People who were nominated for an Oscar and didn't win while playing the role of a lifetime (not to imply the winner was better or less deserving, just to say that this person has a role that was meant for them and didn't win the award). Like these roles that they lost for were perfect performances and roles that can possibly never be topped...

- Tom Cruise in Magnolia (lost to Michael Caine for Cider House Rules)

- Salma Hayek in Frida (lost "by a nose" to Nicole Kidman for The Hours)

- Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream (lost to Julia Roberts for Erin Brockovich - clearly a popularity contest)

- Angela Bassett in What's Love Got to do with It? (lost to Holly Hunter for The Piano)

- Glen Close in Fatal Attraction (lost to Cher for Moonstruck)

- Edward Norton in American History X (lost to Roberto Benigni for Life is Beautiful)

- Denzel Washington in Malcolm X (lost to Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman)

- Kate Winslet in Sense and Sensibility (lost to Mira Sorvino for Mighty Aphrodite)

- Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction (lost to Dianne Wiest for Bullets Over Broadway)

- Julia Roberts in Steel Magnolias (lost to Brenda Fricker for My Left Foot)

- Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast (lost to Jim Broadbent for Iris)

- Leonardo DiCaprio in What's Eating Gilbert Grape? (lost to Tommy Lee Jones for The Fugitive)