Throughout entertainment history, names such as Elvis and Beyoncé have become so synonymous with one person respectively that no last name is required to understand to whom one refers. Even abbreviated nicknames like Sly or Arnie often refer to one specific movie star above all others. Why, then is one name - for all its famous namesakes - synonymous with a little gold statuette as opposed to a person? From Oscar Isaac to Oscar the Grouch, it's remarkable to think a forename so popular in the early 20th century is associated with the award, first and foremost. One would assume the use of such a common name would mean several Oscars have indeed won an Oscar, but amazingly only one, Oscar Hammerstein II, has taken home the eponymous award, and has in fact done so twice!

Ignoring strangled technicalities such as Oskar Schindler posthumously "winning" the Best Picture award in 1994 for having his life story told in Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List, there is only one Oscar to truly win the award, and he is perhaps best known for his work on a very different film. Coincidentally, this film is also set in Austria during World War II and performed in the English Language! The film was The Sound of Music and the "Oscar" was American Lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. Although The Sound of Music is arguably Hammerstein's most famous work, you might be surprised to learn that it is not, in fact, the film that won him either of his two Oscars for songwriting.

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Musical Theater Was Oscar Hammerstein's Family Business

Julie Andrews and the cast of The Sound of Music
Image via 20th Century Fox

Oscar Hammerstein co-wrote over 850 songs over a 40-year career that not only won him two Academy Awards, but also several Tony Awards. His grandfather, Oscar Hammerstein I, was a German theater impresario, whose son William similarly became a theater manager in New York City. According to Hugh Fordin's biography of Hammerstein, he dropped out of law school to pursue theater and joined the famous New York Bohemians' "Lambs Club." In 1920, Hammerstein's first musical, Always You, premiered on Broadway, for which he wrote the libretto.

Oscar Hammerstein's early career is rich with profitable collaborations, including Vincent Youmans, Rudolf Friml, and Sigmund Romberg. It wasn't until his collaboration with composer Jerome Kern that his career truly began to take flight, however. Together with Kern, Hammerstein wrote the musicals Sweet Adeline, Three Sisters, and Showboat, the latter, of course, featured the masterpiece 'Ol' Man River.' This song featured in countless revivals of the musical, including the 1929 film and 1936 film in which Paul Robeson sang the song. Robeson himself was later the subject of another Oscar-winning film, the 1980 Best Short Documentary Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist.

Oscar Hammerstein's First Oscar Win Was in 1941

Ann Sothern, Eleanor Powell, and Red Skelton in Lady Be Good (1941)
Image via MGM

In 1938, Oscar Hammerstein was nominated for his first Oscar at the 11th-ever Academy Awards. The Best Original Song-nominated show tune, "A Mist Over the Moon", featured in The Lady Objects, and was written in collaboration with composer Ben Oakland. Unfortunately for Hammerstein, he did not win his Oscar just yet, as the award was instead given to Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin for The Big Broadcast of 1938's song "Thanks for the Memory." In 1941, however, Hammerstein's song "The Last Time I Saw Paris", which he wrote with frequent collaborator Jerome Kern, was nominated for the same award, having featured in the film Lady Be Good. Needless to say, Hammerstein had finally won his Oscar and became the first (and as yet, only) one to do so.

Rodgers and Hammerstein Swept the Tony Awards for Decades

Julie Andrews opening song the sound of music
Image via 20th Century Fox

Oscar Hammerstein's most famous collaboration is undoubtedly his fruitful partnership with composer Richard Rodgers. The pairing, known to the world as "Rodgers and Hammerstein", first assembled to adapt the play Green Grow the Lilacs into a musical. In 1943, the adaptation hit the stage under the moniker of Oklahoma! and a film adaptation followed in 1955. The years in between saw Rodgers and Hammerstein collaborate on several other critically acclaimed projects. Carousel opened in 1945 followed by Allegro in 1947 and South Pacific in 1949. South Pacific swept the 1950 Tony Awards, earning Rodgers and Hammerstein three Tony Awards in one year for Best Musical, Best Book for a Musical, and Best Producers for a Musical, respectively.

Their fortune continued into the '50s with The King and I in 1951 which won them a fourth Tony in 1952. Me and Juliet followed in 1953 but was not nominated for any awards, however, their two next stage musicals Pipe Dream in 1955 and Flower Drum Song in 1958 earned the partners two more Tony nominations. Oscar Hammerstein would win his final Tony in 1960, for Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1959 stage musical The Sound of Music, which also won them a 1961 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album. Oscar Hammerstein is therefore one Emmy away from the coveted "EGOT" title, and in no small part due to his collaboration with Richard Rodgers.

Another Oscar Win in 1945, This Time With Rodgers

Jeanne Crain and Dana Andrews in State Fair (1945)
Image via 20th Century Fox

Early into their partnership, Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote the music and lyrics for a film called State Fair. The 1945 film would not be adapted into a stage musical until 1996 but made waves at the Oscars immediately. The song "It Might As Well Be Spring" earned Oscar Hammerstein yet another Oscar Award, this time with Richard Rodgers. This would mark Rodgers' first and only Academy Award win. Hammerstein would be nominated twice more in 1946 and 1951 respectively; once for Centennial Summer's "All Through The Day" which he wrote with Jerome Kern, and again for The Strip's "A Kiss To Build a Dream On" with Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby.

Oscar Hammerstein's Oscar Story Continues After His Death

At age 65, Oscar Hammerstein died of stomach cancer in August 1960. The Sound of Music had only begun its Broadway run a matter of months prior, and in 1965, it was adapted into a film starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. The film was a major box office success becoming the highest-grossing film of 1965. By the end of 1966, it had surpassed Gone with the Wind as the highest-grossing film of all time, breaking box office records in almost thirty countries and earning a total of $286 million worldwide. This was aided in no small part by the film's success at the 1966 Academy Awards where it was nominated in ten categories and won five.

The most important award however is the Best Picture Oscar. The Sound of Music won the grand prize, earning producer Robert Wise the statuette, but it's clear that without one Oscar in particular, the film might not have won any of its other kinds of Oscars. The legacy of The Sound of Music, as well as South Pacific, Oklahoma!, or Carousel to boot, proves that even after his untimely death, Oscar Hammerstein's imprint on theater and cinema alike is everlasting. As the only Oscar to win an Oscar, his story still shines as worthy of this momentous record.