Every Academy Award for Best Actor: A Complete History of the Winners

The nearly 100-year history of the Academy Award for best actor tells the story of the movies themselves. From performers playing towering real-life figures to those depicting the struggles of the heroic everyman, the Oscars have honored some of the best actors of all time for films both big and small, in performances that captivated the masses and sometimes stretched beyond the limits of Hollywood. Along the way, records have been made and broken by acting titans and newcomers alike, with Academy Award firsts continuing to come as we approach the Academy Awards centennial.

So, who has won best actor at the Oscars? Here is the entire history of best leading actor Oscars:

Cillian Murphy – 2024
Oppenheimer (2023)Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures.

“I’m a very proud Irishman standing here tonight,” Murphy said onstage while accepting his award. The actor is the fourth Irish performer to win an Oscar for acting, after Barry Fitzgerald, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Brenda Fricker. With Robert Downey Jr. winning in the supporting category as well, Oppenheimer became the first film since 2013’s Dallas Buyers Club to win both male acting categories.

Brendan Fraser – 2023
The Whale (2022)Fraser’s comeback marked the first best-actor win without a best-picture nomination since Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart (2009). The actor wore up to 300 pounds of prosthetics throughout the movie, and The Whale proved divisive for its depiction of obesity. Interviewed by the Los Angeles Times, Fraser responded to those criticisms prior to winning: “I respect those who don’t see eye to eye with the aims of this film. I don’t agree with them because I know that there’s no ill intent.”

Will Smith – 2022
King Richard (2021)On his third best-actor nomination, Will Smith finally earned a win for his portrayal as the father of Venus and Serena Williams. But the night is still more famous for Smith walking onstage and slapping presenter Chris Rock for making a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. In his speech, Smith tearfully alluded to the slap: “I’m being called on in my life to love people and to protect people,” he said. Smith apologized to the Academy and his fellow nominees, which included Denzel Washington for The Tragedy of Macbeth (This was Washington’s ninth acting nomination at the Oscars.)

Anthony Hopkins – 2021
The Father (2020)For his second Oscar win, rewarded for Florian Zeller’s dementia drama, Anthony Hopkins became the oldest ever best-actor winner. Considering the possibility of a posthumous win for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom star Chadwick Boseman, Oscar producer Steven Soderbergh made the unconventional choice to present best-actor last during the ceremony. Hopkins was not able to attend the COVID-delayed telecast, and found out that he had beaten Boseman while staying in the Welsh countryside.

Joaquin Phoenix – 2020
Joker (2019)Coming just over a decade after Heath Ledger’s posthumous supporting-actor win for his take as Batman’s greatest foe, Joaquin Phoenix’s win made the Joker one of three characters in history to have multiple acting Oscar wins. (The Godfather’s Vito Corleone and West Side Story’s Anita are alongside him.) In an acceptance speech that broadly touched upon the commonality of human existence, injustice, and Phoenix’s own “past mistakes,” he ended emotionally with a quote from his departed brother River: “Run to the rescue with love, and peace will follow.”

Rami Malek – 2019
Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)The first actor of Egyptian descent to win a leading-actor Oscar, Malek’s performance as Freddie Mercury was praised in even the harshest reviews for the film, which had a troubled production under director Bryan Singer. Time critic Stephanie Zacharek noted that while the film “has many of the problems we associate with ‘bad’ movies, it has more ragged energy than so many good ones, largely because of Rami Malek’s performance as Mercury.”

Gary Oldman – 2018
Darkest Hour (2017)Vanity Fair’s Richard Lawson praised Oldman’s performance as Winston Churchill: “Oldman does a wizardly bit of becoming, making all these changes in voice, bearing, and proportion without putting on too many actorly airs; for how complex it is, Oldman’s is a remarkably unfussy performance.” Also nominated that year was Timothée Chalamet for Call Me By Your Name, who became the category’s third-youngest nominee ever.

Casey Affleck – 2017
Manchester by the Sea (2016)Casey Affleck’s best-actor win made him and his older brother Ben one of several pairs of Oscar-winning siblings. In The New York Times, A.O. Scott called Affleck’s performance “one of the most fiercely disciplined screen performances in recent memory.”

Leonardo DiCaprio – 2016
The Revenant (2015)Christopher Polk/Getty Images.

Earning career honors with this, his fifth acting nomination, DiCaprio famously braved the wild for his role in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant. DiCaprio described the grueling shoot at the time: “Whether it’s going in and out of frozen rivers, or sleeping in animal carcasses, or what I ate on set. [I was] enduring freezing cold and possible hypothermia constantly.” He ended his acceptance speech by urging the audience to “work collectively together” to support action on climate change.

Eddie Redmayne – 2015
The Theory of Everything (2014)To capture Stephen Hawking’s life with ALS, Redmayne studied not only the physical effects of the disease but also how it affected Hawking’s mental and emotional state. In Variety, Justin Chang noted that “Redmayne’s performance nails all the outward manifestations without unnecessary exaggeration,” and that the actor “palpably conveys the man’s frustration and humiliation at each fresh deprivation.”

Matthew McConaughey – 2014
Dallas Buyers Club (2013)The entire McConaissance was leading to this. McConaughey experienced a major career resurgence in the few years prior to Dallas Buyers Club, but did not manage to land a nomination for career peak performances in tricky films like Magic Mike and Killer and Joe. To play the role of Ron Woodroof, a smuggler of experimental HIV medications, McConaughey lost almost 50 pounds.

Daniel Day-Lewis – 2013
Lincoln (2012)For his turn as the titular American president in Steven Spielberg’s film, Day-Lewis became the most awarded actor in this category with his third best actor win. Although he’s among the seven actors who have ever been Oscar nominated for playing an American president (Anthony Hopkins did it twice), Day-Lewis is the only actor to do so and win. This win also made Day-Lewis the only person to ever win three best-actor Academy Awards.

Jean Dujardin – 2012
The Artist (2011)Dujardin took both Cannes and Academy Awards best-actor honors for his performance as a silent-movie-era actor who loses his career and identity at the dawn of the talkies. In his acceptance speech, the French actor tributed Douglas Fairbanks for inspiring the performance, dropping Oscar trivia along the way. Fairbanks hosted the first Academy Awards ceremony, he said. “Tickets cost $5 and it lasted 15 minutes. Times have changed.”

Colin Firth – 2011
The King’s Speech (2010)Joining The Private Life of Henry VIII’s Charles Laughton in winning an Academy Award for portraying British royalty, Firth played King George VI as he overcame a stutter during the first days of World War II. Firth also earned something perhaps harder to attain than the award: The film is said to have been positively received by Queen Elizabeth II, George VI’s daughter.

Jeff Bridges – 2010
Crazy Heart (2009)Thirty-eight years after his first nomination, Jeff Bridges won for his fifth career nomination as an alcoholic country singer in Crazy Heart. Bridges told Vanity Fair that he accepted the role largely due to the musical participation of T Bone Burnett. His performance led Todd McCarthy to rave in Variety that “everything this seasoned pro does implicitly rings entirely, beautifully true.”

Sean Penn – 2009
Milk (2008)In the first year where five former category winners paid tribute to the nominees before awarding the newest recipient, Robert De Niro impishly mused about Penn’s performance as America’s first openly gay elected official, Harvey Milk: “How did he do it? How, for so many years, did Sean Penn get all those jobs playing straight men?” After winning for the second time in a decade, Penn noted his surprise and joked, “I want to be very clear that I do know how hard I make it to appreciate me often.”

Daniel Day-Lewis – 2008
There Will Be Blood (2007)Day-Lewis once again broke out of semi-retirement for Paul Thomas Anderson’s study of an oilman, earning his second Academy Award. Manohla Dargis called Day-Lewis’s performance “monstrous and shattering” in The New York Times, writing: “It’s a thrilling performance, among the greatest I’ve seen, purposefully alienating and brilliantly located at the juncture between cinematic realism and theatrical spectacle.”

Forest Whitaker – 2007
The Last King of Scotland (2006)Whitaker won the best-actor Oscar in 2007 for his turn as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. Also nominated that year was Peter O’Toole for Venus. On this, his eighth nod, O’Toole set the record for the most nominations in the best-actor category without a competitive win. (He received an honorary award in 2003.)

Philip Seymour Hoffman – 2006
Capote (2005)After years as a celebrated character actor who went continually unrecognized by the Academy, Hoffman won on his first nomination as the titular tortured writer. “Philip Seymour Hoffman’s precise, uncanny performance as Capote doesn’t imitate the author so much as channel him, as a man whose peculiarities mask great intelligence and deep wounds,” raved Roger Ebert.

Jamie Foxx – 2005
Ray (2004)Steve Granitz/Getty Images.

Also nominated in best supporting actor for Collateral, Foxx is the most recent male actor to receive multiple acting nominations in a single year. For his work as the titular icon, Peter Travers enthused in Rolling Stone, “Jamie Foxx gets so far inside the man and his music that he and Ray Charles seem to breathe as one.” Foxx started his acceptance speech by saying “I guess we gotta do it again,” then launching into an imitation of Ray Charles’s “What’d I Say” call-and-response—which had become a staple of Foxx’s many acceptance speeches throughout the season.

Sean Penn – 2004
Mystic River (2003)Facing a photo finish race against Bill Murray (Lost in Translation) and Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean, believe it or not), Penn opened his acceptance speech by not only recognizing his fellow nominees but also “the Giamattis, Cages, Downey Jr.s, Nicholsons, etc. that were not nominated.” Mystic River was the first film since Ben-Hur to win both male acting categories, something that would occur again exactly 10 and 20 years later with Dallas Buyers Club and then Oppenheimer.

Adrien Brody – 2003
The Pianist (2002)Brody remains the youngest of the best actor winners, accepting his award at the age of 29. His acceptance speech is infamous for the way it began with Brody kissing presenter and the previous year’s best-actress winner Halle Berry. Throughout that season, the race was hotly contested between nominees Jack Nicholson (for About Schmidt) and Daniel Day-Lewis (for Gangs of New York), but Brody nabbed a surprise win for his performance in Roman Polanski’s film as a real life musician who escaped the Nazis.

Denzel Washington – 2002
Training Day (2001)Washington won his second Oscar (having previously won as supporting actor for Glory in 1990) on a historic night for Black actors, with Halle Berry winning best actress and Sidney Poitier receiving an honorary award. In Washington’s acceptance speech, he paid tribute to Poitier: “I’ll always be chasing you, Sidney. I’ll always be following in your footsteps,” and the two screen legends held their Oscars aloft in salute to one another.

Russell Crowe – 2001
Gladiator (2000)After a nomination the previous year for The Insider, Crowe catapulted to superstardom with megahit Gladiator. Critics noted the tidal physical transformation he had made between the films. In Entertainment Weekly, Lisa Schwarzbaum wrote that all traces of Crowe’s previous role had vanished, compared Crowe to William Holden and Robert Mitchum, and called him “heartily masculine, commanding yet capable of temperance, and with a warily, wearily understanding gaze.”

Kevin Spacey – 2000
American Beauty (1999)While doing press for the surprise hit American Beauty, Spacey refuted rumors that he was gay in an interview with Playboy. (He would later come out when accused by fellow actor Anthony Rapp of sexually assaulting Rapp when Rapp was a minor; Spacey has also been accused of sexual misconduct by several other men. He has denied the allegations.)

Roberto Benigni – 1999
Life is Beautiful (1997)Benigni became the first actor since Olivier to direct himself to a win, and his reaction to winning was notorious, with the multihyphenate climbing atop his seat. Also among the nominees that night was Sir Ian McKellen, nominated for Gods and Monsters. McKellen is considered the first out gay lead actor to be nominated—though a few years prior, Nigel Hawthorne was outed during the press cycle surrounding his nomination for The Madness of King George.

Jack Nicholson – 1998
As Good As It Gets (1997)His third acting win (he also won best actor for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in 1976 and best supporting actor for Terms of Endearment in 1984), As Good As It Gets came with Nicholson’s 11th nomination, a milestone that meant he had passed Laurence Olivier to become the most nominated male actor of all time—a record he would extend to 12 a few years later when nominated for About Schmidt. Olivier and Spencer Tracy still have Nicholson beat for lead nominations, with nine to Nicholson’s eight. Nicholson’s costar Helen Hunt was also awarded best actress, the last time in Academy history that both lead acting categories were won for the same film.

Geoffrey Rush – 1997
Shine (1996)The first Australian acting winner since Network’s Peter Finch in 1977, Rush portrayed real-life pianist David Helfgott in Shine. In the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan lavished him with praise: “Keeping the balance between ensuring the character’s humanity and seeing that his madness does not unravel into mere winsome eccentricity is a difficult task and Geoffrey Rush…handles the challenge superbly.”

Nicolas Cage – 1996
Leaving Las Vegas (1995)KIM KULISH/Getty Images.

In order to prepare for his role as a man drinking himself to death, Cage compiled a list of what he considered the greatest drunk acting performances—including Ray Milland’s best-actor-winning performance in The Lost Weekend. Reviews were rhapsodic, with Roger Ebert hailing: “Cage, a resourceful and daring actor, has never been better.”

Tom Hanks – 1995
Forrest Gump (1994)In short order, Hanks became the second man to win consecutive best-actor Oscars after Spencer Tracy. (Jason Robards achieved this feat in the best-supporting-actor category in 1978). Hank’s Philadelphia follow-up was perhaps even more of a political lightning rod: Patrick Buchanan declared that “Forrest Gump celebrates the values of conservatism.” In their 1996 book Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards, Mason Wiley and Damien Bona quote Hanks telling the backstage press: “The blood running through my head at the time was just as ferocious this year as it was last…. If I win again, and by the way, I’m not saying I will, I swear to God I’m not going to cry next time.”

Tom Hanks – 1994
Philadelphia (1993)Much was made of the first studio film to grapple with AIDS and the straight Hanks’s portrayal of a man battling the disease, with the most public criticism coming from writer and activist Larry Kramer: “I’d rather people not see it at all.” In his acceptance speech, Hanks paid tribute to his high school drama teacher and a classmate, who were both gay (which would serve as the inspiration for the comedy In & Out). “I know that my work in this case is magnified by the fact that the streets of heaven are too crowded with angels,” Hanks spoke in his tearful speech.

Al Pacino – 1993
Scent of a Woman (1992)This critically dismissed film was the subject of some early Golden Globes controversy. The New York Times reported on how studios may have gamed the Hollywood Foreign Press Association: “Hollywood is buzzing that numerous members of the foreign press group flew en masse to New York to see the film and to meet Al Pacino, the star of the film, before the vote,” Bernard Weinraub wrote. The film won three Globes, including best motion picture in the drama category. Still, Pacino was long overdue for an Oscar win. He went into the 1993 ceremony with two nominations (he had also been nominated in supporting for Glengarry Glen Ross) and a lot of momentum behind him. “You broke my streak,” Pacino told a rapturous Oscar audience once he finally took the podium.

Anthony Hopkins – 1992
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)The critical raves for Hopkins’s performance as Hannibal “the Cannibal” Lecter were instantaneous, including Variety calling his work “the personification of brilliant, hypnotic evil, and the screen jolts with electricity whenever he is on.” Originally expected to compete in the supporting category (his performance is second only to David Niven’s role in Separate Tables as the best-actor win with the least screen time), Hopkins graduated to lead consideration thanks to his dominating power over the film.

Jeremy Irons – 1991
Reversal of Fortune (1990)Balancing a macabre deadpan with a did-he-or-didn’t-he mystery, Irons’s revered performance as the wealthy and possible wife-murderer Claus von Bulow evoked “Boris Karloff playing Cary Grant,” according to LA Weekly’s Tom Carson. In his acceptance speech, the actor offered a nod to the film Dead Ringers, for which he had been expected to land a best-actor nomination two years prior before being snubbed: “Thank you also—and some of you may understand why—thank you, David Cronenberg.”

Daniel Day-Lewis – 1990
My Left Foot (1989)Much was made of Day-Lewis’s method approach to embodying artist Christy Brown, which included having crew members feed him to mirror Brown’s life with cerebral palsy. In Rolling Stone, Peter Travers wrote: “Day-Lewis gives a towering performance — fierce, witty and moving. He uncovers an imprisoned character’s beating heart.”

Dustin Hoffman – 1989
Rain Man (1988)Pauline Kael was no fan of Hoffman’s work as an autistic man on a cross-country trip with his suave brother, opining, “Rain Man is Dustin Hoffman humping one note on a piano for two hours and eleven minutes.” At the podium, Hoffman recognized his fellow nominees “for their wonderful work, even if they didn’t vote for me. I didn’t vote for you guys, either.”

Michael Douglas – 1988
Wall Street (1987)Here is one of the several Oscar winners whose victories are not limited to a single category. As a producer of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, this was actually Douglas’ second Oscar win, making him the first actor to win an Academy Award for both acting and best picture. As Wall Street’s Gordon Gecko, the actor personified 1980s greed, with New York Magazine hailing, “He’s never acted with this kind of gusto and power before.”

Paul Newman – 1987
The Color of Money (1986)After Bing Crosby, Newman’s performance as Fast Eddie Felson marked only the second time an actor would earn multiple Oscar nominations and also win for portraying the same character in multiple films—though Newman was the fourth actor to receive multiple nominations for playing the same character. Expecting to lose yet again for his seventh of an eventual nine acting nominations, Newman did not attend the ceremony. Presenter Bette Davis called out, “This award, Paul, is long overdue,” acknowledging Newman as one of the best actors of all time.

William Hurt – 1986
Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)Another Oscar-winning performance that also received Cannes honors, Hurt won for his role as a queer cinephile imprisoned in Brazil—the first heterosexual actor to win an Oscar for playing an LGBTQ character (but not the last). Critics cheered especially Hurt’s performance, with Janet Maslin stating in The New York Times that Hurt “has never been so daringly extroverted on screen before.”

F. Murray Abraham – 1985
Amadeus (1984)Director Milos Forman opted to cast two largely unknown actors in his musical biopic as Mozart (Tom Hulce) and his untriumphed rival, Salieri (Abraham). In a role reversal from the film, Hulce was also nominated in the best-actor category this year, but Abraham was the victor. “There’s only one thing that’s missing for me tonight,” Abraham said in his acceptance speech, “and that is to have Tom Hulce standing by my side.” The 1985 ceremony remains the last time one film received multiple best-actor nominations.

Robert Duvall – 1984
Tender Mercies (1983)The only American among the year’s best actor nominees, Robert Duvall starred as an alcoholic country singer in Tender Mercies and was met with praise especially from the country music world. The category was presented by Rhinestone costars Sylvester Stallone and Dolly Parton, and according to Wiley and Bona, Educating Rita nominee Michael Caine lated shared: “I figured that if they had a country-and-western star to give out the award, I wasn’t going to win.”

Ben Kingsley – 1983
Gandhi (1982)Ben Kingsley earned this star-making role after years with the Royal Shakespeare Company and limited film credits in his resume. In his rave review, Roger Ebert said that Kingsley “makes the role so completely his own that there is a genuine feeling that the spirit of Gandhi is on the screen.” Accepting the award, Kingsley declared, “This is an Oscar for vision, for courage, for acting, and for peace.”

Henry Fonda – 1982
On Golden Pond (1981)On Golden Pond got the septuagenarian Fonda—often considered one of the most overlooked actors by the Academy—his first acting nomination in over 40 years. Fonda had received an honorary Oscar the previous year, but was unable to receive his competitive win in 1982 in person due to his health. In an emotional speech, his daughter Jane Fonda accepted on his behalf. Fonda passed away a few months later.

Robert De Niro – 1981
Raging Bull (1980)© United Artists/Everett Collection.

Robert De Niro’s physical transformation into Jake LaMotta garnered headlines, but the critical raves for his performance heralded his craft. Pauline Kael was one of the many critics to champion De Niro despite misgivings about the film, stating that “with anyone but De Niro in the role, the picture would probably be a joke.” This was De Niro’s second Oscar win, after winning best supporting actor for The Godfather Part II in 1975.

Dustin Hoffman – 1980
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)Hoffman had previously shunned the Oscars in the tradition of Patton’s George C. Scott, but for Kramer vs. Kramer—a film where he is said to have been allowed control over editing, rewrites, and film takes—the actor did a full-court press and also attended the ceremony. In his acceptance speech, the actor struck an ambivalent tone: “I’m up here with mixed feelings. I’ve criticized the Academy before, and for reason…. A few of us are so lucky to have a chance to work with writing and to work with directing…. ”

Jon Voight – 1979
Coming Home (1978)After winning the best-actor prize at Cannes, Voight was the Oscar frontrunner for his portrayal of a disabled Vietnam veteran in Hal Ashby’s film. Voight’s increasingly emotional acceptance speech included tribute to his fellow nominee Sir Laurence Olivier, who had received an honorary award earlier in the ceremony.

Richard Dreyfuss – 1978
The Goodbye Girl (1977)Winning in the same year that he headlined Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Dreyfuss told The New York Times, “I always knew that I could be a star for this whole audience that didn’t relate to John Wayne or Al Pacino.” Only one of his simultaneous hits would be nominated for best picture, and that film was the one the Academy nominated him for in the best-actor category. He would be the youngest winner in the category for the next 25 years.

Peter Finch – 1977
Network (1976)Peter Finch received the first-ever posthumous acting Oscar win for his “mad as hell and not going to take it anymore” news anchor. The actor, who had lobbied MGM to campaign him as a lead actor instead of a supporting actor, conducted hundreds of interviews about the film between August 1976 and his death in January 1977, when he collapsed in the lobby of the Beverly Hills Hotel en route to a Good Morning America spot. According to Wiley and Bona, ceremony producer William Friedkin barred Finch’s widow from potentially accepting the Oscar to prevent a somber tone on the splashy telecast. Instead he asked Network scribe Paddy Chayefsky, who invited her onstage to speak anyway.

Jack Nicholson – 1976
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)On his fifth nomination, Nicholson finally won the Academy Award for playing asylum inmate Randle P. McMurphy. After Nicholson’s name was called that night, some say fellow nominee Walter Matthau could be seen on camera saying, “It’s about time.” Onstage, Nicholson declared, “I guess this proves there are as many nuts in the Academy as anywhere else,” and impishly thanked Mary Pickford, “who I believe was the first actor to get a percentage of her pictures.”

Art Carney – 1975
Harry and Tonto (1974)In Inside Oscar, Wiley and Bona quote critic Pauline Kael’s review of Carney’s aged-up performance as a lonely, elderly hitchhiker: “Art Carney shows the great talent that he could never fully show on television.” Nominated alongside a still Oscar-less Jack Nicholson (the only other nominee in attendance), Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, and Albert Finney, the recently sober Carney did a high kick after hearing his name called. Referencing trepidation around playing an older character, the actor quoted his agent in his speech: “Do it. You are old!”

Jack Lemmon – 1974
Save the Tiger (1973)Lemmon’s first nomination in over a decade came for a little-seen passion project that nevertheless made Lemmon the first actor to ever win both supporting and lead acting Oscars. From the stage, Lemmon alluded to the way that George C. Scott’s boycott had challenged perceptions about the ceremony: “There has been a great deal of criticism about this award, and probably a great deal of [it] is very justified,” he said in his acceptance speech. “But I think it is one hell of an honor, and I am thrilled.”

Marlon Brando – 1973
The Godfather (1972)From the Everett Collection.

For his career comeback and second win, Marlon Brando opted out of the ceremony and sent actress and activist Sacheen Littlefeather to read a prepared statement that protested Hollywood’s onscreen and off-screen treatment of Native actors and the recent standoff at Wounded Knee. Producers refused to allow Littlefeather to read the full statement on air, though it would be read in full at a separate press conference and be printed in The New York Times. While Brando’s performance is considered one of the greatest of all time, his absentee form of protest–including leaving Littlefeather to face a more hostile industry and press than would have been met by a famous actor–remains controversial. So does Littlefeather herself; after her death in 2022, her sisters claimed that Littlefeather was not, as she claimed to be, of Apache heritage, and her ancestry has been a topic of debate ever since.

Gene Hackman – 1972
The French Connection (1971)According to Wiley and Bona, Hackman was director William Friedkin’s seventh choice for the lead role in this gritty cop thriller, and the actor allegedly admitted that he struggled with the role: “It seemed like a chance to do all those things I watched Jimmy Cagney do as a kid…. I found out very quickly that I’m not a violent person.” When awarded, Hackman checked onstage that the right name was on the envelope.

George C. Scott – 1971
Patton (1970)The most dominant Oscar story of Patton’s year was whether or not George C. Scott would accept the Oscar that he was unquestionably expected to win. The actor was vocal in interviews with not only his distaste for the Academy Awards (“a goddam meat parade,” he called them), but also his disappointment with both his performance and the film itself. Scott steamrolled the season anyway, including a win with the New York Film Critics Circle. Wiley and Bona write in Inside Oscar that Scott’s then wife, Colleen Dewhurst, accepted this award on his behalf and stated: “George thinks this is the only film award worth having.” Scott’s fellow nominees were all publicly asked about his refusal to attend the ceremony, with Jack Nicholson—nominated that year for Five Easy Pieces—saying “I’m voting for myself.”

John Wayne – 1970
True Grit (1969)Career tribute hosannas arrived for Western legend John Wayne when he played Rooster Cogburn in True Grit—even from the very critics who challenged his politics. The New York Times called it “the richest performance of his long career,” while The Atlantic noted, “[w]hether or not John Wayne ever joins the ACLU, he is a hell of a good actor who obviously took great relish in the opportunity to play a meaty role.” Before the Oscars, Wayne appeared on the covers of both Life and Time magazines for career profiles. Upon winning, he whispered to presenter Barbra Streisand, “Beginner’s luck.”

Cliff Robertson – 1969
Charly (1968)Robertson starred in stage projects like Days of Wine and Roses and The Hustler—but had a knack for being replaced when those projects were later adapted into feature films, by actors who would later be nominated for Oscars. He solved the problem by developing this Flowers for Algernon adaptation as a starring vehicle for himself. Charly is notable for the aggressive Oscar campaign it mounted for Robertson, which included a double-page Variety ad that pointedly boasted over 80 rave reviews for his work.

Rod Steiger – 1968
In the Heat of the Night (1967)In his acceptance speech, Steiger thanked his costar Sidney Poitier “for the pleasure of his friendship, which gave me the knowledge and understanding of prejudice in order to enhance my performance.” This was also the year that Spencer Tracy posthumously received his ninth and final best-actor nomination, for Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.

Paul Scofield – 1967
A Man for All Seasons (1966)This best-actor lineup matched the best picture nominees exactly, though it would be the first time that the same film won both categories while up against the same exact nominees. As Sir Thomas More challenging Henry VIII, Scofield defeated Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’s Richard Burton on his fifth of seven eventual nominations; Burton would never win an Oscar.

Lee Marvin – 1966
Cat Ballou (1965)The first actor to win an Academy Award for playing multiple roles in one film, Lee Marvin appeared in the farcical Western Cat Ballou as both the hired gunslinger hero Kid Shelleen and the villainous Tim Strawn. In the same year, he also earned rave reviews for Ship of Fools, for which his costar Oskar Werner was nominated alongside him in the best-actor category.

Rex Harrison – 1965
My Fair Lady (1964)Reprising his Tony Award–winning performance as Henry Higgins to even more acclaim, Harrison was presented his Academy Award by his screen costar Audrey Hepburn. Meanwhile, his stage costar—Julie Andrews, who had been passed over for the adaptation—was in the audience awaiting her own Oscar for Mary Poppins. Subtly acknowledging the controversy, Harrison gave a nod to both actresses in his speech: “Deep love to, um, well, two fair ladies.”

Sidney Poitier – 1964
Lilies of the Field (1963)Bettmann/Getty Images.

On his second best actor nomination, Sidney Poitier became the first Black actor to win the Academy Award for best actor. “It is a long journey to this moment,” Poitier said, accepting his statuette. A Black actor would not win the category again for almost 40 years.

Gregory Peck – 1963
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)Mockingbird marked Peck’s fifth Oscar nomination. When asked how he felt about being nominated again—after failing to win four times—he replied “I feel like a male Susan Hayward,” write Wiley and Bona. Peck attended the ceremony accessorized with a pocket watch and chain previously owned by the inspiration for his Atticus Finch: the father of Mockingbird author, Harper Lee.

Maximillian Schell – 1962
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)Adapted from a teleplay episode of CBS Playhouse 90, Maximilian Schell reprised his role as defense attorney Rolfe, making him the first best actor to win for a role originated on television. “I know this award honors not only me but also the picture,” Schell said onstage, tributing his costar and fellow nominee, “that great old man” Spencer Tracy.

Burt Lancaster – 1961
Elmer Gantry (1960)“Some parts you fall into like an old glove,” Lancaster said of his role as a religious con man, Wiley and Bona write in Inside Oscar. “Elmer wasn’t really acting, that was me!” After winning, Lancaster was reported to have caught the ailing best-actress winner, Elizabeth Taylor, when she fainted in the pressroom while posing for photographers.

Charlton Heston – 1960
Ben-Hur (1959)The mega-remake Ben-Hur matched its giant budget with the most Oscar wins of all time (which wouldn’t be approached for almost 40 years, when Titanic matched its 11 wins). Naturally, its headliner Charlton Heston was caught in that tide, despite some middling reviews for his performance. When asked backstage after winning the Oscar what he most enjoyed about filming, Heston responded, “I didn’t enjoy any of it. It was hard work.”

David Niven – 1959
Separate Tables (1958)Here might be the rare case of reverse category fraud: David Niven’s performance as a man accused of sexual harassment clocks in at under 24 minutes of screen time, making his the shortest best-actor-winning performance of all time. According to Wiley and Bona, Niven also self-funded part of his awards campaign, taking out trade ads that modestly featured only his photo and advertised his win from the New York Film Critics Circle.

Alec Guinness – 1958
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)David Lean’s epic became the year’s biggest box office earner, and made a major name out of Guiness as the haughty Colonel Nicholson. In Variety, Mike Kaplan wrote that “the film is unquestionably Guinness,” and he was dubbed “Alec the Great” by Life magazine. Perhaps the highest praise came from his fellow nominee and the actor originally considered for the role, Charles Laughton: In campaigning for Guinness to win, Laughton said, “I never understood the part until I saw Guinness play it.” Guinness did not attend the ceremony.

Yul Brynner – 1957
The King and I (1956)Another actor awarded by the Academy for a role he had created on the stage, Russian-born Yul Brynner’s performance as King Mongut of Siam became his calling card. He would play the role over 4600 times in later Broadway revivals and tours. Though Brynner had starred in two other Oscar winners that year (The Ten Commandments and Anastasia), he said in his speech, “I hope this isn’t a mistake, because I won’t give it back for anything in the world.” James Dean was also nominated once again this year, this time for Giant, making him the only actor to ever receive multiple posthumous nominations.

Ernest Borgnine – 1956
Marty (1955)After critical raves and winning the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, the film’s producers mounted a $400,000 Oscar campaign for the film—more than the film’s production cost. Borgnine had inherited the titular role from Rod Steiger’s performance in the earlier teleplay version of Marty, and he became a star in the process. Wiley and Bona recount in Inside Oscar that, on his way to the stage to accept his Oscar, Borgnine was seen slipping something to Jerry Lewis. Lewis allegedly later joked: “$1.41 in a sock—we had a bet and he lost.” Elsewhere in the best-actor lineup, James Dean became the first man to earn a posthumous acting nomination for his performance in East of Eden.

Marlon Brando – 1955
On the Waterfront (1954)After four consecutive bids at best actor, Marlon Brando finally won for his role as Terry Malloy, a longshore union worker standing up to corruption. Today, his performance in On the Waterfront is frequently cited as one of the greatest of all time. Throughout the ceremony, Brando had been chewing gum, but discarded it when he saw who would be presenting best actor: a bald Bette Davis in a fashionable skullcap.

William Holden – 1954
Stalag 17 (1953)Billy Wilder struggled to cast the lead of Stalag 17, settling on his Sunset Boulevard star Holden. Life magazine would eventually effuse that “as acted by William Holden, Stalag 17’s hero-heel emerges as the most memorable character to come out of Hollywood this year.” Accepting his award while being rushed by a producer who said that the ceremony was running overtime, Holden’s speech was simple: “Thank you, thank you.”

Gary Cooper – 1953
High Noon (1952)Bosley Crowther raved about Cooper’s performance in The New York Times, writing, “Mr. Cooper is at the top of his form in a type of role that has trickled off his back for years.” Reviews like that helped the star become only the third actor to win twice as best actor. Cooper was unable to attend the ceremony and asked John Wayne (who had turned down High Noon) to accept it on his behalf. In a later Playboy interview, Wayne called High Noon “the most un-American thing I’ve ever seen in my whole life.”

Humphrey Bogart – 1952
The African Queen (1951)Bettmann/Getty Images.

Though the screen legend feigned skepticism in the press about the value of the award and his desire to win, he appeared stunned when his name was actually announced. Lauren Bacall, his wife, later said in her memoirs that Bogart “had never felt people in the town liked him much, and hadn’t expected such universal joy when his name was called.” Bogart had won over new sensation Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire, a film that swept every acting category besides best actor.

José Ferrer – 1951
Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)Having previously won the first Tony for best actor in a play for his performance as the titular Cyrano, Ferrer became the first Puerto Rican to win an Oscar. Ferrer’s campaign was in jeopardy when he was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee shortly after the nominations, and he pivoted his trade ads so that they would not only herald his performance, but also declare his plans to swear under oath that he was not a Communist.

Broderick Crawford – 1950
All the King’s Men (1949)Typically known for character roles, Crawford was taken aback by the critical praise heaped on his lead performance in Robert Rossen’s adaptation of Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel. “This can’t really be happening after all those westerns,” he was quoted as saying in Inside Oscar.

Laurence Olivier – 1949
Hamlet (1948)Olivier finally earned an acting Oscar for his fourth of an eventual 10 acting nominations over the course of his screen career. Though Colman’s performance in A Double Life has elements of the Bard, Olivier remains the only actor to be awarded an Oscar for a Shakespearean performance. It was also the first time an actor directed himself to a best actor win, a record Olivier would hold for nearly 50 years until Roberto Benigni joined him. (Olivier, like Benigni, did not win best director, though.)

Ronald Colman – 1948
A Double Life (1947)Ronald Colman’s performance as an actor going crazy while playing Othello wasn’t only the odds-on favorite to win: It was an early case of aggressive and strategic awards campaigning. Ads in the trades promoting his performance included praise from a slew of previous Academy Award–winning stars like Joan Crawford and Walter Brennan, all stating that Colman should be awarded.

Fredric March – 1947
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)March’s second best-actor win—starring as a middle-aged veteran readjusting to post-war life—came amidst intense competition: He defeated James Stewart’s beloved turn in It’s a Wonderful Life. March was unable to attend the ceremony, but the film proved an unstoppable force, winning for all but one of its nine nominations.

Ray Milland – 1946
The Lost Weekend (1945)Inside Oscar authors wrote that the initial test screening reactions for The Lost Weekend were negative, nearly causing the film to be shelved, but the out-of-town opening helped build hype and anticipation for the film—and for Milland’s performance as an alcoholic. Milland apparently was so nervous when winning that he could only bow speechlessly. He was also the first lead actor to win the best-actor award at both the Oscars and the Cannes Film Festival, which held its first edition that year.

Bing Crosby – 1945
Going My Way (1944)Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

As Father Chuck O’Malley in Going My Way, Bing Crosby cemented his status as the top box office draw of the decade. Prior to the film, Crosby was considered more of a singer than an actor; after Crosby’s win, Oscar host Bob Hope allegedly joked that Crosby winning an acting Oscar was like Samuel Goldwyn lecturing at Oxford. Reprising his role as O’Malley in the following year’s sequel The Bells of St. Mary’s, Crosby was again nominated for best actor—the first time an actor received multiple Academy Award nominations for portraying the same character.

Paul Lukas – 1944
Watch on the Rhine (1943)For his role as a German anti-fascist in this adaptation of Lillian Hellman’s play, Lukas’s main competition that year was Humphrey Bogart, nominated for Casablanca. But while Bogart was the bigger star at the time, Lukas had even stronger reviews. Not a sore loser, Bogart personally congratulated Lukas moments after the latter accepted the Oscar.

James Cagney – 1943
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)Yankee Doodle Dandy was Warner Brothers’ biggest hit up to that point, and it was Cagney’s final film under his contract with the studio. According to Wiley and Bona, the film’s vision of Americana—released in the midst of World War II—was so popular that Cagney recreated his role by performing some of its songs at FDR’s birthday party.

Gary Cooper – 1942
Sergeant York (1941)Sergeant York was 1941’s top film at the box office, thanks in part to Cooper’s star power. He was hand-picked by the real-life York for the role, according to Wiley and Bona, and he received a distinguished citizenship medal from the Veterans of Foreign Wars for his performance. At the ceremony, Cooper was so flummoxed when he learned he had won that he nearly dropped his statuette after previous winner Stewart handed it to him—then forgot the award at the podium after finishing his acceptance speech.

James Stewart – 1941
The Philadelphia Story (1940)Stewart maintained the momentum from his Mr. Smith nomination with several box office successes the following year, culminating in the smash The Philadelphia Story. The only best-actor nominee to attend the ceremony that year, Stewart told the ecstatic audience while accepting his award that he shared their enthusiasm: “I want to assure you that this is a very, very important moment in my life.”

Robert Donat – 1940
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)British Donat bested very steep competition with his role as a beloved teacher, a part that would also net Peter O’Toole an Oscar nomination for the 1969 musical remake. Donat’s competition included such iconic performances as James Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Clark Gable in Gone With the Wind. In his biography of Gone With the Wind producer David O. Selznick, Bob Thomas recounts how Gable’s loss prompted Selznick to berate the film’s publicist: “Somewhere you failed. You didn’t put on the proper campaign.”

Spencer Tracy – 1939
Boys Town (1938)Tracy became the first to win two best-actor Oscars in consecutive years, one year after Luise Rainer achieved the same feat in the best-actress category. During the same ceremony, Bette Davis and Walter Brennan also won their second acting Oscars. Tracy attended the ceremony this time, praising the real-life priest he had portrayed in the box office smash.

Spencer Tracy – 1938
Captains Courageous (1937)Wiley and Bona recount in Inside Oscar that, because he thought his costar Lionel Barrymore—who was not nominated that year—had given the better performance in Captains Courageous, Spencer Tracy did not attend the ceremony. While accepting the award on his behalf, Louis B. Mayer praised Tracy for “understand[ing] why it is necessary to take orders from the front office.” Tracy later wondered what Mayer had meant: “Was that a compliment, or a threat?”

Paul Muni – 1937
The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936)Separate lead and supporting categories did not exist until the ninth Academy Awards, technically making this the first Academy Award for best actor in a leading role. Typically typecast in gangster roles, Paul Muni won for playing against type as a scientist. At the podium, presenter and previous winner Victor McLaglen grandstanded about the meaning of the award and erroneously told the audience it was Muni’s second win. Wiley and Bona describe a conversation between Muni and gossip columnist Sidney Skolsky after the ceremony: “Victor talked so long, for a minute there, I thought I was presenting the award to him,” Muni allegedly told Skolsky.

Victor McLaglen – 1936
The Informer (1935)In addition to McLaglen’s Oscar win as the title character that year, The Informer earned best-picture and best-director wins at the very first New York Film Critics Circle Awards. Clark Gable, Charles Laughton, and Franchot Tone were all nominated opposite McLaglen for Mutiny on the Bounty at the Oscars, marking the first and only time one film earned three of its stars simultaneous best-actor nods.

Clark Gable – 1935
It Happened One Night (1934)Bettmann/Getty Images.

The Academy Awards of 1935 marked the first time that the best-actor and best-actress awards went to the same film, as well as the first time any film won the big five: best picture, best director, both lead performer categories, and best screenplay. At the time, Gable was under contract with MGM and had been loaned out to Columbia Pictures. Upon winning, Gable stated, “I feel as happy as a kid, and a little foolish they picked me.”

Charles Laughton – 1934
The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933)Laughton’s big and bold performance as a voracious version of the notorious king in this UK-based production was not considered a favorite to win this category, and his victory is considered the first acting Oscar win for a film made outside the Hollywood system. The actor was also a no-show to the ceremony, as was best-actress winner, Katharine Hepburn.

Wallace Beery and Fredric March (tie) – 1932
The Champ (1931) and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), respectivelyThis is the only tie in the history of the best-actor category, and it wound up that way on a technicality. Oscar rules at the time stipulated that a tie would be ruled if any nominee came within three votes of the winner. March appeared to be the vote leader until a checker discovered mid-ceremony that he and Beery had actually tied, with Beery being only one vote behind March. This left B.P. Schulberg, the Paramount executive who was overseeing the voting committee, scrambling to secure an additional statuette for Beery.

Lionel Barrymore – 1931
A Free Soul (1931)An early example of Oscar campaign narrative-spinning: While championing Lionel Barrymore, MGM hyped both Lionel Barrymore’s family name and the fact that he is said to have filmed his character’s Free Soul death scene in a single take. Barrymore’s main competitor for the Oscar that year was nine-year-old Jackie Cooper, whose nod for Skippy still makes him the youngest best-actor nominee of all time. Cooper slept through Barrymore’s acceptance speech, where the winner praised his fellow nominee.

George Arliss – 1930
Disraeli (1929)At the age of 62, Arliss won for his performance as British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in a film based on Louis N. Parker’s eponymous play. Disraeli became somewhat of a calling card for Arliss: The actor also played the role in the play’s original Broadway production and in a silent film version released a few years before this talkie version.

Warner Baxter – 1930
In Old Arizona (1928)Baxter inherited his Oscar-winning role when the film’s director and original Cisco Kid, Raoul Walsh, lost an eye in a car accident while the movie was in production. With Baxter as a replacement, the film became a box office hit; in 2024, it entered the public domain.

Emil Jannings – 1929
The Way of All Flesh (1927) and The Last Command (1928)The first winner of the Academy Award for best actor had a relatively brief career in Hollywood. After becoming known as a star of German silent cinema, Jannings received the best-actor award for his work in two silent Hollywood films. After the advent of talkies, Jannings opted to return home to Germany rather than staying in the Hollywood system to act in English. There, he’d go on to make Nazi propaganda films and would never work again after World War II.

Who is the only man to win three best-actor Oscars?Daniel Day-Lewis, for My Left Foot (1989), There Will Be Blood (2007), and Lincoln (2012).

Which male actor has won the most Oscars?It’s a three-way tie for three wins each. The list includes Daniel Day-Lewis (all lead-actor wins), Jack Nicholson (two lead, one supporting), and Walter Brennan (all supporting).

Who is the oldest male actor to win an Oscar for best actor?Anthony Hopkins, who was 83 when he won for The Father in 2021.

Who is the youngest male actor to win an Oscar for best actor?Adrien Brody, who was 29 when he won for The Pianist (2002).

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