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Katharine Hepburn holds the record for the most competitive acting Oscars, with four. Seven performers have won three acting Academy Awards, while many others have won two. Because the two-win group is large, this list uses total acting nominations as the tie-breaker to select 11 names.
This ranking covers only wins in the Academy’s four competitive acting categories: Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress. Honorary, humanitarian, producing, Best Picture and other non-acting Oscars are excluded. The totals are based on the Academy’s official record through the 98th Academy Awards, presented on March 15, 2026.
1. Katharine Hepburn — 4 acting Oscars
Katharine Hepburn is the only performer to win four competitive acting Academy Awards. All four were Best Actress prizes:
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- Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)
- The Lion in Winter (1968)
- On Golden Pond (1981)
The Academy records 12 acting nominations for Hepburn. Her four-win record remains unmatched, despite the many highly decorated acting careers that followed.
Tied at 2. Ingrid Bergman — 3 acting Oscars
Ingrid Bergman won two Best Actress Oscars and one Best Supporting Actress Oscar:
- Best Actress, Gaslight (1944)
- Best Actress, Anastasia (1956)
- Best Supporting Actress, Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
Bergman is one of the performers on this list to win in both a lead and supporting acting category.
Tied at 2. Walter Brennan — 3 acting Oscars
Walter Brennan won all three of his Oscars for Best Supporting Actor:
- Come and Get It (1936)
- Kentucky (1938)
- The Westerner (1940)
His three supporting-actor victories make him the clearest example here of sustained dominance in a single acting category.
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Tied at 2. Daniel Day-Lewis — 3 acting Oscars
Daniel Day-Lewis is the only performer to win Best Actor three times. His winning performances were:
- My Left Foot (1989)
- There Will Be Blood (2007)
- Lincoln (2012)
Unlike the other three-time winners who combine lead and supporting victories—or, in Brennan’s case, have three supporting wins—Day-Lewis’s entire total comes from the lead-actor category.
Tied at 2. Frances McDormand — 3 acting Oscars
Frances McDormand has won Best Actress three times:
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- Fargo (1996)
- Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
- Nomadland (2020)
McDormand also has a Best Picture Oscar as a producer of Nomadland, but that award is not included in this acting-only ranking.
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Tied at 2. Jack Nicholson — 3 acting Oscars
Jack Nicholson won Best Actor twice and Best Supporting Actor once:
- Best Actor, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
- Best Supporting Actor, Terms of Endearment (1983)
- Best Actor, As Good as It Gets (1997)
His record combines repeated lead-category success with a supporting performance that also won the Academy’s recognition.
Tied at 2. Sean Penn — 3 acting Oscars
Sean Penn’s three acting wins are split between lead and supporting categories:
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- Best Actor, Mystic River (2003)
- Best Actor, Milk (2008)
- Best Supporting Actor, One Battle After Another (2025)
That third victory, awarded at the 98th Academy Awards on March 15, 2026, made Penn the most recent performer to join the three-win group.
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Tied at 2. Meryl Streep — 3 acting Oscars
Meryl Streep has won one Best Supporting Actress Oscar and two Best Actress Oscars:
- Best Supporting Actress, Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
- Best Actress, Sophie’s Choice (1982)
- Best Actress, The Iron Lady (2011)
Streep’s three wins are accompanied by an exceptional 21 acting nominations, the highest nomination total among the performers listed here.
The two-win cutoff
After Hepburn’s four wins and the seven performers with three, the next tier contains many actors tied with two competitive acting Oscars. To provide exactly 11 names, this ranking uses acting-nomination totals as the secondary tie-breaker. The final three performers are therefore tied on wins; none has fewer acting Oscars than another.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesTied at 9. Bette Davis — 2 acting Oscars
Bette Davis won Best Actress for:
- Dangerous (1935)
- Jezebel (1938)
The Academy records 11 acting nominations for Davis, the highest nomination total among the three performers selected for the two-win cutoff.
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Tied at 9. Spencer Tracy — 2 acting Oscars
Spencer Tracy won Best Actor for:
- Captains Courageous (1937)
- Boys Town (1938)
Tracy received nine acting nominations in total.
Tied at 9. Denzel Washington — 2 acting Oscars
Denzel Washington has one win in each of the two male acting categories:
- Best Supporting Actor, Glory (1989)
- Best Actor, Training Day (2001)
Washington has nine acting nominations, matching Tracy’s total and placing him in the same two-win tier.
What this ranking shows
- Hepburn is the record-holder: her four competitive acting wins are unmatched.
- Seven performers have three acting Oscars: Bergman, Brennan, Day-Lewis, McDormand, Nicholson, Penn and Streep.
- Day-Lewis leads the Best Actor category: he is the only three-time Best Actor winner.
- Brennan’s record is category-specific: all three of his victories came in Supporting Actor.
- Several careers cross categories: Bergman, Nicholson, Penn and Streep won in both lead and supporting categories.
- Nomination totals measure longevity, not just wins: Streep has 21 acting nominations, Hepburn 12 and Davis 11, but nominations do not change the primary ranking.
What counts as an acting Oscar?
For this list, an acting Oscar means a competitive Academy Award won in one of four categories: Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor or Supporting Actress. A performer’s honorary Oscar, humanitarian award, Best Picture award as a producer or any other non-acting Academy Award does not increase their acting-win total.
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This distinction matters because lists of the people with the most Oscars overall use a broader calculation. The ranking here answers the narrower question: who has won the most competitive Academy Awards specifically for acting?
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