Combining all categories, who has the most oscars? I imagine it is a producer or a composer. Any ideas?
From the “Tell Me” interface at http://www.littlegoldenguy.com/home.asp :
People with the most Wins for All Categories between 1927/28 and 2001:
*Name Wins *
**Walt Disney 20**
Yer welcome. 
The official site says Walt Disney has the greatest number of nominations and wins, with 64 and 26 across (I assume) a variety of categories.
Well, at least we agree on the person! 
What about John Williams I thought he had 27
WOW! I figured it was 8 or 10. In the twenties!!! Amazing.
John Williams has only WON 5.
Part of the confusion is that Coldfire’s site only lists competitive Oscars and not Honorary/Special Achievement ones. Disney’s breakdown goes as follows:
Animated Short Subject: 12 (the first in 1932, the last in 1968)
Live Action/Two-Reel Short Subject: 6
Documentary Short Subject: 2
Documentary Feature: 2
Honorary Oscars: 3 (one for Mickey Mouse, Snow White*, and Fantasia each)
Irving Thalberg Award: 1**
[sub]*Note that this Oscar was actually one full statuette and 7 miniature ones.
**Note that, though given by the Academy, this is not an actual Oscar statue at all but a bust of Thalberg[/sub]
Disney is also the only person to win 4 Oscars in one year: 1953.
Interestingly, the only time he was ever nominated for a “Major” category (non-short, non-documentary) was for Best Picture for Mary Poppins.
This isn’t really what you asked, but Edith Head http://us.imdb.com/Bio?Head,+Edith, costume designer, had 34 nominations and 8 awards. That’s got to be some kind of record…Timmy
p.s. - I hope I did the URL thing correctly!
Dagnabbit, I was gonna say Edith!
Damn dopers…
“Edith Head gives good costume”…unknown
With four Oscars, isn’t Katherine Hepburn the Best Actress with the most awards?