First up is Renee Zellweger, an actress with four nominations and two Academy Award wins. Her career took off with the film Bridget Jones’s Diary and by 2007 she became one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood. She hasn’t been working as much these days, but she’s nevertheless earned her place in history as one of the most well-received actresses of all time.
Her first Oscar nomination was for her titular role in the film Bridget Jones’s Diary, which was a retelling of Jane Austen’s Price and Prejudice. She did not take home an Oscar for the role.
In 2003, she was nominated again but did not win for the musical Chicago. That film was about two murderous women on death row who compete for fame and the attention of an unscrupulous lawyer.
In 2004, Zellweger won her first Academy Award for the Civil War drama, Cold Mountain, which also starred Jude Law and Nicole Kidman.
She wouldn’t be nominated again until 2020 for the biopic about Judy Garland, simply titled Judy. For that role, she would take home her second Oscar.
Emma Stone is an American actress who has achieved widespread acclaim for her performances in film. Born on November 6, 1988, in Scottsdale, Arizona, Stone began her acting career in the mid-2000s with roles in television shows like Malcolm in the Middle and Medium. Her portrayal of Mia Dolan, an aspiring actress, in the musical La La Land earned her several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Stone won her second Oscar for Best Actress for her work in Poor Things in 2024, joining the throng of performers who've won multiple Academy Awards. The club is smaller than you think!
Glenda Jackson is an English actress that has had two major careers in the public eye. Having acted since the ‘60s, as an actress she’s managed to stay active for the most part. From 1992 to 2015, she took a break from acting, when she was elected as the Labour Party MP for Hampstead and Highgate. And besides this distinguishment, she’s earned herself two Academy Awards and has had four nominations total.
Glenda Jackson’s first nomination was in 1971 for the film Women in Love, an unconventional love story about two friends who fall in love with a pair of women. The story takes a turn you wouldn’t expect to say the least. Jackson won for her role but did not take home the golden statuette because she was not present at the ceremony. Juliet Mills accepted it on her behalf.
She was nominated again in 1972, but did not win, for Sunday Bloody Sunday about a polyamorous relationship between and artist and his two lovers.
Then, in 1974, she won her second Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for the film A Touch of Class. That film was a romantic comedy about two London lovers who have an affair.
Her last nomination ended in Oscar defeat, but she gave an amazing performance, nonetheless, in Hedda, in which she played a Nordic femme fatale.
Jodie Foster has four Academy Award nominations on her belt and two wins, so technically has a winning rate of 50%. She’s easily one of the best actresses of the last 50 years and has been in plenty of classic films.
Her first Oscar-nominated role was secure when she was just a teenage girl. She gained a supporting role nomination for her work in Martin Scorsese’s classic Taxi Driver in which she plays a teenager.
Her second Oscar-nominated role ended up being a win for her in 1989. It was a leading role in The Accused about a woman who is assaulted at a bar and a prosecutor (played by Kelly McGillis) determined to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Then in 1992, Jodie Foster earned her second Oscar win for Silence of the Lambs in which she played the main character in the film, Clarice Starling.
Her last nomination came in 1995 for the film Nell about a local doctor who comes across a hermit woman living in the woods.
The Five-time nominated Elizabeth Taylor has two wins and one Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts. She is one of the most iconic actresses of the 20th century.
She was nominated three times before finally winning. Her first nomination was for the film Raintree County in 1958. Her second was for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1959 and her third was for Suddenly, Last Summer in 1960. She was nominated for her leading role in each of those films.
Her first win was for BUtterfield 8 in 1961, after her fourth consecutive leading role nomination. The film was about a New York model and socialite who falls for a married man.
For the 1967 film Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Taylor earned her fifth and final nomination and win for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She was not present at the ceremony to accept her award, so Ann Bancroft accepted it on her behalf.
Sean Penn started out his career with a brief appearance in Little House on the Prairie before stealing the show in Fast Times on Ridgemont High. And at that point, nobody would have thought he’d become an Oscar-winning actor.
He gained his first nomination for his work in the film Dead Man Walking which really established him as a serious talent. In it, he plays a convicted serial killer on death row.
He earned two more nominations for Sweet and Lowdown in 2000 and I Am Sam in 2002. Neither of those films earned him a win either.
He got his first win for the film Mystic River in 2004 for the Clint Eastwood tragic drama Mystic River, also starring Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon. Penn won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
In 2009, he earned another Oscar for his leading performance in Milk, about the true story of gay activist Harvey Milk who became the first gay elected politician in California.
Frederic March has been nominated five times for an Academy Award. He has the unique distinguishment of having earned two Academy Awards and two Tony Awards. The only other person to have done that is actress Helen Hayes.
Fredric March earned the Best Actor in a Leading Role Oscar for what is easily his most recognizable role in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It was a tie that year, however, with Wallace Beery for The Champ.
In 1938, he was nominated for his leading role in the original version of A Star is Born. It was not a win for him.
In 1947, he won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his work in The Best Years of Our Lives.
In 1952, he failed to secure his win after being nominated for Death of a Salesman.
Gene Hackman has been nominated five times and won twice. With his wins having been spread out over the years, it’s clear he’s never quite lost his touch as an actor.
His first nominated film was the classic crime film Bonnie and Clyde. He did not win for his role nor for his role in I Never Sang for My Father in 1971.
In 1972, he took home an Oscar for The French Connection about NYPD narcotics offers who stumble upon a heroin smuggling ring.
In 1989, he was nominated for his work in Mississippi Burning. The film also starred Willem Dafoe and Frances McDormand.
He won his second Oscar for the Clint Eastwood western Unforgiven in 1993. In it, he plays a corrupt Sheriff who is the main antagonist in the film.
Olivia de Havilland is a five-time Oscar-nominated actress whose first nomination came with the film Gone with the Wind. She was nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role but did not win.
She lost a second time for Hold Back the Dawn in 1942 but that was for a leading role.
Her first win was for To Each His Own in 1947, a film about an unwed mother who gives up her child to avoid a scandal.
In 1949, she was nominated but did not win for The Snake Pit where she plays a woman in a mental institution.
In 1950, she won a final time for The Heiress. She earned the award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her role as Catherine Sloper who falls in love with a man that her father suspects is an opportunistic fortune hunter.
Gary Cooper a five-time nominated actor, best known for his work in High Noon and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. He has had two wins for his roles over the years plus an Honorary Oscar that he won for his life’s work in 1961.
His first nomination came in 1937 for his role in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town about a small-town man in Vermont who inherits a fortune and is taken advantage of by those around him. He did not gain an Oscar win for this role.
He did win in 1942 for his role in the WWI film Sergeant York where he played the titular character.
In 1943 and 1944, he was nominated for his work in The Pride of the Yankees and For Whom the Bell Tolls, respectively. He did not take home the gold statue for either of those films.
Nevertheless, he did win in 1953 for Best Actor in a Leading Role for High Noon. He could be present at the ceremony and so John Wayne accepted the award on his behalf.
Maggie Smith is well-known for her roles in the Harry Potter franchise as well as the BBC series Downton Abbey but she’s had a ton of Academy Award-nominated roles in films over the years that maybe you forgot or didn’t know in the first place.
Her first Academy Award nominated role was in the 1965 film Othello. She did not take home an Oscar for her role in 1966 but it gave her plenty of attention.
Maggie Smith got her first Oscar in 1970 for her role in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. She won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role as the titular character.
Maggie Smith was nominated again in 1973 for the film Travels with My Aunt but did not win.
In 1979, she received a second Academy Award for California Suite but this time it was in the Supporting Actor category.
She earned two more nominations, one in 1987 for A Room with a View and another time in 2002 for Gosford Park.
Jessica Lange has been nominated a total of six times from 1983 to 1995. She hasn’t been nominated for an Oscar recently, however, and these days she’s mostly known for her work in the American Horror Stories anthology series.
Her first nomination was for the movie Frances, which chronicle the story of Frances Farmer’s rise to fame in Hollywood and her fall due to being blacklisted. While she didn’t win an Oscar for her leading role, she did receive an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting role for Tootsie in 1983.
Jessica Lange would be nominated for Country in 1985, Sweet Dreams in 1986 and Music Box in 1990, but would not win in any of her categories.
It wasn’t until 1995 that she received her last Oscar for Blue Sky. The period drama film was about a family who moves to a military base and Carly Marshall, played by Lange, who becomes involved in a nuclear bomb test cover-up. She took home the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
Anthony Hopkins has had quite a few nominations over the years but is perhaps best known for his first Oscar-nominated role as Hannibal Lecter. Since then, he’s managed to stay relevant over the years, even as he pushes 90.
His first Academy Award-nominated role was in Silence of the Lambs of course, in which he played Dr. Hannibal Lecter, an insane asylum patient, who helps assist an FBI agent in tracking a serial killer.
Anthony Hopkins received four more Academy Award nominations from 1994 to 2020, which included The Remains of the Day, Nixon, Amistad and The Two Popes. He wouldn’t win for any of those films.
Hopkins would win for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for his work in The Father. His 2021 win make him the oldest winner in that category at the age of 83.
Tom Hanks is a household name and has been nominated for so many awards over the years, that it’s hard to believe he doesn’t have more than two Oscars, but alas, that’s what he has and it’s still more Oscars than most.
Tom Hanks earned his first Academy Award nomination in 1989 for the film Big which was basically a body switch movie where a young boy wishes he was an adult and becomes one. He definitely didn’t win big, however.
Fortunately, in 1994, he did win for the film Philadelphia, a film about a man with AIDS who sues a law firm he worked at for wrongful dismissal. For the role, he received the award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
In 1995, he won again, for what is probably his most famous role of all: Forrest Gump. Tom Hanks took home a second and final Oscar – thus far, anyway – for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
He would earn two more nominations for the survival tale Cast Away in 2001 and for playing Fred Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood in 2020.
Michael Caine is a British actor that is probably best known by younger audiences for his role as Alfred in the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight trilogy, but he’s also a two-time Academy Award winner.
His first Oscar-nominated role was in 1967 for the film Alfie. The film was about a womanizer who comes to understand how empty his life is. He did not take home the award for that film nor his next two nominated films: Sleuth and Educating Rita.
In 1987, he earned the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in the Woody Allen fil, Hannah and Her Sisters. Sigourney Weaver accepted the award on Caine’s behalf as he could not attend the ceremony due to his filming schedule.
He won again, in 1998, for The Cider House Rules - a film about a young man named Homer Wells who was raised in an orphanage his whole life and decides to leave his home to experience the world. Caine played his adoptive father Dr. Wilbur Larch who has trained him as a doctor.
The Quiet American was the last film he was nominated for in 2003. Michael Caine did not get the Oscar for his role as Thomas Fowler.
Dustin Hoffman has received a number of accolades since the ‘60s and appeared in numerous classic films over the years as well.
In 1968, Dustin Hoffman earned his first Academy Award nomination for The Graduate, a film about a college graduate who starts an affair with married woman and ends up falling in love with her daughter.
Dustin Hoffman was nominated two more times for the classic Midnight Cowboy in 1970, as well as Lenny in 1975.
In 1980, he earned the Best Actor in a Leading Role Oscar for Kramer vs. Kramer, a film about a father and mother fighting for custody of their son.
In 1983, he earned another nomination for Tootsie and did not win but he did win for Rain Man in 1989. The film, which also starred Tom Cruise, was about a son who learns that his wealthy father has left a fortune to his autistic brother than he didn’t even know existed.
In 1998, he earned his last nomination for Wag the Dog.
Jane Fonda is an actress who has been nominated seven times and has taken home two Oscars. She was well known for her political activism and for being the daughter of actor Henry Fonda.
Her first Academy Award-nominated role was for the 1969 film They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? - psychological drama. She gave a great performance but not enough to take home a win.
Her first Academy Award win was for Klute in 1972. The film was about a detective in a small town searching for a missing man with only an escort as a lead on his case. She took home the award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
Jane Fonda was nominated in 1978 for Julia and did not win but she did win for Coming Home about a woman, whose husband is fighting in Vietnam, who falls in love with another vet who suffers from a paralyzing injury. She won the award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for that film.
Her last three nominations were for The China Syndrome, On Golden Pond and The Morning After.
Not everyone may be a fan, but everyone knows his name: Robert De Niro. And whether you are a fan of his work or not, there’s no denying his talent. As an actor who utilizes the method acting style, he keeps his performances grounded every time, as he transforms into someone else.
Robert De Niro gained wide recognition for his first Academy Award-nominated/winning role in The Godfather: Part II, a film in which he played the young Vito Corleone. It was the first time a different actor had won an award for playing the same Oscar-winning role. He took home the award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 1975.
He was nominated for two more classic films, Taxi Driver and The Deer Hunter, but did not win for either of them.
In 1981, however, he took home the award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his work in the Martin Scorsese film Raging Bull, a story about the life of boxer Jake LaMotta.
Since his last win, De Niro has been nominated four more times for: Awakenings, Cape Fear, Silver Linings Playbook and The Irishman.
Cate Blanchett is hands-down one of the greatest actresses of the 21st century. She hasn’t been nominated as the likes of Bette Davis or Merely Streep but her resume is impressive enough and she has plenty of time left to earn herself some more awards.
Her first Academy Award nomination was in 1999 for the film Elizabeth in which she plays Queen Elizabeth I of England of course! She did not win for the role.
Her first Academy Award win came in 2005 and she earned it for playing another actress in The Aviator, the Martin Scorsese biopic about Howard Hughes. In it, she played Katherine Hepburn, an actress you will see on this list much later.
She was nominated three more times before her next win, once in 2007, for the film Notes on a Scandal, and twice in 2008. It was in 2008 that she earned a nomination for reprising her role as Queen Elizabeth I in Elizabeth: The Golden Age, as well as for playing Bob Dylan in I’m Not There.
In 2014, Cate Blanchette won the Academy Award for the Woody Allen film Blue Jasmine. For it, she earned the Oscar for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role.
Her most recent nomination was for the film Carol in 2016. She did not take home an award.
Jack Lemmon is an actor known for both his comedic and dramatic roles in film. His everyman persona made him someone who was relatable to audiences but could still be funny and truly honest with each and every performance.
Jack Lemmon’s first Oscar win came in 1956 for the WWII film Mister Roberts, which was also his first nomination. Lemmon won for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
Lemmon would be nominated three wore times before his next win in the classic films Some Like it Hot and The Apartment, as well as Days of Wine and Roses.
He won his second Oscar for Save the Tiger in 1973. Sadly, the movie is not actually about tigers, but it has a great performance by Jack Lemmon who won the award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
His last three nominations were all for movies in the 1980s: The China Syndrome, Tribute, and finally, Missing.
Marlon Brando is widely considered to be one of the greatest actors of all time and the one who is often credited with the method style of acting. Even with his worst films, Brando has managed to give a knockout performance every time.
His first Academy Award-nominated role was for the film A Streetcar Named Desire, a film in which he plays an absolutely despicable human being but plays him oh so well. He did not manage to take home an award for the film but everyone remembers the way he screams “Stella!” from the street.
He was nominated two more times for Viva Zipata! and Julius Caesar before winning an Academy Award for On the Waterfront in 1955. That film was about an ex-prize fighter who takes a stand against organized crime and the corrupt union bosses who rule the town. He won the award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
He was nominated again in 1958 for Sayonara and did not win and he would even be nominated again until 1973 for the film The Godfather - a film widely considered to be one of the greatest if not the greatest film of all time. Brando took home his second award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his role as Vito Corleone.
Brando was not present at the Oscar ceremony to accept his award. Instead, he was represented by actress Sacheen Littlefeather who went on stage to announce that he refused the award due to the poor treatment of Native Americans in the entertainment industry.
Brando was nominated twice more for Best Actor in a Leading Role for the films Ultimo tango a Parigi and A Dry White Season. He did not win either of those awards.
Denzel Washington is easily one of the best actors of the last 30 years, giving authentic performances each and every time. He also has the distinguishment of being the most nominated black actor in the history of the Academy Awards.
His first Academy Award nomination was in 1988 for the film Cry Freedom about a South African journalist who is forced to flee after investigating the death of activist Steve Biko. Denzel Washington played Biko but did not win for his role.
Denzel Washington won his first Academy Award in 1990, starring alongside the likes of Matthew Broderick and Morgan Freeman in the film Glory. The film told the story of Robert Gould Shaw and the first all-black volunteer company in the American Civil War. Denzel Washington took home the award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
Denzel Washington was nominated two more times for Malcolm X and The Hurricane – both true stories of black Americans – before winning again in 2002.
In 2002, Denzel Washington won for the film Training Day, a film about corruption and gang violence in Los Angeles, as the corrupt narcotics officers attempts to train a rookie played by Ethan Hawke. Denzel here took home the award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
Denzel Washington would be nominated four more times for Flight in 2013, Fences in 2017 Roman J. Israel, Esq. in 2018 and The Tragedy of Macbeth in 2022.
Spencer Tracy was nominated for nine Academy Awards in his lifetime and won two of them, easily making him one of the all-time greats.
His first nomination came in 1937 for the film San Francisco, which was all about a love triangle with two guys competing to win the affections of a singer in 1906. He did not win for this role.
Spencer Tracy’s first win came in 1938 for the film Captains Courageous, which was a fishing boat story. He took home the award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
He earned his second win for Boys Town, in 1939, a film about Father Edward Flanagan who starts a home for young boys after a conversation with a death row prisoner. He would not be present at the ceremony to accept his award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
Spencer Tracy was nominated another six times with his most notable roles including Father of the Bride, The Old Man and the Sea, Judge at Nuremberg and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.
Bette Davis is another one of the all-time greatest actresses. In her lifetime, she had been nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won two of them. Should she have gotten more? Probably, but the amount of awards that she earned hasn’t really tarnished her legacy in the least.
Her First Academy Award nomination was for Best Actress in a Leading Role in 1935 for the film Of Human Bondage. The film was about a young man who falls in love with an apathetic waitress.
In 1936, Bette Davis took home her first win for the film Dangerous about an alcoholic actress who is considered by those around her to be a jinx.
She won her second Oscar for the film Jezebel in 1939, a film in which she plays a free-spirited Southern belle who succumbs to her own vanity and tries to win back her fiancé.
Bette Davis would be nominated eight more times with some of her most notable performances in Dark Victory, The Little Foxes, All About Eve, and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Interestingly, Steven Spielberg, who is a fan of hers, purchased both of her Oscars at two separate auctions in 2001 and 2002.
Walter Brennan was an actor who did most of his acting work in the ‘30s and early ‘40s, starring in westerns, but made a huge impact in the short time that he did, having earned four nominations and three Academy Award wins for Best Supporting Actor.
His first Academy Award win came in 1937 for the film Come and Get It. The film was about a lumberjack who abandons his lover and ends up marrying into wealth, only to fall for her daughter later on.
In 1939, he won again for the film Kentucky, which was basically the story of Romeo and Juliet but with some Kentucky horse racing going on.
His third win was for The Westerner in 1941. In the film he plays Judge Roy Bean, a self-appointed hanging judge in Texas who meets a saddle tramp that opposes his policies.
His final nomination came in 1942 for the film Sergeant York. He did not take home an Oscar for this role and it would be his last nomination.
Frances McDormand is the first actress and the most recent actress to have earned a third Academy Award. Her naturalistic performances truly bring her characters to life. Having won three out of six Academy Awards, she’s undoubtedly cemented a place in history as one of the best actresses of all time.
Her first Academy Award nomination was the film Mississippi Burning, a film about two FBI agents who investigate the disappearance of a few civil rights activists in Mississippi. She did not win for her role in the film.
McDormand did, however, win for her second Academy Award nominated role in Fargo in 1997. The dark comedy/drama film also starred William H. Macy and Steve Buscemi and was about one man’s kidnapping conspiracy gone horribly wrong. McDormand won the award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
Frances McDormand was nominated two more times for the semi-autobiographical Cameron Crowe film Almost Famous, and North Country, which gave a fictionalized account of the first successful sexual harassment case in America. McDormand did not win for either of those films.
She did win, however, again in 2018 for the film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri in which she plays a mother who goes to great lengths to ensure the local authorities solve her daughter’s murder. McDormand took home the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role.
In 2021, Frances McDormand took home her third acting award for Nomadland. She won the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for the film…but wait, there’s more. She also earned an award for producing the film as it won for Best Motion Picture of the Year. This made her the first actress to be nominated/win for acting and producing the same film.
One of the world’s greatest living actors would have to be method actor Daniel Day-Lewis. However, now retired, we can’t quite say he’s the world’s greatest working actor. But I digress. While he was only nominated for a total of six times, he won three times. And it should be noted that Daniel Day-Lewis had always been very selective in his roles (he turned down Lord of the Rings, after all), so his filmography only includes about 30 credits.
Daniel Day Lewis’s first nomination, and win, was for the film My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown. The film is based on an inspiring true story about a man with cerebral palsy who learns to paint and write with the only limb he can control: his left foot. Daniel Day-Lewis won this Oscar in 1990.
In 1994, he was nominated for a second Academy Award for In the Name of the Father – another true story about an Irishman wrongfully accused of terrorism who fights to clear his name. He did not win for this role, nor for his next nominated role in Gangs of New York, a fictional drama about the Five Points Gang during the American Civil War.
In 2008, he received his second Academy Award win for the film There Will Be Blood about an oil prospector who descends into madness and forsakes his family in pursuit of financial success. His greed ultimately becomes his downfall as he loses the only thing that really matters: his adopted son.
In 2013, Daniel Day-Lewis earned an Academy Award for playing Abraham Lincoln in the Steven Spielberg film title you guessed it – Lincoln. His performance was truly inspired as he transformed into Lincoln, not just physically but in his very essence. It was no surprise to anyone when he won.
In 2018, Day-Lewis earned his final Academy Award nomination for his final film before retirement: The Phantom Thread. The film was about a toxic (literally) relationship between a renowned dressmaker and his lover who models for him. The film was set in the 1950s.
Ingrid Berman was a seven-time Academy Award nominee and three-time winner. The Swedish actress played in various European and American films in a career that spanned five decades. Some of her most notable films included Casablanca, Gaslight and Notorious, just to name a few.
Ingrid Bergman’s first Academy Award nomination was for her role as Maria in For Whom the Bell Tolls, a Spanish Civil War drama also starring Gary Cooper. She did not win for this performance but the nomination had a positive effect on her career nonetheless.
In 1945, Ingrid Bergman won the Oscar for her role in Gaslight. And just as the title suggests, it is the story of a young woman who is slowly manipulated into believing she is insane. It was a remake of a 1940 film of the same name.
In 1946 and 1949, Bergman earned two more Academy Award nominations for The Bell’s of St. Mary’s and Joan of Arc, respectively. The former film was about a rivalry between a nun and a priest at a catholic school. In it she played the nun, Sister Mary Benedict. And in Joan of Arc, she played the titular character. Sadly, she did not win for either of these performances.
She would, however, win for the next two nominations for her roles in Anastasia (1956) and M. on the Orient Express (1974). For her Anastasia win, she would not be present at the ceremony to accept her Oscar, but she did accept for her final Oscar in 1975.
Her last Academy Award nomination in 1979 was for the Swedish film titled Höstsonaten, or in English, Autumn Sonata, directed by Ingmar Bergman. The film was about a devoted wife who is suddenly visited by her estranged mother, a successful concert pianist. Ad it’s an Ingmar Bergman movie so that should tell you it’s a little weird.
Jack Nicholson has the most Academy Award nominations with his 12 but is tied when it comes to male wins at three. Nicholson has always been a movie star. in every sense of the word. His persona oozes off the screen every time, which makes many people believe he’s the same in every role, but the fact is that he’s indeed giving an incredible performance every time.
His first Academy Award nomination was in 1970 for the film Easy Rider, a counterculture story about two bikers. He would earn three more nominations before his next win for Five Easy Pieces, The Last Detail and the Roman Polanski noir film Chinatown. All these were amazing performances but none of them helped bring him home an Oscar.
It wasn’t until 1976 for the film One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest that Jack Nicholson earned his first Academy Award. In the film, Nicholson plays McMurphy, a criminal who pleads insanity and is thrown into a mental institution where he rebels against the villainous Nurse Ratched.
In 1982, he was nominated for the movie Reds about a radical journalist who involves herself in the Russian revolution. He didn’t win for his supporting role in that film but who would win in 1984 for his supporting role in Terms of Endearment, a comedy-drama film also starring Shirley MacLaine.
He would be nominated for three more roles including Prizzi’s Honor, Ironweed and A Few Good Men but would not take home the Oscar for any of those films. However, he earned his final Oscar in 1998 for the romantic comedy film As Good As It Gets.
His final nomination was for the film About Schmidt.
Meryl Streep is highly regarded as one if not the greatest living actress. The woman has a record of 21 Academy Award nominations, more than any other actress, and she also has three Academy Award wins. In a career spanning four decades, that is tremendously impressive and Streep undoubtedly deserves it as she gives a powerhouse performance every time.
Meryl Streep first cemented her legacy with her nomination for the 1978 film The Deer Hunter, also starring Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken. Back then they were not the legends they are today, but it certainly led them towards their path to success. Streep was only nominated for this role – she did not win.
Her first win came in 1980, just a year after her first nomination, for the film Kramer vs. Kramer, also starring Dustin Hoffman. The film, if you haven’t seen it is about a mother who abandons her family to start a career and returns to claim custody of her son, so the mom and dad battle in court.
In 1982, Streep is nominated for a third time for the film The French Lieutenant’s Wife and does not win for that role but she does win in 1983 for the film Sophie’s Choice – and that’s the movie where Streep has to decide which of her children she gives up to the Nazis, inevitably to die. And if you want to know how that turns out, you better watch the movie.
Meryl Streep would be nominated 12 more times between the years of 1984, starting with Silkwood, through 2010 for the film Julie & Julia. She would not win for any of the 12 films, however. Her next win would come in 2012 for the film The Iron Lady in which she plays Margaret Thatcher.
Her career isn’t over yet though. Since her last win, she’s earned four more Academy Award nominations for August: Osage County (2014), Into the Woods (2015), Florence Foster Jenkins (2017) and The Post (2018). And time will tell what she’s nominated for next!
Katharine Hepburn had more Academy Award wins (four) than any actress even Meryl Streep – at least for now. While she hasn’t been nominated as many times as Streep, only 12, her talent cannot be disputed. Her career spanned almost 60 years and during that time her spirited persona made her a true movie star in addition to just being a great actress.
Her first Academy Award nomination and win came with the film Morning Glory about an aspiring actress on Broadway who is taken under the wing of some successful theater veterans who help her to become a success. She earned her first award in 1934 but was not present at the ceremony to accept it.
Hepburn would be nominated nine more times, including films like The Philadelphia Story, The African Queen, and The Rainmaker, before she would earn her next win in 1968 for the film Guess Who’s Coming for Dinner. Again, she would not be present at the ceremony, so filmmaker George Cukor accepted the award on her behalf. The film was somewhat controversial for its time as it was about a daughter who introduces her white parents to her fiancé, a black man played by Sidney Poitier.
The Lion in Winter was her next win that came in 1969. That film, about King Henry II, also starred Peter O’Toole and Anthony Hopkins. Again, she was not present to accept her award so the director of the film accepted it on her behalf. What was most interesting about this win, however, was that it was a tie with Barbra Streisand for the film Funny Girl.
Katharine Hepburn’s final win, and nomination, was for the 1981 film On Golden Pond – about a father with an estranged relationship with his daughter who agrees, along with his wife, to take care of the son of his daughter’s boyfriend. The film also stars the legendary Henry Fonda. As was tradition, Hepburn didn’t attend the ceremony.
