From Heath Ledger to David Bowie: The stars who received major awards after they died

As the Oscars approach, it's a chance to reflect on the rare times an artist's work has been honoured after their death.

Most recently, Catherine O'Hara won an Actor Award just weeks after she died, joining a long list of performers whose work was posthumously acclaimed – including several you may not expect.

From Heath Ledger to Amy Winehouse, read to see how these late stars were honoured after their deaths.

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James Dean

Hollywood heartthrob James Dean became one of the earliest actors to be presented with major honours after his death.

The Rebel Without a Cause star died in a car crash in 1955 at just 24 years old. The following year he was awarded a special Golden Globe for his role in East of Eden.

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Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn received a number of accolades following her death in January 1993.

The Breakfast at Tiffany's icon won an Emmy Award that same year for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Informational Programming.

In 1994, she was awarded a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album for Children.

The achievements made Hepburn the first performer to achieve EGOT status posthumously.

Heath Ledger

Perth-born Heath Ledger was awarded Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars in 2009 for his portrayal of The Joker in The Dark Knight.

Ledger died in January 2008 at age 28 from an accidental prescription drug overdose – one year before receiving the Oscar.

His family – father Kim, mother Sally Bell, and sister Kate – accepted the award on his behalf.

"This award tonight would've humbly validated Heath's quiet determination to be truly accepted by you all here, his peers, within an industry he so loved," Kim said in their acceptance speech.

"Heath, we both knew what you had created in the 'Joker' was extraordinarily special and had even talked about being here on this very day," sister Kate added.

"We really wish you were, but we proudly accept this award on behalf of your beautiful [daughter] Matilda."

Amy Winehouse

British singer Amy Winehouse died in July 2011 from alcohol poisoning at the age of 27.

In 2012, she was honoured with the Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for Body and Soul, her collaboration with Tony Bennett – adding to the four Grammys she had already won.

David Bowie

David Bowie cleaned up at the 2017 Grammys for his final album Blackstar, taking home five awards for the record released shortly before his death in 2016.

He died in New York at age 69 after suffering from liver cancer.

Bowie famously declined several royal honours during his lifetime, turning down a CBE in 2000 and a knighthood in 2003.

Carrie Fisher

Star Wars icon Carrie Fisher received her first Grammy Award in 2018, more than a year after her death.

Her audiobook recording of her 2016 memoir The Princess Diarist won Best Spoken Word Album. Fisher died in December 2016 at age 60.

Chadwick Boseman

Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman died in 2020 at age 43 after living with colon cancer.

The following year he received a Golden Globe for Best Actor for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and also won Best Actor at the Critics Choice Awards.

Boseman was honoured again in the years after his death, including a 2022 Emmy Award for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance for What If…?.

He also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last year.

Christine McVie

Fleetwood Mac singer and pianist Christine McVie died in November 2022 at age 79.

At the 2023 Grammy Awards, she won Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals for her work on Vince Mendoza's orchestral version of Songbird.

Catherine O'Hara

Actor and comedian Catherine O'Hara died in January 2026 at age 71, with the cause later revealed as a pulmonary embolism linked to rectal cancer.

Weeks later, she was honoured at the 2026 Actor Awards (formerly the Screen Actors Guild Awards) with the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series for The Studio.

Her co-star Seth Rogen accepted the award on her behalf, telling the audience she would have been deeply honoured to receive recognition from fellow performers.

"She really showed that you can be a genius and be kind and one of those things does not have to come at the expense of the other," he said.

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