The Academy Awards are the most prestigious prizes in the film industry, and the winners of Best Actor and Best Actress at the Oscars gain admittance to a very elite club.

However the winners of the coveted awards are not necessarily the biggest names in show business, and many of the best-known stars have been repeatedly overlooked for the top gongs.

Which stars have won the most Academy Awards?

This year Don’t Look Look Up has received four nominations, for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing and Best Score. None of it’s star-studded cast received a nod for their roles in Adam McKay’s Netflix satire, but several have already won at least one Oscar:

Meryl Streep – Two Best Actress Awards, One Best Supporting Actress

Cate Blanchett – One Best Actress, One Best Supporting Actress

Leonardo DiCaprio – One Best Actor Award

Jennifer Lawrence – One Best Actress Award

Streep’s three wins is bettered only by Hollywood icon Katharine Hepburn, who won four Oscars across a span of 48 years. Her first came in 1933 for Morning Glory and her final Academy Award for Best Actress was for 1981’s On Golden Pond.

Equal with Streep’s three Oscars are Jack Nicholson, Ingrid Bergman, Daniel Day-Lewis, Francis McDormand and Walter Brennan.

Could Will Smith win his first Oscar for King Richard?

Such is the significance of the Academy Award that it becomes a rite of passage for the biggest names in Hollywood, one that truly sets them apart from the rest. However the awards for Best Actor and Best Actress are often awarded to a specific type of role.

Will Smith has been a household name for decades but is yet to have won an Oscar despite two previous nominations for Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness.

However after Smith received a nomination for Best Actor for his role in King Richard, The New York Times’ pop culture reporter Kyle Buchanan explained why this could well be the 53-year-old’s year:

“The best actor Oscar rarely goes to young men, and bankable movie stars like Leonardo DiCaprio and Matthew McConaughey were only able to win it once they were on the other side of 40 and had paid an appropriate amount of dues.”

Other stars who are still yet to win an Academy Award are Robert Downey Jr, Hugh Jackman, Amy Adams and Bradley Cooper, each of whom have received multiple nominations but repeatedly been overlooked.

However the ultimate in Oscars near-misses goes to Glenn Close, who has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, four times for Best Actress and four times for Best Supporting Actress, without winning.