Alan Menken Goes for a Tangled Record
Monday, January 31, 2011 at 12:30PM 
Serious Film's Michael C. here to shine a light on an overlooked story from the Oscar nominations.
With all the attention paid to Tangled focusing on its somewhat surprising exclusion from the Best Animated Film lineup I think most people missed the more interesting story. If Alan Menken wins the Oscar for best song for Tangled’s "I See the Light" - and he has as good a chance as any of winning - he will have won an incredible ninth Oscar. Already the most awarded living person a ninth trophy would surpass famed costume designer Edith Head tying him with composer Alfred Newman (All About Eve) for the most awarded individual Oscar winner in history.
**Trivia Alert**
This record is debatable since ahead of Menken would technically still be behind art director Cedric Gibbons with 11 wins for such films as An American in Paris and The Bad and the Beautiful and Walt Disney with an untouchable 22 wins and 4 honorary Oscars. But I don’t believe they should be ranked against Menken since they were men who took credit for the work of entire studios and didn’t necessarily participate in the creation of all the award-winning works. Gibbons, in particular, had it written into his contract that every film released by MGM until 1956 credited him as art director. His IMDB page lists over 1,000 films among his credits.
Oscar hoarders throughout time
Most Awarded Living Individuals
8 Wins
- Alan Menken
7 Wins
- Gary Rydstrom (All wins were in Sound categories though he was recently nominated for Best Short Film for the animated "Lifted")
6 Wins + 2 Special Achievement Oscars and 1 Technical Achievement Award
- Dennis Muren - special effects artist (Jurassic Park, Terminator 2)
6 Wins
- Rick Baker -makeup artist (The new nomination for The Wolfman is his 12th)
5 Wins
- John Williams (Easily the most nominated person alive with 45 to his credit)
- Francis Ford Coppola
4 Wins
- The Coen Brothers
- Clint Eastwood
- Andre Previn - composer (Gigi, My Fair Lady)
- Mark Berger (sound categories - only person to ever go 4/4 nomination-to-wins. Last win was for The English Patient)
- Christopher Boys (sound categories - most recent win was for King Kong)
- Bob Beemer (yet another sound guy. Sound seems to be the easiest category to rack up multiple wins in. His last win was for Dreamgirls)
Who will be the next person to join this list? Some of the people still working who are stuck at 3 wins include writer/directors Woody Allen, Peter Jackson and James Cameron, directors Steven Spielberg and Oliver Stone, actor Jack Nicholson, costume designers Milena Canonero and Sandy Powell (pictured left on her third win for Young Victoria), editor Thelma Schoonmaker and art director Stuart Craig.
Do you think Alan Menken will win his 9th for Tangled?
Alan Menken, Art Direction, Original Score, Oscar Trivia
Reader Comments (21)
Alan Menken's music basically taught me how to sing so I'm rooting for him.
You mean "I See the Light." ;)
My hunch is that Craig will be the next person to get a fourth for next year's Harry Potter as sort of a "thank you for ten years of impressive work."
I'm honestly a bit confused about this year's Original Song. There's an argument for almost all of them (Rahman seems very popular, Toy Story 3 would be a way to give it a second trophy, Menken is beloved, and Country Strong...well, that's the "almost" part).
How can anyone list 4-time-winners without including Katharine Hepburn?
Talking about individuals, IMDB says Walt Disney won 22 Oscars.
he deserve win but...the academy are prepare for give to him his ninth oscar? I don´t think so:(
Dan - Yes, that I did.
Gustavo - It's a list of the most winning living individuals
Yavor - I covered Disney. Check again ; )
oops, you've pointed that out already :P
Michael, you're missing Katharine Hepburn in the 4 wins group :)
A fabulous list. And I really hope Menken wins. I know "I See The Light" is a remix of everything Menken did for "Beast" and such but I love the song. And the scene. Mainly the scene. Or the song. Geez, I can't decide :)
I want to criticise publicly the Greek theaters because Tangled was available only in greek in my area (and, perhaps, all of Athens) so I chose not to see it. As if only kids who can't read would be interested in seeing it.
You should be ashamed! I hope you're reading this.
Thelma Schoonmaker passed away last year.
What makes us think who Martin Scorsese will work with. Thelma's brilliant work was a very important adition to Scorsese's films.
Marcelo - Brazil.
Marcelo -- you gave me a fright there. Thelma Schoonmaker is very much alive. I saw her just last year at a DGA event. whew.... i had to double check there (*nearly passes out*)
and also everyone: LIVING INDIVIDUALS which is why Katharine Hepburn is not listed.
James T - I feel your pain. It was the same here in Portugal. I saw it and luckily our translations are always very good, but Mother Gothel's voice in Portuguese was all wrong for the part.
Marcelo-Uh, Thelma is alive.
Oh and I didn't notice that at first, Nathaniel, you're right ;) It's a ranking of the living.
I think Marcelo might have confused Schoonmaker with Sally Menke, Tarantino's brilliant editor, who indeed died last year. :(
I was all ready to post "How could you forget John Ford" from the 4 wins club..until I read the comments. Oopsie.
I'm rooting for Menken, for sure.
Oh, my God,
Thelma is not dead. I'm so happy and so sorry I frightened some people. I hope she hasn't read this. ;-)
Hey, Thelma is very much alive, thank God.
Sorry everyone.
I thought the exact same thing as Marcelo when I saw Thelma's name. Maybe it was Menke that made us think that... odd.
poor john barry - just missed the living list by a day