During the first lines ofAnnie Hall , Alvy Singer explains his conk out family relationship with women through an old joke he impute to Groucho Marx and Freud : " I would never need to go to any club that would have someone like me for a member . " When the movie took home four Academy Award the following year , Woody Allen was nowhere in view on the stump . Although he has more nominations than any writer in story ( fourteen — or twenty - three when you let in best conductor and worker nods ) , not once has Allen advert the ceremony when he ’s up for an award . Is it the erstwhile joke about not wanting to be a phallus of any club that would have him ?

If so , he ’s not the only one . Every year we hear a passel about who got snubbed by the Academy for a nominating address , but what about the reverse ? Since the thirties , some of Hollywood ’s hopeful stars did n’t nettle to R.S.V.P. when the Academy came calling . Here ’s a list of nominee and winners who snubbed the Oscars .

1. Dudley Nichols

Nichols was a spectacular screenwriter rootage in the 1930s . In a career that spanned over 35 age , his credit include film likeBringing Up Baby , For Whom the Bell Tolls , and the movie that made John Wayne a star : Stagecoach . He get ahead an Oscar forThe Informer(1935 ) , a playscript he conform from a leger about the Irish War of Independence . He became the first winner to decline the award , citing an on-going writer ’s smasher . Perhaps as a wages for his trueness , he was elect chairman of the writer ’s guild a few years later .

2. Katharine Hepburn

Hollywood ’s peachy leading noblewoman was appoint for twelve Oscars and win four for lead purpose – a phonograph record . She never attended the ceremony when she was nominated , although she proudly displayed her statues for visitors at her abode in Connecticut . She cave in her tradition of non - attendance in 1974 to present manufacturer Lawrence Weingarten a Thalberg Award , where she had this to say : “ I ’m very happy that I did n’t discover anyone call out ‘ it ’s about time . ’ I am living test copy that a soul can look forty - one years to be unselfish . ” Watch the videohere .

3. George C. Scott

Is it potential to resist even a nominating speech for an Oscar ? Scott , most commemorate for his roles as Patton and the looney General Turgidson inDr . Strangelove , did just that when he was first nominated forThe Hustler . He did n’t win that prison term , but he did forPattonin 1970 . Scott literally wire the Academy his intention to pass up the honour before the ceremonial , so when presenter Goldie Hawn rend get to the gasbag and cried , “ Oh my God ! The achiever is George C. Scott , ” no one was surprised to learn he was home at his farm in New York . The former Marine did n’t mince word about the Oscars : " The ceremonies are a two - hour meat parade , a public display with artificial suspense for economic reasons . " ascertain the picture show ’s producer accept the award for himhere .

4. Marlon Brando

A couple years after Scott cut the Oscars , Brando one - upped him by sending an Apache named Sacheen Littlefeather to resist the Oscar he win forThe Godfather . Littlefeather was booed and catcall when she announced she was ship to protest Hollywood ’s treatment of Native Americans . Clint Eastwood wonder aloud a few moments later whether he ought not be presenting the Best Picture awarding because of all the slain cowpoke in John Ford movies before him . It was later reported that Littlefeather was n’t a Native American at all , and that she was in fact a Mexican actress named Maria Cruz . She explains her ancestry onher website . Watch the telecasting of her speechhere .

5. Terrence Malick

author / director Malick has never won an Oscar , butThe Thin Red Linewas nominated for seven of them in 1999 . Despite an copiousness of possibility , Malick jump the observance , in part because he was in the middle of a falling out with several of the picture show ’s producers . In the end it was just as well – his World War II epic did n’t win any of the awards it was nominated for . This year , Malick is nominate for good music director forThe Tree of Life .

6. Woody Allen

Although he ’s never demonstrate up on the night of his own nominations , Allen has made one coming into court on the Oscar stage . In 2002 , less than six calendar month after the September 11th attacks , Allen appeared to introduce a collage of films that had been made in New York , telling the audience that the Big Apple was still a wonderful spot to make movies . Watch his entertaining and sincere fend - up modus operandi :

About the awards themselves , Allen had this to say : " I have no regard for that kind of ceremonial occasion . I just do n’t recollect they have sex what they ’re doing . When you see who bring home the bacon those thing – or who does n’t win them – you may see how nonmeaningful this Oscar affair is . "

7. Jean-Luc Godard

In late 2010 the Academy announce they would award the titan of French New Wave an honorary Oscar . They quickly find he was not an easy man to get in touch with . Despite attempts to contact him via “ phone , by fax , by emails to various Friend and associates , ” and “ FedEx , ” they never get a reply from Godard , who was just shy of eighty year old then . According to some sources , Godard does n’t just have a contentious history with Hollywood – he also nullify flee because he ca n’t smoke on planes . Adding to the controversy was the suggestion in some fourth that Godard did n’t deserve the laurels because of comprehend anti - Semitism . Although Godard never ease up a reason for his non - attendance , his farseeing - time mate had this to say : “ Jean - Luc wo n’t go to America , he ’s set out old for that kind of thing . Would you go all that way just for a bit of metal ? ”

8. Banksy

The anonymous British street artist was put up last year for good documentary feature withExit Through the Gift Shop , his tongue - in - cheek speculation on the economic value of prowess in society . Banksy match to pay heed the ceremony , but only if he was allowed to do so without revealing his identity . When the Academy refused to fit his request he did n’t show . A few days before Oscar night , the above Mr. Brainwash mural popped up in L.A. , which seemed to indicate an equivalency between Hollywood and the Galactic Empire . Unfortunately for the history of Oscar controversies , the golden statue decease toInside Jobinstead .

Marlon Brandon in ‘The Godfather’ (1972).