From Gena to Annette: Great Actresses with Oscar Nominations but No Wins

When the In Memoriam tribute unspools during the Oscars on March 2, the name of Gena Rowlands no doubt will be there. A two-time nominee, she died at age 94 in August. She remains unforgettable for her cinema performances, many directed by her husband John Cassavetes, the pioneering indie filmmaker for whom she served as a longtime muse.

Unlike Dame Maggie Smith (a two-time Oscar winner for “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,” 1970 best actress, and “California Suite,” 1979 supporting actress) or Lou Gossett Jr. (1983 supporting actor, “An Officer & Gentleman”), who also died in 2024, Rowlands never won a competitive Oscar. Instead, she finally received an honorary award in 2016; it’s a distinction shared by fellow 2025 In Memoriam mates James Earl Jones (a 1971 best actor nominee for “The Great White Hope” and a 2012 honorary winner) and director David Lynch (a four-time nominee and a 2020 honorary winner).

Rowlands received best actress nominations for “A Woman Under the Influence” (1974) and “Gloria” (1980). Though she lost to Ellen Burstyn in “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and then to Sissy Spacek for “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” Rowlands also should have been nominated for “Lonely Are the Brave” (1962), “Faces” (1968), “Minnie and Moskowitz” (1971), “Opening Night” (1977), “Love Streams” (1984), “Another Woman” (1988), “Unhook the Stars” (1996), “The Notebook” (2004), and “Paris Je T’Aime” (2006).

When Rowlands received her Honorary Oscar in 2016, she was radiant yet humble, seemingly surprised to be receiving such an accolade. Introducing Rowlands, Cate Blanchett confessed, “She’s had the most profound influence on my work. The intense authenticity and immediacy of her acting, it seems to me, is the closest to that special quality, that presence, of a live stage performance. It is an experience watching Gena Rowlands on film. It’s an experience watching this style of acting.”

Then Laura Linney thanked the Board of Governors for “waving the flag of Gena Rowlands, as if to say, ‘Here is the example, here is the standard.’ Like her idol, Bette Davis, Gena is a legend, a true legend. Because without Gena and the row cut by her, the work of actresses like Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Julianne Moore, Jennifer Lawrence, and many others worldwide simply would not exist. The impact that Gena and John Cassavetes have had has been seismic. They shook everyone up by showing us what was possible and broke down the door to independent film. So, Gena, thank you for giving us so much of yourself. Thank you for pointing us all, especially this actress, in the right direction.”

When it was her turn, Rowlands said, “I feel truly honored to be here.” Then she recalled the thrill of working with Bette Davis, “my all-time favorite,” in “Strangers: The Story of a Mother and a Daughter,” a 1979 TV movie. “I was thrilled to death to hear that she was cast.”

Rowlands also thanked her late husband, who died in 1989. “He wrote for me the most magnificent parts. And for other actresses, too. I surely have to thank him for that. I must thank the Board of Governors for introducing me to this fine fellow. He’s just so elegant. I’ll take him home with me tonight, and I’ll find a wonderful place for him to sit, maybe on the piano and admire him and love him the way that I do.”

Longtime Oscar followers will recall that Peter O’Toole tried to decline his own honorary award; he wrote the Academy, stating that he was “still in the game” and would like more time “to win the lovely bugger outright.” But when he was informed that the award would be bestowed, regardless of his wishes, he reversed course. He accepted the 2003 award in person and told the crowd, “Always a bridesmaid, never a bride, my foot! I have my very own Oscar now to be with me till death us do part.”

He did get one more chance, when he received a 2007 best actor nomination for “Venus,” but lost to Forest Whitaker for “The Last King of Scotland.” At his death in 2013, O’Toole held the record for most Oscar acting losses: eight. It’s a record now shared by Glenn Close. “I’ve often been mistaken for Meryl Streep.” Close once said, “although never on Oscar night.”

For her part, Close seems to hold the status as a badge of honor. “I don’t think I’m a loser,” she told the Associated Press in 2021. “You’re there, you’re one of five people honored for the work that you’ve done, by your peers. What’s better than that?”

Looking back, it seems incredible that Close didn’t win for the zeitgeist film “Fatal Attraction” (1987); her performance as psychopathic home-wrecker Alex Forrest triggered such a visceral reaction at preview screenings that Paramount, the movie’s studio, ordered the filmmakers to change the ending to ensure that Alex got her comeuppance. Yet Close lost to Cher for “Moonstruck.” (Let’s hope she muttered, “I’m not going to be ignored!”) Many Oscar prognosticators believe that Cher won in part because a few years back she had lost her supporting actress bid for “Silkwood” (1983).

Oscar gold looked likely for Close’s passion project “Albert Nobbs” (2011), which she co-wrote and produced and in which she had a cross-dressing role. But no. When Close won the SAG and Golden Globe awards for “The Wife” (2017), the Oscar seemed to be hers at last. But then she lost to first-time nominee Olivia Colman for “The Favourite.”

“At the end of the day, any actress so consistently brilliant in films like ‘The World According to Garp,’ ‘Fatal Attraction,’ ‘Dangerous Liaisons,’ ‘Albert Nobbs,’ and ‘The Wife’ deserves one of those gold statuettes,” wrote one Oscar observer. “Here’s hoping her moment is still to come.”

Let’s review other actresses who have had their own close encounters with Oscar, but have been left at the altar by the Golden Boy. Next up on the Academy Awards agony list is…

Amy Adams: Considered by many to be the most gifted living actress yet to win an Oscar, she racked up six nominations from 2006 to 2019 but received zero statuettes. After a five-year dry spell, she seemed to be headed toward a seventh nomination for “Nightbitch” (2024), in which she plays a career woman turned stay-at-home mom who thinks she’s transforming into a dog. Talk about Oscar bait. The Golden Globes and Independent Spirit Awards bit, nominating Adams for best actress. But no Oscar nod.

Deborah Kerr: How ironic that Glenn Close presented the Honorary Oscar to Kerr in 1994. Until then, Kerr held the record, six, for most best actress Oscar losses (and still does, since Close’s Oscar-losing tally includes several supporting actress nominations). But the citation accompanying Kerr’s Honorary Oscar sums up her career succinctly: She is “an artist of impeccable grace and beauty, a dedicated actress whose motion picture career has always stood for perfection, discipline, and elegance.”

Thelma Ritter: Five of her six nominations came in the same decade, the ’50s. A late starter, Ritter had her first film role at age 45. London’s Evening Standard led off its 2019 list of 10 Women Who Changed the Face of Film Forever with Ritter, who “brought great depth and development to even the most ostensibly bit-part characters. … At the time, female roles were marginalized to the extremes, but Ritter joyously brought her characters to the fore, refusing to be pushed to the fringes.”

Annette Bening: Hollywood royalty, with five nominations, and the consort to one of Tinseltown’s kings, Bening always has seemed to be on the verge of Oscar gold, especially for “The Grifters” (1990) and American Beauty” (1999). But she ended up losing not once but twice to Hilary Swank, first for “Boys Don’t Cry” (1999) and then again for “Million Dollar Baby” (2004). Oscar should already be in her embrace.

Irene Dunne: Adept in many genres, including musicals, drama, romance, screwball comedy, and even Westerns, she received her first best actress Oscar nomination for just her second film, “Cimarron” (1931). Of her zero-for-five Oscar record, Dunne claimed, “I don’t mind at all. Greta Garbo never got an Oscar, either, and she’s a living legend.” Dunne also lacked the career drive of many of her contemporaries. “I drifted into acting and drifted out,” she once said. “Acting is not everything. Living is.”

Michelle Williams: At 44, Williams has achieved three best actress nominations and two supporting actress nods. So she hasn’t yet reached the tragic proportions status of Glenn Close. Time is still on her side.

The 0 for 4 Club

Greta Garbo: In its obituary, The Los Angeles Times called her “the most alluring, vibrant and yet aloof character to grace the motion-picture screen.” Film historian Ephraim Katz declared, “no one has quite projected a magnetism and a mystique equal to Garbo.” Nominated four times, the woman regarded by many as the finest screen actress ever never got the gold. She received an honorary Oscar “for her unforgettable screen performances” in 1955. Miss “I Want to Be Alone,” however, did not attend.

Jane Alexander: She received her first Oscar nomination for her film debut—best actress for “The Great White Hope” (1970). Since achieving her fourth nomination for “Testament” (1983), the rest has been silence.

Marsha Mason: Three of her four nominations came for films scripted by her then-husband Neil Simon, with ”Cinderella Liberty” (1973) being the outlier.

Agnes Moorehead: A member of Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre (and its radio incarnation), she was much more than Endora on TV’s “Bewitched.”

Saoirse Ronan: The recipient of four nominations before the age of 20, Ronan just needs to bide her time. The Academy, however, missed a chance to nominate her for “The Outrun” (2024) this year.

Rosalind Russell: The great comedic actress won all five of the Golden Globes for which she was nominated. But Oscar, zilch. She excelled in drama, too—witness her Oscar nod for “Mourning Becomes Electra” (1947). She refused to let Columbia enter her in the supporting actress category for “Picnic” (1955), which she might have won.

Barbara Stanwyck: Considered by TCM’s Eddie Muller (and many others) as the greatest film actress of all time, she finally received an Honorary Oscar in 1982. But in accepting the award, she kept the focus on her friend William Holden, who had died a few months earlier, saying: “He always wished that I would get an Oscar, and so, tonight, my golden boy, you got your wish.”

Triple Nominees

Judy Garland: The Hollywood icon received one supporting actress nomination (“Judgment at Nuremberg” (1961)), a special juvenile Oscar in 1940, and the one that got away, best actress for “A Star Is Born” (1954), losing to Grace Kelly for “The Country Girl” (1954). Garland might have reversed course with a win for the latter, but instead she continued on her long, slow decline, until her early death in 1969.

Angela Lansbury: With three nominations and one honorary award in 2014, Lansbury received her due on stage (with five Tony Awards). But anyone who could portray the mother to two such disparate characters as those depicted by Elvis Presley in “Blue Hawaii” (1961) and Laurence Harvey in “The Manchurian Candidate” (1962) deserved an Oscar.

Gloria Swanson: Another heartbreaking case. Two of her three best actress nominations came for “The Trespasser” (1929) and “Sadie Thompson” (1928). Then came her career-capping role as Norma Desmond in “Sunset Boulevard” (1950): “I’m still big, it’s the pictures that got small.” That line should have been etched on her tombstone.

Other 0–3 contenders: Joan Allen, Gladys Cooper, Edith Evans, Diane Ladd, Piper Laurie, Laura Linney, Carey Mulligan, Eleanor Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sigourney Weaver, Debra Winger, and Natalie Wood.

Double Nominees

Angela Bassett: After her best actress nomination for “What’s Love Got to Do With It” (1993), Bassett waited 30 years for her second nod, supporting actress for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (2022). The Academy seemingly tried to cover its tracks by giving her an Honorary Oscar just a year later.

Other 0–2 contenders: Isabelle Adjani, Ann-Margaret, Brenda Blethyn, Belulah Bondi, Helena Bonham Carter, Dyan Cannon, Leslie Caron, Ruth Chatterton, Jill Clayburgh, Judy Davis,  Melinda Dillon, Mildred Dunnock, Cynthia Erivo, Sally Hawkins, Scarlett Johansson, Felicity Jones, Elsa Lanchester, Madeline Kahn, Catherine Keener, Shirley Knight, Keira Knightley, Rooney Mara, Melissa McCarthy, Mary McDonnell, Janet McTeer, Bette Midler, Sylvia Miles, Samantha Morton, Maria Ouspenskaya, Marjorie Rambeau, Lynn Redgrave, Joyce Redman, Miranda Richardson, Margot Robbie, Winona Ryder, Talia Shire, Jean Simmons, Kim Stanley, Liv Ullman, Julie Walters, Naomi Watts, Jacki Weaver, and Dame May Whitty.

Single Nominees

Dorothy Dandridge: The pioneering Black actress received a sole nomination for “Carmen Jones” (1954).

Catherine Deneuve: Literally the face of France, from 1985 to 1989, Deneuve represented Marianne, the national symbol of the French Republic. But the Academy nominated her just once, best actress for “Indochine” (1993).

Marlene Dietrich: One of the greats of Hollywood’s golden age, Dietrich scored her only nomination for “Morocco” (1930), one of her six films directed by Josef von Sternberg.

Lillian Gish: She received only one Oscar nod, a supporting actress bid for King Vidor’s “Duel in the Sun” (1946), once described as “a heady Technicolor cocktail of love and hate.” D.W. Griffith’s most significant muse received an Honorary Oscar in 1971 for “her superlative artistry and distinguished contribution to the progress of motion pictures.”

Isabelle Huppert: The legendary French actress has only one Oscar nomination to date for “Elle” (2016). Many believe that Huppert gave her best American film performance in “Heaven’s Gate” (1979). A truly global star, she has acted in American, British, French, Korean, and Polish movies. “Sometimes, she doesn’t need to speak the language,” an industry observer once declared. “Her expressions convey everything the viewer needs to know.” In her home country, Huppert has 16 Cesar nominations, but just two wins.

Demi Moore: The Oscar first-timer has a good chance of winning this year for “The Substance.”

Isabella Rossellini: At long last, the Academy has recognized the daughter of cinema greats Ingrid Bergman and director Roberto Rossellini with a supporting actress nomination for “Conclave” (2024). Also deserving of Academy acclaim were her turns in “Blue Velvet” (1986), “Wild at Heart” (1990), “Death Becomes Her” (1992), “The Saddest Music in the World” (2003), and “La Chimera” (2023).

Gene Tierney: She landed just one nomination, for “Leave Her to Heaven” (1945), but she deserved much more, for “Heaven Can Wait” (1943), “Laura” (1944), “The Razor’s Edge” (1946), “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir” (1947), “Night and the City” (1950), “The Mating Season” (1951), and “Advise and Consent” (1962).

Classic Actresses with ZERO Nominations

Rita Hayworth: Unforgettable for her “Put the Blame on Mama” number in “Gilda” (1946), Hayworth could act, dance, and sing (though she was usually dubbed).

Myrna Loy: She received the Academy’s consolation prize, an Honorary Oscar, in 1991, but only after her industry pals, including Roddy McDowall, launched a campaign for the belated recognition.

Marilyn Monroe: Considered more of a personality/sex symbol than a genuine actress, she went without any Oscar love to an early grave.

Kim Novak: Also dismissed as another “just a pretty face,” Novak gave a superlative performance in “Vertigo” (1958), which deserved a nomination if only for her soliloquy beginning “Dear Scottie, and so you found me…”

Maureen O’Hara: Never nominated, she received an Honorary Oscar in 2014