who has been nominated the most times for best actor
List of actors with two or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories As well as the record for total number of acting nominations, Streep holds the record for most Best Actress nominations with 17, ahead of Katharine Hepburn with 12 and Bette Davis with 10. Jack Nicholson is the most nominated male performer in the acting categories with 12 nominations.[3] The most Best Actor nominations is nine, for both Spencer Tracy and Laurence Olivier (Nicholson has eight). Thelma Ritter is the most nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category with six, while in the Best Supporting Actor category six actors have each received four nominations, they are Walter Brennan, Claude Rains, Arthur Kennedy, Jack Nicholson, Robert Duvall and Jeff Bridges. The record for most nominations in the acting categories without a win, is eight by Peter O'Toole, followed by Richard Burton with seven, and Deborah Kerr, Thelma Ritter and Glenn Close all with six. Both O'Toole and Kerr did receive the Academy's Honorary Oscar.[4]
81st Academy Awards The winners were announced during the awards ceremony on February 22, 2009.[14] Slumdog Millionaire was the eleventh film to win Best Picture without any acting nominations.[15] Sean Penn became the ninth person to win Best Lead Actor twice.[16] Best Supporting Actor winner Heath Ledger became the second performer to win a posthumous acting Oscar. The first actor to receive this distinction was Peter Finch who posthumously won Best Actor for Network two months after his death in January 1977.[17] With its six nominations, Best Animated Feature Film winner WALL-E tied with 1991's Beauty and the Beast as the most nominated animated film in Academy Awards history.[13]