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Academy Awards: Classic Film Stars With Their Oscars

2 minute read

We’ve all heard the sentiment, or some version of it, uttered during the Oscars: It’s an honor just to be nominated. And who knows — in some cases, it might even be true. But in the end, when it comes to the acting honors, there’s only one person up there on the stage, hugging (or, if it’s a guy, holding high) that inimitable golden statuette. In those prestigious individual categories that take the spotlight near the end of the night — director, for example, and the supporting and lead actors and actresses — there’s the winner, and then there’s all the rest.

Here, LIFE.com celebrates Hollywood legends — and a few stars who, while huge in their time, have dimmed with the passing years — as they bask in the limelight, marvel at their good fortune, sit as if dazed by the honor bestowed on them and, in a few instances, go about their lives as if nothing had happened (albeit with an Oscar statuette somehow miraculously within reach). Here are Taylor, Crosby, Hepburn, Brando, Joan Crawford, Grace Kelly, Jimmy Stewart and other actors and actresses who have won at least one Oscar — many of these folks, of course, won more than one — spending some quality time with that most coveted of moviedom’s trophies.

Here’s to the winners.

Academy Awards: Classic Film Stars With Their Oscars
Vivien Leigh places the Oscar she won for her role as Scarlett in Gone With The Wind on her mantlepiece at home, 1940.Peter Stackpole—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Academy Awards: Classic Film Stars With Their Oscars
Luise Rainer, the first woman to win two Oscars, holds her Best Actress award for her performance in The Great Ziegfeld during the 1937 Academy Awards ceremony.Rex Hardy Jr.—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Academy Awards: Classic Film Stars With Their Oscars
Joan Fontaine doing the household bookkeeping next to the Oscar she won for her role in Hitchcok's Suspicion, 1942.Bob Landry—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Academy Awards: Classic Film Stars With Their Oscars
Elizabeth Taylor at a Hollywood party with the Oscar she won for her role in Butterfield, 1961.Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Academy Awards: Classic Film Stars With Their Oscars
Grace Kelly with the Oscar she won for her role in The Country Girl, 1955. William Holden, her co-star in the movie, stands behind her.George Silk—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Academy Awards: Classic Film Stars With Their Oscars
Audrey Hepburn with the Oscar she won for Roman Holiday, 1954.Ralph Morse—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Academy Awards: Classic Film Stars With Their Oscars
Joanne Woodward smiles radiantly while holding her Best Actress Oscar for her role in Three Faces of Eve, 1958.Ralph Crane—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Academy Awards: Classic Film Stars With Their Oscars
Best Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress winners Frank Sinatra and Donna Reed (both for From Here to Eternity) and their Oscars, 1954.George Silk—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Academy Awards: Classic Film Stars With Their Oscars
Bing Crosby (Going My Way), Ingrid Bergman (Gaslight) and Barry Fitzgerald (Going My Way) with their Oscars, 1945.Walter Sanders—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Academy Awards: Classic Film Stars With Their Oscars
Gloria Grahame with her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The Bad and the Beautiful, 1953.Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Academy Awards: Classic Film Stars With Their Oscars
Marlon Brando (right) with his Oscar for On the Waterfront, 1955.George Silk—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Academy Awards: Classic Film Stars With Their Oscars
Onstage presenters seen from the wings during the 1950 Academy Awards.Ida Wyman—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Academy Awards: Classic Film Stars With Their Oscars
Jimmy Stewart, back from WWII, talks with the oldest employee of his family's hardware store in Pennsylvania, George Little; nearby is a table of various mementos, including Stewart's Best Actor Oscar for The Philadelphia Story.Peter Stackpole—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Academy Awards: Classic Film Stars With Their Oscars
Joan Crawford with her Best Actress Oscar for Mildred Pierce, 1946.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

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