Throughout the history of the Academy Awards, several individuals have died prior to the ceremony and were posthumously nominated or have won the award following their deaths. As of 2026, 65 individuals have received posthumous nominations with 80 nominations total, in competitive categories (with three people being nominated posthumously three times and nine people twice), 31 individuals have won posthumously (with William A. Horning winning twice, in 1959 and 1960), including 15 individuals in honorary categories. This list includes posthumous winners and nominees of the Academy's competitive awards, as well as posthumous recipients of its honorary awards.
Competitive awards Name Date of death Ceremony Film year Academy Award Film Result Notes Marit Allen 80th 2007 Best Costume Design La Vie en Rose Howard Ashman64th1991Best Music (Song)Beauty and the Beast 65th 1992 Aladdin Joseph H. August 21st 1948 Best Cinematography Portrait of Jennie Robert Alan Aurthur52nd1979 Best PictureAll That Jazz Best Original Screenplay Chadwick Boseman 93rd 2020 Best Actor Ma Rainey's Black Bottom Mario Cecchi Gori 68th 1995 Best Picture Il Postino Frank Churchill15th1942 Best Music (Scoring)Bambi Best Music (Song) Allen Davey 18th 1945 Best Cinematography A Song to Remember James Dean 28th 1955Best Actor East of Eden 29th 1956 Giant Walt Disney 41st 1968 Best Short Film (Animated) Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day Gail Dolgin 84th 2011 Best Documentary (Short Subject) The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement Gerald Duffy 01st 1927 / 1928 Best Title Writing The Private Life of Helen of Troy Jeanne Eagels 02nd 1928 / 1929 Best Actress The Letter William Ferrari 36th 1963 Best Art Direction How the West Was Won Peter Finch 49th 1976 Best Actor Network Gil Friesen 86th 2013 Best Documentary Feature 20 Feet from Stardom George Gershwin 10th 1937 Best Music (Song) Shall We Dance Stuart Gilmore 44th 1971 Best Film Editing The Andromeda Strain Thomas C. Goodwin 65th 1992 Best Documentary (Short Subject) Educating Peter Conrad Hall 75th 2002 Best Cinematography Road to Perdition David Hall 38th 1965 Best Art Direction The Greatest Story Ever Told Dale Hennesy 55th 1982 Best Art Direction Annie Bernard Herrmann49th1976Best Music (Scoring) Obsession Taxi Driver Gordon Hollingshead25th1952 Best Short Subject (One-Reel) Desert Killer Best Short Subject (Two-Reel) Thar She Blows! William A. Horning 31st 1958Best Art Direction Gigi 32nd1959 Ben-Hur North by Northwest Sidney Howard 12th 1939 Best Adapted Screenplay Gone with the Wind John Hubley 50th 1977 Best Short Film (Animated) A Doonesbury Special Eiko Ishioka 85th 2012 Best Costume Design Mirror Mirror Bert Kalmar 24th 1951 Best Music (Song) The Strip Jerome Kern 18th 1945 Best Music (Scoring) Can't Help Singing 19th 1946 Best Music (Song) Centennial Summer William Kiernan 46th 1973 Best Art Direction The Way We Were Frederic Knudtson 36th 1963 Best Film Editing It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World Albert Lamorisse 51st 1978 Best Documentary (Feature) The Lovers' Wind Heath Ledger 81st 2008 Best Supporting Actor The Dark Knight Boris Leven 59th 1986 Best Art Direction The Color of Money Walt Martin 87th 2014 Best Sound Mixing American Sniper with John Reitz and Gregg Rudloff William C. Mellor 38th 1965 Best Cinematography The Greatest Story Ever Told Anthony Minghella 81st 2008 Best Picture The Reader James V. Monaco 19th 1946 Best Music (Song) The Dolly Sisters Alfred Newman 43rd 1970 Best Music (Scoring) Airport Joseph O'Brien 18th 1945 Best Short Film (Live Action) Your National Gallery Bridget O'Connor 84th 2011 Best Adapted Screenplay Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Eric Orbom 33rd 1960 Best Art Direction Spartacus Arnold Perl 45th 1972 Best Documentary (Feature) Malcolm X Sydney Pollack 81st 2008 Best Picture The Reader Raymond Rasch 45th 1972 Best Music (Scoring) Limelight Gretchen Rau 79th 2006 Best Art Direction The Good Shepherd Ralph Richardson 57th 1984 Best Supporting Actor Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes Richard H. Riedel 32nd 1959 Best Art Direction Pillow Talk Robbie Robertson 96th 2023 Best Original Score Killers of the Flower Moon Larry Russell 45th 1972 Best Music (Scoring) Limelight Tess Slesinger 18th 1945 Best Adapted Screenplay A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Carol Sobieski 64th 1991 Best Adapted Screenplay Fried Green Tomatoes Adam Somner 98th 2025 Best Picture One Battle After Another Gile Steele24th1951Best Costume Design Kind Lady The Great Caruso 25th 1952 The Merry Widow Harry Stradling 42nd 1969 Best Cinematography Hello, Dolly! Harry W. Tetrick49th1976Best Sound King Kong Rocky Spencer Tracy 40th 1967 Best Actor Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Massimo Troisi68th1995 Best ActorIl Postino Best Adapted Screenplay Lamar Trotti 27th 1954 Best Writing There's No Business Like Show Business Geoffrey Unsworth 53rd 1980 Best Cinematography Tess August Wilson 89th 2016 Best Adapted Screenplay Fences Robert L. Wolfe 54th 1981 Best Film Editing On Golden Pond Victor Young29th1956 Best Music (Scoring) Around the World in 80 Days Best Music (Song) Written on the Wind Sam Zimbalist 32nd 1959 Best Picture Ben-Hur
Honorary awards Name Date of death Ceremony Film year Academy Award Notes Robert Benjamin 52nd 1979 Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award Les Bowie 51st 1978 Special Achievement Award (Visual Effects) for Superman Theo Brown 82nd 2009 Scientific and Technical Award (Scientific and Engineering Award) Douglas Fairbanks 12th 1939 Academy Honorary Award Chuck Gaspar 86th 2013 Scientific or Technical Award (Technical Achievement Award)Chuck Gaspar Audrey Hepburn 65th 1992 Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award Werner Hopf 32nd 1959 Scientific and Technical Award (Class II) Quincy Jones 97th 2024 Academy Honorary Award George Kraemer 65th 1992 Scientific and Technical Award (Scientific and Engineering Award) John D. Lowry 84th 2011 Scientific and Technical Award (Scientific and Engineering Award) Charles Miller N/A 13th 1940 Scientific or Technical Award (Class I) Jürgen Noffke 84th 2011 Scientific and Technical Award (Scientific and Engineering Award) Edward G. Robinson 45th 1972 Academy Honorary Award Louis Stankiewicz N/A 54th 1981 Scientific or Technical Award (Technical Achievement Award) Geoffrey H. Williamson 65th 1992 Scientific and Technical Award (Scientific and Engineering Award)
Excluded: retrospective awards The list does not include people who were retrospectively honored with an Academy Award and were dead at the time the Academy made the decision to make the retrospective award. For example: in 1993, seventeen years after his death, Dalton Trumbo was retrospectively awarded the 1953 Oscar for Academy Award for Best Story for Roman Holiday. It had been previously awarded to Ian McLellan Hunter. However, Hunter was nominated in place of Trumbo, because Trumbo was on the Hollywood blacklist at the time and it was impossible for his name to appear in either the film's credits or the Academy Award nomination (though it was not generally known that he was the real screenwriter). Trumbo did not die until 1976, and under normal circumstances he would have received this award in person in 1953; therefore the Academy does not consider this a posthumous award but a correction of the record.
Similarly, the Oscar for Best Screenplay (Adaptation) for The Bridge on the River Kwai was originally awarded to Pierre Boulle, but only in 1984, was corrected to honor the actual screenwriters, Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson, who were blacklisted at the time and could only work on the film in secret. By the time this correction was made, both Foreman and Wilson had died, but the award does not qualify for an entry in the above list.
Notes
References
External links Oscars.org (official website for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) The Academy Awards Database (official database of Academy Award winners and nominees) Academy Awards, USA (Academy Awards information at the Internet Movie Database) Filmsite.org (comprehensive Academy Awards history)