8 Actors Who Should Have Won Oscars (But Never Will)

8. Tom Cruise

Why They Should Have Won: Across his career Tom Cruise has been nominated for three Oscars. The first was for Best Actor in 1990's Born On The Fourth Of July. The second was for Best Actor in 1997's Jerry Maguire. The third €“ and most worthy €“ was for Best Supporting Actor in 1999s Magnolia.

Magnolia was directed by acclaimed film-maker Paul Thomas Anderson, and explored the lives of a bunch of different characters, each of whom crossed paths and influenced one another's destiny. Cruise played Frank Mackey, a self-help guru with an incredibly troubled relationship with his past. Cruise's performance is eccentric, psychotic and deeply broken. In the end, the Oscar went to Michael Caine for his performance as Dr. Wilbur Larch in The Cider House Rules, but it's a performance that is nowhere near as versatile or interesting. Why They Never Will: Tom Cruise has always been an action star. From the beginning of his mainstream career, Cruise has played the charismatic everyman with the winning smile. As with Adam Sandler in 2002's Punch-Drunk Love, Paul Thomas Anderson managed to hone in on that charisma and tweak it slightly, revealing the rather deranged aspects of Cruise's performances. What's brilliant, then, is the subversion of Cruise's usual characters. It's a once-in-a-career trick, and was supported by an absolutely stellar writer and director. Since then, Cruise has largely reverted back to his typical hero aesthetic, reprising his role as Ethan Hunt in various Mission: Impossible films and appearing in a bunch of other loud (albeit often great) action films.