Some actors are in a lot of movies, some actors are in great movies, and some actors are in a lot of great movies. In this last category, Meryl Streep is the reigning champ. From her first Oscar nod for 1978\u2019s The Deer Hunter to her most recent one for 2017\u2019s The Post, Streep has amassed a total of 21 Academy Award nominations: four for best supporting actress and a staggering 17 for best actress.
\nThe person with the best chance of breaking her record is Al Pacino, in fourth place with \u201conly\u201d nine nominations. The other fourth-place finishers (Paul Newman and Spencer Tracy), both third-place finishers (Bette Davis and Laurence Olivier), and one of two second-place finishers (Katharine Hepburn) have already passed away. The other runner-up, Jack Nicholson, hasn\u2019t acted in a film in over a decade. Even if Nicholson did return to the silver screen, he\u2019d still need 10 more nominations to best Streep\u2014assuming she didn\u2019t pick up any additional noms while he was playing catch-up.
\nHepburn might be second to Streep when it comes to nominations, but she\u2019s currently in first place on the list of most Oscar wins. Streep has won three, for 1979\u2019s Kramer vs. Kramer, 1982\u2019s Sophie\u2019s Choice, and 2011\u2019s The Iron Lady. Hepburn\u2019s total is four: Morning Glory (1933), Guess Who\u2019s Coming to Dinner (1967), The Lion in Winter (1968), and On Golden Pond (1981).
\nThough most frequently nominated performers managed to take home at least one Oscar statuette, there are a few with zero wins\u2014namely, Peter O\u2019Toole, Richard Burton, and Glenn Close. Close, with eight nominations, has an opportunity to interrupt her losing streak at this year\u2019s awards ceremony; she\u2019s nominated for her supporting role in Hillbilly Elegy (2020).
\nThe list below is based on actor-specific nominations only (lead and supporting), so extra nominations that actors have picked up for directing, producing, or any other participation in a movie aren\u2019t included. Once you\u2019re finished perusing, gear up for the 93rd Oscars on April 25 with some fun facts about Oscars past.<\/p>\n
1. Meryl Streep \/\/ 21 nominations (3 wins)
\n2. Katharine Hepburn \/\/ 12 nominations (4 wins)
\n2. Jack Nicholson \/\/ 12 nominations (3 wins)
\n3. Bette Davis \/\/ 10 nominations (2 wins)
\n3. Laurence Olivier \/\/ 10 nominations (1 win)
\n4. Al Pacino \/\/ 9 nominations (1 win)
\n4. Paul Newman \/\/ 9 nominations (1 win)
\n4. Spencer Tracy \/\/ 9 nominations (2 wins)
\n5. Marlon Brando \/\/ 8 nominations (2 wins)
\n5. Glenn Close \/\/ 8 nominations (0 wins)
\n5. Jack Lemmon \/\/ 8 nominations (2 wins)
\n5. Peter O\u2019Toole \/\/ 8 nominations (0 wins)
\n5. Geraldine Page \/\/ 8 nominations (1 win)
\n5. Denzel Washington \/\/ 8 nominations (2 wins)
\n6. Ingrid Bergman \/\/ 7 nominations (3 wins)
\n6. Cate Blanchett \/\/ 7 nominations (2 wins)
\n6. Jeff Bridges \/\/ 7 nominations (1 win)
\n6. Richard Burton \/\/ 7 nominations (0 wins)
\n6. Judi Dench \/\/ 7 nominations (1 win)
\n6. Robert De Niro \/\/ 7 nominations (2 wins)
\n6. Robert Duvall \/\/ 7 nominations (1 win)
\n6. Jane Fonda \/\/ 7 nominations (2 wins)
\n6. Greer Garson \/\/ 7 nominations (1 win)
\n6. Dustin Hoffman \/\/ 7 nominations (2 wins)
\n6. Kate Winslet \/\/ 7 nominations (1 win)<\/p>\n
Some actors are in a lot of movies, some actors are in great movies, and some actors are in a lot of great movies. In this last category, Meryl Streep is the reigning champ. From her first Oscar nod for 1978\u2019s The Deer Hunter to her most recent one for 2017\u2019s The Post, Streep has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/oneclickstip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/699650867_122124472359207301_1017230456258829323_n.jpg",1279,1600,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/oneclickstip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/699650867_122124472359207301_1017230456258829323_n-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/oneclickstip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/699650867_122124472359207301_1017230456258829323_n-240x300.jpg",240,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/oneclickstip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/699650867_122124472359207301_1017230456258829323_n-768x961.jpg",640,801,true],"large":["https:\/\/oneclickstip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/699650867_122124472359207301_1017230456258829323_n-819x1024.jpg",640,800,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/oneclickstip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/699650867_122124472359207301_1017230456258829323_n-1228x1536.jpg",1228,1536,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/oneclickstip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/699650867_122124472359207301_1017230456258829323_n.jpg",1279,1600,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Sigma Jay","author_link":"https:\/\/oneclickstip.com\/?author=4"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Some actors are in a lot of movies, some actors are in great movies, and some actors are in a lot of great movies. In this last category, Meryl Streep is the reigning champ. From her first Oscar nod for 1978\u2019s The Deer Hunter to her most recent one for 2017\u2019s The Post, Streep has…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oneclickstip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oneclickstip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oneclickstip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oneclickstip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oneclickstip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=879"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/oneclickstip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":881,"href":"https:\/\/oneclickstip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879\/revisions\/881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oneclickstip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oneclickstip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oneclickstip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oneclickstip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}