Quick: Which one of these personalities has never won an Academy Award for acting: Angela Lansbury or Benicio Del Toro? If you guessed Benicio, you’re wrong. He won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for “Traffic” in 2001, but the venerable Lansbury has actually never won an Oscar, even though she’s been nominated multiple times. 

You might be surprised by some of the actors and actresses who have been nominated for multiple Oscars without ever having taken home a statuette. 

Every year, members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences select a handful of performers whom they deem worthy of nominating in the categories of Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress.  

Some years, the favorite goes on to win, but there have also been some major upsets. Back in 1975, for example, Art Carney beat out both Jack Nicholson (for “Chinatown”) and Al Pacino (for “The Godfather Part II”) for his performance in a film called “Harry and Tonto.” More recently, in 2021, “The Father” star Anthony Hopkins was named Best Actor over the late Chadwick Boseman (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), shocking just about everyone, including Hopkins. (Here are 25 of the Oscars’ most egregious snubs.)

To determine the actors with the most Oscar nominations who’ve never won, 24/7 Tempo reviewed data on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Oscar website. Only actors who are still alive were included in the list. (These are the most bankable actors of the 21st century.)

Click here to see the most nominated actors who still don’t have an Oscar

Because this list includes only living performers, it might be interesting to note some now deceased stars of legendary status who were nominated but never won: Richard Burton (seven nominations), Kirk Douglas (three nominations), Greta Garbo (four nominations), Cary Grant (two nominations), Peter O’Toole (eight nominations), and Orson Welles (one nomination). Clearly, talent doesn’t always translate to Oscar wins.