Long-time Academy Governor Hal Elias received an Honorary Award in 1979 "for his dedication and distinguished service to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences." Then-Academy President Walter Mirisch presented the Oscar

The only Life Membership to be conferred as an Honorary Award was given to Bob Hope in 1944 "for his many services to the Academy." Hope has received four Honorary Awards. In addition to his Life Membership, he received a special silver plaque in 1940 "in recognition of his unselfish service to the Motion Picture Industry"; a gold medal in 1965 for "unique and distinguished service to our industry and the Academy" and an Oscar statuette in 1952 "for his contribution to the laughter of the world, his service to the motion picture industry, and his devotion to the American premise." And, while it wasn't an Honorary Award, the Bob Hope Lobby of the Center for Motion Picture Study was dedicated to Hope in 1990 when he continued to serve the Academy and the industry with a contribution of a million dollars to the Center's Endowment Fund.

Walt Disney and presenter Shirley Temple with his unusual 1938 Oscar for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. At the time the Honorary Award was known as the Special Award. It was Disney's second Special Award and his ninth Oscar. He had a third Special Award, the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award and fifteen more Oscars to go.

The most unusual Honorary Awards went to Edgar Bergen in 1937 and Walt Disney the following year. Bergen's Honorary, presented "for his outstanding comedy creation, 'Charlie McCarthy,' was a wooden Oscar statuette with a movable mouth. Disney's Honorary (his second) was "for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, recognized as a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field for the motion picture cartoon." It was a standard Oscar statuette and seven miniature statuettes on a stepped base.

Rules for the awarding of the Honorary Award are located in the annual Academy Awards Rules booklet.