SNUB: Samuel L. Jackson (1995)
The pattern of acting recognition from the Academy typically goes something like this: portray a character worthy of a gold statue: lose. Lose three or four more times, then take home the prize on a role that’s not really great but is long overdue. That’s what happened in 1995, and it’s why Martin Landau beat out Samuel L. Jackson for best actor, even though Jackson’s turn as Jules Winnfield was far, far better than Landau’s Bela Lugosi.