10 Iconic Performances That Weren't Even Nominated For An Oscar

8. Gary Cooper - Ball Of Fire

For the most part, Gary Cooper made his career around being a strapping, handsome all-American man. That was his niche, and he was good at it. So it was an interesting change of pace when he took on the leading role in Ball of Fire, where he played Professor Bertram Potts, a timid intellectual working with a group of nerdy older men to create a new encyclopedia. He's reserved, both physically and socially awkward, and doesn't know what to do with himself when a beautiful young club singer comes into his life. Hollywood loves nothing more than transformative roles and actors playing against type, and it takes quite a lot of work to make Gary Cooper believable as a bookish nerd. Surprisingly, he wasn't recognized by the Academy for his work in the film, although his costar Barbara Stanwyck was nominated for her charismatic, sexually liberated performance. Still, if you're Gary Cooper it's hard to complain too much about the results of the Academy Awards that year: he took home the Best Actor Oscar for his work in Sergeant York.