Academy Award for Best Actor facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Academy Award for Best Actor
The 2024 recipient: Adrien Brody
Presented by	Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)
Country	United States
First awarded	1929
Currently held by	Adrien Brody, The Brutalist (2024)

The Academy Award for Best Actor is a special prize given out every year by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It celebrates an actor who has given an amazing performance in a main role in a movie that came out that year. This award has been given 97 times to 86 different actors.

The very first winner was German actor Emil Jannings. He won for his roles in The Last Command (1928) and The Way of All Flesh (1927). The most recent winner is Adrien Brody for The Brutalist (2024).

Italian actor Roberto Benigni was the first to win for a movie not in English. He won for Life Is Beautiful (1997). The record for most wins is three, held by Daniel Day-Lewis. Ten other actors have won twice. The record for most nominations is nine. This record is shared by Spencer Tracy and Laurence Olivier.

James Dean is the only actor to be nominated more than once after he had passed away. Peter Finch is the only actor to win this award after he had passed away. He won for Network (1976). At the 5th Academy Awards, Fredric March and Wallace Beery both won. This was the only time there was a tie for this award. Peter O'Toole has the record for most nominations (eight) without winning. However, he did receive a special Honorary Oscar in 2003.

How Actors Get Nominated

Actors are chosen for nominations by other actors in the Academy. Then, all eligible members of the Academy vote to pick the winner.

In the first three years of the awards, actors were nominated for all their work in a certain time. Sometimes, this included up to three movies. But for the 3rd Academy Awards in 1930, only one movie was mentioned for each winner. The way it works now, where an actor is nominated for one specific role in one movie, started with the 4th Academy Awards. Since the 9th Academy Awards in 1937, there can only be a maximum of five nominees each year.

Emil Jannings was the first winner. He won for The Last Command (1928) and The Way of All Flesh (1927).

Warner Baxter won for In Old Arizona (1928).

George Arliss won for Disraeli (1929).

Lionel Barrymore won for A Free Soul (1931).

Fredric March won twice. He won for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).

Wallace Beery won for The Champ (1931). He tied with Fredric March.

Charles Laughton won for The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933).

Clark Gable won for It Happened One Night (1934).

Victor McLaglen won for The Informer (1935).

Paul Muni won for The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936).

Spencer Tracy was the first actor to win twice in a row. He won for Captains Courageous (1937) and Boys Town (1938).

Robert Donat won for Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939).

James Stewart won for The Philadelphia Story (1940).

Gary Cooper won twice. He won for Sergeant York (1941) and High Noon (1952).

James Cagney won for Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942).

Paul Lukas won for Watch on the Rhine (1943).

Bing Crosby won for Going My Way (1944).

Ray Milland won for The Lost Weekend (1945).

Ronald Colman won for A Double Life (1947).

Laurence Olivier won for Hamlet (1948). He was the first to win for a movie he also directed.

Broderick Crawford won for All the King's Men (1949).

José Ferrer won for Cyrano de Bergerac (1950). He was the first Latino winner in this category.

Humphrey Bogart won for The African Queen (1951).

William Holden won for Stalag 17 (1953).

Marlon Brando won twice. He won for On the Waterfront (1954) and The Godfather (1972).

Ernest Borgnine won for Marty (1955).

Yul Brynner won for The King and I (1956). He was the first Asian winner in this category.

Alec Guinness won for The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957).

David Niven won for Separate Tables (1958).

Charlton Heston won for Ben-Hur (1959).

Burt Lancaster won for Elmer Gantry (1960).

Maximilian Schell won for Judgment at Nuremberg (1961).

Gregory Peck won for To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).

Sidney Poitier won for Lilies of the Field (1963). He was the first black actor to win.

Rex Harrison won for My Fair Lady (1964).

Lee Marvin won for playing two roles in Cat Ballou (1965).

Paul Scofield won for A Man for All Seasons (1966).

Rod Steiger won for In the Heat of the Night (1967).

Cliff Robertson won for CHAЯLY (1968).

John Wayne won for True Grit (1969).

George C. Scott won for Patton (1970).

Gene Hackman won for The French Connection (1971).

Jack Lemmon won for Save the Tiger (1973).

Art Carney won for Harry & Tonto (1974).

Jack Nicholson won twice. He won for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and As Good as It Gets (1997).

Peter Finch won for Network (1976). He was the first actor to win after he had passed away.

Richard Dreyfuss won for The Goodbye Girl (1977).

Jon Voight won for Coming Home (1978).

Dustin Hoffman won twice. He won for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and Rain Man (1988).

Robert De Niro won for Raging Bull (1980).

Henry Fonda won for On Golden Pond (1981).

Ben Kingsley won for Gandhi (1982).

Robert Duvall won for Tender Mercies (1983).

F. Murray Abraham won for Amadeus (1984).

William Hurt won for Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985).

Paul Newman won for The Color of Money (1986).

Michael Douglas won for Wall Street (1987).

Daniel Day-Lewis won three times. He won for My Left Foot (1989), There Will Be Blood (2007), and Lincoln (2012).

Jeremy Irons won for Reversal of Fortune (1990).

Anthony Hopkins won twice. He won for The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and The Father (2020). He was the oldest acting winner at age 83.

Al Pacino won for Scent of a Woman (1992).

Tom Hanks won twice in a row. He won for Philadelphia (1993) and Forrest Gump (1994).

Nicolas Cage won for Leaving Las Vegas (1995).

Geoffrey Rush won for Shine (1996).

Roberto Benigni won for Life Is Beautiful (1997). This was the first time an Italian-speaking role won in this category.

Kevin Spacey won for American Beauty (1999).

Russell Crowe won for Gladiator (2000).

Denzel Washington won for Training Day (2001).

Adrien Brody won twice. He won for The Pianist (2002) and The Brutalist (2024). He was the youngest winner in this category.

Sean Penn won twice. He won for Mystic River (2003) and Milk (2008).

Jamie Foxx won for Ray (2004).

Philip Seymour Hoffman won for Capote (2005).

Forest Whitaker won for The Last King of Scotland (2006).

Jeff Bridges won for Crazy Heart (2009).

Colin Firth won for The King's Speech (2010).

Jean Dujardin won for The Artist (2011).

Matthew McConaughey won for Dallas Buyers Club (2013).

Eddie Redmayne won for The Theory of Everything (2014).

Leonardo DiCaprio won for The Revenant (2015).

Casey Affleck won for Manchester by the Sea (2016).

Gary Oldman won for Darkest Hour (2017).

Rami Malek won for Bohemian Rhapsody (2018).

Joaquin Phoenix won for Joker (2019).

Will Smith won for King Richard (2021).

Brendan Fraser won for The Whale (2022).

Cillian Murphy won for Oppenheimer (2023).

Winners and Nominees by Year

The years in the table below are when the movies were released. The award ceremonies always happen the next year.

1920s Winners

Year	Actor	Role(s)	Film	Ref.
1927/28 (1st)	Emil Jannings	Grand Duke Sergius Alexander	The Last Command
	Emil Jannings	August Schilling	The Way of All Flesh
1928/29 (2nd)	Warner Baxter	The Cisco Kid	In Old Arizona

1930s Winners

Year	Actor	Role(s)	Film	Ref.
1929/30 (3rd)	George Arliss	Benjamin Disraeli	Disraeli
1930/31 (4th)	Lionel Barrymore	Stephen Ashe	A Free Soul
1931/32 (5th)	Wallace Beery (Tie)	Andy "Champ" Purcell	The Champ
	Fredric March (Tie)	Dr. Henry Jekyll / Mr. Edward Hyde	Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
1932/33 (6th)	Charles Laughton	King Henry VIII	The Private Life of Henry VIII
1934 (7th)	Clark Gable	Peter Warne	It Happened One Night
1935 (8th)	Victor McLaglen	Gypo Nolan	The Informer
1936 (9th)	Paul Muni	Louis Pasteur	The Story of Louis Pasteur
1937 (10th)	Spencer Tracy	Manuel Fidello	Captains Courageous
1938 (11th)	Spencer Tracy	Father Edward Flanagan	Boys Town
1939 (12th)	Robert Donat	Charles Edward Chipping	Goodbye, Mr. Chips

1940s Winners

Year	Actor	Role(s)	Film	Ref.
1940 (13th)	James Stewart	Macaulay "Mike" Connor	The Philadelphia Story
1941 (14th)	Gary Cooper	Sgt. Alvin York	Sergeant York
1942 (15th)	James Cagney	George M. Cohan	Yankee Doodle Dandy
1943 (16th)	Paul Lukas	Kurt Muller	Watch on the Rhine
1944 (17th)	Bing Crosby	Father Chuck O'Malley	Going My Way
1945 (18th)	Ray Milland	Don Birnam	The Lost Weekend
1946 (19th)	Fredric March	Platoon Sergeant Al Stephenson	The Best Years of Our Lives
1947 (20th)	Ronald Colman	Anthony John	A Double Life
1948 (21st)	Laurence Olivier	Hamlet, Prince of Denmark	Hamlet
1949 (22nd)	Broderick Crawford	Willie Stark	All the King's Men

1950s Winners

Year	Actor	Role(s)	Film	Ref.
1950 (23rd)	José Ferrer	Cyrano de Bergerac	Cyrano de Bergerac
1951 (24th)	Humphrey Bogart	Charlie Allnut	The African Queen
1952 (25th)	Gary Cooper	Marshal Will Kane	High Noon
1953 (26th)	William Holden	Sgt. J.J. Sefton	Stalag 17
1954 (27th)	Marlon Brando	Terry Malloy	On the Waterfront
1955 (28th)	Ernest Borgnine	Marty Piletti	Marty
1956 (29th)	Yul Brynner	King Mongkut of Siam	The King and I
1957 (30th)	Alec Guinness	Colonel Nicholson	The Bridge on the River Kwai
1958 (31st)	David Niven	Major Angus Pollock	Separate Tables
1959 (32nd)	Charlton Heston	Judah Ben-Hur	Ben-Hur

1960s Winners

Year	Actor	Role(s)	Film	Ref.
1960 (33rd)	Burt Lancaster	Elmer Gantry	Elmer Gantry
1961 (34th)	Maximilian Schell	Hans Rolfe	Judgment at Nuremberg
1962 (35th)	Gregory Peck	Atticus Finch	To Kill a Mockingbird
1963 (36th)	Sidney Poitier	Homer Smith	Lilies of the Field
1964 (37th)	Rex Harrison	Professor Henry Higgins	My Fair Lady
1965 (38th)	Lee Marvin	Kid Shelleen & Tim Strawn	Cat Ballou
1966 (39th)	Paul Scofield	Sir Thomas More	A Man for All Seasons
1967 (40th)	Rod Steiger	Bill Gillespie	In the Heat of the Night
1968 (41st)	Cliff Robertson	Charly Gordon	Charly
1969 (42nd)	John Wayne	Reuben "Rooster" Cogburn	True Grit

1970s Winners

Year	Actor	Role(s)	Film	Ref.
1970 (43rd)	George C. Scott §	General George S. Patton Jr.	Patton
1971 (44th)	Gene Hackman	Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle	The French Connection
1972 (45th)	Marlon Brando §	Vito Corleone	The Godfather
1973 (46th)	Jack Lemmon	Harry Stoner	Save the Tiger
1974 (47th)	Art Carney	Harry Coombes	Harry and Tonto
1975 (48th)	Jack Nicholson	Randle Patrick McMurphy	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1976 (49th)	Peter Finch †	Howard Beale	Network
1977 (50th)	Richard Dreyfuss	Elliot Garfield	The Goodbye Girl
1978 (51st)	Jon Voight	Luke Martin	Coming Home
1979 (52nd)	Dustin Hoffman	Ted Kramer	Kramer vs. Kramer

1980s Winners

Year	Actor	Role(s)	Film	Ref.
1980 (53rd)	Robert De Niro	Jake LaMotta	Raging Bull
1981 (54th)	Henry Fonda	Norman Thayer Jr.	On Golden Pond
1982 (55th)	Ben Kingsley	Mahatma Gandhi	Gandhi
1983 (56th)	Robert Duvall	Mac Sledge	Tender Mercies
1984 (57th)	F. Murray Abraham	Antonio Salieri	Amadeus
1985 (58th)	William Hurt	Luis Molina	Kiss of the Spider Woman
1986 (59th)	Paul Newman	"Fast" Eddie Felson	The Color of Money
1987 (60th)	Michael Douglas	Gordon Gekko	Wall Street
1988 (61st)	Dustin Hoffman	Raymond Babbitt	Rain Man
1989 (62nd)	Daniel Day-Lewis	Christy Brown	My Left Foot

1990s Winners

Year	Actor	Role(s)	Film	Ref.
1990 (63rd)	Jeremy Irons	Claus von Bülow	Reversal of Fortune
1991 (64th)	Anthony Hopkins	Dr. Hannibal Lecter	The Silence of the Lambs
1992 (65th)	Al Pacino	Lt. Col. Frank Slade	Scent of a Woman
1993 (66th)	Tom Hanks	Andrew Beckett	Philadelphia
1994 (67th)	Tom Hanks	Forrest Gump	Forrest Gump
1995 (68th)	Nicolas Cage	Ben Sanderson	Leaving Las Vegas
1996 (69th)	Geoffrey Rush	David Helfgott	Shine
1997 (70th)	Jack Nicholson	Melvin Udall	As Good as It Gets
1998 (71st)	Roberto Benigni	Guido Orefice	Life Is Beautiful
1999 (72nd)	Kevin Spacey	Lester Burnham	American Beauty

2000s Winners

Year	Actor	Role(s)	Film	Ref.
2000 (73rd)	Russell Crowe	Maximus Decimus Meridius	Gladiator
2001 (74th)	Denzel Washington	Detective Alonzo Harris	Training Day
2002 (75th)	Adrien Brody	Władysław Szpilman	The Pianist
2003 (76th)	Sean Penn	Jimmy Markum	Mystic River
2004 (77th)	Jamie Foxx	Ray Charles	Ray
2005 (78th)	Philip Seymour Hoffman	Truman Capote	Capote
2006 (79th)	Forest Whitaker	Idi Amin	The Last King of Scotland
2007 (80th)	Daniel Day-Lewis	Daniel Plainview	There Will Be Blood
2008 (81st)	Sean Penn	Harvey Milk	Milk
2009 (82nd)	Jeff Bridges	Otis "Bad" Blake	Crazy Heart

2010s Winners

Year	Actor	Role(s)	Film	Ref.
2010 (83rd)	Colin Firth	King George VI	The King's Speech
2011 (84th)	Jean Dujardin	George Valentin	The Artist
2012 (85th)	Daniel Day-Lewis	Abraham Lincoln	Lincoln
2013 (86th)	Matthew McConaughey	Ron Woodroof	Dallas Buyers Club
2014 (87th)	Eddie Redmayne	Stephen Hawking	The Theory of Everything
2015 (88th)	Leonardo DiCaprio	Hugh Glass	The Revenant
2016 (89th)	Casey Affleck	Lee Chandler	Manchester by the Sea
2017 (90th)	Gary Oldman	Winston Churchill	Darkest Hour
2018 (91st)	Rami Malek	Freddie Mercury	Bohemian Rhapsody
2019 (92nd)	Joaquin Phoenix	Arthur Fleck / Joker	Joker

2020s Winners

Year	Actor	Role(s)	Film	Ref.
2020/21 (93rd)	Anthony Hopkins	Anthony	The Father
2021 (94th)	Will Smith	Richard Williams	King Richard
2022 (95th)	Brendan Fraser	Charlie	The Whale
2023 (96th)	Cillian Murphy	J. Robert Oppenheimer	Oppenheimer
2024 (97th)	Adrien Brody	László Tóth	The Brutalist

Actors with Multiple Wins and Nominations

Here are the actors who have won the Best Actor award two or more times:

These actors have been nominated for Best Actor three or more times:

Age Records for Winners and Nominees

Movies with More Than One Leading Actor Nomination

Sometimes, more than one actor from the same movie gets nominated for Best Actor. Winners are shown in bold.

• Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) – Clark Gable, Charles Laughton, and Franchot Tone
• Going My Way (1944) – Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald
• From Here to Eternity (1953) – Montgomery Clift and Burt Lancaster
• Giant (1956) – James Dean and Rock Hudson
• The Defiant Ones (1958) – Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier
• Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) – Maximilian Schell and Spencer Tracy
• Becket (1964) – Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole
• Midnight Cowboy (1969) – Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight
• Sleuth (1972) – Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier
• Network (1976) – Peter Finch and William Holden
• The Dresser (1983) – Tom Courtenay and Albert Finney
• Amadeus (1984) – F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce

Actors Nominated for Playing the Same Character

These actors were nominated for playing the same character (or a version of them) in different movies. Winners are in bold.

• Cyrano de Bergerac from Cyrano de Bergerac (José Ferrer, 1950) and Cyrano de Bergerac (Gérard Depardieu, 1990)
• Eddie "Fast Eddie" Felson from The Hustler (Paul Newman, 1961) and The Color of Money (Paul Newman, 1986)
• Father Chuck O'Malley from Going My Way (Bing Crosby, 1944) and The Bells of St. Mary's (Bing Crosby, 1945)
• Joe Pendleton from Here Comes Mr. Jordan (Robert Montgomery, 1941) and Heaven Can Wait (Warren Beatty, 1978)
• King Henry II from Becket (Peter O'Toole, 1964) and The Lion in Winter (Peter O'Toole, 1968)
• King Henry V from Henry V (Laurence Olivier, 1946) and Henry V (Kenneth Branagh, 1989)
• King Henry VIII from The Private Life of Henry VIII (Charles Laughton, 1933) and Anne of the Thousand Days (Richard Burton, 1969)
• Mr. Chipping from Goodbye, Mr. Chips (Robert Donat, 1939) and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (Peter O'Toole, 1969)
• Norman Maine from A Star Is Born (Fredric March, 1937) and A Star Is Born (James Mason, 1954)
  • Jackson "Jack" Maine from A Star Is Born (Bradley Cooper, 2018)
• President Abraham Lincoln from Abe Lincoln in Illinois (Raymond Massey, 1940) and Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis, 2012)
• President Richard Nixon from Nixon (Anthony Hopkins, 1995) and Frost/Nixon (Frank Langella, 2008)
• Professor Henry Higgins from Pygmalion (Leslie Howard, 1938) and My Fair Lady (Rex Harrison, 1964)
• Rooster Cogburn from True Grit (John Wayne, 1969) and True Grit (Jeff Bridges, 2010)
• Vincent van Gogh from Lust for Life (Kirk Douglas, 1956) and At Eternity's Gate (Willem Dafoe, 2018)

See also

In Spanish: Anexo:Óscar al mejor actor para niños

• Academy Award for Best Actress
• All Academy Award acting nominees
• BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
• Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actor
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
• Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead
• Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
• List of Academy Award–nominated films