Getting nominated for an Academy Award is likely a big deal for any actor, given there are potentially thousands of notable performances every year and only 20 total spots for acting nominations. The Oscars have a category for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role, with five nominees for each category.
That being said, for as good as getting nominated would feel, it’d likely pale in comparison to actually winning. Unfortunately, some actors have come close to winning multiple times, but have found themselves being beaten by someone else on every one of those occasions. The following actors have all been nominated at least five times for their performances yet have no wins, and are ranked below from fewest to most nominations.
10 Michelle Williams – 5 Nominations
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Michelle Williams scored her fifth acting nomination for 2022’s The Fabelmans, Steven Spielberg’s acclaimed semi-autobiographical coming-of-age movie/family drama about a teenager discovering his passion for filmmaking. Williams has two nominations in the Supporting Actress category, and three in the Lead Actress category.
She’s had an impressive career so far, and still being young, maintains a good chance of winning an Oscar eventually. Still, five nominations without a win could sting a little, with her first nomination being for Brokeback Mountain, which is coincidentally a film that happened to be snubbed for a Best Picture win for the year 2005.
9 Arthur Kennedy – 5 Nominations
A successful character actor who was prolific from the early 1940s until the late 1970s, Arthur Kennedy was nominated for five Oscars without any wins. He tended to shine in supporting roles over lead roles, given that four of his nominations were for supporting roles, and only one was for a leading role (in the 1951 film Bright Victory).
Kennedy also had a strong career on stage, with the fact he won a Tony for his role in Death of a Salesman in 1949 likely lessening the sting of not winning an Oscar. Five nominations without a win might nonetheless have been a tough pill to swallow, but it’s still a remarkable accomplishment by any metric.
8 Albert Finney – 5 Nominations
Albert Finney had a lengthy career, rising to fame in the early 1960s, and finding continued success well into the 21st century, with supporting roles in great films like Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead and Skyfall. His nominations were spread out over much of this career, with his first nomination for 1963’s Best Picture-winning Tom Jones, and his final one for Erin Brockovich (2000).
Few people would deny Finney was a great actor, and the numerous nominations do speak to his talents. It’s still a shame he couldn’t nab the top prize for any of his performances (all but one being for Lead Actor), but the nominations do ultimately reflect a bright career that was both varied and consistently strong.
7 Irene Dunne – 5 Nominations
You need to go way back in time to see the nominations Irene Dunne earned throughout her career. Her career began in 1930, and she retired from acting in 1952, meaning that all her nominations happened within a remarkably short amount of time (just over two decades).
Notably, all five of those nominations were for Best Actress in a Leading Role, showing that Dunne was a huge star for her time who was more than capable of shining in prominent roles. She was asked about not winning an Oscar in the 1970s and stated she was at peace with being a five-time nominee without having won, rightly pointing out that numerous well-known screen actors throughout history never won the top prize in their nominated categories.
6 Thelma Ritter – 6 Nominations
Thelma Ritter’s best-known role is probably that of a wisecracking nurse in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, but that wasn’t among the six performances that earned her an Oscar nomination. She earned all six nominations between 1950 and 1962, and notably, all six were for the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award.
The first of those was for the 1950 Broadway-set drama All About Eve, and her final one was for 1962’s prison drama Birdman of Alcatraz. The short timespan within which all six nominations fall indicates Ritter’s consistency and reliability as a supporting actress, as she was always a welcome presence in the movies she showed up in.
5 Amy Adams – 6 Nominations
Receiving her first nomination at the age of 32 in 2006, Amy Adams has steadily earned numerous, steady Oscar nominations ever since. She now has a total of six – five for supporting performances and one for a lead performance – with the most recent nomination being for her role as Lynne Cheney in 2018’s Vice.
Like Michelle Williams, there’s a good chance Adams’ time will come, and that one day she’ll finally earn one step beyond a nomination and actually win a coveted trophy. Whether that’s for a lead performance like in 2013’s crime/comedy/sort of biopic American Hustle or a supporting performance (like her other five nominations) remains to be seen.
4 Deborah Kerr – 6 Nominations
The window in which Deborah Kerr received her six Oscar nominations is almost identical to that of Thelma Ritter’s, as Kerr was nominated half a dozen times between 1950 and 1961. Unlike Ritter, however, Kerr received all of those nominations for Best Leading Actress rather than six exclusively for Best Supporting Actress.
Additionally, Kerr had a remarkable run of movies during the 1940s, too, in notable films like The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) and Black Narcissus (1947). Most of her Oscar nominations came from working in Hollywood, however, which she was predominantly doing by the end of the 1940s and into the early 1950s and beyond.
3 Richard Burton – 7 Nominations
Richard Burton’s first nomination was for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 1952’s My Cousin Rachel. His remaining six were all for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and in total, he earned two nominations in the 1950s, three in the 1960s, and two in the 1970s, before passing away at the age of just 58 in 1984.
He was the kind of actor who almost always seemed to give a great performance, so it might well just be bad luck that led to him coming close to Oscar gold on seven different occasions without ever winning. He also had a much-publicized marriage with Elizabeth Taylor, who had better fortune with the Academy Awards, as she won two Oscars from a total of five nominations during her acting career.
2 Glenn Close – 8 Nominations
With four nominations for Best Supporting Actress and four for Best Lead Actress, Glenn Close has had an amazing acting career, yet remains without an Oscar win. Her first nomination was all the way back in 1982 for The World According to Garp, while her most recent was as recent as 2020, for her role in Hillbilly Elegy.
It’s surprising she’s come so close without winning, but is nevertheless a widely celebrated and beloved actress despite not having an Oscar win on top of her numerous nominations. She’s fared better in other awards shows, however, having won a total of three Golden Globes and three Primetime Emmys throughout her career.
Equaling Glenn Close with eight nominations is Peter O’Toole, whose time to win has unfortunately come and gone, as the legendary actor passed away in 2013. He left behind an undeniably impressive filmography, and furthermore, all eight of his nominations were for Best Leading Actor.
His best-known role will always be the title character in Lawrence of Arabia, with his performance in the life story of T.E. Lawrence being one that matches the larger-than-life character at its center. He was at least recognized for his accomplishments in 2003 with an Honorary Oscar, but it’s a shame the acclaimed actor never got the opportunity to take home the top prize from one of his many nominations.
