As the 96th Academy Awards approach, here’s a look back at the most decorated actors, musicians and films of all time.
For most stars, the Oscars are the peak. They are entertainment’s Everest, the tippity-top, the be-all and the end-all.
Except, of course, they’re not. After all, if you’ve got one, why not push for another? Hollywood careers can last decades, and no one wants to be a one-and-done. LA’s a competitive place, and nothing gives a Burbank brushoff better than a hearty collection of little gold figurines in the downstairs loo.
So who’s got the best-stocked bog? At this weekend’s 96th Academy Awards, there will be a few returnees hoping to add to their haul (Scorsese, for instance, will be hoping for another Best Director gong to add to his one for The Departed). But they’ll have a way to go before they can touch the record of these Hollywood heavyweights. These, then, are the stars with the most Oscars.
As of 2024, 44 actors have won two or more Academy Awards. The only restriction on nominations, after all, is that actors can’t be nominated for the same performance. This rule was brought in after Barry Fitzgerald cleaned up for the 1944 comedy Going My Way, receiving nominations for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor.
When it comes to wins, though, out in front with clear blue water is Katharine Hepburn. She won four Best Actor Oscars over the course of her career, spanning her whole lifetime of roles, from ingénue in 1933′s Morning Glory to, nearly fifty years later, her sunnily winsome portrait of ageing in On Golden Pond (1981).
But following close behind her are a tight pack of performers with three Academy Awards each. These include Daniel Day-Lewis and Frances McDormand, who have both won three Best Actor Oscars, as well as Jack Nicholson and Ingrid Bergman, who have each got two Best Actors and one Best Supporting Actor awards. Yet the undisputed queen of the Oscars is Meryl Streep who, though she only has three awards (two for Best Actor, one for Best Supporting) has a mighty haul of 21 nominations: nine more than Hepburn.
For the general public, the Oscars are the best actor, best director and best film awards. (Sorry Gaffer No. 5: your rewards will come in another life.) It’s unsurprising, therefore, that many directors are as much household names as actors. What is unusual, though, is some of the best-known have so few awards – Scorsese only has the one gong to show from 10 nominations, while Steven Spielberg has three awards from nine nominations.
But, as with acting awards, longevity does have its benefits. Over the course of more than 140 films and many decades, John Ford won six Oscars. Four of these were for Best Director, and two for Best Film. At level pegging, Billy Wilder made versatility his charm, winning three of his six for 1960′s The Apartment, a hat-trick of Best Director, Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, a feat only replicated by Woody Allen’s Annie Hall (1977).
Right behind this pair are a couple of other stalwart stagers: Francis Ford Coppola has five Oscars (not hurt by the fact that the first two Godfather films took nine each) and Clint Eastwood has four. Eastwood got his for a brace of pictures – in 1993 The Unforgiven won Best Picture and Best Director, and in 2005 he repeated the achievement with Million Dollar Baby.
If nominations are the sign of an enduring talent, then the screenwriting awards (Best Adapted/Best Original) are an excellent bellwether. Five people have won three screenwriting Oscars: Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett, Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen and Paddy Chayefsky. Of those, perhaps Brackett and Chayefsky will be less familiar to modern audiences. Brackett was a regular Wilder collaborator (always a decent Oscars meal ticket), including on his triumphant Lost Weekend.
Chayefsky, meanwhile, made his name as a novelist and dramatist; his screenplay for the 1976 film Network was acclaimed as one of the greatest of the 20th century. He was also the only person to have won three solo Academy Awards for best original and adapted screenplays.
Yet, going solely by nominations, Woody Allen is the king of the writing jungle. He has a full 16 nominations, from Annie Hall in 1977 to 2013′s Blue Jasmine.
Going purely by nominations, if you fancy an Oscar, then become a composer. Perhaps because you can work across multiple films in a year (always trickier if you’re an in-demand actor or director), but also because the work of scoring a film can be done in weeks, rather than the months or years it can take to pull together a film.
No one proved this more than Alfred Newman. A landmark of 20th-century film, he scored more than 200 pictures, winning nine Oscars in total. In fact, Newman headed a film-scoring dynasty: his brother, Lionel, also won an Oscar, while his son, Thomas, has been nominated for 15 Oscars and his nephew Randy has won two.
Alan Menken, who brought the world the inestimable scores for Disney classics Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Pocahontas, received eight Oscars. But it’s John Williams who is the most decorated living composer – he has five Oscars from more than 50 nominations.
Best known for Cleopatra (of Richard Burton and Liz Taylor pyrotechnics fame), Leon Shamray is the most garlanded cinematographer in Oscars history. He ties most nominations with Charles Lang, and most wins with Joseph Ruttenberg. But no one yet rivals his haul of 18 nominations and four wins.
The most decorated living cinematographer is Roger Deakins. He may be the most nominated living lensman with 15 nods, creating indelible imagery for films including True Grit, Sicario and Prisoners. But he only got his first win in 2017′s Blade Runner 2049, following it up two years later with Sam Mendes’s 1917. Good things, it seems, come to those who wait.
Dolly Parton will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her charity work.