Who Has Won the Most Oscars

Who has won the most Oscars? Walt Disney has received the most Oscars from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He was nominated for 64 awards and won 26. It is a record that has not even come close to being broken.

The Oscars, officially known as Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards first occurred in 1929. Since that time they have gone from being a tiny, under-attended affair to one of the biggest award shows in the world. The Oscar award, technically known as the Academy Award of Merit, is a highly coveted, 13 1/2 inch tall golden statuette.

Who Decides the Oscar Winners?
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has about 6,000 members broken into 15 branches. Each branch is responsible for the nominations within their category. For example, the Academy Actors branch decides nominations for categories that involve the Best Actor or Best Actress. The only exception to this rule is the Best Picture category, which all members help nominate. Voting for the actual winners is done by all Academy members.

Who Has Won the Most Oscars?
Though Walt Disney holds the record for winning the most Oscars, there are many other prestigious professionals who can claim record Oscar wins. From the most wins for a single movie to the most repeat wins in a single category, there's a variety of notable Oscar winners.

• Katherine Hepburn has the most wins in the Best Actor or Actress Oscar categories. She won four Best Actress Oscars during her career. Meryl Streep has been nominated the most, 15 times in all. However, she has only won twice.
• Spencer Tracy and Tom Hanks are the only two actors to win the Best Actor Oscar category two years in a row. The best actor category has never had a single actor win more than two times. Tracy won for Captains Courageous in 1937 and Boys Town in 1938. Hanks won for Philadelphia in 1993 and Forrest Gump in 1994.
• John Ford won the most Best Director Oscars with five nominations and four wins. His wins were for The Informers in 1935, The Grapes of Wrath in 1940, How Green Was My Valley in 1941 and The Quiet Man in 1952.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King holds the record for the most Oscars won in its nominated categories, with 11. In fact, the film won every award it was nominated for. Though other films have won every award they were nominated for, The Return of the King was nominated 11 times, a record for wins vs. nominations.
• Ben-Hur, Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King are tied for the most Oscars won by a single movie. All three movies won a total of 11 awards each.