Actors Who Never Won Emmys

5. Angela Lansbury — No kidding, she’s been nominated 19 times without an Emmy win, with 12 of them tied to her longrunning stint as amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote. Even Susan Lucci eventually won. But Lansbury continues to put on a fake happy face from the audience, most recently in 2005 for a nominated guest star appearance on Law & Order: Trial By Jury. C’mon, give the old girl an honorary statue. It’s the right thing to do.

4. Larry Hagman — Few if any TV stars have stood taller on the international stage than Larry Hagman as J.R. Ewing of Dallas. Still, his indelible embodiment of oily greed came up dry, save for two nominations in the early years of the series. Hagman earlier hung his hat for five seasons in another evergreen role as Capt. Tony Nelson on I Dream of Jeannie. At this point his Emmy dreams seem dead, but few TV actors have laughed harder on the way to the bank.

3. Michael Landon — Three big drama series hits — Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie and Highway to Heaven — made him a virtually indispensable star for NBC. But those respective turns as “Little Joe” Cartwright, Charles Ingalls and earth angel Jonathan Smith didn’t add up to a single Emmy nomination. He died in 1991 after logging an astonishing 645 episodes in those three roles.

2. Jackie Gleason — He’d be the first to tell you he fully deserved to be called “The Great One.” Still, the late Gleason’s second banana on The Honeymooners took home all of the hardware. Art Carney won six Emmys over the years as goofy Ed Norton while Gleason’s bombastic Ralph Kramden and a variety of his other characters fell short. Gleason in the end received four Emmy nominations. On the big night, though, he watched Carney upstage him time and again.

1. Andy Griffith — Here’s an oversight that really should be rectified before it’s too late. Griffith’s portrayal of Sheriff Andy Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show also ran into a second banana buzzsaw, this one named Don Knotts. He won five Emmys as bungling deputy Barney Fife while Griffith never garnered even a single nomination as the enduringly beloved show’s steady-handed authority figure. Griffith’s only shot at an Emmy came later in the 1981 miniseries Murder In Texas. But his lone nomination fell short when Britisher David Warner took home the trophy for Masada. Imagine the good feelings that an honorary Emmy for Andy would generate. So get busy, Academy. Now!

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