With the 2023 Oscar Awards ceremony in view, it pays to take a careful look back at the most successful names in Oscar history. After the gala kicks off in the early hours between Sunday, March 12 and Monday, March 13, for the 94th edition, the winners will lift the most trophies of the night.
Among the ranks of Academy Award recipients, one figure stands out: Katharine Hepburn. The American icon remains the only performer to have earned four acting Oscars, a record she secured through performances that spanned decades. Her wins include Best Actress for Glory for a Day in 1933, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner in 1967, The Lion in Winter in 1968, and On Golden Pond in 1981.
Close behind her is a small circle of performers who each accumulated three statuettes. Meryl Streep achieved three acting honors, including Best Actress twice and Best Supporting Actress once. Ingrid Bergman also earned three of the top acting prizes across her career. Frances McDormand later joined this trio with three lead-acting wins. Other two-time or three-time legends on the list include Daniel Day-Lewis, Jack Nicholson, and Walter Brennan. Brennan’s career spans multiple decades, with notable wins in the mid-1930s and as a supporting actor in 1940.
On the nomination front, the record for most nominations belongs to Spencer Tracy and Laurence Olivier, each standing out in different eras with multiple nominations. Following them are Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson, and Peter O’Toole, the latter famous for enduring Oscar nomination count without ever taking home the statue.
The youngest Oscar winner in acting was Tatum O’Neal, who secured Best Supporting Actress in 1973 for Paper Moon at the age of 10. Anthony Hopkins later became the oldest Best Actor winner in 2021 for The Father, receiving the award at age 83. In the broader Oscar landscape, Walt Disney holds the distinction of being the most awarded individual in Oscar history, a record that spans both competitive categories and honorary recognitions for his lifetime of work in animation and film.