 Starring: Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, Margaret Avery, Oprah Winfrey
Director: Steven Spielberg
Year Of Release: 1985
Plot: The Color Purple follows the tough life of Celie in the early 1900s, who, after having two children by her father, is given to man, ‘Mister’, to marry. He’s abusive and cold, however he can’t quite break Celie’s quiet spirit. Over the years Celie experiences different sides of life, including tenderness with her husband’s lover, Shug Avery, until she finally find the strength to break free. |
As I mentioned the other week in the
Movie Muser List of Oscar Records, The Color Purple shares with The Turning Point the achievement of being the film that got the most Oscar nominations without winning any gongs. Each of the movies scored 11 nominations, but was beaten out in every category.
With The Turning Point it’s understandable, as it’s not a great film and it was a tough year, which included Annie Hall, Julia, The Goodbye Girl and Star Wars (most people don’t realise that while Annie Hall took the Best Picture Oscar, Star Wars actually picked up more Academy Awards (six of them) that year than any other movie). However with The Color Purple it’s more unfortunate, as it was a fairly open field. Out Of Africa was the big winner, but if you look at the list of nominees across all categories, The Color Purple should have picked up a few Oscars at least.
However it does mean that both The Color Purple and The Turning Point are prominent member of the Oscar Losers Club – the exclusive collection of people and films that really should have won at least one Academy Award, but never did.
 Peter O'Toole - Losers Club member and most nominated actor to never win a competitive Oscar |
Probably the most famous member of the club who’s still around is Peter O’Toole, who holds the record for having the most acting nominations without ever picking up an Oscar. He’s got eight of them, all for Best Actor, but he’s never actually won (he did however pick up an honorary Oscar in 2003, which doesn’t count when it comes to the Oscar Losers Club, as he never won in a competitive category). Even the year Lawrence Of Arabia swept the board with seven Academy Awards, O’Toole had the misfortune of being up against Gregory Peck in To Kill A Mockingbird, one of the few performances of the 60s that could have beaten him.
However the Irish born actor is in good company, as there are plenty of other famous names who never picked up an Oscar. Richard Burton is the next most nominated person never to win, with seven nods but no Academy Award. Two actresses got six nominations and no Oscar – Deborah Kerr and Thelma Ritter (who even managed to get a Best Supporting Actress nomination for four years in a row, from 1951-1954, but never won) – while both Arthur Kennedy and Albert Finney continually lost out despite five noms.
Another star never to win was Cary Grant, who was nominated twice in the early 40s, but he was pretty much shut out after that because he was one of the few stars who worked outside the studio system and stayed independent. Not being tied to the Hollywood machine meant he didn’t even get a look in for awards. There’s also Harrison Ford, a man who at the end of the 80s managed the unprecedented achievement of starring in six of the 10 highest grossing movies ever (at that time), but has only ever had a single Oscar nomination, for Witness in 1984. Likewise Steve McQueen only ever got one nomination, for 1966’s The Sand Pebbles.
On the actress front, Marilyn Monroe never even got nominated, while Judy Garland only ever received a special non-competitive juvenile award in 1940, although she did get two later nominations. Greta Garbo meanwhile never managed to win despite four nominations. This included two Best Actress nods in the same year, 1930, but she lost out on both to fellow double nominee, Norma Shearer. Garbo did however get an honorary award in 1955.
Other stars on the list of non-winners include the likes of Angela Lansbury, Montgomery Clift, Rosalind Russell, Lauren Bacall (who didn’t even get nominated for the first time until 1997, despite all her classic performances), Edward G. Robinson, Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, James Dean, James Mason, Peter Sellers, Kirk Douglas and Fred Astaire. There are also a lot of today’s top stars, such as John Travolta, Glenn Close, Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp and Leo DiCaprio who’ve never won, although there’s still a decent chance they’ll pick one up in the future.
A borderline member of the Oscar Losers Club is Charlie Chaplin, who picked up two honorary awards, but also got one competitive Oscar. However it was Best Original Score for 1952’s Limelight, which he won 20 years after he made the movie (because of the rules of the Oscars, as the movie wasn’t shown in LA until 1972, it wasn’t eligible for the Academy Awards until then). However it’s such a bizarre win that it feels like he should still be in the club as he never won for acting, directing, producing or anything else that he’s most famous for.
 Alfred Hitchcock - Losers Club member with five nominations but only ever an honorary award |
On the directing front, probably the best known person snubbed by the Academy is Alfred Hitchcock, who was nominated five times but only ever got an honorary Oscar. Similarly there’s Sidney Lumet, who also got five nominations for great films like 12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon and Network, but never picked up the gong. Mike Leigh’s never won either despite six nominations, while Akira Kurowsawa was only ever nominated once, which coincidentally was the nomination Spielberg didn’t get for The Color Purple (Ran missed out on a Best Picture nod the same year Spielberg was ignored in the Best Director category for The Color Purple). Another foreign director in the club is Federico Fellini, who scored 12 nominations in the directing and writing categories over the years, but never won – and none of his movies scored a Best Picture nomination either.
Also included is Robert Altman, Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang, Howard Hawks and Sam Peckinpah. Incidentally many people list Orson Welles and Stanley Kubrick as non-Oscar winners, but they actually both picked up awards. Welles took Best Screenplay for Citizen Kane (but was never nominated again for any of his films), while Kubrick got a slightly tangential Best Special Effects Oscar for 2001: A Space Odyssey, and so probably should still be included in the club.
There are also plenty of great movies that didn’t win anything, although special mention should be given to the classics that weren't even get nominated. These include The Big Heat, The Big Sleep, Bringing Up Baby, City Lights, Dirty Harry, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Miller’s Crossing, Modern Times, The Night of the Hunter, Once Upon A Time In America, Once Upon A Time In The West, Rio Bravo, The Searchers, The Shining, The 39 Steps, Touch Of Evil and The Wild One.
Other notable non-winners (which did get nominated at least) include An Affair To Remember, The Birds, Blade Runner, Brief Encounter, Deliverance, Double Indemnity, Dr. Strangelove, Easy Rider, It’s A Wonderful Life, The Magnificent Seven, The Maltese Falcon, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, North By Northwest, Psycho, Rebel Without A Cause, The Shawshank Redemption, Singin’ In The Rain, Taxi Driver, 12 Angry Men and Vertigo.
Another member of the club who’s worth mentioning is British born cinematographer Roger Deakins, who’s been nominated eight times since 1995, including two nominations in 2008 (for No Country For Old Men and The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford), but is yet to win. That said, it’s a fairly safe bet he’ll pick one up before he retires. And despite being one of the most famous composers in cinema history, Ennio Morricone has never won either.
However, probably the most impressive current member of the Oscar Losers Club is Kevin O’Connell. I wouldn’t blame you if you’ve never heard of him, but since 1984 he’s scored 20 nominations in the Best Sound or Best Sound Mixing categories, losing out every single time. That’s a pretty remarkable achievement, as you’d think that just by the law of averages he’d have picked one up by now.
There are plenty more people and films in the Oscar Losers Club, who’ve managed to be pre-eminent in their field but never won a thing, but sadly there isn’t time to list them all. However, I’d like to honour them and welcome them to the club.
TIM ISAAC
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