Randy Newman
What failed
His first fifteen nominations, from the 1982 ceremony to the one held on 24 March 2002, all lost, including a night in 1999 when he was nominated three separate times and lost all three, and the 2002 ceremony itself, where his score for Monsters, Inc. lost while the song from the same film won.
What happened next
He won on the sixteenth, in March 2002, and used the speech to thank the music branch for giving him so many chances to be humiliated. He won again in 2011.
The point
Newman's losing streak was not obscurity. It was fifteen public confirmations that he was very good and still not the one, which is a harder thing to keep working through than being ignored.
The sequence
2 documented failures, shown with the successes in between. Every entry carries its own source — the wins are part of the record, and leaving them out is how these stories get distorted.
- 1982
First nominations, two at once, for Ragtime. He loses both.
- 1999
Three nominations in one night. Three losses.
- 2002
Wins on the sixteenth nomination, for a song from Monsters, Inc.
Sources
- Most Oscar nominations before winning (Guinness World Records)
on his 16th nomination at the 74th Academy Awards held on 24 March 2002
- Academy Awards Acceptance Speech Database
I don't want your pity.
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