With the fall film festival season behind us, the Oscar season is now pretty much in full swing, so we thought we’d take a look at some relate Oscar players who have never won Oscars (males now, females later) It’s been five years since Esquire magazine had Bill Murray on the cover along with the caption, “Will Somebody Please Give This Man An Oscar.” Since then, Bill has still come up empty handed, but he’s not alone. Here we’ve compiled a list of 22 male actors who’ve been nominated by the Academy for an acting award but have yet to take it home. But note, we’ve broken this up into three parts. Part 1: The 50 And Above Crowd and Part 2: The 35-50 Crowd and then on Friday, we’ll get into the 35 and below guys.
Bill Murray (59)
Nominated For: “Lost In Translation” – 2004 – Leading
Why He’s a Contender: Being taken seriously as an actor, instead of just a comedian, hasn’t boded well for the former SNL star. It wasn’t until “Rushmore” (’98) that he caught people’s attention, proving there’s more to this funny guy than meets the eye. He got rave reviews for the film but the Academy failed to notice. It wasn’t until 2004 however, that they did notice with “Lost in Translation” (’03), Sofia Coppola’s tale of an actor who had lost his way. In it, Murray seemed to replicate his character from “Rushmore,” as he also did in “Broken Flowers” (’05), but so far it hasn’t been a winning strategy for him.
Why It Might Never Happen: Now, with films like “City of Ember” and a possible third “Ghostbusters” on the way, maybe the actor isn’t trying so hard, or maybe he’s just given up.
Ed Harris (58)
Nominated For: “Apollo 13″ – 1996 – Supporting
“The Truman Show” – 1999 – Supporting
“Pollock” – 2001 – Leading
“The Hours” – 2003 – Supporting
Why He’s a Contender: The problem for Ed Harris is he’s so good, he’s taken for granted. Mostly sticking to supporting roles, Harris is always solid and sears the screen every time he’s on it. You could easily replace the four actual nominations he received with nominations for “State of Grace” (’90), “The Firm” (’93), “The Rock” (’96) or “Gone Baby Gone” (’07) because they are all worthy. The intense actor has yet another supporting role in the new Peter Weir film, “The Way Back,” set for release next year. We hope, like with Morgan Freeman, this great actor gets noticed sooner rather than later.
Jeff Bridges (59)
Nominated For: “The Last Picture Show” – 1972 – Supporting
“Thunderbolt and Lightfoot” – 1975 – Supporting
“Starman” – 1985 – Leading
“The Contender” – 2001 – Supporting
Why He’s a Contender: Way back in 1972, Jeff Bridges earned an Oscar nomination for one of his first films, and now, almost forty years later, he’s still playing the game with four nominations and still no win to speak of. The only real request we have as far as his Oscar history goes, is how about trading his nomination for “Starman” (’84) in exchange for one for “The Big Lebowski” (’98)? We could go on and on about that, so we’ll digress, and focus on his more current endeavors for now because there are a lot of them. Bridges’ recent turn as the villain in “Iron Man” (’08) was delicious fun, and later this year he’s one of “The Men Who Stare at Goats.” He also has “The Open Road,” which was just released, but looks typically run of the mill and co-stars Justin Timberlake. Need we say more? Next year he plays a washed up county music singer in “Crazy Heart,” which could earn him a nomination, or even better, since he didn’t get one for “TRON” (’82), how about one for “Tron Legacy” (’10)? Then again, maybe not. The rumor mill has brought it to our attention that the Coen Brothers might be remaking “True Grit” (’69), and are considering Bridges for the main character. If this turns out to be the true, maybe The Dude can win his first Oscar playing the same character that The Duke won his for. We can only hope.
Viggo Mortensen (50)
Nominated For: “Eastern Promises” – 2008 – Leading
Why He’s a Contender: If it were up to the fanboys, Viggo Mortensen would be a three time Oscar winner already for all The Lord of the Rings, but here in the real world, Mortensen will have to work harder for his accolades. His first collaboration with director, David Cronenberg, was “A History of Violence” (’05) and proved fruitful enough to reteam for “Eastern Promises” two years later. That role earned Mortensen his first Oscar nomination, and now two years after that, he might be poised for a second one. “The Road” will be released later this year after being bumped from Oscar season last year and early reviews say Mortensen’s portrayal of a father who would do anything for his son might have a shot. Now it is rumored Mortensen may retire from acting early, as if he needs any more pressure to win the coveted award as soon as he can.
Clint Eastwood (79)
Nominated For: “Unforgiven” – 1993 – Leading
“Million Dollar Baby” – 2005 – Leading
Why He’s a Contender: Known more for his directing than his acting these days, since 2000, Clint Eastwood has only acted in four films but has directed nine. In fact, the films that won him his two directing Oscars are the same ones he lost for acting. “Unforgiven” (’92) is easily the best performance of the two, and more so, the best of his career, while “Million Dollar Baby” (’04) was simply the precursor to his grumpy character in “Gran Torino” (’08). Speaking of “Gran Torino,” a lot of people can’t believe Eastwood wasn’t nominated for the film, but we on the other hand, can’t believe he even had a chance to begin with. Sorry, we know the film has ardent fans, but that doesn’t excuse that cliché ridden embarrassment.
Why It Might Not Ever Happen: To make matters worse, Eastwood himself has since stated “Gran Torino” served as his last job as an actor, so now he can’t even make it up to us.
Billy Bob Thornton (54)
Nominated For: “Sling Blade” – 1997 – Leading
“A Simple Plan” – 1999 – Supporting
Why He’s a Contender: Like Matt Damon, Bill Bob Thornton has won an Oscar for his writing, not his acting, and it’s here we must say, never have we seen an actor fall off quality-wise the way Billy Bob Thornton has. His last notable year making movies was 2001, when he starred in “Monster’s Ball” and “The Man Who Wasn’t There,” and was quite good in both. His career since then isn’t even worth discussing, but if you do, just keep in mind he’s a musician first and foremost, or so he likes to think so. As far as his previous nominations are concerned, we honestly think he should’ve won an Oscar for both of those performances. No offense to Geoffrey Rush or his work, but Billy Bob completely inhabited his character in “Sling Blade” (’96) in a way nobody has since, except for maybe Daniel Day Lewis in “There Will Be Blood” (’07). And his character in “A Simple Plan” (’98) was so believable and real, we can’t believe it was ignored.
Why It Might Not Ever Happen: We hope Billy Bob can make some kind of comeback, but at this point, we don’t see how it’s possible.
Others you might be wondering about. George Clooney? He won already, Best Supporting for “Syriana” in 2006 though the Best Actor category has alluded him thus far (though he earned a nomination for “Michael Clayton” and another one is on the way for “Up In The Air, no doubt).
Robert Duvall? In case you’re wondering he’s been nominated for Oscar six times , but has only won once for Best actor in 1973’s “Tender Mercies.” Duvall has scored three Best Actor nominations (the other two were “The Apostle” and “The Great Santini” and three Best Supporting nominations (“The Godfather,” “Apocalypse Now,” “A Civil Action”). There’s been talk of another nomination for his role in the upcoming film, “Get Low,” but it feels a little early for that right now and buzz is sort of minimal right now.
Christopher Walken? In what seems like an impossible oversight, he’s actually never been nominated for a Best Actor award, but has been nominated twice for Best Supporting and won his first time in 1977 for “The Deer Hunter,” (the other Supporting nomination was “Catch Me If You Can”) but the Academy has otherwise run cold on his work. — Jonathan Helm
Update: Someone else in this age bracket we overlooked. John Malkovich (55) has never won an Oscar and has never even been nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award. He has two supporting nominations to his name for two largely forgettable movies, “In the Line of Fire” (’93) and “Places in the Heart” (’84).
