The woman with the most ‘Best Actress’ Oscars
As of 2023, only 44 individuals have won multiple acting Academy Awards. Since four acting statuettes are awarded every year, and since the Oscars have been going for 93, that means that more than 370 acting awards have been distributed across nearly a full century. To keep the math going, that means that only eight per cent of actors have ever won more than one acting Oscar. To call it a rarity would be an understatement.
Though they might be an exclusive group, the people that have won multiple acting Oscars are among the most famous actors of all time. When you’re talking about Daniel Day-Lewis, Frances McDormand, Jack Nicholson, and Meryl Streep, you know that elite company is a well-deserved term. Day-Lewis and Nicholson both have three Oscars, sharing the title for most male Oscars with Walter Brennan, the latter of whom became the first actor to win three Oscars. McDormand, Streep, and Ingrid Bergman all have three Oscars, but there is one actress who has them all beat: Katharine Hepburn.
Across five decades, Hepburn managed to win four separate acting Oscars. Her first came in 1933, thanks to her breakthrough role as an aspiring actress in pre-Code Hollywood for the film Morning Glory. Hepburn was just 25 when she won her ‘Best Actress’ Oscar, making her one of the youngest lead actor Oscar winners in the Acadamy Awards’ still-nascent history. By coincidence, another one of Hepburn’s films from that year, Little Women, won the Academy Award for ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’.
It would take another 30 years for Hepburn to win another Oscar. In 1968, Hepburn would take home her second Academy Award for ‘Best Actress’ thanks to her performance in Look Who’s Coming to Dinner. In the time between her two wins, Hepburn was nominated an additional eight times, with her classic roles in films like The Philadelphia Story and The African Queen garnering nominations but no wins. Despite being nominated ten times and winning two awards by 1968, Hepburn never attended the actual ceremony.
It didn’t take long for Hepburn to nab her next statuette. The year after taking home her second Oscar for Look Who’s Coming to Dinner, Hepburn was nominated again for her role in The Lion in Winter. Hepburn’s win in 1969 is one of the most unique in Oscar history because it was the only time that two Academy Awards for ‘Best Actress’ were awarded. Hepburn received the exact same number of votes as Funny Girl actress Barbra Streisand, so the two actresses wound up sharing the award. Since Hepburn once again declined to attend the ceremony, Streisand was the only one who gave a speech.
By 1982, Hepburn was one of the most respected and revered actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood. She had largely turned her focus to stage acting, which is where she saw the Broadway production of On Golden Pond. Hepburn found out that Jane Fonda had purchased the rights for a film adaptation so that her father, Henry Fonda, could star in the film. Hepburn became the natural choice to star opposite Fonda, and the pair would both win Oscars for their portrayals. That made Hepburn the most decorated actor in the history of the Academy Awards, nabbing a still-unmatched four acting Oscars, all as a lead actress.
