Who was the first actor to win two Golden Globes in the same year?

Posted On January 11, 2026January 11, 2026

Being nominated for two acting prizes at the same awards show is one of the rarest achievements in Hollywood, but winning them both is rarer still. It’s never happened at the Oscars, and it would take 46 years before it happened for the first time at the Golden Globes.

Technically, someone has won two acting Oscars on the same night, but Harold Russell’s ‘Best Supporting Actor’ win for 1947’s The Best Year of Our Lives being complemented by an honorary prize for “bringing aid and comfort to disabled veterans through the medium of motion pictures” meant that he didn’t claim two competitive gongs in separate categories.

It’s only happened 12 times in total, but it’s more common at the Globes because the main acting prizes are split into ‘Drama’ and ‘Musical or Comedy’, not to mention the various television awards. Still, it was almost half a century before a two-time nominee became a two-time winner, with over 70 double nominees coming up short.

The history-making accolade was set by Sigourney Weaver in 1989 when she was named as the ‘Best Actress – Drama’ winner for Gorillas in the Mist, and ‘Best Supporting Actress’ for Working Girl, forever cementing her name in Golden Globes lore. However, you could also call it a technicality, with the unusual decision made to announce that the award was a three-way tie between Weaver, The Accused‘s Jodie Foster, and Madame Sousatzka‘s Shirley MacLaine.

In a cruel twist of irony, the erstwhile Ellen Ripley was also shortlisted in the corresponding categories at the Oscars, and she didn’t win either of them, losing ‘Best Actress’ to Foster, and ‘Best Supporting Actress’ to The Accidental Tourist‘s Geena Davis, who wasn’t even nominated at the Globes.

Weaver was the 27th actor to find themselves in the running for two trophies in the same year, and by taking to the stage to collect both, she did something that several Hollywood icons, including Ingrid Bergman, Paul Newman, Audrey Hepburn, Michael Caine, Dustin Hoffman, Diane Keaton, and Julie Andrews, couldn’t by completing the one-two punch of awards-hogging glory.

Maybe there’s a reluctance on the part of the voters to reward one person twice, but as infrequently as it happens, you’re still a lot more likely to see someone win two Golden Globes in one night than a pair of Oscars, which may never happen at all.

Has anyone else won two Golden Globes in one night?

Yes, but there aren’t many of them. It took until the 46th edition of the Golden Globes for Weaver to carve out her little slice of history, but it would only be four years until it happened again.

In 1993, the legendary Joan Plowright snagged ‘Best Supporting Actress’ for Enchanted April and ‘Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film’ for the Robert Duvall-fronted HBO biopic, Stalin. Those were the only two Globes she was ever nominated for, which is one way to make an impact.

14 years later, they were joined by Helen Mirren when she continued her awards season domination by scooping ‘Best Actress’ for The Queen, not long after another monarch, Elizabeth I, had seen her named ‘Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film’. As Yoda would say, though, there is another.

The fourth, so far final, and only second person after Weaver to win both of their Golden Globes for theatrically released features was Kate Winslet in 2009, who was named ‘Best Actress’ for Revolutionary Road and ‘Best Supporting Actress’ for The Reader.

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