Who Has Won the Most Acting Oscars? The Record Holders
One four-time winner, seven three-time winners, and the categories they won in.
Aditya Challa2 min read
Summary
Katharine Hepburn has won the most acting Oscars: four Best Actress awards, for Morning Glory, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter and On Golden Pond. Seven performers sit just behind her with three each, and Sean Penn became the most recent to join them at the 2026 ceremony.
Who has won the most acting Oscars ever?
Hepburn won four times between 1934 and 1982 from 12 nominations, all in the lead category. She never attended the ceremony to collect any of them.
Which actors have three Oscars?
| Performer | Lead wins | Supporting wins |
|---|---|---|
| Daniel Day-Lewis | 3 (My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood, Lincoln) | 0 |
| Frances McDormand | 3 (Fargo, Three Billboards, Nomadland) | 0 |
| Meryl Streep | 2 (Sophie's Choice, The Iron Lady) | 1 (Kramer vs. Kramer) |
| Jack Nicholson | 2 (Cuckoo's Nest, As Good as It Gets) | 1 (Terms of Endearment) |
| Ingrid Bergman | 2 (Gaslight, Anastasia) | 1 (Murder on the Orient Express) |
| Sean Penn | 2 (Mystic River, Milk) | 1 (One Battle After Another) |
| Walter Brennan | 0 | 3 |
Who has the most Best Actor wins?
Daniel Day-Lewis is the only man with three Best Actor Oscars.
Who has the most acting nominations?
Meryl Streep holds the record with 21 acting nominations.
FAQ
Has anyone won five acting Oscars? No. Hepburn's four is the record.
Who won acting Oscars in back-to-back years? Luise Rainer, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Jason Robards and Tom Hanks.
Does McDormand have a fourth Oscar? Yes, but it is for producing Nomadland (Best Picture), not for acting.
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Facts in this draft were checked on 13 Oct 2026 against the sources listed in the body (official records, publishers, encyclopaedias and named news outlets). No original testing or reporting was done; figures are quoted as published by those sources, fiction and folklore are labelled as such, and any estimate or prediction is labelled as such.
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