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Academy Award for Best Actor

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Prior to the 49th Academy Awards ceremony (1976), this award was simply known as the Academy Award of Merit for Performance by an Actor. Since its inception, however, the award has commonly been referred to as the Oscar for Best Actor. While actors are nominated for this award by Academy members who are actors and actresses themselves, winners are selected by the Academy membership as a whole.

History

Throughout the past 80 years, accounting for ties and repeat winners, AMPAS has presented a total of 81 Best Actor awards to 73 different actors. Winners of this Academy Award of Merit receive the familiar Oscar statuette, depicting a gold-plated knight holding a crusader's sword and standing on a reel of film. The first recipient was Emil Jannings, who was honored at the 1st Academy Awards ceremony (1927/1928) for his performances in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. The most recent recipient was Daniel Day-Lewis, who was honored at the 80th Academy Awards ceremony (2007) for his performance in There Will Be Blood.

In the first three years of the Academy Awards, individuals such as actors and directors were nominated as the best in their categories. Then all of their work during the qualifying period (as many as three films, in some cases) was listed after the award. However, during the 3rd Academy Awards ceremony (1929/1930), only one of those films was cited in each winner's final award, even though each of the acting winners had had two films following their names on the ballots. For the 4th Academy Awards ceremony (1930/1931), this unwieldy and confusing system was replaced by the current system in which an actor is nominated for a specific performance in a single film. Such nominations are limited to five per year. Until the 8th Academy Awards ceremony (1935), nominations for the Best Actor award were intended to include all actors, whether the performance was in either a leading or supporting role. At the 9th Academy Awards ceremony (1936), however, the Best Supporting Actor category was specifically introduced as a distinct award following complaints that the single Best Actor category necessarily favored leading performers with the most screen time. Nonetheless, Lionel Barrymore had received a Best Actor award (A Free Soul, 1931) and Franchot Tone a Best Actor nomination (Mutiny on the Bounty, 1935) for their performances in clear supporting roles. Currently, Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, and Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role constitute the four Academy Awards of Merit for acting annually presented by AMPAS.

Superlatives

Eight men have won the Best Actor award twice. In chronological order, they are: Spencer Tracy (1937, 1938), Fredric March (1932, 1946), Gary Cooper (1941, 1952), Marlon Brando (1954, 1972), Dustin Hoffman (1979, 1988), Tom Hanks (1993, 1994), Jack Nicholson (1975, 1997), and Daniel Day-Lewis (1989, 2007). Of these, all were Americans except for Daniel Day-Lewis. Tracy and Hanks were the only actors to win their awards in consecutive years. Furthermore, Tracy and Hanks were the same age at the time they received their Academy Awards: 37 for the first and 38 for the second.

The actors with the most nominations in this category are Spencer Tracy and Laurence Olivier, with nine each. Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson, and Peter O'Toole tie for third place with eight nominations each. Nicholson won his awards a record 22 years apart. O'Toole holds the record for the longest time span between his first and last nominations (44 years), and he also holds the record for the greatest number of nominations without ever winning the award (eight).

Six actors have won both the Best Actor and the Best Supporting Actor awards: Jack Lemmon, Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, Gene Hackman, Kevin Spacey, and Denzel Washington.

Two actors have won the Academy (Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor) for portraying the same character, that of Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather and The Godfather 2 respectively. The actors were Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro.

There has only been one tie in the history of this category, and it wasn't an exact tie. In 1932, Fredric March received one more vote than Wallace Beery. Academy rules at that time considered such a close margin to be a tie, so both March and Beery received the award. Under the current Academy rules, however, dual awards are only given for exact ties. While that has never happened for the Best Actor award, it did happen for the Best Actress award in 1968.

Peter Finch is the only posthumous winner, and James Dean, Spencer Tracy, and Massimo Troisi are the only other posthumously nominated performers in this category. Dean was posthumously nominated twice.

Three actors have been nominated for Best Actor more than once for the same character: Bing Crosby as Father O'Malley in Going My Way and The Bells of St. Mary's; Peter O'Toole as King Henry II in Becket and The Lion in Winter; and Paul Newman as "Fast Eddie" Felson in The Hustler and The Color of Money. (Al Pacino was nominated in 1974 for a role for which he had previously been nominated for Best Supporting Actor, Michael Corleone, in The Godfather Part II.)

Several pairs of actors have been nominated for playing the same character or historical figure: Fredric March and James Mason as Norman Maine in A Star Is Born, Robert Donat and Peter O'Toole as Chipping in Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh as Henry V, Charles Laughton and Richard Burton as Henry VIII, Leslie Howard and Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins in Pygmalion and My Fair Lady, and José Ferrer and Gerard Depardieu as Cyrano de Bergerac and Robert Montgomery and Warren Beatty as Joe Pendleton in Here Comes Mr. Jordan and Heaven Can Wait (1978). Robert De Niro won Best Supporting Actor for playing Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II, the role for which Marlon Brando had previously won Best Actor.

Laurence Olivier is the only actor to have won an Oscar for a performance: Best Actor for Hamlet (1948). Olivier also received an Academy Honorary Award for Henry V (1944).

Robert Downey Jr. is the only actor nominated for playing a previous nominee, Charles Chaplin, in Chaplin.

Two actors directed their own Oscar-winning performances: Laurence Olivier in Hamlet and Roberto Benigni in Life Is Beautiful. To date, however, no individual has won both Best Actor and Best Director.

Two winners have declined the award: George C. Scott, who won for Patton in 1970 (he had also declined his 1961 nomination for Best Supporting Actor for The Hustler); and Marlon Brando, upon winning his second Oscar for The Godfather in 1972.

A few early winning and nominated performances have subsequently been lost, including Emil Jannings in The Way of All Flesh (1928), Lewis Stone in The Patriot (1928), and Lawrence Tibbett in The Rogue Song (1930), of which only a short fragment and the soundtrack survives.

The earliest nominee in this category who is still alive is Jackie Cooper (1931) followed by Mickey Rooney (1939). The earliest winner in this category who is still alive is Ernest Borgnine (1955) followed by Maximilian Schell (1961).

Winners and nominees

Following the Academy's practice, the films below are listed by year of their Los Angeles qualifying run, which is usually (but not always) the film's year of release. For example, the Oscar for Best Actor of 1999 was announced during the award ceremony held in 2000. Winners are listed first in bold, followed by the other nominees.

1920s

1928 Emil Jannings - The Last Command as Gen. Dolgorucki / Grand Duke Sergius Alexander and The Way of All Flesh as August Schilling

* Richard Barthelmess - The Noose as Nickie Elkins and The Patent Leather Kid as Patent Leather Kid

1929 Warner Baxter - In Old Arizona as The Cisco Kid

* George Bancroft - Thunderbolt as Thunderbolt Jim Lang

* Chester Morris - Alibi as Chick Williams (No. 1065)

* Paul Muni - The Valiant as James Dyke

* Lewis Stone - The Patriot as Count Pahlen

1930s

1930 George Arliss - Disraeli as Benjamin Disraeli

* George Arliss - The Green Goddess as The Raja of Rukh

* Wallace Beery - The Big House as 'Machine Gun' Butch Schmidt

* Maurice Chevalier - The Big Pond as Pierre Mirande and The Love Parade as Count Alfred Renard

* Ronald Colman - Bulldog Drummond as Capt. Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond and Condemned as Michel

* Lawrence Tibbett - The Rogue Song as Yegor

1931 Lionel Barrymore - A Free Soul as Stephen Ashe

* Adolphe Menjou - The Front Page as Walter Burns

* Jackie Cooper - Skippy as Skippy Skinner

* Richard Dix - Cimarron as Yancey Cravat

* Fredric March - The Royal Family of Broadway as Tony Cavendish

1932 Fredric March - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as Dr. Henry L. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde
Wallace Beery - The Champ as Champ (tie)

* Alfred Lunt - The Guardsman as The Actor

1933 Charles Laughton - The Private Life of Henry VIII as King Henry VIII

* Leslie Howard - Berkeley Square as Peter Standish

* Paul Muni - I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang as James Allen

1934 Clark Gable - It Happened One Night as Peter Warne

* Frank Morgan - The Affairs of Cellini as Alessandro - Duke of Florence

* William Powell - The Thin Man as Nick Charles

1935 Victor McLaglen - The Informer as Gypo Nolan

* Clark Gable - Mutiny on the Bounty as Christian

* Charles Laughton - Mutiny on the Bounty as Bligh

* Franchot Tone - Mutiny on the Bounty as Byam

1936 Paul Muni - The Story of Louis Pasteur as Louis Pasteur

* Gary Cooper - Mr. Deeds Goes to Town as Longfellow Deeds

* Walter Huston - Dodsworth as Sam Dodsworth

* William Powell - My Man Godfrey as Godfrey

* Spencer Tracy - San Francisco as Father Mullin

1937 Spencer Tracy - Captains Courageous as Manuel

* Charles Boyer - Conquest as Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte

* Fredric March - A Star Is Born as Norman Maine

* Robert Montgomery - Night Must Fall as Danny

* Paul Muni - The Life of Emile Zola as Emile Zola

1938 Spencer Tracy - Boys Town as Father Flanagan

* Charles Boyer - Algiers as Pepe le Moko

* James Cagney - Angels with Dirty Faces as Rocky Sullivan

* Robert Donat - The Citadel as Andrew

* Leslie Howard - Pygmalion as Professor Henry Higgins

1939 Robert Donat - Goodbye, Mr. Chips as Mr. Chips

* Laurence Olivier - Wuthering Heights as Heathcliff

* Clark Gable - Gone with the Wind as Rhett Butler - a Visitor from Charleston

* Mickey Rooney - Babes in Arms as Mickey Moran

* James Stewart - Mr. Smith Goes to Washington as Jefferson Smith

1940s

1940 James Stewart - The Philadelphia Story as Macaulay Connor

* Charles Chaplin - The Great Dictator as Adenoid Hynkel (Dictator of Tomania) / A Jewish Barber

* Henry Fonda - The Grapes of Wrath as Tom Joad

* Raymond Massey - Abe Lincoln in Illinois as Abraham Lincoln

* Laurence Olivier - Rebecca as 'Maxim' de Winter

1941 Gary Cooper - Sergeant York as Alvin Cullum York

* Cary Grant - Penny Serenade as Roger Adams

* Walter Huston - The Devil and Daniel Webster as Mr. Scratch

* Robert Montgomery - Here Comes Mr. Jordan as Joe Pendleton

* Orson Welles - Citizen Kane as Charles Foster Kane

1942 James Cagney - Yankee Doodle Dandy as George M. Cohan

* Ronald Colman - Random Harvest as Charles Rainier

* Gary Cooper - The Pride of the Yankees as Henry Louis 'Lou' Gehrig

* Walter Pidgeon - Mrs. Miniver as Clem Miniver

* Monty Woolley - The Pied Piper as Howard

1943 Paul Lukas - Watch on the Rhine as Kurt Muller

* Humphrey Bogart - Casablanca as Rick Blaine

* Gary Cooper - For Whom the Bell Tolls as Robert Jordan

* Walter Pidgeon - Madame Curie as Pierre Curie

* Mickey Rooney - The Human Comedy as Homer Macauley

1944 Bing Crosby - Going My Way as Father Chuck O'Malley

* Charles Boyer - Gaslight as Gregory Anton

* Barry Fitzgerald - Going My Way as Father Fitzgibbon

* Cary Grant - None but the Lonely Heart as Ernie Mott

* Alexander Knox - Wilson as Woodrow Wilson

1945 Ray Milland - The Lost Weekend as Don Birnam

* Bing Crosby - The Bells of St. Mary's as Father Chuck O'Malley

* Gene Kelly - Anchors Aweigh as Joseph Brady

* Gregory Peck - The Keys of the Kingdom as Father Francis Chisholm

* Cornel Wilde - A Song to Remember as Frédéric Chopin

1946 Fredric March - The Best Years of Our Lives as Al Stephenson

* Laurence Olivier - Henry V as King Henry V of England

* Larry Parks - The Jolson Story as Al Jolson

* Gregory Peck - The Yearling as Ezra 'Penny' Baxter

* James Stewart - It's a Wonderful Life as George Bailey

1947 Ronald Colman - A Double Life as Anthony John

* John Garfield - Body and Soul as Charlie Davis

* Gregory Peck - Gentleman's Agreement as Philip Schuyler Green aka Greenberg

* Michael Redgrave - Mourning Becomes Electra as Orin Mannon

* William Powell - Life with Father as Clarence Day, Sr.

1948 Laurence Olivier - Hamlet as Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

* Lew Ayres - Johnny Belinda as Dr. Robert Richardson

* Montgomery Clift - The Search as Ralph 'Steve' Stevenson

* Dan Dailey - When My Baby Smiles at Me as 'Skid' Johnson

* Clifton Webb - Sitting Pretty as Lynn Belvedere

1949 Broderick Crawford - All the King's Men as Willie Stark

* Kirk Douglas - Champion as Michael 'Midge' Kelly

* Gregory Peck - Twelve O'Clock High as General Savage

* Richard Todd - The Hasty Heart as Cpl. Lachlan 'Lachie' MacLachlan

* John Wayne - Sands of Iwo Jima as Sgt. John M. Stryker

1950s

1950 José Ferrer - Cyrano de Bergerac as Cyrano de Bergerac

* Louis Calhern - The Magnificent Yankee as Oliver Wendell Holmes

* William Holden - Sunset Boulevard as Joe Gillis

* James Stewart - Harvey as Elwood P. Dowd

* Spencer Tracy - Father of the Bride as Stanley T. Banks

1951 Humphrey Bogart - The African Queen as Charlie Allnut

* Marlon Brando - A Streetcar Named Desire as Stanley Kowalski

* Montgomery Clift - A Place in the Sun as George Eastman

* Arthur Kennedy - Bright Victory as Larry Nevins

* Fredric March - Death of a Salesman as Willy Loman

1952 Gary Cooper - High Noon as Marshal Will Kane

* Marlon Brando - Viva Zapata! as Emiliano Zapata

* Kirk Douglas - The Bad and the Beautiful as Jonathan

* José Ferrer - Moulin Rouge as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec / The Comte de Toulouse-Lautrec

* Alec Guinness - The Lavender Hill Mob as Henry Holland

1953 William Holden - Stalag 17 as Sgt. J.J. Sefton

* Marlon Brando - Julius Caesar as Mark Antony

* Richard Burton - The Robe as Marcellus Gallio

* Montgomery Clift - From Here to Eternity as Pvt. Robert E. Lee 'Prew' Prewitt

* Burt Lancaster - From Here to Eternity as 1st Sgt. Milton Warden

1954 Marlon Brando - On the Waterfront as Terry Malloy

* Humphrey Bogart - The Caine Mutiny as Lt. Cmdr. Philip Francis Queeg

* Bing Crosby - The Country Girl as Frank Elgin

* James Mason - A Star Is Born as Norman Maine

* Dan O'Herlihy - The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe as Robinson Crusoe

1955 Ernest Borgnine - Marty as Marty Piletti

* James Cagney - Love Me or Leave Me as Martin Snyder

* James Dean - East of Eden as Cal Trask (posthumous nomination)

* Frank Sinatra - The Man with the Golden Arm as Frankie Machine

* Spencer Tracy - Bad Day at Black Rock as John J. Macreedy

1956 Yul Brynner - The King and I as King Mongkut of Siam

* James Dean - Giant as Jett Rink (posthumous nomination)

* Kirk Douglas - Lust for Life as Vincent Van Gogh

* Rock Hudson - Giant as "Bick Benedict"

* Laurence Olivier - Richard III as Richard III

1957 Alec Guinness - The Bridge on the River Kwai as Col. Nicholson

* Marlon Brando - Sayonara as Maj. Lloyd 'Ace' Gruver - USAF

* Anthony Franciosa - A Hatful of Rain as Polo Pope

* Charles Laughton - Witness for the Prosecution as Sir Wilfrid Robarts, lawyer

* Anthony Quinn - Wild Is the Wind as Gino

1958 David Niven - Separate Tables as Major Angus Pollock

* Tony Curtis - The Defiant Ones as John 'Joker' Jackson

* Paul Newman - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as Brick Pollitt

* Sidney Poitier - The Defiant Ones as Noah Cullen

* Spencer Tracy - The Old Man and the Sea as The Old Man / Narrator

1959 Charlton Heston - Ben-Hur as Judah Ben-Hur

* Laurence Harvey - Room at the Top as Joe Lampton

* Jack Lemmon - Some Like It Hot as Jerry - 'Daphne'

* Paul Muni - The Last Angry Man as Dr. Sam Abelman

* James Stewart - Anatomy of a Murder as Paul Biegler

1960s

1960 Burt Lancaster - Elmer Gantry as Elmer Gantry

* Trevor Howard - Sons and Lovers as Walter Morel

* Jack Lemmon - The Apartment as C. C. 'Bud' Baxter

* Laurence Olivier - The Entertainer as Archie Rice

* Spencer Tracy - Inherit the Wind as Henry Drummond

1961 Maximilian Schell - Judgment at Nuremberg as Hans Rolfe

* Charles Boyer - Fanny as Cesar

* Paul Newman - The Hustler as Eddie Felson

* Spencer Tracy - Judgment at Nuremberg as Chief Judge Dan Haywood

* Stuart Whitman - The Mark as Jim Fuller

1962 Gregory Peck - To Kill a Mockingbird as Atticus Finch

* Burt Lancaster - Birdman of Alcatraz as Robert Stroud

* Jack Lemmon - Days of Wine and Roses as Joe Clay

* Marcello Mastroianni - Divorce, Italian Style as Ferdinando Cefalù

* Peter O'Toole - Lawrence of Arabia as T. E. Lawrence

1963 Sidney Poitier - Lilies of the Field as Homer Smith

* Albert Finney - Tom Jones as Tom Jones

* Richard Harris - This Sporting Life as Frank Machin

* Rex Harrison - Cleopatra as Caesar

* Paul Newman - Hud as Hud Bannon

1964 Rex Harrison - My Fair Lady as Professor Henry Higgins

* Richard Burton - Becket as Thomas à Becket

* Peter O'Toole - Becket as King Henry II

* Anthony Quinn - Zorba the Greek as Alexis Zorba

* Peter Sellers - as Group Captain Lionel Mandrake / President Merkin Muffley / Dr. Strangelove

1965 Lee Marvin - Cat Ballou as Kid Shelleen / Tim Strawn

* Richard Burton - The Spy Who Came in from the Cold as Alec Leamas

* Laurence Olivier - Othello as Othello

* Rod Steiger - The Pawnbroker as Sol Nazerman

* Oskar Werner - Ship of Fools as Willie Schumann

1966 Paul Scofield - A Man for All Seasons as Sir Thomas More

* Alan Arkin - The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming as Lt. Rozanov

* Richard Burton - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? as George

* Michael Caine - Alfie as Alfie Elkins

* Steve McQueen - The Sand Pebbles as Holman

1967 Rod Steiger - In the Heat of the Night as Police Chief Bill Gillespie

* Warren Beatty - Bonnie and Clyde as Clyde Barrow

* Dustin Hoffman - The Graduate as Benjamin Braddock

* Paul Newman - Cool Hand Luke as Luke Jackson

* Spencer Tracy - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner as Matt Drayton (posthumous nomination)

1968 Cliff Robertson - Charly as Charly Gordon

* Alan Arkin - The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter as John Singer

* Alan Bates - The Fixer as Yakov Bok

* Ron Moody - Oliver! as Fagin

* Peter O'Toole - The Lion in Winter as Henry II

1969 John Wayne - True Grit as Marshall Reuben J. 'Rooster' Cogburn

* Richard Burton - Anne of the Thousand Days as King Henry VIII

* Dustin Hoffman - Midnight Cowboy as Enrico Salvatore 'Ratso' Rizzo

* Peter O'Toole - Goodbye, Mr. Chips as Arthur Chipping

* Jon Voight - Midnight Cowboy as Joe Buck

1970s

1970 George C. Scott - Patton as Gen. George S. Patton Jr. (declined)

* Melvyn Douglas - I Never Sang for My Father as Tom Garrison

* James Earl Jones - The Great White Hope as Jack Jefferson

* Jack Nicholson - Five Easy Pieces as Robert Eroica Dupea

* Ryan O'Neal - Love Story as Oliver Barrett IV

1971 Gene Hackman - The French Connection as Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle

* Peter Finch - Sunday Bloody Sunday as Dr. Daniel Hirsh

* Walter Matthau - Kotch as Joseph P. Kotcher

* George C. Scott - The Hospital as Dr. Herbert Bock

* Topol - Fiddler on the Roof as Tevye

1972 Marlon Brando - The Godfather as Don Vito Corleone (declined)

* Michael Caine - Sleuth as Milo Tindle

* Laurence Olivier - Sleuth as Andrew Wyke

* Peter O'Toole - The Ruling Class as Jack Gurney, 14th Earl of Gurney

* Paul Winfield - Sounder as Nathan Lee Morgan

1973 Jack Lemmon - Save the Tiger as Harry Stoner

* Marlon Brando - Last Tango in Paris as Paul

* Jack Nicholson - The Last Detail as SM1 Billy 'Bad Ass' Buddusky

* Al Pacino - Serpico as Frank Serpico

* Robert Redford - The Sting as Johnny Hooker

1974 Art Carney - Harry and Tonto as Harry Coombes

* Albert Finney - Murder on the Orient Express as Hercule Poirot

* Dustin Hoffman - Lenny as Lenny Bruce

* Jack Nicholson - Chinatown as Jake 'J.J.' Gittes

* Al Pacino - The Godfather, Part II as Don Michael Corleone

1975 Jack Nicholson - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as R.P. McMurphy

* Walter Matthau - The Sunshine Boys as Willy Clark

* Al Pacino - Dog Day Afternoon as Sonny Wortzik

* Maximilian Schell - The Man in the Glass Booth as Arthur Goldman

* James Whitmore - Give 'em Hell, Harry! as Harry Truman

1976 Peter Finch - Network as Howard Beale (posthumous win)

* Robert De Niro - Taxi Driver as Travis Bickle

* Giancarlo Giannini - Seven Beauties as Pasqualino Frafuso

* William Holden - Network as Max Schumacher

* Sylvester Stallone - Rocky as Rocky Balboa

1977 Richard Dreyfuss - The Goodbye Girl as Elliot Garfield

* Woody Allen - Annie Hall as Alvy Singer

* Richard Burton - Equus as Martin Dysart

* Marcello Mastroianni - A Special Day as Gabriele

* John Travolta - Saturday Night Fever as Tony Manero

1978 Jon Voight - Coming Home as Luke Martin

* Warren Beatty - Heaven Can Wait as Joe Pendleton

* Gary Busey - The Buddy Holly Story as Buddy Holly

* Robert De Niro - The Deer Hunter as Michael Vronsky

* Laurence Olivier - The Boys from Brazil as Ezra Lieberman

1979 Dustin Hoffman - Kramer vs. Kramer as Ted Kramer

* Jack Lemmon - The China Syndrome as Jack Godell

* Al Pacino - ...And Justice for All as Arthur Kirkland

* Roy Scheider - All That Jazz as Joe Gideon

* Peter Sellers - Being There as Chance

1980s

1980 Robert De Niro - Raging Bull as Jake LaMotta

* Robert Duvall - The Great Santini as Lieutenant Colonel Bull Meechum

* John Hurt - The Elephant Man as John Merrick

* Jack Lemmon - Tribute as Scottie Templeton

* Peter O'Toole - The Stunt Man as Eli Cross

1981 Henry Fonda - On Golden Pond as Norman Thayer

* Warren Beatty - Reds as John Reed

* Burt Lancaster - Atlantic City as Lou Pascal

* Dudley Moore - Arthur as Arthur Bach

* Paul Newman - Absence of Malice as Michael Colin Gallagher

1982 Ben Kingsley - Gandhi as Mahatma Gandhi

* Dustin Hoffman - Tootsie as Michael Dorsey / Dorothy Michaels

* Jack Lemmon - Missing as Ed Horman

* Paul Newman - The Verdict as Frank Galvin

* Peter O'Toole - My Favorite Year as Alan Swann

1983 Robert Duvall - Tender Mercies as Mac Sledge

* Michael Caine - Educating Rita as Dr. Frank Bryant

* Tom Conti - Reuben, Reuben as Gowan McGland

* Tom Courtenay - The Dresser as Norman

* Albert Finney - The Dresser as Sir

1984 F. Murray Abraham - Amadeus as Antonio Salieri

* Jeff Bridges - Starman as Starman

* Albert Finney - Under the Volcano as Geoffrey Firmin

* Tom Hulce - Amadeus as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

* Sam Waterston - The Killing Fields as Sydney Schanberg

1985 William Hurt - Kiss of the Spider Woman as Luis Molina

* Harrison Ford - Witness as Det. Capt. John Book

* James Garner - Murphy's Romance as Murphy Jones

* Jack Nicholson - Prizzi's Honor as Charley Partanna

* Jon Voight - Runaway Train as Oscar 'Manny' Manheim

1986 Paul Newman - The Color of Money as Fast Eddie Felson

* Dexter Gordon - 'Round Midnight as Dale Turner

* Bob Hoskins - Mona Lisa as George

* William Hurt - Children of a Lesser God as James Leeds

* James Woods - Salvador as Richard Boyle

1987 Michael Douglas - Wall Street as Gordon Gekko

* William Hurt - Broadcast News as Tom Grunick

* Marcello Mastroianni - Dark Eyes as Romano

* Jack Nicholson - Ironweed as Francis Phelan

* Robin Williams - Good Morning, Vietnam as Adrian Cronauer

1988 Dustin Hoffman - Rain Man as Raymond Babbitt

* Gene Hackman - Mississippi Burning as Agent Rupert Anderson

* Tom Hanks - Big as Josh Baskin

* Edward James Olmos - Stand and Deliver as Jaime Escalante

* Max von Sydow - Pelle the Conqueror as Lassefar

1989 Daniel Day-Lewis - My Left Foot as Christy Brown

* Kenneth Branagh - Henry V as Henry V

* Tom Cruise - Born on the Fourth of July as Ron Kovic

* Morgan Freeman - Driving Miss Daisy as Hoke Colburn

* Robin Williams - Dead Poets Society as John Keating

1990s

1990 Jeremy Irons - Reversal of Fortune as Claus von Bülow

* Kevin Costner - Dances with Wolves as Lt. John J. Dunbar

* Robert De Niro - Awakenings as Leonard Lowe

* Gerard Depardieu - Cyrano de Bergerac as Cyrano De Bergerac

* Richard Harris - The Field as 'Bull' McCabe

1991 Anthony Hopkins - The Silence of the Lambs as Hannibal Lecter

* Warren Beatty - Bugsy as Bugsy Siegel

* Robert De Niro - Cape Fear as Max Cady

* Nick Nolte - The Prince of Tides as Tom Wingo

* Robin Williams - The Fisher King as Parry

1992 Al Pacino - Scent of a Woman as Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade

* Robert Downey Jr. - Chaplin as Charlie Chaplin

* Clint Eastwood - Unforgiven as William 'Bill' Munny

* Stephen Rea - The Crying Game as Fergus

* Denzel Washington - Malcolm X as Malcolm X

1993 Tom Hanks - Philadelphia as Andrew Beckett

* Laurence Fishburne - What's Love Got to Do with It? as Ike Turner

* Anthony Hopkins - The Remains of the Day as James Stevens

* Daniel Day-Lewis - In the Name of the Father as Gerry Conlon

* Liam Neeson - Schindler's List as Oskar Schindler

1994 Tom Hanks - Forrest Gump as Forrest Gump

* Morgan Freeman - The Shawshank Redemption as Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding

* Nigel Hawthorne - The Madness of King George as George III

* Paul Newman - Nobody's Fool as Sully Sullivan

* John Travolta - Pulp Fiction as Vincent Vega

1995 Nicolas Cage - Leaving Las Vegas as Ben Sanderson

* Richard Dreyfuss - Mr. Holland's Opus as Glenn Holland

* Anthony Hopkins - Nixon as Richard Nixon

* Sean Penn - Dead Man Walking as Matthew Poncelet

* Massimo Troisi - Il Postino as Mario Ruoppolo (posthumous nomination)

1996 Geoffrey Rush - Shine as David Helfgott

* Tom Cruise - Jerry Maguire as Jerry Maguire

* Ralph Fiennes - The English Patient as Count Laszlo de Almásy

* Woody Harrelson - The People vs. Larry Flynt as Larry Flynt

* Billy Bob Thornton - Sling Blade as Karl Childers

1997 Jack Nicholson - As Good as It Gets as Melvin Udall

* Matt Damon - Good Will Hunting as Will Hunting

* Robert Duvall - The Apostle as Euliss 'Sonny' Dewey - The Apostle E.F.

* Peter Fonda - Ulee's Gold as Ulysses 'Ulee' Jackson

* Dustin Hoffman - Wag the Dog as Stanley Motss

1998 Roberto Benigni - Life Is Beautiful as Guido Orefice

* Tom Hanks - Saving Private Ryan as Captain John H. Miller

* Ian McKellen - Gods and Monsters as James Whale

* Nick Nolte - Affliction as Wade Whitehouse

* Edward Norton - American History X as Derek Vinyard

1999 Kevin Spacey - American Beauty as Lester Burnham

* Russell Crowe - The Insider as Jeffrey Wigand

* Richard Farnsworth - The Straight Story as Alvin Straight

* Sean Penn - Sweet and Lowdown as Emmet Ray

* Denzel Washington -The Hurricane as Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter

2000s

2000 Russell Crowe - Gladiator as Maximus Decimus Meridius

* Javier Bardem - Before Night Falls as Reinaldo Arenas

* Tom Hanks - Cast Away as Chuck Noland

* Ed Harris - Pollock as Jackson Pollock

* Geoffrey Rush - Quills as The Marquis de Sade

2001 Denzel Washington - Training Day as Alonzo Harris

* Russell Crowe - A Beautiful Mind as John Nash

* Sean Penn - I Am Sam as Sam Dawson

* Will Smith - Ali as Muhammad Ali

* Tom Wilkinson - In the Bedroom as Matt Fowler

2002 Adrien Brody - The Pianist as Wladyslaw Szpilman

* Nicolas Cage - Adaptation. as Charlie Kaufman / Donald Kaufman

* Michael Caine - The Quiet American as Thomas Fowler

* Daniel Day-Lewis - Gangs of New York as William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting

* Jack Nicholson - About Schmidt as Warren R. Schmidt

2003 Sean Penn - Mystic River as Jimmy Markum

* Johnny Depp - as Jack Sparrow

* Ben Kingsley - House of Sand and Fog as Behrani

* Jude Law - Cold Mountain as Inman

* Bill Murray - Lost in Translation as Bob Harris

2004 Jamie Foxx - Ray as Ray Charles

* Don Cheadle - Hotel Rwanda as Paul Rusesabagina

* Johnny Depp - Finding Neverland as Sir James Matthew Barrie

* Leonardo DiCaprio - The Aviator as Howard Hughes

* Clint Eastwood - Million Dollar Baby as Frankie Dunn

2005 Philip Seymour Hoffman - Capote as Truman Capote

* Terrence Howard - Hustle & Flow as Djay

* Heath Ledger - Brokeback Mountain as Ennis Del Mar

* Joaquin Phoenix - Walk the Line as Johnny Cash

* David Strathairn - Good Night, and Good Luck. as Edward R. Murrow

2006 Forest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland as Idi Amin

*Leonardo DiCaprio - Blood Diamond as Danny Archer

*Ryan Gosling - Half Nelson as Dan Dunne

*Peter O'Toole - Venus as Maurice

*Will Smith - The Pursuit of Happyness as Chris Gardner

2007 Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood as Daniel Plainview

*George Clooney - Michael Clayton as Michael Clayton

*Johnny Depp - as Sweeney Todd

*Tommy Lee Jones - In the Valley of Elah as Hank Deerfield

*Viggo Mortensen - Eastern Promises as Nikolai Luzhin

International presence

As the Academy Awards are based in the United States and are centered on the Hollywood film industry, the majority of Academy Award winners have been Americans. Nonetheless, there is significant international presence at the awards, as evidenced by the following list of winners of the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Australia: Russell Crowe, Peter Finch, Geoffrey Rush

Austria: Maximilian Schell

The Bahamas: Sidney Poitier

Italy: Roberto Benigni

Puerto Rico: José Ferrer

Switzerland: Emil Jannings

Ireland: Daniel Day-Lewis

United Kingdom: George Arliss, Ronald Colman, Daniel Day-Lewis, Robert Donat, Alec Guinness, Rex Harrison, Anthony Hopkins, Jeremy Irons, Ben Kingsley, Charles Laughton, Victor McLaglen, Ray Milland, David Niven, Laurence Olivier, and Paul Scofield

At the 37th Academy Awards (1964), for the first time in history, all four of the top acting honors were awarded to non-Americans: Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews, Peter Ustinov, and Lila Kedrova. This occurred for the second time at the 80th Academy Awards (2007), when all four acting categories were similarly represented: Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Javier Bardem, and Tilda Swinton.

External links

Oscars.org (official Academy site)

Oscar.com (official ceremony promotional site)

The Academy Awards Database (official site)

Complete Downloadable List of Academy Award Nominees

Photos of the Nominees for Best Actorfrom(People.com)

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