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]
List of actors with two or more Academy Awards in acting categories As of 2017[update], 40 actors and actresses have received two or more Academy Awards in acting categories. Six of these actors and actresses have received three or more acting Academy Awards: Katharine Hepburn (four Best Actress awards),[4] Ingrid Bergman (two Best Actress awards and one Best Supporting Actress award),[5] Walter Brennan (three Best Supporting Actor awards),[6] Jack Nicholson (two Best Actor awards and one Best Supporting Actor award),[7] Meryl Streep (two Best Actress awards and one Best Supporting Actress award), and Daniel Day-Lewis (three Best Actor awards). Brennan was the first to receive three or more Academy Awards in 1940, followed by Hepburn in 1968, Bergman in 1974, Nicholson in 1997, Streep in 2011, and most recently Day-Lewis in 2012. Of the six, only Nicholson, Streep, and Day-Lewis are still living.