The Academy has traditionally thought of movie acting as dramatic acting: tearing a passion to tatters, preferably while speaking in an accent and wearing eccentric makeup. That excluded the swellegant, elegant Mr. Fred Astaire; all he did was sing and dance with greater craft and feeling than anybody in movie history. His duets with Ginger Rogers — “Isn’t This a Lovely Day” and “Cheek to Cheek” in Top Hat and “Never Gonna Dance” in Swing Time — are not just superb examples of Terpsichore’s art but among the most powerful expressions of courtship, love and loss in screen history. Astaire was never nominated for these musicals, or for any other — though the Academy did insult his dance legacy by nominating him for Best Supporting Actor for a nothing role, played long past his prime, in the 1974 disaster pic The Towering Inferno.
Top 10 Oscar-Nomination Snubs
The list of movie greats who never won an Academy Award is long and sad, but there are significant artists and pictures eliminated from contention before Oscar races even begin. Here are 10 classics the Academy ignored
Best Actor: Fred Astaire, Top Hat
Full List
An Honor Not to Be Nominated
- Best Actor: Fred Astaire, Top Hat
- Best Actor: Cary Grant, His Girl Friday
- Best Actor: Bill Murray, Groundhog Day
- Best Actress: Barbara Stanwyck, The Lady Eve
- Best Director: John Ford, The Searchers
- Best Director: Martin Scorsese, Taxi Driver
- Best Director: Steven Spielberg, Jaws
- Best Picture: King Kong
- Best Picture: Some Like It Hot
- Best Picture: The Dark Knight