The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) presents the Academy Award for Best Actor every year. Since the first Academy Awards, it has been given to an actor who has performed very well in a major role in a movie that came out that year.
Traditionally, the Best Actress winner from the preceding year presents the award. But in recent years, the Best Actor winners from previous years have begun to present it. 86 actors have received the Best Actor award 97 times throughout the years.
Best Actor Oscar Winner
Here is a list of all the award recipients for the Best Actor category in the Academy Awards:
| Year | Winner | Film | Role |
| 1927/28 | Emil Jannings | The Last Command / The Way of All Flesh | General Dolgorucki / August Schilling |
| 1928/29 | Warner Baxter | In Old Arizona | The Cisco Kid |
| 1929/30 | George Arliss | Disraeli | Benjamin Disraeli |
| 1930/31 | Lionel Barrymore | A Free Soul | Stephen Ashe |
| 1931/32 | Wallace Beery / Fredric March | The Champ / Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde | Champ / Dr. Henry Jekyll / Mr. Hyde |
| 1932/33 | Charles Laughton | The Private Life of Henry VIII | Henry VIII |
| 1934 | Clark Gable | It Happened One Night | Peter Warne |
| 1935 | Victor McLaglen | The Informer | Gypo Nolan |
| 1936 | Paul Muni | The Story of Louis Pasteur | Louis Pasteur |
| 1937 | Spencer Tracy | Captains Courageous | Manuel |
| 1938 | Spencer Tracy | Boys Town | Father Flanagan |
| 1939 | Robert Donat | Goodbye, Mr. Chips | Mr. Chips |
| 1940 | James Stewart | The Philadelphia Story | Mike Connor |
| 1941 | Gary Cooper | Sergeant York | Alvin C. York |
| 1942 | James Cagney | Yankee Doodle Dandy | George M. Cohan |
| 1943 | Paul Lukas | Watch on the Rhine | Kurt Muller |
| 1944 | Bing Crosby | Going My Way | Father O'Malley |
| 1945 | Ray Milland | The Lost Weekend | Don Birnam |
| 1946 | Fredric March | The Best Years of Our Lives | Al Stephenson |
| 1947 | Ronald Colman | A Double Life | Anthony John |
| 1948 | Laurence Olivier | Hamlet | Hamlet |
| 1949 | Broderick Crawford | All the King's Men | Willie Stark |
| 1950 | José Ferrer | Cyrano de Bergerac | Cyrano de Bergerac |
| 1951 | Humphrey Bogart | The African Queen | Charlie Allnut |
| 1952 | Gary Cooper | High Noon | Will Kane |
| 1953 | William Holden | Stalag 17 | Sefton |
| 1954 | Marlon Brando | On the Waterfront | Terry Malloy |
| 1955 | Ernest Borgnine | Marty | Marty Pilletti |
| 1956 | Yul Brynner | The King and I | The King |
| 1957 | Alec Guinness | The Bridge on the River Kwai | Colonel Nicholson |
| 1958 | David Niven | Separate Tables | Major Pollock |
| 1959 | Charlton Heston | Ben-Hur | Judah Ben-Hur |
| 1960 | Burt Lancaster | Elmer Gantry | Elmer Gantry |
| 1961 | Maximilian Schell | Judgment at Nuremberg | Hans Rolfe |
| 1962 | Gregory Peck | To Kill a Mockingbird | Atticus Finch |
| 1963 | Sidney Poitier | Lilies of the Field | Homer Smith |
| 1964 | Rex Harrison | My Fair Lady | Professor Henry Higgins |
| 1965 | Lee Marvin | Cat Ballou | Kid Shelleen / Tim Strawn |
| 1966 | Paul Scofield | A Man for All Seasons | Sir Thomas More |
| 1967 | Rod Steiger | In the Heat of the Night | Police Chief Bill Gillespie |
| 1968 | Cliff Robertson | Charly | Charly Gordon |
| 1969 | John Wayne | True Grit | Rooster Cogburn |
| 1970 | George C. Scott | Patton | General George S. Patton Jr. |
| 1971 | Gene Hackman | The French Connection | Jimmy 'Popeye' Doyle |
| 1972 | Marlon Brando | The Godfather | Don Vito Corleone |
| 1973 | Jack Lemmon | Save the Tiger | Harry Stoner |
| 1974 | Art Carney | Harry and Tonto | Harry |
| 1975 | Jack Nicholson | One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest | Randle Patrick McMurphy |
| 1976 | Peter Finch | Network | Howard Beale |
| 1977 | Richard Dreyfuss | The Goodbye Girl | Elliot Garfield |
| 1978 | Jon Voight | Coming Home | Luke Martin |
| 1979 | Dustin Hoffman | Kramer vs. Kramer | Ted Kramer |
| 1980 | Robert De Niro | Raging Bull | Jake LaMotta |
| 1981 | Henry Fonda | On Golden Pond | Norman Thayer Jr. |
| 1982 | Ben Kingsley | Gandhi | Mahatma Gandhi |
| 1983 | Robert Duvall | Tender Mercies | Mac Sledge |
| 1984 | F. Murray Abraham | Amadeus | Antonio Salieri |
| 1985 | William Hurt | Kiss of the Spider Woman | Luis Molina |
| 1986 | Paul Newman | The Color of Money | Eddie Felson |
| 1987 | Michael Douglas | Wall Street | Gordon Gekko |
| 1988 | Dustin Hoffman | Rain Man | Raymond Babbitt |
| 1989 | Daniel Day-Lewis | My Left Foot | Christy Brown |
| 1990 | Jeremy Irons | Reversal of Fortune | Claus Von Bulow |
| 1991 | Anthony Hopkins | The Silence of the Lambs | Dr. Hannibal Lecter |
| 1992 | Al Pacino | Scent of a Woman | Lt. Col. Frank Slade |
| 1993 | Tom Hanks | Philadelphia | Andrew Beckett |
| 1994 | Tom Hanks | Forrest Gump | Forrest Gump |
| 1995 | Nicolas Cage | Leaving Las Vegas | Ben Sanderson |
| 1996 | Geoffrey Rush | Shine | David Helfgott |
| 1997 | Jack Nicholson | As Good as It Gets | Melvin Udall |
| 1998 | Roberto Benigni | Life Is Beautiful | Guido |
| 1999 | Kevin Spacey | American Beauty | Lester Burnham |
| 2000 | Russell Crowe | Gladiator | Maximus Decimus Meridius |
| 2001 | Denzel Washington | Training Day | Alonzo |
| 2002 | Adrien Brody | The Pianist | Wladyslaw Szpilman |
| 2003 | Sean Penn | Mystic River | Jimmy Markum |
| 2004 | Jamie Foxx | Ray | Ray Charles |
| 2005 | Philip Seymour Hoffman | Capote | Truman Capote |
| 2006 | Forest Whitaker | The Last King of Scotland | Idi Amin |
| 2007 | Daniel Day-Lewis | There Will Be Blood | Daniel Plainview |
| 2008 | Sean Penn | Milk | Harvey Milk |
| 2009 | Jeff Bridges | Crazy Heart | Bad Blake |
| 2010 | Colin Firth | The King's Speech | King George VI |
| 2011 | Jean Dujardin | The Artist | George Valentin |
| 2012 | Daniel Day-Lewis | Lincoln | Abraham Lincoln |
| 2013 | Matthew McConaughey | Dallas Buyers Club | Ron Woodroof |
| 2014 | Eddie Redmayne | The Theory of Everything | Stephen Hawking |
| 2015 | Leonardo DiCaprio | The Revenant | Hugh Glass |
| 2016 | Casey Affleck | Manchester by the Sea | Lee Chandler |
| 2017 | Gary Oldman | Darkest Hour | Winston Churchill |
| 2018 | Rami Malek | Bohemian Rhapsody | Freddie Mercury |
| 2019 | Joaquin Phoenix | Joker | Arthur Fleck |
| 2020 | Anthony Hopkins | The Father | Anthony |
| 2021 | Will Smith | King Richard | Richard Williams |
| 2022 | Brendan Fraser | The Whale | Charlie |
| 2023 | Cillian Murphy | Oppenheimer | J. Robert Oppenheimer |
| 2024 | Adrien Brody | The Brutalist | László Tóth |
Read More: Best Director Oscar winners
FAQs about the Oscars
Daniel Day-Lewis currently holds the record, winning three Academy Awards at the Oscars.
Cillian Murphy won the Oscar for Best Actor for Oppenheimer in 2024.
Timothée Chalamet is the youngest actor to receive a Best Actor award at the Oscars at the age of 29.
A. Adrien Brody won the Oscar for Best Actor for his role as László Tóth in The Brutalist in 2025.
