Queer cinema icons!
(L-R) Katharine Hepburn; Academy Award statue; Cecil Beaton.
Bettmann Contributor/Getty Images; shutterstock creative; John Springer Collection/Corbis via Getty ImagesThe 97th Academy Awards are just around the corner, and this year's ceremony has several queer nominees who could pick up trophies! Among those nominees is Elton John, who already has two Oscars (one for The Lion King, another for Rocketman), which would catapult him into the rarefied air of LGBTQ+ talent.
As of this writing, the most-awarded queer people in the ceremony have at least three trophies. As you'll see, most of these multiple-time winners are set designers and art directors — but some household names are also included!
Here's a complete list of the LGBTQ+ people who have won the most Oscars in the Academy Awards history.
10. Cecil Beaton — 3 wins (of 3 nominations)
Cecil Beaton
John Springer Collection/Corbis via Getty Images
Beaton was a costume designer and art director who won Oscars for Best Costume Design for Gigi and My Fair Lady in 1958 and 1964. He then won another Oscar for Best Art Direction in My Fair Lady.
9. Orry-Kelly — 3 wins (of 4 nominations)
Orry-Kelly
via IMDB
Orry-Kelly was the professional name of Orry George Kelly, an Australian costume designer who won Oscars for Best Costume Design in 1951 for An American in Paris, in 1957 for Les Girls, and in 1959 for Some Like It Hot.
8. Roger Edens — 3 wins (of 8 nominations)
Roger Edens
via IMDB
Roger Edens was a composer for MGM during the Golden Era of Hollywood, winning Oscars for his scores to the films Easter Parade (1948), On the Town (1949), and Annie Get Your Gun (1950).
7. Paul S. Fox — 3 wins (of 13 nominations)
Paul S. Fox
Courtesy BBC
Paul S. Fox was nominated 13 times for Best Art Direction. However, he only won three Oscars: The Robe (1953), The King and I (1956), and Cleopatra (1963).
6. F. Keogh Gleason — 4 wins (of 7 nominations)
F. Keogh Gleason often worked with Edwin B. Willis, including winning Oscars for An American in Paris (1951), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), and Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956). He won his fourth Oscar on Gigi (1958).
5. Katharine Hepburn — 4 wins (of 12 nominations)
Katharine Hepburn
Bettmann Contributor/Getty Images
Katharine Hepburn is the actor on this list with the most Oscar wins ever: four. While Hepburn never came out during her lifetime, rumors about her sexuality followed her for her entire life, with many of her personal friends saying that she had relationships with women (via Vanity Fair).
Her Oscar wins were all for Best Actress in Morning Glory (1934), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1968), The Lion in Winter (1969), and On Golden Pond (1982).
4. George James Hopkins — 4 wins (of 13 nominations)
George James Hopkins
via findagrave.com
George James Hopkins was a set designer and art director who won Oscars for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), My Fair Lady (1964), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), and Hello, Dolly! (1969) in the Art Direction category, which is now called Best Production Design.
3. Samuel M. Comer — 4 wins (of 22 nominations)
Samuel M. Comer
via IMDB
Samuel M. Comer was a set decorator who won Best Art Direction Oscars for Frenchman's Creek (1944), Samson and Delilah (1949), Sunset Boulevard (1950), and The Rose Tattoo (1955).
2. Irene Sharaff — 5 wins (of 16 nominations)
Irene Sharaff working on a headdress for a production of the American Ballet Theater.
George Karger/Getty Images
Irene Sharaff is considered one of the greatest film and stage costume designers ever. She won Oscars for the films An American in Paris (1951), The King and I (1956), West Side Story (1961), Cleopatra (1963), and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).
1. Edwin B. Willis — 8 wins (of 32 nominations)
Edwin B. Willis on set at MGM Studios.
MGM Studios via IMDB
Edwin B. Willis, a prolific set designer and decorator, worked at MGM throughout his entire career. Willis's mind-blowing eight Oscar wins include Interior Decoration (Color) for 1941's Blossoms in the Dust and 1946's The Yearling, Interior Decoration (Black & White) for 1944's Gaslight, Art Direction/Set Decoration (Color) for 1949's Little Women and 1951's An American in Paris, and in the Art Direction/Set Direction (Black & White) category for The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), Julius Caesar (1953), and Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956).
