These Are The Only Films To Have Won Three Academy Awards For Acting
Each year at the Academy Awards, actors, actresses, directors, producers, costume designers, editors, and more gather to honor notable films from the previous 12 months and award them with Oscar statues. Reel Run Down explains that the most highly coveted Oscars are for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Picture. These are referred to as the "big five" Oscars. While 43 films have been nominated for all five, only three films have ever swept each category. Those films were "It Happened One Night," "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," and "The Silence of the Lambs."
There is another subset of Oscars at the Academy Awards that no film has ever completely conquered: The four Academy Awards for acting. These are Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role. There are two films that have come close to bringing home all four Academy Awards for acting.
No film has won all four Academy Awards for acting
Members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated "A Streetcar Named Desire" for 12 awards categories in 1952. The film won four out of these 12, including three of the acting categories. Vivien Leigh won the Oscar for Best Actress, Karl Malden won Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and Kim Hunter won Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Marlon Brando was nominated in the Best Actor category, but the Oscar went to Humphrey Bogart for the film "The African Queen" (via IMDB).
The only other film that has won three out of the four Academy Awards for acting is "Network." Over two decades after "A Streetcar Named Desire," this 1976 film won Best Actor for Peter Finch, Best Actress for Faye Dunaway, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Beatrice Straight. "Network" had multiple entries into the acting categories at the 1977 Academy Awards. Those who did not win included William Holden for Best Actor and Ned Beatty for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (via IMDB).