Who has directed the most actors to Academy Award wins?
February 29th, 2008 by admin
Eighty Academy Award ceremonies are now in the record book, so we thought we'd go back and take a look at some extra-trivial details. The Coen Brothers now have directed two actors to an Oscar: Frances McDormand for Fargo and Javier Bardem for No Country For Old Men.
Tony Gilroy, Paul Thomas Anderson and Oliver Dahan now have each directed their first actor to a win.
But who has the most and how many?

William Wyler has directed 13 different actors to Oscar wins, including Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl.
It will be difficult for any director to match that number. Among the 14 directors with 4 or more wins in this category, only Elia Kazan (9) has more than half Wyler's total. Clint Eastwood scored 2 in back-to-back years, giving him 5 - but he is 77 years old, and will probably run out of time. Nobody else in Hollywood nowadays seems to be the kind of "actor's director" who could challenge Wyler's dominance.
Steven Spielberg, perhaps the most successful movie director in history, has directed exactly zero actors to Oscar wins (out of nine nominations), despite winning the Best Director award twice.
THE LIST
William Wyler - 13
Bette Davis, best actress, and Fay Bainter, best suppporting actress, Jezebel (1938)
Walter Brennan, best supporting actor, The Westerner (1940)
Greer Garson, best actress, and Teresa Wright, best supporting actress, Mrs. Miniver (1942)
Frederic March, best actor, and Harold Russell, best supporting actor, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Olivia de Havilland, best actress, The Heiress (1949)
Audrey Hepburn, best actress, Roman Holiday (1953)
Burl Ives, best supporting actor, The Big Country (1958)
Charlton Heston, best actor, and Hugh Griffith, best supporting actor, Ben-Hur (1959)
Barbra Streisand, best actress, Funny Girl (1968)
Elia Kazan - 9
James Dunn, best supporting actor, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)
Celeste Holm, best supporting actress, Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
Vivien Leigh, best actress, Karl Malden, best supporting actor, and Kim Hunter, best supporting actress, A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Anthony Quinn, best supporting actor, Viva Zapata! (1952)
Marlon Brando, best actor, and Eva Marie Saint, best supporting actress, On the Waterfront (1954)
Jo Van Fleet, best supporting actress, East of Eden (1955)
John Ford - 6
Victor McLaglen, best actor, The Informer (1935)
Thomas Mitchell, best supporting actor, Stagecoach (1939)
Jane Darwell, best supporting actress, The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Donald Crisp, best supporting actor, How Green Was My Valley (1941)
Victor McLaglen, best supporting actor, The Quiet Man (1952)
Jack Lemmon, best supporting actor, Mister Roberts [co-director] (1955)
Fred Zinneman - 6
Gary Cooper, best actor, High Noon (1952)
Frank Sinatra, best supporting actor, and Donna Reed, best supporting actress, From Here to Eternity (1953)
Paul Scofield, best actor, A Man For All Seasons (1966)
Jason Robards, best supporting actor, and Vanessa Redgrave, best actress, Julia (1977)
Clint Eastwood - 5
Gene Hackman, best supporting actor, Unforgiven (1992)
Sean Penn, best actor, and Tim Robbins, best supporting actor, Mystic River (2003)
Hilary Swank, best actress and Morgan Freeman, best supporting actor, Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Martin Scorsese - 5
Ellen Bursytn, best actress, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)
Robert De Niro, best actor, Raging Bull (1980)
Paul Newman, best actor, The Color of Money (1986)
Joe Pesci, best supporting actor, GoodFellas (1990)
Cate Blanchett, best supporting actress, The Aviator (2004)
Woody Allen - 5
Diane Keaton, best actress, Annie Hall (1977)
Michael Caine, best supporting actor, and Dianne Wiest, best supporting actress, Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Dianne Wiest, best supporting actress, Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
Mira Sorvino, best supporting actress, Mighty Aphrodite (1995)
George Cukor - 5
James Stewart, best actor, The Philadelphia Story (1941)
Ingrid Berman, best actress, Gaslight (1944)
Ronald Coleman, best actor, A Double Life (1947)
Judy Holliday, best actress, Born Yesterday (1950)
Rex Harrison, best actor, My Fair Lady (1964)
Victor Fleming - 4Emil Jannings, best actor, The Way of All Flesh (1927/28)
Spencer Tracy, best actor, Captains Courageous (1937)
Vivien Leigh, best actress, and Hattie McDaniel, best supporting actress, Gone With the Wind (1939)
John Huston - 4
Walter Huston, best supporting actor, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Claire Trevor, best supporting actress, Key Largo (1948)
Humphrey Bogart, best actor, The African Queen (1950)
Anjelica Huston, best supporting actress, Prizzi's Honor (1985)
Hal Ashby - 4
Lee Grant, best supporting actrss, Shampoo (1975)
Jon Voight, best actor, and Jane Fonda, best actress, Coming Home (1978)
Melvyn Douglas, best supporting actor, Being There (1979)
James L. Brooks - 4
Shirley McLaine, best actress, and Jack Nicholson, best supporting actor, Terms of Endearment (1983)
Jack Nicholson, best actor, and Helen Hunt, best actress, As Good As It Gets (1997)
Jonathan Demme -4
Mary Steenburgen, best supporting actress, Melvin and Howard (1980)
Anthony Hopkins, best actor, and Jodie Foster, best actress, Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Tom Hanks, best actor, Philadelphia (1993)
Sidney Lumet - 4
Ingrid Bergman, best supporting actress, Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
Peter Finch, best actor, Faye Dunaway, best actress and Beatrice Straight, best supporting actress, Network (1976)
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