The question seriously overstates Cary Grant’s lack of accolades. While he never won a competitive Oscar, he did receive an Academy Award for lifetime achievement in 1970 for his acting. And despite the claim in the question, he was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Actor at his peak.
So yes, while Grant is often described as one of the greatest male stars of all time, ranking number two on AFI’s list of male stars of the Golden Age after Humphrey Bogart, he was nowhere near as criminally underrated as the question suggests.
In fact, I’d argue that like some other very high-profile actors of his era and shortly after, Henry Fonda immediately springs to mind, he was less underrated than he was taken for granted.
Grant was such a stable and reliable fixture at the highest level of the entertainment industry that many of his colleagues probably thought that alone was all the recognition one person could need in life.
I mean, he was Cary freakin’ Grant, for God’s sake.
His fans were legion; from the highest members of high society to the working folks who kept the world running. He was beloved by everyone.
So the thinking, I guess, went: “What more does he need than that?”
But, of course, everyone likes a little recognition from their peers, Grant included.
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