Comments How did Irish man Cedric Gibbons go from being an electrician in New York to the second most successful Academy-Award winner of all time? The top Academy-Award winner of all time should come as no surprise to anyone as a 22-time Oscar winner and cartoon extraordinaire Walt Disney but did you know that the second-place winner was, in fact, an Irishman? Yes, the remarkable Cedric Gibbons won no less than 11 Academy Awards, and not only that but he designed the very Academy Award statuette that is handed out to winners year in, year out. His career was a truly remarkable one but maybe not quite as great as his credits would leave you to believe. A very astute businessman, he bargained when signing the dotted line on his contract with MGM - a studio that was about to burst to tremendous heights during the Hollywood Golden Era - that he would be listed as Art Director on every single movie they made. That amounts to quite an amount of name credits!