Chaplin never won a legitimate award, but he was honored with three Special Oscars. The first of which was in 1927-28 for his “versatility and genius,” in writing, producing, directing, and acting in The Circus; Chaplin was nominated for this film in competitive categories, but did not win.

In 1964, the film musical My Fair Lady was nominated in every major category except Best Actress, despite an elegant performance by Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle. Production of this film was marked by resentment over Jack Warners's refusal to cast Julie Andrews in a role she had played to great acclaim on stage.

Bette Davis's award for Dangerous is considered to be the first consolation or “holdover” award, given to her for missing out on the previous year's nominations. The attempt to introduce new selection procedures, the writeins, failed to get Davis a much deserved award for Of Human Bondage. In 1935, upon being nominated for Dangerous, Davis herself cited Katharine Hepburn's performance in Alice Adams as the best performance of the year.

The latest example of damaging effects for negative publicity on Oscar prospects is Russell Crowe. In February 2002, in the midst of an expensive campaign, Crow, then the undisputed front-runner Best Actor for A Beautiful Mind, added to his already notorious bad-boy image by aggressively confronting Malcolm Gerrie, producer of the British Academy Film Awards show, over the way his acceptance speech was edited for British TV.