The Academy Awards have always honored those young and old, but who are the youngest people to ever win an Oscar?
Over the course of the show’s 95-ceremony history, plenty of people have won Oscars in their twenties and thirties.
However, only four people have ever taken home the film industry’s top honor in their teens. Our list covers those four, plus one person who won when they were 20.
The results may surprise you, as only one person in Academy Awards history has ever won in the craftes categories in their teens. The other winners on the list are all in the acting categories.
Tatum O'Neal, Paper Moon
The youngest winner at the Academy Awards is still Tatum O’Neal. She won Best Supporting Actress for the film Paper Moon in 1974 at the age of 10.
She was nominated alongside her co-star Madeline Kahn in the dramedy, which also netted Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound nominations.
The young O’Neal acted alongside her father, actor Ryan O’Neal, in the film directed by the late Peter Bogdanovich.
Anna Paquin, The Piano
Anna Paquin beat Tatum O’Neal by just a year as the second-youngest person to win at the Academy Awards.
She won 1994 for Best Supporting Actress for her turn in Jane Campion’s The Piano at the age of 11.
Her adorable speech is still one of the best in Oscars history.
Patty Duke, The Miracle Worker
In 1963, a 16-year-old Patty Duke won the Best Supporting Actress award for playing Helen Keller in Arthur Penn’s The Miracle Worker.
Anne Bancroft also won Best Actress for the film, playing Keller’s teacher Anne Sullivan.
Markéta Irglová, Once
For her work in co-producing the song “Falling Slowly” for the film Once, singer-songwriter Markéta Irglová, then 19, won Best Original Song in 2008 alongside her Once co-star Glen Hansard.
Irglová and Hansard still tour together as folk rock duo The Swell Season.
Timothy Hutton, Ordinary People
Timothy Hutton remains the youngest man to ever win an Academy Award for his role in Robert Redford’s Ordinary People.
He bested co-star Judd Hirsh in the Best Supporting Actor category that year when he was just 20. The award was given in 1981. More than 40 years later, Hutton still holds this distinction.
