then again, perhaps not.
Where Close’s Oscar nods were split between two categories, the other actor’s nominations were all for ‘Best Leading Actor’, so maybe they can be seen as ever more deserving of an actual win and, therefore, more unlucky.
The actor is Peter O’Toole, who famously played the lead role in the historical epic Lawrence of Arabia as well as getting Academy Award nominations for the likes of Becket, The Lion in Winter and My Favourite Year. O’Toole died back in 2013, so his race is sadly run. Perhaps Close will thanklessly find herself at the top (bottom) of this list in due course…
