7. He's Only 41
If I keep mentioning that Leonardo DiCaprio is only 41-years-old, it's because it's important. It's probably the most important thing to consider when you weigh-up why the actor is yet to win an Academy Award. Let's put aside DiCaprio's Best Supporting Actor nomination for What's Eating Gilbert Grape (received when he was only nineteen), and focus on the Best Actor award, which is the one his fans seem to crave for him so badly anyway. In the last 45 years, only 14 men have won before the age of 40, and these include such names as Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro and Daniel Day Lewis, actors likely to appear in any top twenty of all-time list. These numbers aren't particularly damning (especially when you consider that the average age for Best Actor win is 44) until you put them into the context of the words people adamant DiCaprio should've won by now often use: overdue; finally (as in when will he finally); snubbed. Martin Scorsese was overdue when the Academy relented and basically gave him a lifetime achievement Oscar for The Departed. Roger Deakins needs to finally win. Peter O'Toole was snubbed, his eight Oscar nominations over his entire career never yielding one single win. None of these words should be used in relation to DiCaprio, an actor only half way through his career with plenty of time to win an Oscar yet. His three Best Actor nominations before The Revenant this year came at the ages of 30 (The Aviator), 32 (Blood Diamond), and 39 (The Wolf of Wall Street) respectively. This is a pretty normal trajectory. He's 41-years-old. Calm down.