Podcast: Oscar's biggest loser is a good sport

If Kevin O'Connell receives an Oscar nomination for sound mixing "The Pursuit of Happyness" or "The Da Vinci Code," he might actually enjoy being known as the Susan Lucci of the Oscars.

Lucci finally nabbed her elusive Emmy Award upon her 19th nomination. At this point O'Connell is Oscar's biggest loser with 18 defeats, so he's hopeful that his fate at a parallel showbiz award might go according to a script similar to Lucci's.

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O'Connell's losses span diverse films, including a best picture winner ("Terms of Endearment"), a best-pic loser ("A Few Good Men") and one of those artsy epics that sometimes prevail in the craft races ("Memoirs of a Geisha"). Mostly he's been nominated for just the kind of popcorn pleasers that often win ("Spider-Man," "Spider-Man 2," "Black Rain," "Dune," "Silverado," "The Rock," "Con Air," "Crimson Tide," "Mask of Zorro," "The Patriot"). In fact, in terms of big commercial films, the loudest ones usually win the sound awards, so it's especially cruel that he lost for "Twister," "Top Gun," "Armageddon" and "Days of Thunder."

"I hate that term 'loser,'" he says. "It's hard to call myself a loser when, every year 300 or 400 films are produced and only 5 of them get a phone call on that Oscar nomination morning and I've been lucky enough to get that call 18 times. I haven't won the award yet, but I've had a good run!"

O'Connell calls being nominated "one of the coolest feelings in the world. It's just fantastic and for the next 30 days or so you're walking on a cloud until that awards night."

What sound will this sound mixer utter if he ever gets to the podium?

"At this point, after all of this waiting, I think it would just be some tears and a thank you," he says. "As simple as that."

Unfortunately, what O'Connell can't count on is the same kind of groundswell of sympathy that finally brought serial loser Randy Newman an Oscar.

"Everybody on the planet knew about Randy's situation and they could do something about it because his name appears on the ballot," O'Connell adds. "Mine doesn't."

In the sound categories only film titles are cited on the ballot.

But even if he continues to lose, O'Connell looks at the bright side.

"I've got more sound nominations than anyone in history," he crows. "That's freaky to me. I’m a lucky guy!"