Some longtime actors and actresses seem to be nominated for an Oscar every time they take a role in a high caliber film. Some are nominated just once or twice in their long careers. Still others fail to be nominated at all, no matter how hard they try.
Everyone knows that such legends as Lon Chaney, Buster Keaton, Myrna Loy, Tyrone Power, Maureen O’Hara, Edward G. Robinson, Marilyn Monroe, and Jean Harlow were never nominated, but there are many more whose performances over the years were just as memorable who went unnoticed when it came to Oscar.
Here are six actors and six actresses with prolific film careers who never received even a single nomination for one of their outstanding performances:
THE EGREGIOUSLY OVERLOOKED:
DANA ANDREWS in THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946)
Like Myrna Loy and Teresa Wright in this World War II homecoming classic, Andrews gave one of the film’s five great performances alongside Oscar winners Fredric March and Harold Russell. Unfortunately, his role was borderline lead-supporting making it difficult to know where to place him. His first standout role was as one of the lynch mob victims in 1943’s The Ox-Bow Incident, followed by his iconic role of the lovesick detective in 1944’s Laura. An accomplished singer, he was nevertheless dubbed in the Rodgers & Hammerstein 1945 musical, State Fair. Later films included Advise & Consent, In Harm’s Way, and Battle of the Bulge.
MARGARET HAMILTON in THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)
Hamilton, a former schoolteacher, had been in films since 1933 and last appeared on screen in a 1982 TV movie but most people seem to only know her as the Wicked Witch of the West who terrifies Dorothy (Judy Garland) and her dog Toto in this beloved classic. For a time, though, she was equally well known for her portrayal of Cora, the general store lady in coffee commercials who only sold one brand – Maxwell House. Many of her late career performances spoofed her wicked witch. They included such films as 13 Ghosts, Rosie!, Brewster McCloud, The Anderson Tapes, and TV’s Letters from Frank.
CEDRIC HARDWICKE in THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939)
More often than not, the distinguished British actor was billed as Sir Cedric Hardwicke, whose greatest role was as Frollo, the villain in the best ever film version of Victor Hugo’s classic in support of Charles Laughton as the bellringer and Maureen O’Hara as the girl Hardwicke’s character is infatuated with. The actor’s long list of unforgettable performances includes those in Les Misérables, On Borrowed Time, Stanley and Livingstone, The Moon Is Down, The Keys of the Kingdom, I Remember Mama, Rope, The Winslow Boy, Richard III, The Ten Commandments, Around the World in 80 Days, and The Pumpkin Easter.
VERA MILES in THE WRONG MAN (1957)
The soon-to-be 95-year-old actress is the only one on this list still alive. She hasn’t made a film in almost thirty years but is constantly on view in films she made between 1956 and 1960, most notably two for John Ford (The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance) and two for Alfred Hitchcock (The Wrong Man and Psycho) as well as several later in her career. Ironically, it was in the least famous of her four signature films that she gave her greatest performances as the wife of Henry Fonda who turns to drink under the weight of the accusations against her husband for a crime he didn’t commit. She also made notable appearances on TV.
PAT O’BRIEN in ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES (1938)
O’Brien was a childhood friend of Spencer Tracy, but on screen he was the frequent costar of James Cagney who played his childhood friend in this follow-up vehicle for the teenage stars of 1937’s Dead End. In this one, The Dead End Kids are enamored of gangster Cagney who now priest O’Brien has been unable to keep the kids from hero worship, imploring him to fake cowardice on his way to the electric chair. Cagney won the N.Y. Film Critics award and was the favorite to win the Oscar for Best Actor but lost to Tracy, who like O’Brien, was playing a priest in Boys Town. O’Brien should have been nominated and won in support.
UNA O’CONNOR in THIS LAND IS MINE (1943)
The Irish character actress gave some of her greatest performances before supporting Oscars were handed out in such films as Cavalcade, The Invisible Man, David Copperfield, The Barretts of Wimpole Street, The Bride of Frankenstein, and The Informer but there were plenty that came later including this World War II gem in which she unwittingly turns her son (Charles Laughton) into the Nazis. Among her post-1935 successes were The Adventures of Robin Hood, Holy Matrimony, Christmas in Connecticut, The Canterville Ghost, The Bells of St. Mary’s, Cluny Brown, The Adventures of Don Juan, and her last, Witness for the Prosecution.
LILLI PALMER in THE COUNTERFEIT TRAITOR (1962)
Palmer is perhaps most famous for being one of Rex Harrison’s six wives, standing by him in the wake of his mistress Carole Landis’s suicide and later divorcing him so he could marry the dying Kay Kendall. Unlike wife number four, Rachel Roberts, she did not receive an Oscar nomination despite giving some of the screen’s best performances, most notably as the doomed German aristocrat who is an allied spy in collaboration with William Holden in The Counterfeit Traitor. She was also unforgettable in Conspiracy of Hearts, The Pleasure of His Company, Miracle of the White Stallions, Operation Crossbow, and The Boys from Brazil.
ELIZABETH PATTERSON in INTRUDER IN THE DUST (1949)
The feisty character actresses who excelled at sweet and sour roles did not make her film debut until the of 51 in 1926. She was handpicked by author William Faulknor to play the female lead in the 1949 film version of Intruder in the Dust as the little old lady who holds off a potential lynch mob. Oter memorable roles included those of the old lady who tells Marie Dressler she remembers seeing her on stage as a little girl when Dressler was a great star in Dinner at Eight, the mother of Bing Crosby, Fred MacMurray, and Donald O’Connor in Sing You Sinners, and MacMurray’s spinster aunt in the Christmas classic, Remember the Night.
ALASTAIR SIM in A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1951)
The beloved British actor is best remembered for his definitive portrayal of Ebenezer Scrooge in this 1951 version of Charles Dickens’ classic. On screen since 1935, his best-known film roles prior to playing Scrooge were as police detectives in such films as 1946’s Green for Danger and Alfred Hitchcock’s 1950 thriller, Stage Fright. Subsequent to A Christmas Carol, he had his best-known role as a policeman in the title role of 1954’s An Inspector Calls. His other standout roles included those in The Belles of St. Trinian’s, Wee Geordie, School for Scoundrels, The Millionairess, The Ruling Class, and Royal Flash.
JOHN WILLIAMS in DIAL M FOR MURDER (1954)
The British born actor made his stage debut as a child in a 1916 production of Peter Pan and his Broadway debut in 1924 in The Fake. He made his film debut in an uncredited role in 1936’s Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. His greatest fame came with his Tony award-winning role as the canny inspector in 1954’s Dial M for Murder which he reprised on screen. Other memorable screen roles were in The Student Prince, Sabrina, To Catch a Thief, The Solid Gold Cadillac, Witness for the Prosecution, The Young Philadelphians, and Midnight Lace. He had a third career on TV where he was unforgettable as the pitchman for 120 Music Masterpieces.
TREAT WILLIAMS in HAIR (1979)
Broadway saw him first as replacement for Barry Bostwick in Grease but the movies soon discovered him The Ritz and Hair, the latter taking full advantage of his singing voice as well as his acting and comedic skills as Berger, the hippie leader who substitutes for straight arrow John Savage when his character Claude is deployed to Vietnam. If there was any doubt that he had arrived, the police expose, Prince of the City, two years later dispelled any lingering doubt. Much on TV in more recent years, he is well remembered for Brothers and Sisters and White Collar. He can also be seen as William Paley in the posthumously released Feud.
BLANCHE YURKA in A TALE OF TWO CITIES (1936)
Eligible the first year that they gave nominations for supporting performances, Yurka gave one of the greatest portrayals of evil of all time as the cold and frightening Madame De Farge, the woman who orchestrated the beheadings on the guillotine during the French Revolution, in what is still the best film version of Charles Dickens’ classic novel. Oscar favorites Ronald Colman, Basil Rathbone, and Edna May Oliver were also outstanding, but Yurka was chillingly better than all of them. She never again had such an iconic role, but she was memorable in such films as The Song of Bernadette and The Southerner.
