A Cinematic Legend Has The Most Oscars In History

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One might think, looking at the above headline, that this will be an article about the legendary composer John Williams, but that is not the case. Williams, perhaps shockingly, has only won five Oscars in his decades-long career, specifically for "Fiddler on the Roof," "Jaws," "Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope," "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," and "Schindler's List." The famed composer, however, has been nominated for more Oscars than anyone in history (save for one), having been recognized 54 times since 1968. Williams' most recent nomination was for "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny."

Others might also think of director John Ford or actor Katharine Hepburn as the most decorated talents in Oscars history, but they each only have four wins to their names. To be fair, winning four Oscars in one's field is still a huge achievement. Also, Ford holds the record as the most awarded director, and Hepburn the most awarded actor.

Special effects guru Rick Baker, meanwhile, has won seven Oscars for his work making creatures and monster makeup, while Alan Menken ("The Little Mermaid," "Tangled") has won eight for his songs and musical scores. Famed costume designer Edith Head has also won eight Oscars, all in the costume category, while Alfred Newman, a notable film composer of the 1940s, took home nine statuettes. One of the original founders of the Academy, Cedric Gibbons, also helped define movie production design back in the '20s and '30s, and ended up winning 11 Oscars out of 39 nominations.

Blowing them all out of the water, however, is Walt Disney, who produced hundreds of animated shorts and was nominated for 59 Oscars in his lifetime, taking home statuettes 26 times (22 of them in competitive categories).

Walt Disney has won more Oscars than anyone in history

As one might be able to intuit, most of Disney's wins came in the animated short category. Disney built his studio on innovative, expressive animation, and won six Oscars for his shorts before his studio launched its first animated feature, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," in 1937. Prior to that, Disney was recognized for "Flowers and Trees," "The Three Little Pigs," "The Tortoise and the Hare," "Three Orphan Kittens," "The Country Cousins," and "The Old Mill." Curiously, only six more Walt Disney animated shorts would win Oscars, including a posthumous award in 1966 for "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day."

Disney's star characters Mickey Mouse and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit weren't part of Walt's Oscar wins though. Moreover, several of Walt's Mickey cartoons were nominated ("Mickey's Orphans," "The Pointer," "Squatter's Rights") without ever winning. Even Donald Duck had a much better Oscar run, being nominated for several more Oscars than Mickey, and winning for the spoof of Nazism, "Der Fuehrer's Face." Mickey, however, proved to be so popular that Disney received an honorary Oscar in 1932 merely for inventing the character. Disney also received a special Oscar in 1939 for the outstanding work done on "Snow White," and then another in 1941 for the outstanding sound in "Fantasia." That same year, Disney received the honorable Irving G. Thalberg Award for his impressive body of work up to that point.

From 1953 until 1966, Disney won no Oscars for his animated shorts, but racked up many for the company's well-known pastoral documentaries, both shorts and features.

Walt Disney was a notable documentarian, and his films won many Oscars

Disney's many documentaries were, upon analysis, nominated and awarded as much as his animated shorts. After 18 nominations for cartoons, Disney was nominated twice in 1942 for the documentary features "The New Spirit" and "The Grain that Built a Hemisphere" (it's corn). Then, in 1948, Disney won his first documentary Oscar for the short "Seal Island." This was followed by wins in 1950 (for the short "In Beaver Valley"), 1951 (for the short "Nature's Half-Acre"), 1952 (for the short "Water Birds"), and two in 1953 (for the short "The Alaskan Eskimo" and the feature "The Living Desert").

If you are of a certain age, it's likely you saw Walt Disney documentaries in school, as they all had a pleasant, earnest, educational vibe. Just like with his features, Disney aggressively pushed an idea of America as a garden-like fantasy land of pleasant cowboys and friendly animals. Disney's documentaries, even more than his scripted features, purely represent how Disney envisioned the nation. Walt also won Oscars for "Bear County," "Man Against the Arctic," "The Vanishing Prairie," and "Grand Canyon." That last film, awarded in 1958, was Walt's last win in his lifetime. Despite Walt's massive success as a documentarian, he is still remembered as an animator first and foremost.

Disney was nominated for Best Picture only once, and it was for "Mary Poppins" in 1964. He lost to "My Fair Lady" that year, with "Mary Poppins" being nominated alongside "Becket," "Zorba the Greek," and "Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb." It seems Disney lost because competition was stiff.