The A-List Actors With the Most Oscar Nods—Still Waiting for a Win

Some actors are Oscar magnets. Some actually win. The 10 folks below fall into a bizarre third category: endlessly nominated, never once called to the stage for an acting win. A couple of wrinkles worth flagging: one of them holds the record for the most nominations in a single acting category without a win, and another has racked up nominations beyond acting. The top two are tied with the most acting nods and zero wins, and one of them has a very real shot at another nomination by taking a role she already conquered on Broadway. Five on this list are no longer with us. The other five? All recently in the hunt, which means this scoreboard could change fast.

1. Albert Finney: 5 nominations
   Finney left us in 2019 at 82, but the work remains towering. Best Actor nods rolled in for Tom Jones (1964), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Dresser (1983), and Under the Volcano (1984), with a Best Supporting Actor nomination later for Erin Brockovich (2001). After that, he still popped in major titles and franchises: Big Fish, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, two Bourne films, Skyfall. Effortless in leads or support, he could swing from Scrooge and Daddy Warbucks to a timid lawyer opposite Julia Roberts.
   Bonus bit: Arthur Kennedy also reached five nominations before his death in 1990, but in a neat inversion of Finney's tally: four Supporting nods (Champion, Trial, Peyton Place, Some Came Running) and one Lead (Bright Victory).

2. Irene Dunne: 5 nominations
   If you know, you know — and yes, the classic-comedy devotees have been saying it for years. Dunne is distinctive on this list because all five of her nominations were for Best Actress: Cimarron (1931), Theodora Goes Wild (1936), The Awful Truth (1938), Love Affair (1939), and I Remember Mama (1948). She wrapped her film career with 1952's It Grows on Trees, then stepped back from Hollywood to focus on philanthropy and politics when the roles got thin. Final TV appearance: General Electric Theater in 1962. She died in 1990.

3. Michelle Williams: 5 nominations
   Williams keeps turning in work that the Academy circles in red ink: Brokeback Mountain (2006), Blue Valentine (2011), My Week with Marilyn (2012), Manchester by the Sea (2017), and The Fabelmans (2023). No Oscar yet, but she did win a Golden Globe for Marilyn. TV has been friendlier too: Globes for Fosse/Verdon (2020) and Dying for Sex (2026). Not every pick has been a gem, but the needle keeps pointing up — especially with that untitled Damien Chazelle project on her docket.

4. Bradley Cooper: 5 nominations (acting), 12 overall
   Yes, the guy from The Hangover has evolved into one of the Academy's favorite multi-hyphenates. Acting nominations: Silver Linings Playbook (2012), American Hustle (2013), American Sniper (2014), A Star Is Born (2018), Maestro (2023). The twist: he is sitting on 12 total Oscar nominations, adding writing nods (Adapted for A Star Is Born, Original for Maestro) and a hefty stack as a producer (Best Picture for American Sniper, A Star Is Born, Joker, Nightmare Alley, Maestro). Translation: he keeps making the kind of movies the Academy takes very seriously.

5. Annette Bening: 5 nominations
   This one still short-circuits the brain. Over 50 films, five Oscar nominations — The Grifters, American Beauty, Being Julia, The Kids Are All Right, Nyad — and somehow no win. The Globes recognized her twice (Being Julia and The Kids Are All Right), which tracks: Bening can give you scalpel-precise drama and then, mid-scene, pivot to comedy without dropping a stitch. She belongs in the same breath as Cate Blanchett and Meryl Streep, and a sixth nomination (or more) feels inevitable.

6. Thelma Ritter: 6 nominations
   Ritter is the outlier: every single Oscar nod came in Supporting Actress, and she still holds the record for the most Supporting Actress nominations without a win. The run was wild — four years straight with All About Eve (1951), The Mating Season (1952), With a Song in My Heart (1953), Pickup on South Street (1954), then Pillow Talk (1960) and Birdman of Alcatraz (1963). She did take home a Tony for New Girl in Town, sharing the win with Gwen Verdon — who later married the show’s choreographer, Bob Fosse. Ritter died in 1969, her screen presence still unmatched for no-nonsense bite.

7. Amy Adams: 6 nominations
   Since Junebug (2005), Adams has been the perennial 'is it finally her year?' contender: Doubt, The Fighter, The Master, American Hustle, and Vice kept the streak going. Two Golden Globes (American Hustle and Big Eyes) speak to the range. She keeps choosing curiously compelling projects — singing again in Disenchanted, the feral transformation of Nightbitch, and reportedly joining Ryan Gosling in Star Wars: Starfighter. At 51, with this toolbox, time is on her side.
   Also worth noting: Deborah Kerr was likewise a six-time acting nominee who never won for a competitive Oscar, despite classics like From Here to Eternity and The King and I. She received an Honorary Award in 1994.

8. Richard Burton: 7 nominations
   More than the man who twice married Elizabeth Taylor, Burton was a force. Nods started early with My Cousin Rachel (1953) and The Robe (1954), then Becket (1965), The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1966), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1967), Anne of the Thousand Days (1970), and Equus (1978). He also won a Tony for Camelot in 1961 as King Arthur. The Taylor-Burton saga grabs headlines, but the filmography is the story: blistering intensity, stage-caliber command on screen. He died in 1984.

9. Peter O'Toole: 8 nominations
   Honorary Oscar in 2003 or not, O'Toole belongs here because in the competitive acting races he went 0-for-8 — all Best Actor: Lawrence of Arabia (1963), Becket (1965), The Lion in Winter (1969), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1970), The Ruling Class (1973), The Stunt Man (1981), My Favorite Year (1983), Venus (2006). Lawrence remains one of the all-timers, but newer audiences may know him as Priam in Troy, the King in Stardust, or the acid-tongued critic Anton Ego in Ratatouille. O'Toole died in 2013 at 81, legend secured.

10. Glenn Close: 8 nominations
    Tied at the top and still very much in the hunt. After winning the Golden Globe for The Wife in 2019, it felt like the Oscar might finally follow — until Olivia Colman swooped in for The Favourite. Close's ledger is stacked: The World According to Garp, The Big Chill, The Natural, Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons, Albert Nobbs, The Wife, Hillbilly Elegy. Add cultural touchstones like Cruella de Vil and a Globe-winning turn as Eleanor in The Lion in Winter. The headline now: she is set to play Norma Desmond in the film version of Sunset Boulevard — the role that won her a Tony in 1995. If that performance lands the way it did on stage, you can pencil in another nomination. If she wins, she'd be one Grammy shy of an EGOT.

That is the club: 10 actors whose work is etched into the medium, trophy or not. Five are gone, five are still swinging — and every one of the living five has been in the Academy's recent line of sight. If someone finally breaks the streak, who do you have circled?