10 Actors Who Tried Like Hell To Win An Oscar (But Failed)

Sylvester Stallone has something of a chequered past with the Oscars, and indeed with mainstream respectability full stop. Whilst his 1976 breakthrough Rocky won Best Picture and Best Director for the late John G Avildsen, Stallone had to be content with nominations for Best Actor and Best Screenplay.

In the years after, Stallone's move into schlockier blockbuster territory with the Rocky sequels and Rambo saw him lose that early critical respect - and by the late 1990s, Stallone was anxious to claw back some of that credibility.

Writer-director James Mangold's Cop Land seemed ideal. Stallone was cast as the well-meaning but simple-minded Sheriff of a small New Jersey town which scores of high-ranking NYPD officers call home, who uncovers widespread corruption among them.

As well as casting Stallone amongst such dramatic heavyweights as Robert De Niro, Harvey Kietel and Ray Liotta, the role also pushed him out of his comfort zone, requiring the famously buff star to get out of shape, gaining 40 pounds.

None of this, however, was enough to wow the Academy, who ignored Cop Land. Stallone wouldn't get another nomination until he played Rocky Balboa a seventh time in 2015's Creed - and there again he would lose to Mark Rylance.