Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Top 25 Honorary Oscar Recipients

Charlie Chaplin accepting his second Honorary Oscar in 1972.

Almost every year, the Academy presents one or more film contributors with Honorary Oscars, which means there are a number of artists who've received Oscars over the years without winning competitive ones. Here are 25 oversights the Academy righted.

Note: Artists like Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles, Paul Newman, and Henry Fonda would've made the list, but they won competitive Oscars in addition to their honorary ones. No one mentioned below "won" an Oscar, but each has one.

Dates indicate the year the artist was honored by the Academy, and each person's track record with the Oscars is captioned. 


D.W. Griffith (1936)
Zero nominations.

Gene Kelly (1952)
One nomination.

Greta Garbo (1955)
Four nominations.

Buster Keaton (1959)
Zero nominations.

Cary Grant (1970)
Two nominations.

Edward G. Robinson (1973)
Zero nominations.

Howard Hawks (1975)
One nomination.

Jean Renoir (1975)
One nomination.

Barbara Stanwyck (1982)
Four nominations.

Alex North (1986)
Fifteen nominations.

Akira Kurosawa (1990)
One nomination.

Federico Fellini (1993)
Twelve nominations.

Deborah Kerr (1994)
Six nominations.

Michelangelo Antonioni (1995)
Two nominations.

Kirk Douglas (1996)
Three nominations.

Ernest Lehman (2001)
Six nominations.

Peter O'Toole (2003)
Eight nominations.

Sidney Lumet (2005)
Five nominations.

Robert Altman (2006)
Seven nominations.

Ennio Morricone (2007)
Five nominations.

Robert F. Boyle (2008)
Four nominations.

Lauren Bacall (2010)
One nomination.

Gordon Willis (2010)
Two nominations.

Jean-Luc Godard (2011)
Zero nominations.

Eli Wallach (2011)
Zero nominations.

This year's Honorary Oscar winners were D.A. Pennebaker, Hal Needham, and George Stevens Jr.

10 comments:

  1. This is an impressive list -- it's hard to believe many of these people have never won competitive Oscars. Love this post! I never even knew honorary Oscars existed.

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    1. Thanks! I'm just glad they were recognized, even though they didn't win competitive ones.

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  2. Really, really fantastic list. I find it so sad that Bacall has never won a competitive Oscar. She's been in the game for so long and has delivered some Oscar-worthy performances throughout.
    My faves are Greta Garbo, Lauren Bacall, Edward G. Robinson, Howard Hawks, Barbara Stanwyck, Deborah Kerr, Cary Grant, Sidney Lumet, and Federico Fellini.

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    1. Thanks. Yeah, I wish Bacall won for To Have and Have Not.

      GREAT list of names you mentioned.

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  3. ugh, the Academy... I know everybody can't win but we're looking at entire lives without a single competitive Oscar, sometimes not even a nomination... Well, some of my all-time favorite actors/directors are in there, so it's kind of a sad list. On the other hand, their work speaks for itself, and that's what an artist is remembered for.

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    1. Sad indeed. But, on the bright side, they did receive Oscars for their work. :)

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  4. The fact that Fellini has TWELVE nominations only reminds me how there was a decade or two when the Academy had balls.

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    1. Well, Bergman was nominated 9 times, so they have made bold choices in the past. Of course, they never gave him an Honorary Oscar. :(

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  5. That's a fine crop of folks right there. But it is a shame that the Academy hands these out like candy, when actual wins for many of them would be so much more iconic.

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    1. True, but I'm just happy with the recognition. Just think: Some of these people weren't even nominated. At least they got an Oscar after the fact.

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