Two Best Picture winning films, Titanic (1997) and All About Eve (1950) both hold the record for the most nominations (14) earned by a single film. Five Best Picture films are tied for second place with 13 nominations (see below), and eight Best Picture films are tied for third place with 12 nominations (see below).

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), Titanic (1997), Ben-Hur (1959) are the three Best Picture winning films with the most Oscars wins (11). (The closest Best Picture winning runner-up for most Oscar wins was West Side Story (1961) with 10 Oscars (out of 11 nominations).)

Titanic's awards included two sound awards and no acting prizes, and its screenplay wasn't even nominated. On the other hand, Ben-Hur (1959) lost only its screenplay nomination, plus it racked up two acting awards - and there was only one sound category in 1959. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) won Best Adapted Screenplay, but had no acting nominations in its clean-sweep win.

Oscars®	Best Picture Winning Movie Titles	Year	Nominations
11	Ben-Hur	1959	12
11	Titanic	1997	14
11	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	2003	11
10	West Side Story	1961	11
9	Gigi	1958	9
9	The Last Emperor *	1987	9
9	The English Patient	1996	12
8	Gone With The Wind	1939	13
8	From Here to Eternity	1953	13
8	On The Waterfront	1954	12
8	My Fair Lady	1964	12
8	Gandhi #	1982	11
8	Amadeus	1984	11
7	Shakespeare in Love	1998	13
7	Dances with Wolves	1990	12
7	Schindler's List	1993	12
7	Out of Africa	1985	11
7	The Sting	1973	10
7	Patton	1970	10
7	Going My Way	1944	10
7	Lawrence of Arabia	1962	10
7	The Best Years of Our Lives	1946	8
7	The Bridge on the River Kwai	1957	8
6	All About Eve	1950	14
6	Forrest Gump	1994	13
6	Chicago	2002	13
6	Mrs. Miniver	1942	12
6	The Godfather, Part II	1974	11
6	An American in Paris	1951	8
6	A Man For All Seasons	1966	8
5	Gladiator	2000	12
5	Oliver!	1968	11
5	Terms of Endearment	1983	11
4	Million Dollar Baby	2004	7
3	The Godfather	1972	10
# the most successful British film to date
* the only Best Picture winner to have been produced outside of the US or UK, and the first MPAA-rated PG-13 film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture (not counting subsequent films that have since been re-rated)

Nominations	Movie Title	Year	Oscars®
14	All About Eve	1950	6
14	Titanic	1997	11
13	Gone With The Wind	1939	8
13	From Here to Eternity	1953	8
13	Mary Poppins *	1964	5
13	Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? *	1966	5
13	Forrest Gump	1994	6
13	Shakespeare in Love	1998	7
13	The Lord of the Rings *	2001	4
13	Chicago	2002	6
12	Mrs. Miniver	1942	6
12	The Song of Bernadette *	1943	4
12	Johnny Belinda *	1948	1
12	A Streetcar Named Desire *	1951	4
12	On The Waterfront	1954	8
12	Ben-Hur	1959	11
12	Becket *	1964	1
12	My Fair Lady	1964	8
12	Reds *	1981	3
12	Dances With Wolves	1990	7
12	Schindler's List	1993	7
12	The English Patient	1996	7
12	Gladiator	2000	5
11	Mr. Smith Goes to Washington *	1939	1
11	Rebecca	1940	1
11	Sergeant York *	1941	2
11	The Pride of the Yankees *	1942	1
11	Sunset Boulevard *	1950	3
11	Judgment at Nuremberg *	1961	2
11	West Side Story	1961	10
11	Oliver!	1968	5
11	The Godfather	1972	3
11	Chinatown *	1974	1
11	The Godfather, Part II	1974	6
11	Julia *	1977	3
11	The Turning Point *	1977	0
11	Gandhi	1982	8
11	Terms of Endearment	1983	5
11	Amadeus	1984	8
11	A Passage to India *	1984	2
11	The Color Purple *	1985	0
11	Out of Africa	1985	7
11	Saving Private Ryan *	1998	5
* did not win Best Picture

Best Picture Studios and Producers:

The studios with the most wins for Best Picture (up to the 2003 ceremony) include:

Studio	Best Picture Wins	Best Picture Nominations
Columbia	12	51
United Artists	12	51
Paramount	11	55
MGM	9	57
20th Century Fox	7	55
Warner Bros	6	62
Universal	6	26
Orion	4	6
Buena Vista		6
Dreamworks SKG	3	4
Tri-Star		4
Miramax	3	14
RKO Radio	2	19
Fox	1	7

The Winning-est and Most-Nominated Best Picture Producers:

The producers whose films (+) have won the most Best Picture Oscars include:

• Sam Spiegel (3): On The Waterfront (1954), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Lawrence of Arabia (1962) (3 awards within 8 years!)
• Saul Zaentz (3): One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975) (co-produced), Amadeus (1984), The English Patient (1996)
• Darryl F. Zanuck (3): How Green Was My Valley (1941), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), All About Eve (1950)
• Arthur Freed (2): An American in Paris (1951) and Gigi (1958)
• David O. Selznick (2): Gone With the Wind (1939) and Rebecca (1940)
  [Note: Selznick is the only one to produce Best Picture winners in consecutive years]
• Irving G. Thalberg (2): Grand Hotel (1932) and Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
• Robert Wise (2): West Side Story (1961) and The Sound of Music (1965)
• Branko Lustig (2): Schindler's List (1993) and Gladiator (2000)
• Clint Eastwood (2): Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004)
• Albert S. Ruddy (2): The Godfather (1972) and Million Dollar Baby (2004)

+ Prior to 1952, studios - not producers - were actually awarded the Best Picture Oscar!

The Big Five: Only three films have won the top five awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay):

• It Happened One Night (1934)
• One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
• The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Non-Hollywood Best Pictures:

The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) was the first non-US made film to both earn a Best Picture nomination, and win an Oscar of any sort (Best Actor for Charles Laughton, in this case). The first non-Hollywood (foreign-made) film to win Best Picture was Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948).

At the 1928/29 Academy awards (held in 1930), no film won more than one statuette (there were seven films honored in seven categories) - something that hasn't been duplicated since.

Best Picture Trivia:

Clean Sweeps: Only two Best Picture winners have won every award for which they were nominated (both were nine for nine, though neither of them was nominated for acting awards):

• Gigi (1958)
• The Last Emperor (1987)

Shut Outs: Two films hold the dubious distinction of being nominated eleven times without a single Oscar win (The record was previously held by The Little Foxes (1941) with nine nominations and no wins):

• The Turning Point (1977)
• The Color Purple (1985)

Only a few actors have starred in the Oscar-winning Best Picture for two years in a row:

• Clark Gable in It Happened One Night (1934) and Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) (Gable also starred in a third Best Picture a few years later, Gone With The Wind (1939))
• Walter Pidgeon in How Green Was My Valley (1941) and Mrs. Miniver (1942)
• Meryl Streep in The Deer Hunter (1978) and Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
• John Gielgud in Chariots of Fire (1981) and Gandhi (1982)
• Russell Crowe in Gladiator (2000) and A Beautiful Mind (2001)
• Note that Talia Shire is the only actor to have starred in three consecutive even-year Best Picture winners: The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part II (1974), and Rocky (1976)

Best Pictures that Failed to Win Any Other Awards: All MGM productions

• Broadway Melody (1928/29)
• Grand Hotel (1931/32)
• Mutiny On the Bounty (1935)

And Grand Hotel (1931/2) is the only Best Picture winner to receive only one nomination.

There are nine films that have won Best Picture without receiving a single acting nomination:

• Wings (1927/8)
• All Quiet on the Western Front (1929/30)
• Grand Hotel (1931/2)
• An American in Paris (1951)
• The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
• Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)
• Gigi (1958)
• The Last Emperor (1987)
• Braveheart (1995)

Conversely, Best Picture-nominated films that have won the most Oscar awards without winning Best Picture include:

• the record-holder Cabaret (1973) with eight awards
• A Place in the Sun (1951) with six awards
• Star Wars (1977) with six awards

The film that won the most Oscars (5) without even being nominated for Best Picture is The Bad and the Beautiful (1952).

The film that has the most Oscar nominations (9) without being nominated for Best Picture is They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969).

Color and Black and White Best Pictures:

Gone With the Wind (1939) was the first film in color that won the Best Picture Oscar. The next four Best Picture color films were: An American in Paris (1951), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), Around the World in 80 Days (1956), and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). Schindler's List (1993) was the first black-and-white film to win the top award since the all B&W The Apartment (1960). Only one Best Picture-winning film was originally a TV comedy drama: the black and white Marty (1955). [It also is the only winner of the Academy's top prize and the Cannes Film Fest's Palme d'Or.]

The first film to be released on video before winning Best Picture was The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

Foreign-Language Best Pictures Nominees:

The first non-English film to be nominated for Best Picture was Grand Illusion (1938). The only foreign-language films nominated for Best Picture include:

• Grand Illusion (1938, France)
• Z (1969, Algeria)
• The Emigrants (1972, Sweden)
• Cries and Whispers (1973, Sweden)
• The Postman (Il Postino) (1995, Italy)
• Life is Beautiful (1998, Italy)
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000, Taiwan)

Z (1969), Life is Beautiful (1998) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) have been nominated for the simultaneous, double honors of Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film in the same year, all winning the latter. While The Emigrants (1972) had received a Best Foreign Language Film nomination the previous year - without winning.

The Italian film The Battle of Algiers (1966) was the only film that earned nominations in two non-consecutive years:

• Best Foreign Language Film nominee in 1966
• Best Adapted Screenplay nominee in 1968

Foreign-language films with the most Oscar nominations include:

• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) - 10 nominations, 4 wins
• Life is Beautiful (1998) - 7 nominations, 3 wins
• Fanny and Alexander (1983) - 6 nominations, 4 wins
• Das Boot (1982) - 6 nominations, 0 wins

Best Picture Genre Biases:

There are obvious biases in the selection of Best Picture winners by the Academy. Serious dramas or social-problem films with weighty themes, bio-pictures (inspired by real-life individuals or events), or films with literary pretensions are much more likely to be nominated than "popcorn" movies. Action-adventures, suspense-thrillers, Westerns, and comedies are mostly overlooked (although there are exceptions), as are independent productions. See analysis of Best Picture Genre Biases here.

X-Rated, Animated, and Sequel 'Best Pictures':

• The only X-rated film (later reduced to R) to win Best Picture was Midnight Cowboy (1969)
• Before 2001, the only animated film nominated for Best Picture was Disney's Beauty and the Beast (1992)
• The Godfather Part II (1974) - the first and only sequel to win Best Picture; the first sequel to be nominated for Best Picture was The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), the sequel to the previous year's Going My Way (1944)
• The first remake to win Best Picture was Mutiny On the Bounty (1935) (it was a remake of In the Wake of the Bounty (1933) starring Errol Flynn as Fletcher Christian).

Longest and Shortest:

• Gone With The Wind (1939) is the longest Best Picture winner at 222 minutes (3 hours, 42 minutes). [Other longest Best Picture winners are, in order, Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Ben-Hur (1959), and The Godfather Part II (1974), all over three and a half hours long).]
• Marty (1955) is the shortest Best Picture winner at 91 minutes (1 hour, 31 minutes), followed by Annie Hall (1977) at 93 minutes. The shortest Best Picture nominee is Mae West's She Done Him Wrong (1933) at 66 minutes.

Best Picture Winning-est Director:

William Wyler holds the record for directing more Best Picture nominees (13) and more Best Picture winners (3) than anyone else. The nominated and winning (marked with *) films were:

• Dodsworth (1936)
• Dead End (1937)
• Jezebel (1938)
• Wuthering Heights (1939)
• The Letter (1940)
• The Little Foxes (1941)
• Mrs. Miniver (1942)*
• The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)*
• The Heiress (1949)
• Roman Holiday (1953)
• Friendly Persuasion (1956)
• Ben-Hur (1959)*
• Funny Girl (1968)

Best Picture Winners Without a Nomination for Best Director:

• Wings (1927/8)
• Grand Hotel (1931/2)
• Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

Best Picture Studios and Producers:

The studios with the most wins for Best Picture include:

• Columbia (12)
• United Artists (12)
• Paramount (11)
• MGM (9)
• 20th Century Fox (7)
• Warner Bros (6)
• Universal (5)
• Orion (4)
• Dreamworks (3)
• Miramax (3)
• RKO Radio (2)

The Winning-est and Most-Nominated Best Picture Producers:

The producers who have won the most Best Picture Oscars include:

• Sam Spiegel (3): On The Waterfront, The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Lawrence of Arabia
• Saul Zaentz (3): One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Amadeus (1984), The English Patient (1996)
• Darryl F. Zanuck (3): How Green Was My Valley (1941), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), All About Eve (1950)
• Arthur Freed (2): An American in Paris (1951) and Gigi (1958)
• David O. Selznick (2): Gone With the Wind (1939) and Rebecca (1940)
• Irving G. Thalberg (2): Grand Hotel (1932) and Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
• Robert Wise (2): West Side Story (1961) and The Sound of Music (1965)
• Branko Lustig (2): Schindler's List (1993) and Gladiator (2000)

The producers who have received the most nominations for Best Picture include:

• Hal Wallis (19) - with only one win, Casablanca (1942)
• Darryl F. Zanuck (14): with 3 wins (see above)
• Henry Blanke (9): with only one win, The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
• Samuel Goldwyn (8): with only one win, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
• David O. Selznick (8): with only two wins (see above)
• Irving G. Thalberg (8): with only two wins (see above)

The first female Best Picture nominee and winner of a Best Picture Oscar was producer Julia Phillips for The Sting (1973).

Acting Nominations	Movie Title	Year	Acting Oscars®
5	Mrs. Miniver	1942	2
5	All About Eve	1950	1
5	From Here to Eternity	1953	2
5	On the Waterfront	1954	2
5	Peyton Place *	1957	0
5	Tom Jones	1963	0
5	Bonnie and Clyde *	1967	1
5	The Godfather, Part II	1974	1
5	Network *	1976	3
4	A Streetcar Named Desire *	1951	3
4	Chicago	2002	1
* did not win Best Picture

Most Actor-Actress Nominations
(includes both Leading and Supporting Categories)

(Oscar® Wins are Designated by CAPITAL Letters
S = Supporting Category)

MERYL STREEP 13 Nominations, 2 OSCARS®

The Deer Hunter (1978) S KRAMER VS. KRAMER (1979) S The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981) SOPHIE'S CHOICE (1982) Silkwood (1983) Out of Africa (1985) Ironweed (1987) A Cry in the Dark (1988) Postcards From the Edge (1990) The Bridges of Madison County (1995) One True Thing (1998) Music of the Heart (1999) Adaptation (2002) S

 

 

KATHARINE HEPBURN 12 Nominations, 4 OSCARS®

MORNING GLORY (1932/33) Alice Adams (1935) The Philadelphia Story (1940) Woman of the Year (1942) The African Queen (1951) Summertime (1955) The Rainmaker (1956) Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962) GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER? (1967) THE LION IN WINTER (1968) ON GOLDEN POND (1981)

JACK NICHOLSON 12 Nominations, 3 OSCARS

Easy Rider (1969) S Five Easy Pieces (1970) The Last Detail (1973) Chinatown (1974) ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (1975) Reds (1981) S TERMS OF ENDEARMENT (1983) S Prizzi's Honor (1985) Ironweed (1987) A Few Good Men (1992) S AS GOOD AS IT GETS (1997) About Schmidt (2002)

BETTE DAVIS 11/10 Nominations, 2 OSCARS®

Of Human Bondage (1934) (unofficial write-in nominee) DANGEROUS (1935) JEZEBEL (1938) Dark Victory (1939) The Letter (1940) The Little Foxes (1941) Now, Voyager (1942) Mr. Skeffington (1944) All About Eve (1950) The Star (1952) What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

SPENCER TRACY 9 Nominations, 2 OSCARS®

San Francisco (1936) CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS (1937) BOYS TOWN (1938) Father of the Bride (1950) Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) The Old Man and the Sea (1958) Inherit the Wind (1960) Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (1967)

TOM HANKS 5 Nominations, 2 OSCARS®

Big (1988) PHILADELPHIA (1993) FORREST GUMP (1994) Saving Private Ryan (1998) Cast Away (2000)

LAURENCE OLIVIER 10 Nominations, 1 OSCAR®

Wuthering Heights (1939) Rebecca (1940) Henry V (1946) HAMLET (1948) Richard III (1956) The Entertainer (1960) Othello (1965) Sleuth (1972) Marathon Man (1976) S The Boys From Brazil (1978)

PAUL NEWMAN 9 Nominations, 1 OSCAR®

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) The Hustler (1961) Hud (1963) Cool Hand Luke (1967) Absence of Malice (1981) The Verdict (1982) THE COLOR OF MONEY (1986) Nobody's Fool (1994) Road to Perdition (2002)

MARLON BRANDO 8 Nominations, 2 OSCARS®

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) Viva Zapata! (1952) Julius Caesar (1953) ON THE WATERFRONT (1954) Sayonara (1957) THE GODFATHER (1972) Last Tango in Paris (1973) A Dry White Season (1989) S

JACK LEMMON 8 Nominations, 2 OSCARS®

MISTER ROBERTS (1955) S Some Like It Hot (1959) The Apartment (1960) Days of Wine and Roses (1962) SAVE THE TIGER (1973) The China Syndrome (1979) Tribute (1980) Missing (1982)

AL PACINO 8 Nominations, 1 OSCAR®

The Godfather (1972) S Serpico (1973) The Godfather, Part II (1974) Dog Day Afternoon (1975) And Justice For All (1979) Dick Tracy (1990) S Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) S SCENT OF A WOMAN (1992)

GERALDINE PAGE 8 Nominations, 1 OSCAR®

Hondo (1953) S Summer and Smoke (1961) Sweet Bird of Youth (1962) You're A Big Boy Now (1966) S Pete 'n' Tillie (1972) S Interiors (1978) The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984) S THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL (1985)

The Best Actor Academy Award

Best Actor: The Best Actor award should actually be titled "the best performance by an actor in a leading role." The same rules that govern the Best Actor category apply to the Best Actress category. (See the complete list of all Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor winners here) Winning Trends: Biographies of remarkable, real-life individuals (military figures or soldiers, law-and-order enforcers, historical figures) and portrayals of the mentally ill are heavily represented among male Oscar winners, particularly in the acting awards. It helps an actor's chances of winning an Oscar if the character dies a tragic death during the movie, or is slightly eccentric (or genius). An overwhelming number of actors have won the top acting (and supporting) awards for portraying characters with physical or mental disabilities or diseases: Fredric March won the Best Actor Oscar for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931/32) Harold Russell won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) Cliff Robertson won the Best Actor Oscar for Charly (1968) John Mills won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Ryan's Daughter (1970) Jack Nicholson won the Best Actor Oscar for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) Jon Voight won the Best Actor Oscar for Coming Home (1978) Timothy Hutton won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Ordinary People (1980) Dustin Hoffman won the Best Actor Oscar for Rain Man (1988) Daniel Day-Lewis won the Best Actor Oscar for My Left Foot (1989) Anthony Hopkins won the Best Actor Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Al Pacino won the Best Actor Oscar for Scent of a Woman (1992) Tom Hanks won the Best Actor Oscar for Philadelphia (1993) and for Forrest Gump (1994) Geoffrey Rush won the Best Actor Oscar for Shine (1996) Jack Nicholson won the Best Actor Oscar for As Good As It Gets (1997) And a number of other actors have won awards for portraying alcoholic characters: Lionel Barrymore won the Best Actor Oscar for A Free Soul (1930/31) Van Heflin won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Johnny Eager (1942) Ray Milland won the Best Actor Oscar for The Lost Weekend (1945) Lee Marvin won the Best Actor Oscar for Cat Ballou (1965) Nicolas Cage won the Best Actor Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas (1995) James Coburn won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Affliction (1998) Oscar victories for Best Actor haven't always been for the stars' best work either, but have often been an effort to right past injustices, or for an entire body of work: 56 year-old Ronald Colman's late win as Best Actor for A Double Life (1947) - a tribute to his entire silent and sound film career 62 year-old John Wayne's belated win as Best Actor for True Grit (1969), when he should have been honored years earlier for Stagecoach (1939), Red River (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), The Quiet Man (1952), The Searchers (1956), or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) James Stewart's win for Best Actor (his first and sole award) for his role in The Philadelphia Story (1940) was because he had lost the previous year for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Jack Lemmon won his sole Best Actor award for Save the Tiger (1973), but he should have won instead when nominated for Some Like It Hot (1959), The Apartment (1960), or Days of Wine and Roses (1962) Paul Newman's sole Oscar win for reprising his "Hustler" role as pool player Eddie Felson in The Color of Money (1986) was a dubious honor - it really represented praise for his entire career's work, for his colorful non-conformist roles in The Hustler (1961), Hud (1963), and Cool Hand Luke (1967) A late-career win was also given to Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman (1992) for his role as a blind, suicidal ex-Army officer, after four Best Actor losses for Serpico (1973), The Godfather, Part II (1974), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), and And Justice For All (1979), and three other Best Supporting Actor losses Sean Connery won Best Supporting Actor for The Untouchables (1987), but he should have been nominated (and won) for earlier, more deserving performances in The Hill (1965), The Molly Maguires (1970), or The Man Who Would Be King (1975) John Gielgud won Best Supporting Actor for his performance as the butler in Arthur (1981), but he should have won instead for either Julius Caesar (1953), Richard III (1955) or Becket (1964) A seriously-ill, 76 year-old Henry Fonda won Best Actor for On Golden Pond (1981), despite the brilliant performance of Burt Lancaster in Atlantic City (1981). Fonda should have won years earlier for any number of performances, including The Grapes of Wrath (1940) or The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) Also, elderly nominees seem to fare better, such as 54 year-old Art Carney winning the Best Actor Oscar for Harry and Tonto (1974), 60 year-old Peter Finch's posthumous Best Actor award for Network (1976), 80 year-old George Burns winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for The Sunshine Boys (1975), Melvyn Douglas winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Being There (1979), and Don Ameche winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Cocoon (1985). Many other elderly actors have been nominated for supporting roles, including Eric von Stroheim for Sunset Boulevard (1950), Sessue Hayakawa for The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), John Mills for Ryan's Daughter (1970), Lee Strasberg for The Godfather, Part II (1974), Burgess Meredith for Rocky (1976), Robert Preston for Victor/Victoria (1982), Denholm Elliott for A Room With a View (1986), and Armin Mueller-Stahl for Shine (1996). The film with the most Best Actor nominations (3) was Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), for Clark Gable, Franchot Tone, and Charles Laughton. No male performer has yet won three Best Actor awards. Seven actors have won the Best Actor Oscar twice (among them are two actors who have received two consecutive Best Actor statuettes, Tracy and Hanks): Top Best Actor Oscar Winner/Nominee Best Actor Wins Spencer Tracy 9 career nominations (9 B.A. noms), 2 wins Captains Courageous (1937) Boys Town (1938) Other Top Best Actor Oscar Winners and Nominees Best Actor Wins Jack Nicholson 12 career nominations (8 B.A. noms), 3 wins (2 B.A.) One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975) As Good As It Gets (1997) Laurence Olivier 11 career nominations (9 B.A. noms), 1 Win Hamlet (1948) Marlon Brando 8 career nominations (7 B.A. noms), 2 wins On The Waterfront (1954) The Godfather (1972) Dustin Hoffman 7 career nominations (all B.A. noms), 2 wins Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) Rain Man (1988) Tom Hanks 5 career nominations (all B.A. noms), 2 wins Philadelphia (1993) Forrest Gump (1994) Fredric March 5 career nominations (all B.A. noms), 2 wins Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931/32) The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) Gary Cooper 5 career nominations (all B.A. noms), 2 wins Sergeant York (1941) High Noon (1952) The Only Best Actor Tie: In the Best Actor category, an unusual tie (the only occurrence among male acting performances) occurred in 1931/32 between Wallace Beery and Fredric March, for their respective performances in The Champ (1931/32) and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931/32). Posthumous Acting Nominations and Award(s): Jeanne Eagels - nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for The Letter (1928/29) posthumously James Dean - the only actor who was twice nominated for a Best Actor Oscar after his death, for East of Eden (1955), and Giant (1956) Spencer Tracy - nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) posthumously Peter Finch - was nominated for - and won the Best Actor Oscar for Network (1976) posthumously - Finch is the only performer to have won the Oscar after his death Ralph Richardson - nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) posthumously Italian actor Massimo Troisi - nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for The Postman (Il Postino) (1995) posthumously Geoffrey Rush became the first Australian actor to win Best Actor (for the role of the mad pianist in Shine (1996)) since Peter Finch won posthumously for Network (1976). Roberto Begnini was the first actor to win an Oscar for a foreign-language film, Life is Beautiful (1998). The Most Best Actor Nominations: Actors with the highest number of Best Actor nominations include: Spencer Tracy (9) - with two wins (1937, 1938) Laurence Olivier (9) - with one win (1948) Jack Nicholson (8) - with three wins (two B.A. wins in 1975, 1997) Paul Newman (8) - with one win (1986) Marlon Brando (7) - with two wins (1954, 1972) Dustin Hoffman (7) - with two wins (1979, 1988) Jack Lemmon (7) - with two wins (one B.A. win in 1973) Peter O'Toole (7) - with no wins Richard Burton (6) - with no wins Tom Hanks (5) - with two wins (1993, 1994) Fredric March (5) - with two wins (1931/32, 1946) Gary Cooper (5) - with two wins (1941, 1952) Robert DeNiro (5) - with two wins (one B.A. win in 1980) Paul Muni (5) - with one win (1936) Al Pacino (5) - with one win (1992) Gregory Peck (5) - with one win (1962) James Stewart (5) - with one win (1940) Denzel Washington (3) - highest for an African-American The most nominated actors (including both Best Actor and Best Supporting roles) are Jack Nicholson (12), Laurence Olivier (10), Spencer Tracy (9), and Paul Newman (9). In 1997, Jack Nicholson tied Walter Brennan for the most wins (3) for a male performer (Brennan has three Best Supporting Actor trophies, Nicholson has two for Best Actor and one for Best Supporting Actor). African-American Notables: There have only been twelve African-American nominations for Best Actor: Sidney Poitier, nominated for The Defiant Ones (1958) Sidney Poitier, nominated (and winning) for Lilies of the Field (1963) James Earl Jones, nominated for The Great White Hope (1970) Paul Winfield, nominated for Sounder (1972) Dexter Gordon, nominated for 'Round Midnight (1986) Morgan Freeman, nominated for Driving Miss Daisy (1989) Denzel Washington, nominated for Malcolm X (1992) Laurence Fishburne, nominated for What's Love Got to Do With It (1993) Morgan Freeman, nominated for The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Denzel Washington, nominated for The Hurricane (1999) Will Smith, nominated for Ali (2001) Denzel Washington, nominated (and winning) for Training Day (2001) Only three black performers have won the Oscar in the lead category (two Best Actor, one Best Actress). Only two African-American actors have won the Best Actor Oscar: Sidney Poitier for Lilies of the Field (1963) Denzel Washington for Training Day (2001) Denzel Washington is the only black actor to have won two competitive Oscars (as Best Supporting Actor for Glory (1989) and as Best Actor for Training Day (2001)). The first time that two African-American actors were nominated for Best Actor in the same year was in 2001: Will Smith for Ali (2001) Denzel Washington for Training Day (2001) Latino, Asian and Other Minority Performers: Puerto Rican-born Jose Ferrer was nominated twice for Best Actor: he won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in Cyrano De Bergerac (1950), and was nominated two years later for Moulin Rouge (1952). (He was also nominated as Best Supporting Actor for Joan of Arc (1948).) Mexican-born Anthony Quinn was nominated twice as Best Actor for Wild is the Wind (1957) and Zorba the Greek (1964). (Quinn won two Best Supporting Actor Oscars - for Viva Zapata! (1952) and Lust for Life (1956).) Mexican-American Edward James Olmos was nominated as Best Actor for Stand and Deliver (1988). Spanish Latino Javier Bardem was nominated as Best Actor for Before Night Falls (2000). There has only been one Mexican actress nominated as Best Actress, Salma Hayek for Frida (2002). No male Asian-Americans have been nominated for the lead acting Oscar. Multiple Nominations for the Same Character: Four actors have been nominated twice for playing the same character in two different films: Bing Crosby as Father O'Malley in Going My Way (1944) and The Bells of St. Mary's (1945) Paul Newman as Fast Eddie Felson in The Hustler (1961) and The Color of Money (1986) Peter O'Toole as King Henry II in Becket (1964) and The Lion in Winter (1968) Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather, Part II (1974) (Crosby won for his first role, and Newman and Pacino won for their second roles.) Double-Dipping: After 1929/30, an actor could not receive more than one nomination per category. In 1944, the rules permitted Barry Fitzgerald to be nominated for Best Actor (which he won) and Best Supporting Actor for the same performance - Father Fitzgibbon in Going My Way (1944). Subsequently, new rules have prevented this from re-occurring, although an actor may still be nominated in both categories for two different roles. One actor has been double-nominated in a single year: Al Pacino (Best Actor for Scent of a Woman (1992) (which he won) and Best Supporting Actor for Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)) The Most Oscar-Friendly Role: The character of Henry VIII has the most nominations (three) and is the most Oscar-friendly role: Charles Laughton as Henry VIII in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1932/33) - the only winner of the three Robert Shaw as Henry VIII in A Man for All Seasons (1966) Richard Burton as Henry VIII in Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) One Nomination for Multiple Roles: Peter Sellers is the only actor to be nominated (as Best Actor) for playing three roles in the same film, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) - as Captain Lionel Mandrake, President Merkin Muffley, and Dr. Strangelove. Entire Cast Nominations: Three films have had the entire speaking casts nominated for awards: Sleuth (1972), with Best Actor nominations for Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier Give 'Em Hell, Harry! (1975), with a Best Actor nomination for James Whitmore Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), with various nominations for all four cast members, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, and Sandy Dennis Actors Who Won An Oscar for a Dual Role: Fredric March, Best Actor winner for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931/32): Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Laurence Olivier, Best Actor winner for Hamlet (1948): Hamlet and the Voice of the Ghost (uncredited) Lee Marvin, Best Actor winner for Cat Ballou (1965): Tim Strawn and Kid Shelleen Films With the Most Oscars for Acting: A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) - 12 nominations total, 4 acting nominations, 3 acting wins: Vivien Leigh (Best Actress), Karl Malden (Best Supporting Actor), Kim Hunter (Best Supporting Actress) Network (1976) - 10 nominations total, 5 acting nominations, 3 acting wins: Peter Finch (Best Actor), Faye Dunaway (Best Actress), Beatrice Straight (Best Supporting Actress) Film Debut Winners: Only two actors have ever won the Best Actor Oscar for a feature film debut: Ben Kingsley for Gandhi (1982) Geoffrey Rush in Shine (1997) Reprising an Acclaimed Stage Role: Six Best Actor winners won the Oscar for an acclaimed stage role that they reprised on the screen: George Arliss for Disraeli (1929/30) Paul Lukas for Watch on the Rhine (1943) Jose Ferrer for Cyrano de Bergerac (1950) Yul Brynner for The King and I (1956) Rex Harrison for My Fair Lady (1964) Paul Scofield in A Man For All Seasons (1966) Oscar-Winning Roles First on TV: The only two Best Actor winners who first played their Oscar-winning roles on TV were: Maximilian Schell for Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) Cliff Robertson for Charly (1968) Longest Gap Between Acting Nomination and Acting Oscar Nomination/Win: Katharine Hepburn was first nominated and won Best Actress for Morning Glory (1932/33) and then 48 years later was nominated and won Best Actress for On Golden Pond (1981) (2nd place) Henry Fonda was first nominated as an actor (Best Actor) for The Grapes Of Wrath (1941), and didn't win an acting award (Best Actor) until 41 years later for On Golden Pond (1982) - and these were his only two career acting nominations (Note: Fonda did receive a producing Best Picture nomination for 12 Angry Men (1957)) (3rd place) Mickey Rooney was first nominated as Best Actor for Babes in Arms (1939) and then as Best Supporting Actor for The Black Stallion (1979), 40 years later, but he didn't win for either (4th place) Jack Palance was nominated as Best Supporting Actor for Sudden Fear (1952), but had to wait 39 years before his victory as Best Supporting Actor for City Slickers (1991). He was nominated one other time in his career, as Best Supporting Actor for Shane (1953) (5th place) Helen Hayes had to wait 38 years between her only Oscar nominations (both wins), Best Actress for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931/32), and Best Supporting Actress for Airport (1970) (6th place) Albert Finney was first nominated as Best Actor for Tom Jones (1963) and then 37 years later for Best Supporting Actor for Erin Brockovich (2000), and lost for both Shortest Best Actor Performance: Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal "Cannibal" Lecter in Silence of the Lambs (1991) - supposedly 16 minutes of screen time Married Winners and Nominees: Only three times have married couples (husband-wife) had acting Oscars: Laurence Olivier, Best Actor for Hamlet (1948), and Vivien Leigh, Best Actress for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) Paul Newman, Best Actor for The Color of Money (1986), and Joanne Woodward, Best Actress for The Three Faces of Eve (1957) - Newman also directed Woodward to her second Best Actress nomination for his Best Picture-nominated film Rachel, Rachel (1968) Catherine Zeta-Jones, Best Supporting Actress for Chicago (2002), and husband Michael Douglas, Best Actor for Wall Street (1987) There are others (girlfriend/boyfriend) who are close to achieving the same milestone: Amy Madigan, Best Supporting Actress for Twice in a Lifetime (1985), and Ed Harris, nominated four times (1995, 1998, 2000, 2002) Susan Sarandon, Best Actress for Dead Man Walking (1995) (directed by her Best Director-nominated husband (unofficial live-in) Tim Robbins); earlier, Sarandon was married to Chris Sarandon, nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Dog Day Afternoon (1975) Others: Jack Nicholson-Anjelica Huston, Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn, Al Pacino-Diane Keaton, and William Hurt-Marlee Matlin Five married couples have earned acting nominations in the same year (three times, a husband-and-wife team have been nominated for the same picture): Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, Best Actor and Best Actress for The Guardsman (1932) Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress for Witness for the Prosecution (1957) Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, Best Actor and Best Actress for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) Frank Sinatra, Best Supporting Actor for From Here to Eternity (1953), and Ava Gardner, Best Actress for Mogambo (1953) Rex Harrison, Best Actor for Cleopatra (1964), and Rachel Roberts, Best Actress for This Sporting Life (1964) Youngest and Oldest Best Actors: Youngest Best Actor Nominee Youngest Best Actor Winner Oldest Best Actor Nominee Oldest Best Actor Winner         9 (or 10) year-old Jackie Cooper for Skippy (1930/31) (Cooper's uncle, Norman Taurog, was the Best Director Oscar winner)   29 year-old Adrien Brody for The Pianist (2002) Runner-Up: 29 (or 30) year-old Richard Dreyfuss for The Goodbye Girl (1977) 78 (or 79) year-old Richard Farnsworth for The Straight Story (1999) Note: 63 year-old George Arliss was nominated - and won - for Disraeli (1929/30) 75 year-old Henry Fonda for On Golden Pond (1981) 92 year old producer Hal Roach was the oldest winner of all when he received a 1983 honorary statuette. Almost 84 year old Mary Pickford was the oldest performer to receive a statuette, a 1975 honorary award. (Runner-up was 83 year old Groucho Marx, when he received an honorary statuette in 1973)

The Best Supporting Actor
Academy Awards

Best Supporting Actor: The Best Supporting Actor award should actually be titled "the best performance by an actor in a supporting role." (See the complete list of all Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor winners here) In 1936, the acting awards were expanded to start recognizing supporting roles. Best Supporting Actor Oscars are traditionally given to actors who stand out in small roles. Throughout Academy history, most of the winners in this category usually have no previous Oscar wins. Within five years, Walter Brennan won three Best Supporting Actor awards. He was the first and - to date - is the only performer to win three supporting awards (and within the shortest period of time - five years! And his three wins were in the category's first five years). Five other actors have received two Best Supporting Actor awards (among them is one performer who has won a consecutive statuette, Robards): The Top Best Supporting Actor Oscar Winner Best Supporting Actor Oscar Wins Walter Brennan 4 career nominations (all B.S.A. noms), 3 wins Come and Get It (1936) Kentucky (1938) The Westerner (1940) Other Top Best Supporting Actor Oscar Winners Best Supporting Actor Oscar Wins Anthony Quinn 4 career nominations (2 B.S.A. noms), 2 wins Viva Zapata! (1952) Lust for Life (1956) Peter Ustinov 3 career nominations (all B.S.A. noms) 2 wins Spartacus (1960) Topkapi (1964) Melvyn Douglas 3 career nominations (2 B.S.A. noms), 2 wins Hud (1963) Being There (1979) Jason Robards 3 career nominations (all B.S.A. noms), 2 wins All the President's Men (1976) Julia (1977) Michael Caine 6 career nominations (2 B.S.A. noms), 2 wins Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) The Cider House Rules (1999) Actors Winning at Least One Statuette in Both the Lead and Supporting Categories: Six actors have won acting awards in both the lead and supporting categories: Jack Lemmon (1955, 1973) Jack Nicholson (1975, 1983, 1997) Gene Hackman (1971, 1992) Robert De Niro (1974, 1980) Kevin Spacey (1995, 1999) Denzel Washington (1989, 2001) Victor McLaglen was the first performer to be nominated for a Best Supporting Oscar (for The Quiet Man (1952)) after having already won the Lead Performance Oscar for The Informer (1935). The first performer to be nominated for a film debut was opera singer Lawrence Tibbett, nominated for Best Actor for The Rogue Song (1929/30) (featuring co-stars Laurel and Hardy). Multiple Nominations - Double Dipping: In a few instances, actors have been nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for different films in the same year. (There have been a total of nine performers who have received two acting nominations in the same year. See the Best Supporting Actress section for seven actresses who have duplicated the feat.) In 1944, Barry Fitzgerald received simultaneous nominations in lead and supporting categories - for the same role (something that the Academy would prevent in future years): Barry Fitzgerald (Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for Going My Way (1944)) Al Pacino (Best Actor for Scent of a Woman (1992) and Best Supporting Actor for Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)) No performer has ever won two performing awards in the same year. Double nominees usually win in one category. Pacino won as Best Actor, and Fitzgerald won as Best Supporting Actor. Multiple Wins for the Same Character: Harold Russell is the only actor ever to win two Oscars for the same role - he received the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of a double-amputee veteran returning from WWII in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), and an additional Special Honorary Oscar for the same performance "for bringing hope and courage to fellow veterans". Only once have two actors, Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro, won Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor Oscars playing the same character on the screen - Don Vito Corleone - in different films, in The Godfather (1972), and The Godfather, Part II (1974). The Most Best Supporting Actor Nominations: Actors with the most Best Supporting Actor nominations include: Walter Brennan (4) - with three wins (1936, 1938, 1940) Arthur Kennedy (4) Jack Nicholson (4) Claude Rains (4) Charles Bickford (3) Jeff Bridges (3) Charles Coburn (3) Robert Duvall (3) Gene Hackman (3) Martin Landau (3) Al Pacino (3) Jack Palance (3) Jason Robards (3) Peter Ustinov (3) Gig Young (3) Back-to-Back Winners: Five actors/actresses have won back-to-back (consecutive year) Oscars: Luise Rainer for The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and The Good Earth (1937) Spencer Tracy for Captain Courageous (1937) and Boys Town (1938) Katharine Hepburn Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) and The Lion in Winter (1968) Jason Robards for All the President's Men (1976) and Julia (1977) Tom Hanks for Philadelphia (1993) and Forrest Gump (1994) Actors/Actresses With the Most Consecutive Acting Nominations (in both Leading and Supporting categories): Five Nominations: Films Bette Davis (1938-1942) Jezebel (1938), Dark Victory (1939), The Letter (1940), The Little Foxes (1941), Now, Voyager (1942) Greer Garson (1941-1945) Blossoms in the Dust (1941), Mrs. Miniver (1942), Madame Curie (1943), Mrs. Parkington (1944), The Valley of Decision (1945) Four Nominations:   Jennifer Jones (1943-1946) The Song of Bernadette (1943), Since You Went Away (1944), Love Letters (1945), Duel in the Sun (1946) Thelma Ritter (1950-1953) All About Eve (1950), The Mating Season (1951), With a Song in My Heart (1952), Pickup on South Street (1953) Marlon Brando (1951-1954) A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Viva Zapata! (1952), Julius Caesar (1953), On the Waterfront (1954) Al Pacino (1972-1975) The Godfather (1972), Serpico (1973), The Godfather, Part II (1974), Dog Day Afternoon (1975) Elizabeth Taylor (1957-1960) Raintree County (1957), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), Butterfield 8 (1960) Three Nominations:   Spencer Tracy (1936-1938) San Francisco (1936), Captains Courageous (1937), Boys Town (1938) Gary Cooper (1941-1943) Sergeant York (1941), The Pride of the Yankees (1942), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) Ingrid Bergman (1943-1945) For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), Gaslight (1944), The Bells of St. Mary's (1945) Gregory Peck (1945-1947) The Keys of the Kingdom (1945), The Yearling (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947) Deborah Kerr (1956-1958) The King and I (1956), Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957), Separate Tables (1958) Richard Burton (1964-1966) Becket (1964), The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1965), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) Jack Nicholson (1973-1975) The Last Detail (1973), Chinatown (1974), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) Jane Fonda (1977-1979) Julia (1977), Coming Home (1978), The China Syndrome (1979) Meryl Streep (1981-1983) The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), Sophie's Choice (1982), Silkwood (1983) Glenn Close (1982-1984) The World According to Garp (1982), The Big Chill (1983), The Natural (1984) William Hurt (1985-1987) Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), Children of a Lesser God (1986), Broadcast News (1987) Russell Crowe (1999-2001) The Insider (1999), Gladiator (2000), A Beautiful Mind (2001) African-American Notables: Only two African-American actors have won the Best Actor Oscar: Sidney Poitier for Lilies of the Field (1963) Denzel Washington for Training Day (2001) With his win, Denzel Washington also became the first black actor to win two Academy Awards. With his Best Actor nomination for Training Day (2001), Denzel Washington became the most-nominated black actor with five nominations (in supporting and lead roles). There have only been eleven nominations for black performers as Best Supporting Actor: Rupert Crosse, nominated for The Reivers (1969) Howard E. Rollins, nominated for Ragtime (1981) Louis Gossett, Jr., nominated (and winning) for An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) Adolph Caesar, nominated for A Soldier's Story (1984) Denzel Washington, nominated for Cry Freedom (1987) Morgan Freeman, nominated for Street Smart (1989) Denzel Washington, nominated (and winning) for Glory (1989) Jaye Davidson, nominated for The Crying Game (1992) Samuel Jackson, nominated for Pulp Fiction (1994) Cuba Gooding, Jr., nominated (and winning) for Jerry Maguire (1996) Michael Clarke Duncan, nominated for The Green Mile (1999) Only five black performers have won the Oscar in the supporting category (three Best Supporting Actor, two Best Supporting Actress). Only three black actors have won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar: Louis Gossett, Jr. for An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) Denzel Washington for Glory (1989) Cuba Gooding, Jr. for Jerry Maguire (1996) For the first time in Academy history, three of the Best Actor and Best Actress nominees in 1972 were black performers - Paul Winfield and Cicely Tyson in Sounder (1972), and Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues (1972). And for the second time in Academy history - in 2001, three of the top acting nominations were also for black performers - Denzel Washington in Training Day (2001) and Will Smith in Ali (2001), and Halle Berry in Monster's Ball (2001). In 1985, three black performers were nominated in a combination of lead and supporting roles: Whoopi Goldberg as Best Actress for The Color Purple (1985), and Margaret Avery and Oprah Winfrey as Best Supporting Actress for The Color Purple (1985). In all films considered for Academy Awards from 1927/8 up through year 2002 films, performances by black actors/actresses received only 39 acting nominations (in either lead or supporting roles). Latino, Asian and Other Minority Performers: The first Mexican to win an Academy Award was Anthony Quinn. He won two Best Supporting Actor Oscars - for Viva Zapata! (1952) and Lust for Life (1956). (Quinn was also nominated twice as Best Actor for Wild is the Wind (1957) and Zorba the Greek (1964).) Puerto Rican Benicio Del Toro won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Traffic (2000). Puerto Rican-born Jose Ferrer was nominated as Best Supporting Actor for Joan of Arc (1948). Cuban-born Andy Garcia was nominated as Best Supporting Actor for The Godfather, Part III (1990). Three Asian male actors have been nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Japanese native Sessue Hayakawa was nominated for his role as a Japanese POW camp commander in The Bridge On the River Kwai (1957). Cambodian native Haing S. Ngor was the first Asian performer to win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in The Killing Fields (1984). In the same year, Noriyuki "Pat" Morita was nominated as Best Supporting Actor for The Karate Kid (1984). White performer Jeff Chandler was nominated as Best Supporting Actor for playing the role of Apache chief Cochise in Broken Arrow (1950). Chief Dan George was nominated as Best Supporting Actor in Little Big Man (1970) and became the first Native-American to receive an Oscar nomination. American Indian actor Graham Greene was nominated for his supporting role in Dances With Wolves (1990). Non-English Performances: In 1985, all ten of the Best Actor/Actress nominees were American-born - the first time in Oscar history. Roberto Benigni's Best Actor Oscar win was only the second time a nominee won an acting Oscar for a foreign language film role. His win made him the first male actor in Oscar history to win for a foreign language film role. [The first occurrence was Sophia Loren's Best Actress win for Two Women (1961) - thirty-seven years earlier.] Four actors/actresses won Oscars for non-English language performances: Sophia Loren won Best Actress for the Italian film Two Women (1961) Robert De Niro won the Best Supporting Oscar for The Godfather, Part II (1974) in which he spoke Sicilian Marlee Matlin won the Best Actress Oscar while speaking in American Sign Language in Children of a Lesser God (1986) Benicio Del Toro won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Traffic (2000) for a primarily non-English (Spanish) language role Shortest and Other Oddities: The shortest performance time to win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar was for Anthony Quinn for about nine minutes as Paul Gaugin in Lust for Life (1956). [The shortest performance to win an Oscar ever was in the Best Supporting Actress category: Beatrice Straight won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for less than eight minutes of screen time in Network (1976), with only 8 speaking parts (of approx. 260 words). (Runner up: Judi Dench for about ten minutes of screen time as Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love (1998), with 14 speaking parts (of approx. 446 words).)] The only diminutive dwarf actor ever nominated was Michael Dunn for Best Supporting Actor for Ship of Fools (1965). Only one Best Supporting Actor winner won the Oscar for a mute performance (in the sound era): John Mills for Ryan's Daughter (1970). Jason Robards has the record for the most Oscar-nominated roles as historical personages: Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee in All The President's Men (1976) Author Dashiell Hammett in Julia (1977) Howard Hughes in Melvin and Howard (1980) Related Oscar Winners and Nominees: The first - and only - brother and sister to win acting Oscars were: Lionel Barrymore, who won the Best Actor award for A Free Soul (1930/31), and Ethel Barrymore, who won the Best Supporting Actress award for None But the Lonely Heart (1944). Famous brother John Barrymore was never nominated, nor has descendant Drew Barrymore (yet). Other brother-sister acting nominees include Eric and Julia Roberts, and Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine. The only brothers nominated for acting Oscars were: River Phoenix as Best Supporting Actor for Running on Empty (1988) and Joaquin Phoenix as Best Supporting Actor for Gladiator (2000). The only mother-daughter duo to have won performance Oscars are: Judy Garland (a special juvenile award winner) for The Wizard of Oz (1939) Liza Minnelli (as Best Actress) for Cabaret (1972) Vincente Minnelli (Garland's husband and Minnelli's father) also won a Best Director Oscar for Gigi (1958). Diane Ladd and Laura Dern are the first and only mother-daughter acting pair nominated for the same film in Oscar history: both received nominations for Rambling Rose (1991). Add to that the fact that father Bruce Dern was Oscar-nominated (Best Supporting Actor for Coming Home (1978)) - that makes them the only mother-father-daughter acting group with Oscar nominations. Two pairs of sisters have competed against each other (when nominated simultaneously) for the same Best Actress award: Joan Fontaine in Suspicion (1941) defeated sister Olivia de Havilland in Hold Back the Dawn (1941) Vanessa Redgrave for Morgan (1966) vs. Lynn Redgrave in Georgy Girl (1966) - both lost to Elizabeth Taylor The only other sisters to have received acting Oscar nominations (supporting in this case) are Meg Tilly for Agnes of God (1985) and Jennifer Tilly for Bullets Over Broadway (1994). Father-son acting nominees include: Kirk Douglas (for Champion (1949), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), and Lust for Life (1956)), and Michael Douglas (for Wall Street (1987)) Raymond Massey (for Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940)) and Daniel Massey for Star! (1980)) Michael, Vanessa, and Lynn Redgrave are the only father-daughter-daughter group among acting nominees. Michael's single nomination was for Mourning Becomes Electra (1947). Nominated father-daughter acting combos also include: Ryan O'Neal (Best Actor for Love Story (1970)) and Tatum O'Neal (Best Supporting Actress for Paper Moon (1973)). Winning father-daughter acting combos include: Jon Voight (Best Actor for Coming Home (1978)) and Angelina Jolie (Best Actress for Girl, Interrupted (1999)); Henry Fonda (Best Actor for On Golden Pond (1981) and Jane Fonda (Best Actress for Klute (1971) and Coming Home (1978)). The only father-son-daughter Oscar nominees are Henry, Peter (nominated as Best Actor for Ulee's Gold (1997)), and Jane Fonda. Henry and Jane are also the only father-daughter duo nominated for the same film: On Golden Pond (1981). Three Generations: 1948's Oscar-winning director John Huston directed both his father (Walter Huston) to a Best Supporting Actor Oscar and his daughter (Anjelica) to a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in respectively, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) and Prizzi's Honor (1985) 37 years later. [Huston won two Oscars for writing and directing the 1948 film.] This remarkable feat made the Hustons the first family with three generations of Oscar winners - Huston became the only director to have directed both his father and daughter to Oscar victories. Since Huston also received an acting nomination (supporting) for The Cardinal (1963), the Hustons are the only grandfather-father-daughter acting nominees in Oscar history. Cast Nominations: Thirteen films have received nominations in all four acting categories: My Man Godfrey (1936) Mrs. Miniver (1942) For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) Johnny Belinda (1948) Sunset Boulevard (1950) A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) From Here To Eternity (1953) Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) Bonnie and Clyde (1967) Network (1976) Coming Home (1978) Reds (1981) Three films have had the entire cast nominated for awards: Sleuth (1972), with Best Actor nominations for Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier Give 'Em Hell, Harry! (1975), with a Best Actor nomination for James Whitmore Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), with various nominations for all four cast members, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, and Sandy Dennis Three films have had three nominees for Best Supporting Actor: On The Waterfront (1954) - Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden, and Rod Steiger (all lost to Edmond O'Brien in The Barefoot Contessa (1954)) The Godfather (1972) - James Caan, Robert Duvall, and Al Pacino (all lost to Joel Grey for Cabaret (1972)) The Godfather, Part II (1974) - Robert De Niro, Lee Strasberg, and Michael V. Gazzo (De Niro won) Winning Co-Stars: Best Actor and Best Actress in the Same Film Seven films have won in both the leading actor and leading actress categories: Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night (1934) Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) Peter Finch and Faye Dunaway in Network (1976) Jon Voight and Jane Fonda in Coming Home (1978) Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn in On Golden Pond (1981) Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster in The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt in As Good As It Gets (1997) Youngest and Oldest Best Supporting Actors: It is quite common that the Best Supporting Actor winner is either an older, established performer, or a young, inexperienced actor. Youngest Best Supporting Actor Nominee Youngest Best Supporting Actor Winner Oldest Best Supporting Actor Nominee Oldest Best Supporting Actor Winner         8 year old Justin Henry for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) Note: 11 year old Haley Joel Osment was also nominated for The Sixth Sense (1999) 19 or 20 year old Timothy Hutton for Ordinary People (1980) 82 year-old Ralph Richardson for Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) Note: Richardson was two months short of his 81st birthday when he passed away (16 months before the announcement) 79 or 80 year-old George Burns for The Sunshine Boys (1975) Note: Burns was seven months younger than 80 year-old Jessica Tandy, who was the oldest winner of any acting award for Driving Miss Daisy (1989) Note: Next closest was 77 year-old Don Ameche for Cocoon (1985) 92 year old producer Hal Roach was the oldest winner of all when he received a 1983 honorary statuette. Almost 84 year old Mary Pickford was the oldest performer to receive a statuette, a 1975 honorary award. (Runner-up was 83 year old Groucho Marx, when he received an honorary statuette in 1973)

Three films have won the top five awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay): It Happened One Night (1934), One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975), and The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Only two Best Picture winners have won every award for which they were nominated (both were nine for nine): Gigi (1958) and The Last Emperor (1987).

Only three times (Broadway Melody (1928/9), Grand Hotel (1931/2), and Mutiny On the Bounty (1935)) has the film named Best Picture failed to win any other awards - they were all MGM productions. Many films have won Best Picture without receiving a single acting nomination: Wings (1927/8), All Quiet on the Western Front (1929/30), Grand Hotel (1931/2), An American in Paris (1951), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), Around the World in Eighty Days (1956), Gigi (1958), The Last Emperor (1987), and Braveheart (1995).

Films that have won the most awards without winning Best Picture include Cabaret (1973) with eight awards, A Place in the Sun (1951) with six awards, and Star Wars (1977) with six awards. Two films hold the dubious distinction of being nominated eleven times without a single Oscar win - The Turning Point (1977) and The Color Purple (1985). (The record was previously held by The Little Foxes (1941) with nine nominations and no wins.) The film that won the most Oscars (5) without even being nominated for Best Picture was The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). The Godfather Part II (1974) is the only sequel to win Best Picture.

There are obvious biases in the selection of Best Picture winners by the Academy. It is rare that light comedy films win the Best Picture Oscar. The following are the only comedies that have won Best Picture: It Happened One Night (1934), You Can't Take It With You (1938), Going My Way (1944), All About Eve (1950), The Apartment (1960), Tom Jones (1963), The Sting (1973), and Annie Hall (1977). Although by the end of the 20th century, there were eleven Westerns nominated for Best Picture, only three have won the highest honor: Cimarron (1930/1), Dances With Wolves (1990), and Unforgiven (1992).

Long, epic dramas (Out of Africa (1985), The Last Emperor (1987), The English Patient (1996), and Titanic (1997)) are normally preferred over action blockbusters as well, and many independent productions are ignored. [The three longest Best Picture winners are Gone With The Wind (1939), Ben-Hur (1959), and Lawrence of Arabia (1962), all over three and a half hours long.] Generally, box-office giants aren't selected as Best Pictures, although there are a number of exceptions, e.g., some of the above-mentioned films and Titanic (1997).

Schindler's List (1993) was the first black-and-white film to win the top award since The Apartment (1960). Silence of the Lambs (1991) is the only horror film to have won Best Picture.

The only foreign-language films nominated for Best Picture were Grand Illusion (1938, France), Z (1969, France/Algeria), The Emigrants (1972, Sweden), Cries and Whispers (1973, Sweden), The Postman (Il Postino) (1995, Italy), Life is Beautiful (1998, Italy), and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000, Taiwan).

The studios with the most wins for Best Picture include:

• Columbia (12)
• United Artists (12)
• Paramount (11)
• MGM (9)
• 20th Century Fox (7)
• Warner Bros (6)
• Universal (5)
• Orion (4)
• Miramax (2)
• RKO Radio (2)

Producers with the most wins for Best Picture include: Sam Spiegel (3), Saul Zaentz (3), Darryl F. Zanuck (3), Arthur Freed (2), and David O. Selznick (2). The producers who have received the most nominations for Best Picture include Hal Wallis (19), Darryl F. Zanuck (14), Henry Blanke (9), Samuel Goldwyn (8), and David O. Selznick (8).

Best Director:

In the first year of the awards, there were two awards, one for direction of a dramatic film, another for comedy direction. The latter award was dropped the following year.

The most nominated and most frequent winners in the Best Director category are the following: John Ford with five nominations and four wins, William Wyler with twelve nominations and three wins, and Frank Capra with six nominations and three wins. Although John Ford has won more Oscars, William Wyler holds the record for the most nominations as director - twelve. In addition, Billy Wilder was nominated eight times for director (with two wins), and twelve times for screenwriting.

• John Ford (5 nominations, 4 wins):
  Oscar wins: The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), and The Quiet Man (1952).
  Nominated: Stagecoach (1939)
  
  
• William Wyler (12 nominations, 3 wins):
  Oscar wins: Mrs. Miniver (1942), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), and Ben-Hur (1959)
  Nominated: The Collector (1965), Friendly Persuasion (1956), Roman Holiday (1953), Detective Story (1951), The Heiress (1949), The Little Foxes (1941), The Letter (1940), Wuthering Heights (1939), Dodsworth (1936)
  
  Note: William Wyler holds the record for directing more Best Picture nominees (13) and more Best Picture winners (3) than anyone else. The nominated and winning (marked with *) films were: Dodsworth (1936), Dead End (1937), Jezebel (1938), Wuthering Heights (1939), The Letter (1940), The Little Foxes (1941), Mrs. Miniver (1942)*, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)*, The Heiress (1949), Roman Holiday (1953), Friendly Persuasion (1956), Ben-Hur (1959)*, and Funny Girl (1968).
  
  
• Frank Capra (6 nominations, 3 wins):
  Oscars wins: It Happened One Night (1934), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), and You Can't Take It With You (1938)
  Nominated: It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Lady for a Day (1933)
  
  
• Billy Wilder (8 nominations, 2 wins):
  Oscar wins: The Lost Weekend (1945) and The Apartment (1960)
  Nominated: Double Indemnity (1944), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Stalag 17 (1953), Sabrina (1954), Witness for the Prosecution (1957), Some Like It Hot (1959)
  

Directors that have two wins include: Billy Wilder, David Lean, Fred Zinnemann, Elia Kazan, Frank Lloyd, Steven Spielberg, Joseph Mankiewicz, Robert Wise, Oliver Stone, Milos Forman, Leo McCarey, Lewis Milestone and Frank Borzage.

Some of the greatest directors of all time have never won an Academy Award for Best Director (and many were never nominated), including Clarence Brown, Charlie Chaplin, King Vidor, Howard Hawks, D. W. Griffith, Brian De Palma, George Sidney, Cecil B. DeMille, Norman Jewison, John Cassavetes, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, F.W. Murnau, William Wellman, Blake Edwards, Otto Preminger, Gregory La Cava, Sidney Lumet, Ernst Lubitsch, Terrence Malick, Robert Altman, Fritz Lang, Spike Lee, Rouben Mamoulian, Robert Rossen, Stanley Kubrick, James Ivory, Joshua Logan, Stanley Kramer, Alan J. Pakula, Paul Mazursky, Arthur Penn, W.S. Van Dyke, Herbert Ross, Tim Burton, Roman Polanski, George Lucas, Akira Kurosawa, Barbra Streisand, Sam Peckinpah, and Martin Scorsese.

There is a direct correlation between the Best Picture and Director awards. Usually, the film voted Best Picture has been directed by the person named (or at least nominated as) Best Director. It is very rare for a film to win the Best Picture Oscar while omitting the film's director from the Best Director nominations - only twice has this happened: (1) Edmund Goulding, the director of Best Picture winner Grand Hotel (1931/32) was not nominated, and (2) Bruce Beresford, the director of Best Picture winner Driving Miss Daisy (1989) was not nominated. Conversely, director Frank Lloyd was the only person to win the Best Director Oscar for a film not nominated for Best Picture - The Divine Lady (1928/29).

William Wyler holds the record for directing thirteen performers to Oscar wins, while Elia Kazan directed nine performers to Academy Awards. The only two directors that ever directed themselves to an acting Academy Award were Laurence Olivier in Hamlet (1948) and Roberto Benigni in Life is Beautiful (1998). The oldest Best Director Oscar winner was sixty-five year-old George Cukor for My Fair Lady (1964), while the youngest was thirty-two year old William Friedkin for The French Connection (1971). Jane Campion is the only female director to have been nominated for Best Picture and Best Director (for The Piano (1993)).

There are a handful of directors who have won the Best Director Oscar for their film debut: Sam Mendes for American Beauty (1999), Delbert Mann for Marty (1955), Jerome Robbins for West Side Story (1961), Robert Redford for Ordinary People (1980), James L. Brooks for Terms of Endearment (1983), and Kevin Costner for Dances with Wolves (1990).

Best Actor:

This award should actually be titled "the best performance in acting." An overwhelming number of actors have won the top acting (and supporting) awards for portraying characters with physical or mental disabilities or diseases, or alcoholism (e.g., Dustin Hoffman, Cliff Robertson, Al Pacino, Nicolas Cage, Daniel Day-Lewis). Oscar victories for Best Actor haven't always been for the stars' best work. For example, James Stewart's win for Best Actor (his first and sole award) for his role in The Philadelphia Story (1940) was because he had lost the previous year for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). And Paul Newman's sole Oscar win for The Color of Money (1986) was a dubious honor - it really represented praise for his entire career's work. Only one actor has ever won the Best Actor Oscar for a feature film debut - Ben Kingsley for Gandhi (1982).

No male performer has yet won three Best Actor awards. Seven actors have won the Best Actor Oscar twice:

• Jack Nicholson for One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and As Good As It Gets (1997)
• Tom Hanks for Philadelphia (1993) and Forrest Gump (1994)
• Dustin Hoffman for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and Rain Man (1988)
• Spencer Tracy for Captains Courageous (1937) and Boys Town (1938)
• Fredric March for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931/2) and for The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
• Gary Cooper for Sergeant York (1941) and for High Noon (1952)
• Marlon Brando for On The Waterfront (1954) and The Godfather (1972)

In 1997, Jack Nicholson tied Walter Brennan for the most wins (3) for a male performer (Brennan has three Best Supporting Actor trophies, Nicholson has two for Best Actor and one for Best Supporting Actor).

Actors with the highest number of Best Actor nominations include:

• Spencer Tracy (9)
• Laurence Olivier (9)
• Paul Newman (8)
• Marlon Brando (7)
• Dustin Hoffman (7)
• Jack Lemmon (7)
• Jack Nicholson (7)
• Peter O'Toole (7)
• Richard Burton (6)
• Gary Cooper (5)

In the Best Actor category, a tie occurred in the fifth year of competition between Wallace Beery and Fredric March. In 1944, Barry Fitzgerald was nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for the same performance - Father Fitzgibbon in Going My Way (1944). New rules have prevented this from re-occurring, although an actor may still be nominated in both categories for two different roles. After 1929/30, an actor could not receive more than one nomination per category.

The most nominated actors (including both Best Actor and Best Supporting roles) are Jack Nicholson (11), Laurence Olivier (10), and Spencer Tracy (9). The first African-American actor to win a Best Actor Oscar was Sidney Poitier for Lilies of the Field (1963). The youngest Best Actor Oscar-winner was 29 year-old Richard Dreyfuss for The Goodbye Girl (1977), while the oldest Best Actor Oscar-winner was 76 year-old Henry Fonda for On Golden Pond (1981). The oldest Best Actor nominee was 79 year-old Richard Farnsworth for The Straight Story (1999).

Best Actress:

The award should actually be titled "the best performance in acting." The same rules that govern the Best Actor category apply to the Best Actress category. A large number of actresses have won the top acting (and supporting) awards for portraying hookers (e.g., Elizabeth Taylor, Mira Sorvino, Jane Fonda, Julie Christie). Oscar victories for Best Actress haven't always been for the stars' best work. For example, Elizabeth Taylor's first Best Actress win - for Butterfield 8 (1960) - was a sympathy vote for her near-fatal bout with pneumonia.

The most honored actress of all-time is Katharine Hepburn - with a total of twelve nominations and four wins - all in the Best Actress category. She also set the record for the greatest span between Oscar wins - forty-eight years. She is the only actress to have won the Best Actress award four times:

• Katharine Hepburn for Morning Glory (1932/3) and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (1967) and The Lion in Winter (1968) and On Golden Pond (1981)

In the Best Actress category, an unusual tie occurred in 1968 between Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand. A few actresses have won the Best Actress Oscar for their first screen roles: Shirley Booth for Come Back, Little Sheba (1952), Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl (1968), and Marlee Matlin for Children of a Lesser God (1986). (Matlin was also the first deaf actress to win the Academy Award.)

Many actresses have won the Best Actress award twice:

• Ingrid Bergman for Gaslight (1944) and Anastasia (1956)
• Luise Rainer for The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and The Good Earth (1937)
• Bette Davis for Dangerous (1935) and Jezebel (1938)
• Vivien Leigh for Gone With The Wind (1939) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
• Olivia de Havilland for To Each His Own (1946) and The Heiress (1949)
• Elizabeth Taylor for Butterfield 8 (1960) and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
• Glenda Jackson for Women in Love (1970) and A Touch of Class (1973)
• Sally Field for Norma Rae (1979) and Places in the Heart (1984)
• Jodie Foster for The Accused (1988) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
• Jane Fonda for Klute (1971) and Coming Home (1978)

Actresses with the most Best Actress nominations include:

• Bette Davis (10)
• Meryl Streep (10)
• Greer Garson (7)
• Ingrid Bergman (6)
• Jane Fonda (6)
• Deborah Kerr (6)
• Norma Shearer (6)
• Anne Bancroft (5)
• Susan Hayward (5)

One actress has won three actress awards (both Lead and Supporting Actress awards): Ingrid Bergman as Best Actress for Gaslight (1944) and Anastasia (1956) and Best Supporting Actress for Murder on the Orient Express (1974). The other most nominated actresses (including both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress roles) are Meryl Streep (12 - tied with Hepburn), Bette Davis (10, but sometimes counted as 11 due to the write-in campaign for Of Human Bondage (1934)) and Geraldine Page (8).

No African-American woman has ever won the Oscar in the Best Actress category. The youngest Best Actress Oscar winner was twenty-one year old Marlee Matlin for Children of a Lesser God (1986), while the oldest Best Actress Oscar winner was 80 year-old Jessica Tandy for Driving Miss Daisy (1989).

Best Supporting Actor
and
Best Supporting Actress:

In 1936, the acting awards were expanded to start recognizing supporting roles. Within five years, Walter Brennan won three Best Supporting Actor awards. He was the first and - to date - is the only performer to win three supporting awards:

• Walter Brennan for Come and Get It (1936) and Kentucky (1938) and The Westerner (1940)

The following have received two Best Supporting Actor or Actress awards:

• Shelley Winters for The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) and A Patch of Blue (1965)
• Anthony Quinn for Viva Zapata! (1952) and Lust for Life (1956)
• Jason Robards for All the President's Men (1976) and Julia (1977)
• Melvyn Douglas for Hud (1963) and Being There (1979)
• Peter Ustinov for Spartacus (1960) and Topkapi (1964)
• Dianne Wiest for Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
• Michael Caine for Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and The Cider House Rules (1999)

There are many actresses who have won one Best Supporting Actress award, including among others: Peggy Ashcroft for A Passage to India (1984), Mary Astor for The Great Lie (1941), Fay Bainter for Jezebel (1938), Ethel Barrymore for None But the Lonely Heart (1944), Kim Basinger for L.A. Confidential (1997), Anne Baxter for The Razor's Edge (1946), Ingrid Bergman for Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Meryl Streep for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), and Juliette Binoche for The English Patient (1996).

A number of actors and actresses have also won acting awards in both the lead and supporting categories: Robert DeNiro (1974, 1980), Kevin Spacey (1995, 1999), Gene Hackman (1971, 1992), Jessica Lange (1982, 1994), Jack Lemmon (1955, 1973), Ingrid Bergman (1944, 1956, 1974), Helen Hayes (1931/2, 1970), Jack Nicholson (1975, 1983, 1997), Meryl Streep (1979, 1982), and Maggie Smith (1969, 1978). In 1997, Nicholson tied Walter Brennan for the most acting wins (3) for a male performer.

Actors with the most Best Supporting Actor nominations include:

• Walter Brennan (4)
• Arthur Kennedy (4)
• Jack Nicholson (4)
• Claude Rains (4)
• Charles Bickford (3)
• Charles Coburn (3)
• Robert Duvall (3)
• Gene Hackman (3)
• Martin Landau (3)
• Al Pacino (3)

Actresses with the most Best Supporting Actress nominations include:

• Thelma Ritter (6)
• Ethel Barrymore (4)
• Lee Grant (4)
• Agnes Moorehead (4)
• Geraldine Page (4)
• Maureen Stapleton (4)
• Glenn Close (3)
• Gladys Cooper (3)
• Celeste Holm (3)
• Diane Ladd (3)

Often, actresses have been nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for different films in the same year: for example, Jessica Lange (Best Actress for Frances (1982) and Supporting Actress for Tootsie (1982)); Sigourney Weaver (Best Actress for Gorillas in the Mist (1987) and Supporting Actress for Working Girl (1987)); Holly Hunter (Best Actress for The Piano (1993) and Supporting Actress for The Firm (1993)); and Emma Thompson (Best Actress for The Remains of the Day (1993) and Supporting Actress for In the Name of the Father (1993)). In 1938, Fay Bainter was nominated for Best Actress (in White Banners (1938)) and Best Supporting Actress (in Jezebel (1938)) in two different roles, and so was Teresa Wright, who was nominated for Best Actress (in The Pride of the Yankees (1942)) and Best Supporting Actress (in Mrs. Miniver (1942)).

Five of the six black actors/actresses who have received acting Oscars received them for supporting roles: Hattie McDaniel for Gone With The Wind (1939), Louis Gossett, Jr. for An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), Whoopi Goldberg for Ghost (1990), Denzel Washington for Glory (1989), and Cuba Gooding, Jr. for Jerry Maguire (1996). The only Best Actor award received by a black actor went to Sidney Poitier for Lilies of the Field (1963).

Ten year old Tatum O'Neal won the Best Supporting Actress award for Paper Moon (1973) - she was the youngest to win a competitive Oscar award. (The second youngest was eleven year old Anna Paquin for The Piano (1993). Note: Both actresses were 9 years old during the making of their films.) Timothy Hutton at age 19 was the youngest winner of the Best Supporting Actor award for Ordinary People (1980). The youngest nominee for Best Supporting Actor was eight year old Justin Henry for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979). The oldest male and female winners of the Best Supporting Actor and Actress awards were 80 year-old George Burns for The Sunshine Boys (1975) and seventy-seven year-old Peggy Ashcroft for A Passage to India (1984). The oldest nominee for Best Supporting Actress was eighty-seven year old Gloria Stuart for Titanic (1997).

The shortest performance to win an Oscar was in the Best Supporting Actress category: Judi Dench for eight minutes of screen time as Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love (1998). (Runners up: Anthony Quinn won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for about nine minutes as Paul Gaugin in Lust for Life (1956), and Beatrice Straight won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for ten minutes in Network (1976)).