Actors Who Should Have an Oscar...but don't.

[Karin Schill]

I think it's true that the Oscars are losing some of it's significance and the discussion about race is not helping at all. It's sad when you have to start questioning if an actress or actor win the award because their performance was the best one that year or if it's because of some other factors. But I guess the Oscars have always been a bit biased as the people who vote on it are all industry people. So on some level it's really about being recognized by their peers.

I think it's great Leonardo DiCaprio finally won an Oscar back in 2016 as I had started to wonder if he would be one of those actors that would be nominated several times but never win.

SMG is one where part of it these days anyways is she really doesn't act like she used to since she's a Mom now she has that on the forefront over acting i think. which i can fully understand but she was really never offered those kind of roles when she was doing films as far as i'm aware of. you have to seek the roles out or maybe have the right agent that can find you a role where you can win an oscar if you are lucky enough. i've always wanted to own one but than i've never done a film before either

I think SMG's mistake was changing agency back in 2004. Also she's made some wrong career choices in regards to movies. Like for instance on paper Southland Tales (2006) might look like a good idea. She got to go to Cannes with that film and the director had had success a few years earlier with Donnie Darko (2001). But unfortunately Southland Tales is pretty much unwatchable. It's that bad.

Also yes SMG seems to prioritize being a mom these days. But I think she still would like to act if the right part showed up. I mean she did do that sit com "The Crazy Ones" with Robin Williams back in 2013-2014 and then her kids were younger than they are today.

 

[Angels Chanting]

Another actor that is criminally unrated is Michael Keaton. Nominated for Birdman and has been consistently good over the years. I thought he was outstanding in Beetlejuice although that wasn't the kind of film that attracts Oscar attention.

 

[darkshadows38]

The Oscars are i think are racist and it's not the oscar itself but the ones who do the voting and i say that because it was what 50 years before Whoopi won her oscar in (1990) and there hasn't been that black actors and actress's since it's conception sure there have been some but not as many as there have been white people.
it just depends on who does the voting i think. i dunno if i'm right on that or if i'm wrong but that's just how i feel about it, as for Keaton it was really only the last few years that Keaton shocked me by doing big movies again. after Batman Returns (1992) came out for those who don't know this Keaton made the announcement that he was done making big films. which is why his star fell for years he choose that. so when he started to do Big movies again i was shocked my guess is maybe the roles were just to damn good to turn down and he felt he was ready to go back in the Big movies again i dunno but i'm happy as hell he's back in them

 

[Monzo]

Do you think more actors from Best International Feature Film aka Best Foreign Language Film should have been nominated or even won?

Parasite as Best Picture may have been an important step, but was Parasite better than most of the last decade's International Film winners or0 nominations? Showering Parasite with Oscars also hurt the Oscar in my opinion. Suddenly anything can happen and no award is meaningful anymore.

 

[darkshadows38]

honestly i have no idea i dunno enough them to say yes or no and those films i have not seen

 

[ClassyCo]

I think of Cher winning her Oscar in the late 80s for Moonstruck, and I’m not saying she didn’t deserve it, but I’m sure things like that have to make some great actors and actresses who have never won one wonder.

Cher's win is a tad controversial. She was a pop star, and had received accolades elsewhere in the industry, and I'm sure some thought she didn't necessarily deserve the Oscar in 1988 when Meryl Streep and Glenn Close were her fellow nominees. And then there's the rumor that once she won the Oscar she had no further desire to make movies. That's a load of hogwash.

But I've never had a problem with Cher winning for MOONSTRUCK, even though she beat Streep for IRONWEED and Close for FATAL ATTRACTION. I'd argue that Cher's performance was better than both of theirs, and it's probably aged better too.​

 

[ClassyCo]

I'm worried that the classic Oscar decades will not be remembered as great, but as racist and misogynist.

Everything old is racist nowadays. That's the way people like to paint it anyway.​

 

[Angels Chanting]

Cher's win is a tad controversial. She was a pop star, and had received accolades elsewhere in the industry, and I'm sure some thought she didn't necessarily deserve the Oscar in 1988 when Meryl Streep and Glenn Close were her fellow nominees. And then there's the rumor that once she won the Oscar she had no further desire to make movies. That's a load of hogwash.

But I've never had a problem with Cher winning for MOONSTRUCK, even though she beat Streep for IRONWEED and Close for FATAL ATTRACTION. I'd argue that Cher's performance was better than both of theirs, and it's probably aged better too.​

Cher was so good in that film and deserved to win the best actress Oscar and was easily better than Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction even though the latter also gave a strong performance in her film. I've never seen Ironweed but I can easily imagine Cher being more deserving that year than even Meryl because Cher was that good in Moonstruck.

I think Cher could easily have been nominated for her performance in the film Mask a few years earlier. She may have started out as a singer but she became a very accomplished actor.

 

[Jolly Jimmy Tinsel Todd]

Cher proved she was a very good actress in Silkwood and Mask. I'm glad she won for Moonstruck because she did a wonderful acting job. Glen Close was also very good in Fatal Attraction, but Cher gets my vote because the role was more subdued than Close's role. In the hands of a less talented actress, Loretta from Moonstruck could easily have been reduced to average sitcom level.

 

[ClassyCo]

Yeah, when Cher went to the Oscars in 1986 (the year she didn't get a nomination for MASK), she told a reporter, "I'll be back." And boy did she come back. MOONSTRUCK is easily one of cinema's finest romantic comedies, and Cher is perfectly cast and gives a wonderful performance.​

 

[Karin Schill]

When I watched Cher's Farewell Tour in 2019 I remember there was a part where she talked about winning the Oscar. I think it was around the time where she was already around 40 years old and some people in show biz considers an actress of that age to already be over the hill. But she sure showed them that she could act!

Also let's not forget that Cher did a lot of variety shows in the 1970s. So she'd had a lot of training ground being on TV before she ventured more seriously into films.

 

[Jolly Jimmy Tinsel Todd]

She also did Broadway in Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean

 

[ClassyCo]

Cher is one of the few pop singers that I actually prefer as an actress. Sure, she's got some songs I enjoy, but her performances as an actress are always good.​

 

[ClassyCo]

Speaking of classic Hollywood, a lot of columnists, critics, and show biz big-wigs were a little baffled that Marilyn Monroe didn't receive an Oscar nomination for her dramatic turn in BUS STOP, the 1956 movie version of the William Inge Broadway hit. After completing THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH in 1955, which had been a global success, Marilyn left Hollywood for New York, where she enrolled in classes at the Actors Studio. There, she hoped to pursue her dreams of becoming a serious actress.

Once she trained and felt confident in returning to films, she chose to star in BUS STOP, which was highly publicized as her return to the screen. Even if the film hadn't been a good one, it was going to be successful on that merit alone. But BUS STOP is a good movie, if not a perfect one. I'd argue Marilyn gives one of her strongest performances in the film, and proves she's far more capable of carrying a more serious piece rather than charming her way through musicals like GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES, even though her charm and presence elevates all of her films to glorious levels. BUS STOP offers her a role where she can provide a little stricter discipline to get the job done. And she does get the job done.

BUS STOP received practically positive praise from critics, with many singling out Marilyn as finally proving herself an actress and not just a glamour girl. Many in the industry predicted she'd be nominated for an Oscar because she was playing a role so unlike her previous ones, but she ultimately didn't get nominated by the academy. Some theorize that Don Murray, here making his screen debut as Marilyn's on-screen leading man, draws back the appeal of the movie because of her basically irritating performance. True, Murray can be a tad irritating, but that doesn't take away from Marilyn's performance. Marilyn did receive a Golden Globe nomination, however, but ended up loosing.

Being the Marilyn fan I've always been, I really like the thought of having been up for an Oscar one year. I'd argue that SOME LIKE IT HOT, being the international smash that it was, deserved her at least a nomination (she did win the Golden Globe for that role), and THE MISFITS, which was misunderstood in its day, really should've gotten Marilyn more respect than it did at the time.

On a more humorous note, Bette Midler still jokes that she was robbed of the Oscar in 1980 when she was nominated for THE ROSE, but Sally Field ended up winning for NORMA RAE.

 

[Karin Schill]

Cher is one of the few pop singers that I actually prefer as an actress. Sure, she's got some songs I enjoy, but her performances as an actress are always good.​

She's a really good actress. But I still prefer her as a singer more as some of her songs are so awesome I can just listen to them over and over. But you can definitely tell that she's an actress too when you watch her show as she has a lot of different changes of costumes between different numbers, different wigs and hair colors and clothes. So she's a great performer.

 

[CeeCee72]

Edward Norton, Samuel L. Jackson, Johnny Depp, Glenn Close, and Sigorney Weaver are the ones that come to mind for me first.

As to Cher, her performance in Moonstruck was Oscar worthy, although I preferred Close in Fatal Attraction. I happen to think the year Close got hosed the worst was when she lost for The Good Wife to Olivia Coleman.

 

[Karin Schill]

I can't believe Olivia Colman has an Oscar!
Then again the only thing I can remember watching her in is "The Crown" and I much preferred Claire Foy's performance as Queen Elizabeth II

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Ed Norton never won and should have for American History X.

Yes, and his loss to that guy who then danced all over the Oscar show attendees was egregious.

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

A good thread might be Actors/Actresses who won Oscars but are overrated

 

[Soaplover]

Cher proved she was a very good actress in Silkwood and Mask. I'm glad she won for Moonstruck because she did a wonderful acting job. Glen Close was also very good in Fatal Attraction, but Cher gets my vote because the role was more subdued than Close's role. In the hands of a less talented actress, Loretta from Moonstruck could easily have been reduced to average sitcom level.

I viewed Cher winning for Moonstruck as a make up for not nominating nor awarding her the Oscar for Mask. When you see her three performances in SilkWood, Mask, and Moonstruck.. you saw a versatile performer. My last mom said if you watched the Sonny and Cher show.. you saw that she had acting chops with her various characters she played in skits.

Glenn Close deserves an Oscar, as does Amy Adams.