Oscar Trivia

by Beth Rowen

Films that won the most Oscars (each won 11):
Ben-Hur (1959)
Titanic (1997)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Person with most Oscar wins:
Walt Disney won 26 awards. Most were in short subject categories.

Most Best Actor awards:
Daniel Day-Lewis (3)

Most Best Actress awards:
Katharine Hepburn (4)

Most Nominated Performer:
As of 2015, Meryl Streep has a record 19 Oscar nominations, 15 as Best Actress (also a record), and 4 as Best Supporting Actress. So far, she has won three Oscars. She won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979). She's won the Best Actress Oscar twice, for roles in Sophie's Choice (1982) and The Iron Lady (2011).

For her role in Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012), Quvenzhané Wallis became the youngest actress ever to be nominated for Lead Actress at 9 years, 135 days. The same year, in the same category, Emmanuelle Riva, became the oldest actress to ever be nominated at 85 years, 321 days for her work in the film Amour.

In 1991, Beauty and the Beast became the first animated film nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.

Best Animated Feature became a new category in 2001. Shrek won the first award.

Judi Dench won Supporting Actress for her role as Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love. She appeared in the film for only eight minutes!

Alfonso Cuarón became the first Hispanic filmmaker to win Best Director for 2013's Gravity.

Steve R. McQueen became the first black filmmaker to direct a Best Picture winner, 12 Years a Slave (2013).

John Wayne acted in 138 films before winning an Oscar for True Grit (1969).

Henry Fonda appeared in movies for 41 years before winning an Oscar for On Golden Pond in 1981.

Greer Garson, who won the Best Actress award in 1942 for her part in Mrs. Miniver, gave the longest speech in Oscar history. It was more than five minutes long.

Films that won all five major categories (Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay):
It Happened One Night (1934)
Frank Capra (director), Clark Gable (actor), Claudette Colbert (actress), Robert Riskin (screenplay)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Milos Forman (director), Jack Nicholson (actor), Louise Fletcher (actress), Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman (screenplay)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Jonathan Demme (director), Anthony Hopkins (actor), Jodie Foster (actress), Ted Tally (screenplay)