19. Edward Norton
Having starred as Aaron Stampler in the hit 1996 movie Primal Fear, Edward Norton almost immediately reaped permanent cult status amongst movie-goers. This movie, which earned him an Oscar nomination for Supporting Actor, in the process paved the way for a variety of top quality roles in more prevalent films such as American History X (for which he received another Oscar nomination) and Fight Club. So by the turn of the century, Edward Norton was pretty much at the top of his game, yet even during this purple patch, the Academy were still reluctant to honour him with a deserved Oscar win. What's worse is that sadly, since 2000 Norton's acting capacities haven't been fully fulfilled. With no Oscar nomination to his name for 14 years, his reputation of being a household Hollywood name, is slowly diminishing. Furthermore, Norton has unfortunately been pigeonholed as a very hard actor to work with, so as a result he has been replaced by the likes of Ryan Gosling and Christian Bale as the chief Hollywood cult star. With all this in mind, it appears as though the zenith of Norton's career has been and gone and with every passing year, an Oscar looks increasingly improbable.