Frances McDormand is just seventh ever star to win three or more acting Oscars

Amy Johnson
·Contributor
·4 min read
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Watch: Frances McDormand swaps Oscar with Chloé Zhao after Nomadland triumphs

Frances McDormand's Best Actress win at the 93rd Academy Awards has ensured her a place in the exclusive club of stars with three or more Oscars in the acting categories.

She took home the prize for her role as Fern in Chloé Zhao's Nomadland after previously winning in the same category twice: in 1997 for Fargo and in 2018 for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Outside of acting, as a producer on Nomadland the 63-year-old also shares the film's win for Best Picture.

Frances McDormand accepts the Oscar for Actress in a Leading Role for
Frances McDormand accepts the Best Actress Oscar for Nomadland at the 93rd Annual Academy Awards on 25 April in Los Angeles, California. (Todd Wawrychuk/A.M.P.A.S. via Getty Images)

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McDormand is only the seventh person to secure three Oscar wins in acting categories.

Among her predecessors is Walter Brennan, who died in 1974 after winning Best Supporting Actor three times during his long career. The awarded performances came in Come And Get It, Kentucky and The Westerner.

Walter Brennan attends the Oscar Nominations in Los Angeles, California in 1955. (Photo by Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Walter Brennan attends the Oscar nominations in Los Angeles in 1955. (Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

There are two other male actors in the exclusive club: Daniel Day-Lewis for Best Actor wins for My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood and Lincoln, and Jack Nicholson for Best Actor wins for One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and As Good As It Gets and a Best Supporting Actor win for Terms Of Endearment.

Meanwhile, the late Ingrid Bergman's performances in Gaslight and Anastasia earned her Best Actress Awards, then later in her career her part in Murder On The Orient Express won in the Best Supporting Actress category.

Naturally, Meryl Streep is also part of the three acting awards or more set. She's received the most nominations of any actor, with a staggering 21 nods.

Meryl Streep with the Best Actress award, received for The Iron Lady, at the 84th Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre, Los Angeles. (Photo by Ian West/PA Images via Getty Images)
Meryl Streep with the Best Actress award, received for The Iron Lady, at the 84th Academy Awards in Los Angeles in 2012. (Ian West/PA Images via Getty Images)

When it comes to wins she's got two Best Actress prizes under her belt, for Sophie's Choice and The Iron Lady, as a Best Supporting Actress win for Kramer Vs. Kramer.

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The queen of the acting Oscars, however, is Katharine Hepburn, the only person with a total of four of the awards.

She won Best Actress category four times, with Morning Glory, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, The Lion In Winter and On Golden Pond.

Katharine Hepburn addresses the 46th annual Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, Ca., on April 2, 1974. (AP Photo)Actress Katharine Hepburn addresses the 46th annual Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, Ca., on April 2, 1974. It is the three-time Oscar winner's first appearance at the awards. (AP Photo)
Katharine Hepburn addresses the 46th annual Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles in 1974. (AP Photo)

However, she only attended the ceremony once, in 1974, to present the Irving G Thalberg Memorial Award to producer Lawrence Weingarten.

Sunday's ceremony also saw several other milestones reached and records broken too, notably Zhao's Best Director win.

She's only the second woman to receive the accolade after Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker, and she's also the first Chinese director to prove victorious in the category.

Daniel Kaluuya poses with the Best Actor in a Supporting Role award for 'Judas and the Black Messiah' in the press room during the 93rd Annual Academy Awards at Union Station on April 25, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Matt Petit/A.M.P.A.S. via Getty Images)
Daniel Kaluuya poses with the Best Actor In A Supporting Role award for Judas And The Black Messiah in the press room during the 93rd Academy Awards at Union Station on 25 April in Los Angeles. (Matt Petit/A.M.P.A.S. via Getty Images)

Minari star Yuh-Jung Youn became the first person from South Korea to clinch Best Supporting Actress, and Judas And The Black Messiah's Daniel Kaluuya became the first Black British winner of Best Supporting Actor.

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Promising Young Woman writer and director Emerald Fennell also became the first British woman to win Best Original Screenplay since the category was established in its current form at the 1958 Oscars.

At 83 years old, Sir Anthony Hopkins is now the oldest person to take home an acting Oscar, after winning Best Actor for his performance in The Father.

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