Academy Award for Best Actor
The Academy Award for Best Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It has been awarded since the 1st Academy Awards to an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. The award is traditionally presented by the previous year's Best Actress winner. However, in recent years, it has shifted towards being presented by previous years' Best Actor winners instead.
The Best Actor award has been presented 97 times, to 86 actors. The first winner was German actor Emil Jannings for his roles in The Last Command and The [Way of All Flesh (1927 film)|The Way of All Flesh]. The most recent winner is Adrien Brody for The Brutalist ; he previously won the award for The Pianist at the age of 29, making him the category's youngest winner. The record for most wins is three, held by Daniel Day-Lewis, and ten other actors have won twice. The record for List of actors with three or more [Academy Award nominations in acting categories|most nominations] is nine, held jointly by Spencer Tracy and Laurence Olivier. At the 5th Academy Awards in 1932, Fredric March finished one vote ahead of Wallace Beery; under the rules of the time this resulted in them sharing the award, the only time this has occurred.
Nominations process
Nominees are currently determined by single transferable vote within the actors branch of AMPAS; winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy.In the first three years of the awards, actors and actresses were nominated as the best individuals in their categories. At that time, all of their work during the qualifying period was listed after the award. Despite this, at the 3rd Academy Awards, held in 1930, only one film was cited in each winner's award regardless of how many they were eligible to be considered for during that span. The current system, in which an actor is nominated for a specific performance in a single film, was introduced for the 4th Academy Awards. Starting with the 9th Academy Awards, held in 1937, the category was limited to a maximum five nominations per year.
Winners and nominees
In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of film release in Los Angeles County; the ceremonies are always held the following year. For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months, from August 1 to July 31. For the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1, 1932, to December 31, 1933. Since the 7th ceremony held in 1935, the period of eligibility became the full previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31.| ‡ | Indicates the winner |
| § | Indicates winner who refused the award |
| † | Indicates a posthumous winner |
| † | Indicates a posthumous nominee |
1920s
| Year | Actor | Role | Film | |
| 1927/28 (1st) | ' | ' | ||
| 1927/28 (1st) | ' | ' | ||
| 1927/28 (1st) | ||||
| 1927/28 (1st) | Patent Leather Kid | |||
| 1927/28 (1st) | ||||
| 1928/29 (2nd) | ' | In Old Arizona' | ||
| 1928/29 (2nd) | Thunderbolt | |||
| 1928/29 (2nd) | Alibi | |||
| 1928/29 (2nd) | ||||
| 1928/29 (2nd) |
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
Multiple awards and nominations
The following individuals won two or more Academy Awards for Best Actor:| Wins | Actor | Nominations | Years won |
| 3 | Daniel Day-Lewis | 6 | 1989, 2007, 2012 |
| 2 | Spencer Tracy | 9 | 1937, 1938 |
| 2 | Jack Nicholson | 8 | 1975, 1997 |
| 2 | Marlon Brando | 7 | 1954, 1972 |
| 2 | Dustin Hoffman | 7 | 1979, 1988 |
| 2 | Gary Cooper | 5 | 1941, 1952 |
| 2 | Tom Hanks | 5 | 1993, 1994 |
| 2 | Fredric March | 5 | 1931-32, 1946 |
| 2 | Sean Penn | 5 | 2003, 2008 |
| 2 | Anthony Hopkins | 4 | 1991, 2020 |
| 2 | Adrien Brody | 2 | 2002, 2024 |
The following individuals received three or more Best Actor nominations:
Age superlatives
| Record | Actor | Film | Year | Age | |
| Oldest Winner | Anthony Hopkins | The Father | 2020 | 83 | |
| Oldest Nominee | Anthony Hopkins | The Father | 2020 | 83 | |
| Youngest Winner | Adrien Brody | The Pianist | 2002 | 29 | |
| Youngest Nominee | Jackie Cooper | Skippy | 1931 | 9 |
Films with multiple Leading Actor nominations
Winners are in bold.- Mutiny on the Bounty – Clark Gable, Charles Laughton, and Franchot Tone
- Going My Way – Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald
- From Here to Eternity – Montgomery Clift and Burt Lancaster
- Giant – James Dean and Rock Hudson
- The Defiant Ones – Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier
- Judgment at Nuremberg – Maximilian Schell and Spencer Tracy
- Becket – Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole
- Midnight Cowboy – Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight
- Sleuth – Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier
- Network – Peter Finch and William Holden
- The Dresser – Tom Courtenay and Albert Finney
- Amadeus – F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce
Multiple character nominations
The following were nominated for their portrayals of the same fictional or non-fictional character in separate films.Winners are in bold.
- Cyrano de Bergerac from Cyrano de Bergerac and Cyrano de Bergerac
- Eddie "Fast Eddie" Felson from The Hustler and The Color of Money
- Father Chuck O'Malley from Going My Way and The Bells of St. Mary's
- Joe Pendleton from Here Comes Mr. Jordan and Heaven Can Wait
- King Henry II from Becket and The Lion in Winter
- King Henry V from Henry V and Henry V
- King Henry VIII from The Private Life of Henry VIII and Anne of the Thousand Days
- Mr. Chipping from Goodbye, Mr. Chips and Goodbye, Mr. Chips
- Norman Maine from A Star Is Born and A Star Is Born
- * Jackson "Jack" Maine from A Star Is Born
- President Abraham Lincoln from Abe Lincoln in Illinois and Lincoln
- President Richard Nixon from Nixon and Frost/Nixon
- Professor Henry Higgins from Pygmalion and My Fair Lady
- Rooster Cogburn from True Grit and True Grit
- Vincent van Gogh from Lust for Life and ''At Eternity's Gate''