The 88th Academy Awards will be with us shortly, and a lot of potential first-time winners are favourites to take home the acting gongs – Leonardo DiCaprio, Brie Larson, Alicia Vikander and Sylvester Stallone.
We already know the stars who have been shockingly snubbed, but here are the biggest winners in the 87 years of Academy Awards history who would sniff at a mere single Oscar:
1. Walt Disney – Most Oscars in total
Disney pretty much owns the creative industry these days, so it should come as no surprise that its controversial and immensely influential founder holds the record for most Oscars. Walt Disney won 22 competitive Academy Awards and a further four honoraries, beginning with the short Flowers and Trees in 1932 and ending with the posthumous Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day in 1969. He also received the most nominations – a whopping 59.
2. Edith Head – Woman with most Oscars
Hollywood sexism being what it is, legendary costume designer (and inspiration for The Incredibles' Edna Mode) Edith Head doesn't hold the record for second or even third-highest number of Oscars, though the eight she took home are not to be sniffed at. Head designed for stars including Mae West, Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly, and won for films including All About Eve (1950) and Roman Holiday (1953) – out of a total 35 nominations.
3. Katherine Hepburn – Actor with most Oscars
The unique and formidable Katherine Hepburn is rightly considered one of the greatest actresses of all time, and she has the record to back that up: an unparalleled four acting Oscars (plus eight more nominations). She was named Best Actress for 1934's Morning Glory, 1968's Look Who's Coming to Dinner, 1969's The Lion in Winter (albeit shared with Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl) and 1982's On Golden Pond – breaking another record for the 48 years between her first and final win.
4. John Ford – Most Oscars for a director
Best known as a director of Westerns, John Ford's record four Best Director Academy Awards owes nothing to the Wild West, but instead to The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green was My Valley (1941) and The Quiet Man (1952). He also added three more Best Picture and Best Documentary Oscars to that total, just for good measure.
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5. Triple Oscar-winning actors
It might feel a bit like Meryl Streep, Daniel Day Lewis and Jack Nicholson have won a hundred Oscars apiece, but actually they have only three each – though Streep does hold the record for acting nominations at 17. Swedish acting legend and sometime Hitchcock muse Ingrid Bergman and character actor Walter Brennan round out the team.
6. Cedric Gibbons – most Oscars for production designer
The second-most decorated person in Academy Awards history is art director and production designer Cedric Gibbons, who won 11 Best Art Design Oscars out of 38 nominations. He also designed the Oscar statuette itself, so it seems only fair to send him home with a few.
7. John Williams – living person with the most Oscar nominations
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas's go-to composer John Williams has received five Oscars since 1971's Fiddler on the Roof. And with Walt Disney dead, he holds the record for the living person with most nominations at a mind-boggling 50 (including those five). Fifty.
8. Most Oscars for a single film
Three films share the record for scooping 11 Oscars in one sitting: Biblical classic Ben-Hur (1959), James Cameron's behemoth Titanic (1997) and the rare fantasy film nominee The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003).
9. "Big Five" winners
One sign of true Academy Awards success is to take home the five big Oscars in one year – Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Director and Best (Original or Adapted) Screenplay. Believe it or not, this has actually only happened three times since the Awards began in 1929: for It Happened One Night (1934), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
