Most Infamous Actress Snubs by the Academy

Every year during award season, fans and critics alike lament the famous actors and actresses who seemed like shoo-ins to win an Oscar — or at least to get nominated. The Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress lists oftentimes come as a shock for fans who believe certain roles were destined for Oscar greatness. After all, it's arguably the most important honor of an actress' career.

And this year's not any different, with Margot Robbie getting the ultimate snub from the Academy with no nomination for Best Actress as the lead in "Barbie." Luckily (or not so luckily) for her, she's in good company.

Here are some great actresses who either never got an Oscar nod or were very much passed over for the big win. 

Alana Haim

Snubbed for: Best Actress

Movie: Licorice Pizza (2021)

Box office: $12.8 million

Nominated: No

All box office amounts are from BoxOfficeMojo.com unless otherwise noted.

Bottom Line: Alana Haim

Alana Haim was on the lips of critics everywhere as a Best Actress contender in 2022. Like Lady Gaga, she is a musician who made her transition to the silver screen and was lauded for her natural onscreen presence as a young woman embarking on a journey of self-discovery in the 1970s.

Academy members, who generally like to nominate first-timers who give strong performances, took a different route when voting for 2022's Best Actress nominees.

Ruth Negga

Snubbed for: Best Supporting Actress

Movie: Passing (2021)

Box office: N/A

Nominated: No

Bottom Line: Ruth Negga

Fans and critics alike were not happy after learning of Ruth Negga's 2022 Oscar nomination snub for her nuanced and tragic performance in "Passing," which tells the story of two childhood friends who live on opposite sides of the color line.

Negga scored SAG and BAFTA nominations for her performance, so it seemed like an Oscar nod was an inevitability.

 

Lady Gaga

Snubbed for: Best Actress

Movie: House of Gucci (2021)

Box office: $53.5 million

Nominated: No

Bottom Line: Lady Gaga

Gaga seemed like a sure bet for her turn as Patrizia Reggiani in "House of Gucci." She had already won a New York Film Critics Award as well as Golden Globe, SAG and BAFTA nominations. But when it came time for Academy members to vote, she wasn't even nominated. 

Still, she was magnanimous in praising the nominees. She posted: "Congratulations on all your hard work, dedication, your nomination and YOUR magic — you all deserve major recognition for what was a truly beautiful landscape of performances and accomplishments this past year."

Ellen Burstyn

Snubbed for: Best Actress

Movie: Requiem for a Dream (2000)

Box office: $3.6 million

Nominated: Yes

Lost to: Julia Roberts (Erin Brockovich)

Bottom Line: Ellen Burstyn

In "Requiem for a Dream," Ellen Burstyn portrayed Sara Goldfarb, an unlikely amphetamine addict obsessed with becoming thin. She was so convincing that during her improvised monologue about aging, the film's cinematographer started crying and fogged up the camera's eyepiece.

She has often said the role was her hardest and also the most rewarding. "Requiem made demands on me that no other film did and whenever you can actually fulfill the ... difficult demands of a job, you always kind of feel good about that."

 

Pam Grier

Snubbed for: Best Actress

Movie: Jackie Brown (1997)

Box office: $39.7 million

Nominated: No

Bottom Line: Pam Grier

Pam Grier made her name in 1970s Blaxploitation films, but by the 1980s, her star had faded. Enter Quentin Tarantino who had been a fan for decades and offered her the lead in 1997's "Jackie Brown," which tells the story of a flight attendant who, when faced with death or prison, runs off with a drug smuggler's money. 

"Jackie Brown" won critical accolades, as did Grier's performance as the titular character. She was nominated for a Best Actress Golden Globe, but the Academy failed to recognize her. 

 

Glenn Close

Snubbed for: Best Actress

Movie: Fatal Attraction (1987)

Box office: $156.6 million

Nominated: Yes

Lost to: Cher (Moonstruck)

Bottom Line: Glenn Close

Close has been nominated eight times but has never taken home the golden trophy. Of those eight, the movie she is best known for is "Fatal Attraction," in which she played Alex Forrest, a woman with borderline personality disorder who becomes obsessed with her ex-lover.

Despite her losses, Close is happy with just being nominated: "First of all, I don’t think I’m a loser. Who in that category is a loser? You’re there, you’re five people honored for the work that you’ve done by your peers. What’s better than that?"

 

 

Cicely Tyson

Snubbed for: Best Actress

Movie: Sounder (1972)

Box office: $16.9 million

Nominated: Yes

Lost to: Liza Minnelli (Cabaret)

Bottom Line: Cicely Tyson

While Tyson was nominated for her role as the matriarch of a Depression-era family in "Sounder," she could not beat the juggernaut that was Liza Minnelli in "Cabaret." Unfortunately, it was the only Oscar nomination in her career, but she did receive an Honorary Oscar in 2018.

She said: "I don’t care what any actor says, that golden statue matters. It is what we’re all vying for — the ultimate validation from our peers. You empty yourself into a character, you labor hour upon hour to get every single gesture and sentence precise, and you mean to tell me that such an affirmation means nothing to you? It holds tremendous power."

Mia Farrow

Snubbed for: Best Actress

Movie: Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Box office: $33.4 million

Nominated: No

 

Bottom Line: Mia Farrow

In 1968, Roman Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby" ushered in a new era of horror filmmaking that still influences the genre over five decades later. The movie's success is due not only to the subject matter but the timid boyishness of actress Mia Farrow as Rosemary, a woman who is impregnated by Satan. The movie made her a star overnight, despite her lack of an Oscar.

Her co-star Ruth Gordon won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as Minnie Castevet, the nosy Satanist living next door. 

.

Anne Bancroft

Snubbed for: Best Actress

Movie: The Graduate (1967)

Box office: $104.9 million

Nominated: Yes

Lost to: Katherine Hepburn (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner)

Bottom Line: Anne Bancroft

While her role as Mrs. Robinson, the suburban seductress of a younger man, is her most well-known and iconic, Bancroft missed out on taking home the gold for it.

Admittedly, 1968 was a difficult year to choose a Best Actress winner — and no one can fault the Academy's choice in Katherine Hepburn for her performance in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner."

 

Angela Lansbury

For: Best Supporting Actress

Movie: The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Box office: $2.8 million

Nominated: Yes

Lost to: Patty Duke (The Miracle Worker)

Bottom Line: Angela Lansbury

Angela Lansbury, known mostly as the curious mystery writer and part-time detective of TV's "Murder, She Wrote," had a successful film career as well. In the "Manchurian Candidate," she played one of filmdom's scariest villains — the sociopathic mother of a brainwashed Korean War veteran who uses her son in a plot to assassinate a presidential candidate to allow Communists to take over the United States.

Lansbury has been nominated three times for Best Supporting Actress, but she's never won. 

Audrey Hepburn

Snubbed for: Best Actress

Movie: Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)

Box office: $14 million

Nominated: Yes

Lost to: Sophia Loren (Two Women)

Bottom Line: Audrey Hepburn

While Hepburn won a Best Actress Oscar in 1953 for her starring role in "Roman Holiday," she had a strong chance to win nearly a decade later for her role as party girl Holly Golightly. However, she lost out to Sophia Loren in "Two Women."

One person who hated her performance was "Tiffany's" writer Truman Capote, who wrote the novella the film is based on. He was said to have wanted Marilyn Monroe for the part.

Judy Garland

Snubbed for: Best Actress

Movie: A Star Is Born (1954)

Box office: $4.3 million

Nominated: Yes

Lost to: Grace Kelly (The Country Girl)

Bottom Line: Judy Garland

Judy Garland never won an Oscar for any specific role, but she did take home an Academy Juvenile Award in 1940 for her performance in "The Wizard of Oz."

In "A Star Is Born," Garland played Esther Blodgett, a star on the rise who falls in love with a matinee idol whose fame is taking a nosedive due to alcoholism. Everyone thought she'd win, including Garland herself. She did not attend the ceremony because she had just given birth but had camera crews standing by at the hospital when the announcement came through. 

As luck would have it, Grace Kelly won that year for "The Country Girl."

 

Gloria Swanson

Snubbed for: Best Actress

Movie: Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Box office: $5 million

Nominated: Yes

Lost to: Judy Holliday (Born Yesterday)

Bottom Line: Gloria Swanson

Swanson's turn as Norma Desmond, an aging silent film star losing her tenuous grip on reality, should have won her the Best Actress Oscar.  

Like Desmond, Swanson was a star of the silent film era and was long considered an old hat by the time she took the role. "Sunset Boulevard" was her comeback performance, and unlike the one Norma Desmond mounted, it is considered one of the greatest in film history. 

Donna Reed

Snubbed for: Best Supporting Actress

Movie: It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)

Box office: $6.1 million

Nominated: No

Bottom Line: Donna Reed

Christmas would be just a little less joyful if it wasn't for "It's a Wonderful Life," which did get multiple Oscars nods in 1946. However, it was up against "The Best Years of Our Lives," a film about U.S soldiers returning home from WWII. Largely due to its timing, "Wonderful Life" didn't really stand much of a chance. 

While the film, Jimmy Stewart and director Frank Capra were Oscar nominees, Donna Reed wasn't. Despite the charm and humanity she brought to Mary Bailey, she was not only snubbed by the Academy but by Stewart himself. 

When it was initially released, the film was a box office bomb and was largely forgotten about until it aired on TV in the mid-1970s. According to her daughter, Mary Anne Owen, it was one of Reed's first roles, and Jimmy Stewart blamed her for its failure: "[He] couldn’t understand why the movie didn’t do well, but that’s why they never did another movie together. He blamed her because she wasn’t as well known.”

 

Ingrid Bergman

Snubbed for: Best Actress

Movie: Casablanca (1942)

Box office: $4,108,411

Nominated: No

Bottom Line: Ingrid Bergman

Because Bergman's role as Ilsa in "Casablanca" is so iconic, most people think she won or was at least nominated for an Academy Award, but she wasn't — not for that particular part, anyway.

Bergman was nominated for Best Actress the same year for her role in the film adaptation of Earnest Hemingway's "For Who the Bell Tolls," which, in hindsight, may have been a mistake.

Regardless, the award went to Jennifer Jones for her performance in "The Song of Bernadette."