And the Oscar doesn't go to...

Leonardo DiCaprio

Nominations Best Supporting Actor for What's Eating Gilbert Grape in 1993 (Tommy Lee Jones won for The Fugitive); Best Actor for The Aviator in 2004 (Jamie Foxx won for Ray); Best Actor for Blood Diamond in 2006 (Forest Whitaker won for The Last King Of Scotland).

The lowdown He's known for taking on difficult roles, and acing them. At the age of 19 his role as the disabled Arnie Grape in What's Eating Gilbert Grape was one of the most compelling performances we've ever seen, and he hasn't petered out since. And don't even get us started on This Boy's Life, The Departed and Revolutionary Road.

Johnny Depp

Nominations Best Actor for Pirates Of The Caribbean in 2003 (Sean Penn won for Mystic River)

The lowdown Ricky Gervais calls him "the man who will literally wear anything Tim Burton tells him to", we call him one of the best character actors of our generation: Edward Scissorhands, Pirates Of The Caribbean, Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas, Sweeney Todd, Alice In Wonderland - need we go on? 

Glenn Close

Nominations Best Supporting Actress for The World According To Garp in 1983 (Jessica Lange won for Tootsie); Best Supporting Actress for The Big Chill in 1984 (Linda Hunt won for The Year Of Living Dangerously); Best Actress for Fatal Attraction in 1988 (Cher won for Moonstruck); Best Actress for Dangerous Liaisons in 1989 (Jodie Foster won for The Accused).

The lowdown Known for playing femme fatales with great complexity, she's the hard-edged Meryl Streep. Close's role as a woman posing as a man to get work as a butler in 19th century Dublin in new film Albert Nobbs is said to be her best yet. 

Robert Downey Jr

Nominations Best Actor for Chaplin in 1992 (Al Pacino won for Scent Of A Woman); Best Supporting Actor for Tropic Thunder in 2008, (Heath Ledger won for The Dark Knight).

The lowdown This man has made some bad decisions, but after his ‘blackout years' of 1995-2000 he's come back big time. As Guy Ritchie's manic Sherlock Holmes, he's so captivating you hardly notice anything else on screen, and this kinetic energy is what makes 2005's Kiss Kiss Bang Bang one you should watch.

Julianne Moore

Nominations Best Supporting Actress for Boogie Nights in 1997 (Kim Basinger won for LA Confidential); Best Actress for The End Of The Affair in 1999 (Hilary Swank won for Boys Don't Cry); Best Supporting Actress for The Hours in 2002 (Catherine Zeta-Jones won for Chicago); Best Actress for Far From Heaven in 2002 (Nicole Kidman won for The Hours).

The lowdown No actress of our generation is as adept at playing a woman who's holding her life together by threads - Julianne Moore is great in every role she plays (we really loved her in Crazy, Stupid Love), but she's at her most spectacular in Far From Heaven -a simmering turn as a reserved and repressed 50s housewife who slowly comes out of her shell, but never in an overdramatic or fake way. 

Honourable ‘never won' mentions

John Malkovich, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Edward Norton, Mia Farrow, Bill Murray, Steve Buscemi, William H Macy, Sigourney Weaver