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Lady Gaga (2019) -

Nominee: Best Actress

Gaga plays a fun, witty, and emotional waitress who dreams of making it big as a singer. The chemistry between her and Bradley Cooper is notably intense, and contributes to the success of the movie.

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Bobby Darin, 'Captain Newman, M.D.' (1963) -

Nominee: Best Supporting Actor

The eclectic pop star and songwriter played an arrogant pilot experiencing guilt and anxiety in a standout performance dealing with PTSD.

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Doris Day, 'Pillow Talk' (1959) -

Nominee: Best Actress

Doris Day plays a successful interior decorator forced to share a phone line with her womanizing neighbor (Rock Hudson). She gives an honest insight into women's fear of the time surrounding careers and love. 

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Maurice Chevalier, 'The Big Pond' (1930) -

Nominee: Best Actor

The French singer competed against himself for Best Actor (and lost on both counts), but his good-hearted working-class character will be remembered for being effortlessly charming. 

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Mark Wahlberg, 'The Departed' (2006) -

Nominee: Best Supporting Actor

Though by then long removed from his Marky Mark days, Wahlberg earned his first Oscar nod by tapping into his old hothead, hometown-boy origins.

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Queen Latifah, 'Chicago' (2002) -

Nominee: Best Supporting Actress

Queen Latifah's real-life strong-headed attitude made her a perfect fit for Mama Morton, a powerful woman who saw the rationality in murderesses.

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Maurice Chevalier, 'The Love Parade' (1929) -

Nominee: Best Actor

While the sophisticated musical comedy boasted fantastic visuals, the most attention-grabbing parts are Jeanette MacDonald as a young European queen and Maurice Chevalier as the playboy count she tries to tame.

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Bing Crosby, 'The Country Girl' (1954) -

Nominee: Best Actor

One of the biggest stars of the 1940s showed a very different side of himself in this film adaptation rife with insecurity, petty jealousy, and regret. 

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Bette Midler, 'For the Boys' (1991) -

Nominee: Best Actress

Midler plays a popular performer singing to US troops during WWII in this musical dramedy, and she brings prodigious doses of life and wit to the screen.

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Burl Ives, 'The Big Country' (1958) -

Winner: Best Supporting Actor

With an existing reputation in the mid-20th century as one of the world's great folklorists, Ives brought that worldliness to his mature role as a struggling but stubborn Texas rancher, almost becoming a character in one of his own songs. 

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Barbra Streisand, 'The Way We Were' (1973) -

Nominee: Best Actress

Streisand pushed the boundaries of "likability" in her role as the fiery leftist Jew, who is simultaneously a sparring partner and lover to a reserved writer (played by Robert Redford).

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Ann-Margret, 'Tommy' (1975) -

Nominee: Best Actress

For her role as the mother of the titular character in Ken Russel's adaption of the Who's rock opera, the pop star was forced to writhe around in a muck of baked beans, detergent, and chocolate for three days with a lacerated hand. Her character carefully straddles the line between pitiable and sleazy. 

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Peggy Lee, 'Pete Kelly's Blues' (1955) -

Nominee: Best Supporting Actress

Perhaps it was Lee's real-life disappointment with men (see: her four bitter divorces) that she channeled into her acclaimed performance as a jazz singer at the mercy of those who claim to love her.

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Frank Sinatra, 'The Man With the Golden Arm' (1955) -

Nominee: Best Actor

The crooner played a sympathetic, newly sober thug who is also fresh out of jail, and who struggles with drug addiction and gangs while, of course, still chasing his musical dreams.

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Dexter Gordon, 'Round Midnight' (1986) -

Nominee: Best Actor

In one of the few acting gigs Gordon took on near the end of his career, the saxophonist earned a Best Actor nod for portraying an alcoholic jazz musician in Paris. 

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Cher, 'Silkwood' (1983) -

Nominee: Best Supporting Actress

While Cher was still largely seen as a wisecracking, glamorous, bell-bottomed star, her extremely stripped-down performance as a scrappy lesbian, alongside Meryl Streep as Karen Silkwood, revealed a whole other side to her.

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Will Smith, 'The Pursuit of Happyness' (2006) -

Nominee: Best Actor

What made Will Smith's portrayal of Chris Gardner so fantastic was that, along with being a single parent dealing with homelessness, his insistence on maintaining dignity and excellence was delivered with immense charisma and talent. 

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Bing Crosby, 'Going My Way' (1944) / 'The Bells of St. Mary's' (1945) -

Winner: Best Actor / Nominee: Best Actor

Though they were released a year apart and tell their own distinct stories, the films feature one extended performance by Crosby, as a hip young Catholic priest with a talent for connecting to young people and reviving struggling parishes.

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Jennifer Hudson, 'Dreamgirls' (2006) -

Winner: Best Supporting Actress

The film adaptation of the musical featured Beyoncé as a main draw, but it was quickly evident that Hudson stole the show, portraying immense strength with stark moments of vulnerability.

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Bette Midler, 'The Rose' (1979) -

Nominee: Best Actress

Midler delivered a raw performance as a self-destructive rock goddess who recklessly teeters between boisterous laughter and heaving sobs.

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Ann-Margret, 'Carnal Knowledge' (1971) -

Nominee: Best Supporting Actress

Often called the female version of Elvis Presley, Ann-Margret stifled her hip-shaking spirit to play a complex object of lust who collapses when she realizes what she truly is in the eyes of Jack Nicholson's character.  

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Will Smith, 'Ali' (2001) -

Nominee: Best Actor

Smith carefully showed audiences both the public hubris and private compassion of Muhammad Ali, closing the space between his identities as both celebrity and hero. 

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Diana Ross, 'Lady Sings the Blues' (1972) -

Nominee: Best Actress

Diana Ross gave everything to her role as Billie Holiday, embodying the singer with a mix of disheveled hair, tear-stained cheeks, and guttural screams. She humanized Holiday in a way that had yet to be achieved. 

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Cher, 'Moonstruck' (1987) -

Winner: Best Actress

Though Cher had already proven herself a nimble actor in both comedy and drama, she proved to be the emotional center of this film, becoming for the first time a fully rounded character. She also delivered the most memorable slap in cinematic history!

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Frank Sinatra, 'From Here to Eternity' (1953) -

Winner: Best Supporting Actor

Sinatra's supporting character got all the best lines in this film, set during the lead-up to Pearl Harbor. Through his harrowing obstacles and tragic death in his friend's arms, Sinatra's debonair demeanor is completely absent and he is hardly recognizable as himself. 

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Barbra Streisand, 'Funny Girl' (1968) -

Winner: Best Actress

As a real New Yorker who endured the ups and downs of show business armed with her talent and will, this role was perfect for Streisand. It both showcased her dry humor and her naturalistic expressions of heartbreak.

See also: Iconic pictures from Oscars Past

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