Daniel Day-Lewis has won the most Academy Awards for best actor (three), and a number of actors have received two such Oscars, including Spencer Tracy and Tom Hanks, both of whom won in consecutive years. Below is a list of the winning actors and the films for which they won. The year is when the award was presented.
Katharine Hepburn has won the most acting Academy Awards
The late Katharine Hepburn won four best actress Academy Awards and was nominated 12 times. The four films that solidified her legacy are "Morning Glory" (1933), "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (1967), "The Lion in Winter" (1968) and "On Golden Pond" (1981).
Daniel Day-Lewis became the first and currently only man to win three best actor Oscars, while Frances McDormand became only the second woman and third of her counterparts overall to achieve the same. Finally, Walter Brennan won his three supporting actor Oscars every other year between 1937 and 1941.
In second place are nine actors tied with two 'Best Actor' Oscars: Spencer Tracy (1937 - 1938), Fredric March (1932 - 1946), Gary Cooper (1941 - 1952), Marlon Brando (1954 - 1972), Dustin Hoffman (1979 - 1988), Tom Hanks (1993 - 1994), Jack Nicholson (1975 - 1997), Sean Penn (2003 - 2008) and Anthony Hopkins (1992 - ...
With 53 total nods, Williams has more Academy Award nominations than any other living person, and is second only to Walt Disney, who had 59. And if he gets another statuette on Sunday, which would be his sixth, he will become the oldest person ever to triumph in any competitive category.
The person who has triumphed more times at the Oscars than anyone else in history is Walt Disney. America's most iconic filmmaker racked up a whopping 26 Oscars, four of which were honorary awards, and he also holds the record for the most nominations on record – 59.
The individual with the most Academy Award nods is not an actor, but a behind-the-scenes talent. With 52 Academy Award nominations to his name, Star Wars composer John Williams is the most Oscar-nominated person alive.
Katharine Hepburn won four Academy Awards (all for Best Actress), more than any other actor or actress in the history of the award. As of 2021, 44 actors and actresses have received two or more Academy Awards in acting categories. Katharine Hepburn leads the way with four (all Best Actress).
Who is the youngest ever Oscars winner? There are, of course, multiple different types of award on offer at the Oscars, but the youngest person to win any of them at all is Tatum O'Neal. She won Best Supporting Actress at the 1974 Oscars at the age of 10.
No male actor has yet won four Academy Awards but three have achieved a hat-trick, with Jack Nicholson, Daniel Day-Lewis and the little-remembered Water Brennan, all in the three Oscars club.
Who was the first person to win an Oscar for Best Actor?
The recipients included: Emil Jannings, the inaugural first award recipient for Best Actor (The Way of All Flesh and The Last Command); Janet Gaynor for Best Actress (7th Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans); Frank Borzage for Best Director, Drama (7th Heaven); Lewis Milestone for Best Director, ...
The first was Spencer Tracy, who won consecutive Academy Awards in 1937 and 1938. Near the other end of the century, the incomparable Tom Hanks received Best Actor in both 1993 and 1994. These two actors, though decades apart, gave outstanding and memorable performances that earned them pedestals in cinema history.
Meryl Streep is the most-nominated actor of all, with twenty-one nominations. Jack Nicholson has received the most Academy Award nominations for any male actor with twelve nominations. Both actors have had three wins which included two for lead roles and one for a supporting role.
To date, no film has won all four Academy Awards in the four acting categories (Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress). However, there have been fifteen films containing at least one nominated performance in each of the four Academy Award acting categories.
The statuettes are solid bronze and plated in 24-karat gold. Due to a metal shortage during World War II, Oscars® were made of painted plaster for three years. Following the war, the Academy invited recipients to redeem the plaster figures for gold-plated metal ones.
How old was Jennifer Lawrence when she won the Oscar?
At the age of 22 she won the Academy Award for best actress for her performance in Silver Linings Playbook (2012). Lawrence knew from an early age that she wanted to act, and she began performing in school plays and local theatre in Louisville, Kentucky.
As of October 2022, three films tied for most Academy Award wins of all time. "Ben-Hur" (1959), "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (2003), and "Titanic" (1997) each received 11 Oscars.
Acting wise, Katharine Hepburn still holds the record title of the most wins for a female actor in Oscar history (4 Oscars and a total of 12 nominations), with Ingrid Bergman, Elizabeth Taylor, Frances McDormand and Meryl Streep all not far behind with 3 Oscars to their names.
And there is one well-known actor who, at this point, still holds the record for the most Emmys won by a performer. And that person is the late, great Ed Asner.
While Peter O'Toole was nominated for eight Oscars throughout his acting career, he didn't win any except for the honorary award he was given for his accomplishments. Glenn Close tied O'Toole for this feat in 2021.
To date, just three people have rejected an Oscar out of well over 2,000 winners (though one of them eventually accepted it a few years later). The first person to reject an Oscar was screenwriter Dudley Nichols, who won for Best Screenplay for the 1935 film, 'The Informer'.
In 2021, Anthony Hopkins took home his second statuette, for his role in The Father. The year before, Renée Zellweger took home her second Oscar after playing Judy Garland in Judy. In 2020, Mahershala Ali picked up his second Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Best Picture winner Green Book.
The three movies to hold the Guinness World Record of winning 11 Oscars — the highest by a film — are The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Titanic and Ben-Hur. On the other hand, Titanic is one of the three films which has received the most number of nominations at 14.
