Best 4 time Oscar nominated Actor who never won

Clift's the apex for me as perhaps the best actor to never win an Oscar.

Harris and Dafoe are close behind, and Rains would be close behind them.

Rooney was rarely great but aside from a certain appearance in 1961, I rarely found him bad.

Boyer and Ruffalo can be good but there's also times when I find they can be a bit much, Ruffalo more so.

I don't really care much for Beatty in general.

Same. Harris and Dafoe are very close, but I edge it to Harris. The reason I even started this poll was because I was curious about what Harris was up to lately. He's one of our great actors, but doesn't get talked about enough.

I mean he recently shot a film version of Long Day's Journey Into The Night, playing James Tyrone opposite Jessica Lange. But it's not been completed due to finance issues. Who knows if it'll ever see the light of day, but that would have been a strong potential best actor bid for Harris.

Here's my take...


I'd have Dafoe 1st. He was the man from '86-'02.... Platoon, The Last Temptation of Christ, The English Patient --(better than Fiennes and Binoche for sure, and maybe more probably Thomas) ---, Shadow of a Vampire, and Spider Man.  3 out of 5 of those are legendary, and if Shadow was more seen.... it would be legendary too. Then he went off the map for a bit, and had a run from 2017-2019. Just a guy who's always a threat in any award cycle, and one of these years could win it all...... just keep doing movies.


Then.... Rains 2nd, even tho I voted for him.   You can get a sense of his talent as a character actor just watching classics like Casablanca, Notorious, and The Invisible Man.   His star is a little bit brighter than Rooney or Boyer just because of those classics he was in.


Clift 3rd.   I'm a Dean guy, but I realize Clift's place in history, tho he did lose the edge to Brando after 1972.   Was he behind him anyways before that??? Probably.   A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront are higher degree classics than A Place in the Sun and From Here to Eternity.   


Harris 4th.   5th would be.... Beatty.    He's the Ben Affleck of his time.   A dual threat actor and director (and writer), but not talented enough to dent such a generational era like the 70s.     Tho you can argue he's better than Affleck since Reds > Affleck's entire filmography.   


Tho I like Gone Baby Gone a lot and find it pretty underrated and produced probably my favorite Ed Harris performance, and Amy Ryan was a really great drugged up riot who probably was most people's prediction in '07.    Maybe Affleck has actually been in more or did more actual classics tho because he overtakes more time chronologically,  but either way.... my DVD collection definitely has more Affleck than Beatty.


Boyer would be 6th. He's.... alright. He doesn't stand out among the Bogarts, the Stewarts, the Vincent Prices and Edward G. Robinsons..... of his era. He was pretty good in Gaslight, tho Bergman just stole his entire imprint and relegated his memory to obscurity.


I don't care for Ruffalo.... 7th.   8th.... Rooney.    He's like Bing Crosby. Huge in the 30s and 40s, but didn't stand the test of time and nobody cared for his movies after 1972.    His genuine "comeback" attempt in Breakfast at Tiffany's..... was a success and a failure depending on how you look at it.   He might be so ridiculous it's worth remembering, as it's at least not forgotten.   But then maybe it's not the kind of "remembering" you'd prefer.