Who Won the Oscar for Best Director the Year You Were Born

In the first year the golden statue was presented, two directors were honored in separate categories, the only time this has happened. Lewis Milestone won the first of his two Oscars as Best Director for the comedy film “Two Arabian Knights,” about the misadventures of two escaped American prisoners of war during World War I, starring William Boyd and Mary Astor.

Also in 1929, Frank Borzage won the Best Director Oscar for dramatic picture for the silent film “7th Heaven,” a romantic drama in which a Parisian sewer worker helps a homeless woman. It was the first of his two Best Director Academy Awards. Janet Gaynor won the Best Actress award for the film.

Scottish-born director Frank Lloyd won the first of his two Best Director Oscars for “The Divine Lady.” Lloyd was nominated five times. The last of the four nominations was for “Mutiny on the Bounty” in 1936.

Former child actor Norman Taurog found success on the other side of the camera by winning Best Director for “Skippy.” He would later be nominated for “Boys Town” in 1939.

Frank Borzage won his second Best Director Oscar for “Bad Girl,” a film that depicted how the working class lived during the Great Depression.

Frank Lloyd took home the Oscar in 1934 for “Cavalcade.” The film about two English families from different economic classes also won the awards for Best Picture and Best Art Direction.

Frank Capra, an immigrant from Sicily, won the first of his three Best Director Oscars for the screwball comedy that starred Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. “It Happened One Night” was the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay.

John Ford won his first of four Academy Awards in 1936 for “The Informer.” The film about an Irish rebel who must face the repercussions of double crossing an associate won a total of four Oscars, including Best Actor for British star Victor McLaglen.

Frank Capra captured his second Oscar for “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town” — starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur — one of his paeans to small-town America.

Leo McCarey won his first Oscar for romantic comedy “The Awful Truth,” starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant. McCarey would direct Grant again nearly 20 years later in the now-classic “An Affair to Remember” (1957).