Gimme My Emmy: Award Winning Lead Actors without an Emmy Award
by rubyfruit76 | created - 23 Apr 2014 | updated - 29 Aug 2016 | PublicSince 1990, the following actors all won at least one Golden Globe for the Best Actor or Best Actress in a Lead Role in a TV Drama, and were all nominated for an Emmy, at least once, as well, for a lead performance in a TV drama. None has ever actually won an Emmy, however (as of September 17, 2016). Instead of voting for your favorite actor, which of these actors, without an Emmy, do you think has most deserved one?
Discuss here.
1. Scott Bakula
Actor | Quantum Leap
Scott Stewart Bakula was born on October 9, 1954 in St. Louis, Missouri, to Sally (Zumwinkel) and J. Stewart Bakula, a lawyer. He is of German, as well as Czech, Austrian, Scottish and English ancestry. He comes from a musical family. In the fourth grade, he started a rock band and wrote songs for ...
Won the Golden Globe in 1992 for his performance in Quantum Leap; nominated for an Emmy four times for performances in Quantum Leap, but never won.
2. Steve Buscemi
Actor | Fargo
Steve Buscemi was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Dorothy (Wilson), a restaurant hostess, and John Buscemi, a sanitation worker. He is of Italian (father) and English, Dutch, and Irish (mother) descent. He became interested in acting during his last year of high school. After graduating, he moved to...
Won the Golden Globe in 2011 for his performance in Boardwalk Empire; nominated for an Emmy twice for performances in Boardwalk Empire, but never won.
3. Gabriel Byrne
Actor | The Usual Suspects
Byrne was the eldest of six children born to a family in Dublin, Ireland. His father was a cooper and his mother a hospital worker. He was raised Catholic and educated by the Irish Christian Brothers. He spent five years of his childhood in a seminary training to be a Catholic priest. He later said...
Won the Golden Globe in 2009 for his performance in In Treatment; nominated for an Emmy twice for performances in In Treatment, but never won.
4. David Caruso
Actor | First Blood
His low-keyed intensity, deep-voiced somberness, pale skin, puffy-eyed baby face and crop of carrot-red hair are all obvious and intriguing trademarks of TV star David Caruso. A hugely popular item in the 1990s as a result of a smash crime series, he got way too caught up in all the hoopla ...
Won the Golden Globe in 1994 for his performance in NYPD Blue; nominated for an Emmy once for that performance but didn't win.
5. Frances Conroy
Actress | Six Feet Under
Award-winning stage actress Frances Conroy was introduced and encouraged by her parents to explore the elements of theater. Born Frances Hardman Conroy in Monroe, Georgia, she attended high school in Long Island and experienced classes at the Neighborhood Playhouse as a teenager. The pale, ...
Won the Golden Globe in 2004 for his performance in Six Feet Under; nominated for an Emmy four times for performances in Six Feet Under, but never won.
6. David Duchovny
Actor | The X Files
David William Duchovny was born on August 7, 1960, in New York City, New York, USA. His father, Amram Ducovny, was a writer and publicist who was from a family of Jewish immigrants (from Ukraine and Poland), and worked for the American Jewish Committee. His mother, Margaret (Miller), was a ...
Won the Golden Globe in 1997 for his performance in The X-Files; nominated for an Emmy two times for that role, but never won.
7. Anthony Edwards
Actor | ER
Anthony Edwards was born in Santa Barbara, California, on July 19, 1962, to a well-blended family. He is the youngest of five children, and the son of Erika Kem (Weber), a landscape painter and artist, and Peter Edwards, an architect. His mother was of German descent, and his father was of English,...
Won the Golden Globe in 1998 for his performance in ER; nominated for an Emmy four times for performances in ER, but never won.
8. Jennifer Garner
Actress | Alias
Jennifer Garner, who catapulted into stardom with her lead role on the television series Alias (2001), has come a long way from her birthplace of Houston, Texas. Raised in Charleston, West Virginia by her mother Patricia Ann (née English), a retired English teacher, and her father, Billy Jack ...
Won the Golden Globe in 2002 for her performance in Alias; nominated for an Emmy four times for her role in Alias, but never won.
9. Michael C. Hall
Actor | Dexter
Michael C. Hall was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, to Janice (Styons), a guidance counselor, and William Carlyle Hall, who worked for IBM. Michael is a graduate of NYU's Master of Fine Arts program in acting. He is known for the titular character "Dexter" in Dexter (2006) and as mortician "David ...
Won the Golden Globe in 2010 for his performance in Dexter; nominated for an Emmy seven times for performances in Dexter and Six Feet Under, but never won.
10. Taraji P. Henson
Actress | The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Taraji Penda Henson is an American actress and singer. She studied acting at Howard University and began her Hollywood career in guest roles on several television shows before making her breakthrough in Baby Boy (2001). She played a prostitute in Hustle & Flow (2005), for which she received a ...
Won the Golden Globe in 2016 for her performance in Empire; nominated for an Emmy two times for performances in Empire, but never won.
11. Angela Lansbury
Actress | The Manchurian Candidate
Angela Lansbury was born in 1925 into a prominent family of the upper middle class living in the Regent's Park neighborhood of London. Her father was socialist politician Edgar Isaac Lansbury (1887-1935), a member of both the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and the Labour Party. Edgar ...
Won the Golden Globe in 1985, 1987, 1990, and 1992, for her performances in Murder, She Wrote; nominated for an Emmy twelve times for performances in the same series, but never won.
12. Anthony LaPaglia
Actor | Without a Trace
Anthony wanted to be a soccer player but he didn't have the skills so he taught in a school for 10 months until he realized that it wasn't his vocation and then spent some years working in a shoe store before moving to New York where he spent time as a barman and a sprinkler system installer to ...
Won the Golden Globe in 2004 for his performance in Without a Trace; nominated for an Emmy once for the same performance but did not win.
13. Hugh Laurie
Actor | House M.D.
Hugh was born in Oxford, England on June 11, 1959, to Patricia (Laidlaw) and William George Ranald Mundell "Ran" Laurie, a doctor, both of Scottish descent. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge. Son of an Olympic gold medalist in the sport, he rowed for the England youth team (1977) and for ...
Won the Golden Globe in 2006 and 2007 for his performance in House; nominated for an Emmy six times for performances in House, but never won.
14. Kyle MacLachlan
Actor | Twin Peaks: The Return
The "boy next door, if that boy spent lots of time alone in the basement", is how Rich Cohen described Kyle MacLachlan in a 1994 article for "Rolling Stone" magazine. That distinctly askew wholesomeness made MacLachlan a natural to become famous as the alter ego of twisted director David Lynch.
...
Won the Golden Globe in 1991 for his performance in Twin Peaks; nominated for an Emmy twice for performances in the same role but didn't win.
15. Dylan McDermott
Actor | The Practice
A Golden Globe winner and Emmy nominee, Dylan McDermott has proven his talent in film, television, and theater. He was born Mark Anthony McDermott in Waterbury, Connecticut, to Diane (Marino) and Richard McDermott. Diane was 15 and Richard was 17 when Dylan was born. Richard earned money by ...
Won the Golden Globe in 1999 for his performance in The Practice; nominated for an Emmy once for that performance but didn't win.
16. Ian McShane
Actor | Deadwood
A natural at portraying complex villains, anti-heroes, and charming heavies, Ian McShane is the classically trained, award-winning actor who has grabbed attention and acclaim from audiences and critics around the world with his unforgettable gallery of scoundrels, kings, mobsters and thugs.
And, now...
Won the Golden Globe in 2005 for his performance in Deadwood; nominated for one Emmy for his performance Deadwood, but did not win.
17. Kevin Spacey
Actor | L.A. Confidential
Kevin Spacey Fowler, better known by his stage name Kevin Spacey, is an American actor of screen and stage, film director, producer, screenwriter and singer. He began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s before obtaining supporting roles in film and television. He gained critical acclaim in...
Won the Golden Globe in 2015 for his performance in House of Cards; nominated for an Emmy five times for performances in House of Cards and Recount, but never won.
18. Martin Sheen
Actor | The Departed
Multiple Emmy- and Golden Globe-winner Martin Sheen is one of America's most celebrated, colorful, and accomplished actors. Moving flawlessly between artistic mediums, Sheen's acting range is striking.
Sheen was born Ramón Antonio Gerard Estevez in Dayton, Ohio, to Mary-Ann (Phelan), an Irish ...
Won the Golden Globe in 2001 for his performance in The West Wing; nominated for an Emmy six times for performances in The West Wing but never won.
19. Regina Taylor
Actress | Courage Under Fire
While TV audiences best remember Regina Taylor for her empathetic portrayal of housekeeper Lilly Harper in the critically lauded series I'll Fly Away (1991), which rewarded her with a Golden Globe for best actress, an NAACP Image Award, and two Emmy nominations, this Dallas-born talent has made ...
Won the Golden Globe in 1993 for her performance in I'll Fly Away; nominated for an Emmy twice for performances in the same series, but never won.
20. Ken Wahl
Actor | Wiseguy
Ken Wahl is award-winning actor, most known for his Golden Globe starring role in the ground-breaking, critically acclaimed, CBS crime drama Wiseguy (1987). He entered acting without experience or aspirations. In 1979, Ken was set to be a walk-on in director Philip Kaufman's movie The Wanderers (...
Won the Golden Globe in 1990 for his performance in Wiseguy; nominated for an Emmy once for the same role but didn't win.
21. Sam Waterston
Actor | The Killing Fields
Sam Waterston was born on November 15, 1940 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for The Killing Fields (1984), The Great Gatsby (1974) and Law & Order (1990). He has been married to Lynn Louisa Woodruff since January 26, 1976. They have three children. He was ...
Won the Golden Globe in 1993 for his performance in I'll Fly Away; nominated for an Emmy six times for performances in I'll Fly Away and Law & Order, but never won.
22. Robin Wright
Actress | Forrest Gump
Robin Gayle Wright was born in Dallas, Texas, to Gayle (Gaston), a national director at Mary Kay, and Freddie Wright, a pharmaceutical executive. She grew up in San Diego, California. She started her professional career as a model in 1980 at age 14, and worked both in Paris and Japan. After ...
Won the Golden Globe in 2014 for her performance in House of Cards; nominated for an Emmy four times for performances in House of Cards, but never won.
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