Oscars: 10 Actors Who Won The SAG Award But Not The Oscar
As far as awards associations go, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards are relatively new, with the first ceremony being held in 1995. In comparison, the Academy Awards had its first ceremony in 1929 and the BAFTAs in 1949. The SAG awards only give awards to actors, as compared to most other associations, which give awards to many different types of artists in the film industry.
In any year filled with many great performances, not all awards associations are going to agree on who delivered the best performance. Possibly because the SAG awards are newer, they award genre films with acting nominations and awards more regularly than others.
Jodie Foster has had immense success across several decades and especially in the late 80s and early 90s for some of her great but sometimes underrated movies. She won the Academy Award for leading actress for both The Accused (1988) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991). She received an Academy Award nomination for her role in Nell (1994) and won the award for lead actress at the first-ever SAG awards for the same performance.
Nell is about a woman who is discovered in a remote cabin after her mother dies. She speaks a strange language that no one recognizes and has seemingly never interacted with people outside of her immediate family. Authorities and academics must then decide what course of action is best for Nell as her situation is virtually unprecedented.
Viola Davis has garnered a large amount of critical acclaim over the past decade, including an Academy Award and BAFTA win for supporting actress in Fences (2016), as well as several nominations. Her most wins have been at the SAG awards, however.
Not only did she win the SAG award for Fences, but she also won for leading actress for both The Help (2011) and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020). Davis plays the eponymous historical singer as she records an album and constantly spars with anyone who rubs her the wrong way.
An emotional story about a down-and-out boxer who comes out of retirement because of financial hardship during the Great Depression, Cinderella Man portrays a man whose only choice to provide for his family is not only to pursue his dreams but also achieve him. It is based on world heavyweight boxing champion James J. Braddock, who won the title from 1935 through 1937.
The standout performance in the film is by Paul Giamatti, who portrays Braddock’s friend and manager Joe Gould. The role garnered Giamatti’s only Oscar nomination to date and won him the SAG award for supporting actor, and it could compete with some of his best movies.
Julian Fellowes is most famous for his television endeavors Downtown Abbey (2010-2015) and The Gilded Age (2022), dramas that portray incredible characters in historical settings. He also had film success in the early 2000s with Gosford Park, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Gosford Park has an immense cast, which includes Helen Mirren. Mirren plays a housekeeper with a complex past that she is not quick to talk about. Her last scene in the film is some of her best work, and largely because of it, she received both an Academy Award nomination and a SAG win for supporting actress. Mirren was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award earlier this year at the SAG awards.
American Beauty performed exceptionally well at every major awards ceremony associated. Lead actress Annette Bening also garnered major accolades, winning both the BAFTA and the SAG award for lead actress, as well as receiving nominations from both the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards.
Annette Bening is meticulously great as one of the most unlikable characters in the movie. She portrays a wife, mother, and real estate agent who is eternally ambitious, unlikable, and unhappy, despite her many efforts to be happy. Not only did she take home the SAG award for her performance, but the entire cast took home the SAG award for ensemble performance.
At the 2021 Academy Awards, Anthony Hopkins won leading actor over Chadwick Boseman, easily one of the biggest upsets in Oscar history. Both actors turned in some of their best work, but audiences and critics expected Boseman to win because of his phenomenal performance, as well as because he had recently passed away and Hopkins had already won the award in the past. Boseman won at the Golden Globes and the SAG awards.
Boseman plays a trumpeter named Levee with his own ideas of how songs should be played in the film. He clashes with nearly everyone in the film, including Ma Rainey. Levee is hoping to have his own career featuring music he has only written himself but is crushed when the producer insists there is no market for his songs and only pays him a meager amount for them.
A Quiet Place was a hugely successful horror movie, receiving both popular and critical acclaim. The film is post-apocalyptic, society having been unraveled by monsters that hunt using their strong hearing ability. This forces the main characters, and anyone who wants to live, to be extremely quiet at all times.
The film has a small but capable cast, with John Krasinki, Emily Blunt, Noah Jupe, and Millicent Simmonds all delivering strong performances. Most of the cast was ignored by awards associations, per usual for horror films. However, Blunt won the SAG award for supporting actress.
The role of pirate Jack Sparrow may have been entertaining in the hands of many actors, but Johnny Depp truly took the role to another level. He is eccentric, funny, clever, and even intimidating at times. He received nominations at the Academy Awards, BAFTAs, and the Golden Globes, as well as a win at the SAG awards for leading actor.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is about a governor’s daughter who is kidnapped by a crew of pirates who are later revealed to be undead. A blacksmith who is in love with her comes to her rescue, aided by Jack Sparrow, who agrees to help to reclaim his ship.
Daniel Day-Lewis has won three leading actor awards at both the Academy Awards and the SAG awards. He did not win the Academy Award for Gangs of New York, however. At the 2003 Academy Awards, everyone expected the Oscar for leading actor to go to either Day-Lewis or Jack Nicholson. Dark horse Adrien Brody upset expectations and won the award for his role in The Pianist (2002), though.
In Gangs of New York, Day-Lewis plays William “Bill the Butcher” Cutting. He is violent and terrifying, and he is the main hinge in one of Martin Scorsese’s most epic films and one of the best movies featuring New York. The gang leader is based on a historic gang leader from the mid-1800s, and the film is as New York as any film has ever been.
Fantasy films, like horror films, rarely receive acting nominations. Ian McKellen's performance as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was an exception to this, however. He earned a nomination from the BAFTAs and the Oscars, as well as a win at the SAG awards for supporting actor.
The Fellowship of the Ring follows a group of heroes from different backgrounds who must destroy a magic ring to prevent an old evil from rising to power again. McKellen is excellent as Gandalf, portraying mystery, power, rage, and warmth.