Academy Award Best Actor
by jrobin3360 | created - 29 Jan 2012 | updated - 06 Jun 2016 | PublicHere are the male actors that won an Oscar for their performance in a leading role, from 1927 til today.
1. Emil Jannings
Actor | The Last Command
His real name was Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz, and in the early 1900s, he was already working in the theater under Max Reinhardt's company. Important movies where he defined himself as a convincing actor were Passion (1919) and Quo Vadis? (1924), followed by The Last Laugh (1924) (aka The Last ...
1927 for August Schilling in "The Way of All Flesh". 1928 for Gen. Dolgorucki / Grand Duke Sergius Alexander "The Last Command". http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0417837/
2. Warner Baxter
Actor | Penthouse
Warner Baxter claimed to have an early pre-disposition toward show business: "I discovered a boy a block away who would eat worms and swallow flies for a penny. For one-third of the profits, I exhibited him in a tent." When he was age 9, his widowed mother moved to San Francisco where, following ...
1929 for "The Cisco Kid" in "In Old Arizona". http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0062828/
3. George Arliss
Actor | Disraeli
One of the oldest actors on the screen in the 1920s and 1930s, George Arliss starred on the London stage from an early age. He came to the United States and starred in several films, but it was his role as British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in Disraeli (1929) that brought him his greatest ...
1930 for "Benjamin Disraeli" in "Disraeli". http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002183/
4. Lionel Barrymore
Actor | You Can't Take It with You
Famed actor, composer, artist, author and director. His talents extended to the authoring of the novel "Mr. Cartonwine: A Moral Tale" as well as his autobiography. In 1944, he joined ASCAP, and composed "Russian Dances", "Partita", "Ballet Viennois", "The Woodman and the Elves", "Behind the Horizon...
1931 for "Stephen Ashe" in "A Free Soul". http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000859/
5. Wallace Beery
Actor | A Date with Judy
In 1902, 16-year-old Wallace Beery joined the Ringling Brothers Circus as an assistant to the elephant trainer. He left two years later after a leopard clawed his arm. Beery next went to New York, where he found work in musical variety shows. He became a leading man in musicals and appeared on ...
For "Champ" in the 1931 film "The Champ". Tied with Fredric March for Best Actor at the 5th Academy Awards. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021730/
6. Fredric March
Actor | The Best Years of Our Lives
Fredric March began a career in banking but in 1920 found himself cast as an extra in films being produced in New York. He starred on the Broadway stage first in 1926 and would return there between screen appearances later on. He won plaudits (and an Academy Award nomination) for his send-up of ...
For his role as "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" in the 1931 film of the same title. Tied with Wallace Beery for Best Actor at the 5th Academy Awards. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022835/
7. Charles Laughton
Actor | Witness for the Prosecution
Charles Laughton was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, to Eliza (Conlon) and Robert Laughton, hotel keepers of Irish and English descent, respectively. He was educated at Stonyhurst (a highly esteemed Jesuit college in England) and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (received gold medal). ...
For his portrayal of "Henry VIII" in the 1933 film "The Private Life of Henry VIII". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024473/
8. Clark Gable
Actor | It Happened One Night
William Clark Gable was born on February 1, 1901 in Cadiz, Ohio, to Adeline (Hershelman) and William Henry Gable, an oil-well driller. He was of German, Irish, and Swiss-German descent. When he was seven months old, his mother died, and his father sent him to live with his maternal aunt and uncle ...
Won for the 1934 film "It Happened One Night". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025316/
9. Victor McLaglen
Actor | The Quiet Man
Rambunctious British leading man (contrary to popular belief, he was of Scottish ancestry, not Irish) and later character actor primarily in American films, Victor McLaglen was a vital presence in a number of great motion pictures, especially those of director John Ford. McLaglen (pronounced ...
1935 Oscar's. For his portrayal of Gypo Nolan in "The Informer" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026529/
10. Paul Muni
Actor | Scarface
Paul Muni was born Sept. 22, 1895, in Lemberg, Austro-Hungarian Empire, to Salli and Phillip Weisenfreund, who were both professionals. His family was Jewish, and spoke Yiddish. Paul was educated in New York and Cleveland public schools. He was described as 5 feet 10 inches, with black hair and ...
For his portrayal of Louis Pasteur in the 1936 film "The Story of Louis Pasteur". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028313/
11. Spencer Tracy
Actor | Judgment at Nuremberg
Spencer Tracy was the second son born on April 5, 1900, to truck salesman John Edward and Caroline Brown Tracy in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While attending Marquette Academy, he and classmate Pat O'Brien quit school to enlist in the Navy at the start of World War I. Tracy was still at Norfolk Navy Yard...
Won best actor in 1937 for his role as "Manuel" in "Captains Courageous" & 1938 for his role as "Father Flanagan" in "Boys Town". http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000075/
12. Robert Donat
Actor | The 39 Steps
Robert Donat's pleasant voice and somewhat neutral English accent were carefully honed as a boy because he had a stammer and took elocution lessons starting at age 11 to overcome the impediment. It was not too surprising that freedom from such a vocal embarrassment was encouragement to act. His ...
For Charles Edward Chipping in the 1939 film "Goodbye Mr Chips". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031385/
13. James Stewart
Actor | Vertigo
James Maitland Stewart was born on May 20, 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, to Elizabeth Ruth (Johnson) and Alexander Maitland Stewart, who owned a hardware store. He was of Scottish, Ulster-Scots, and some English descent. Stewart was educated at a local prep school, Mercersburg Academy, where he ...
For the portrayal of 'Macaulay "Mike" Connor in the 1940 romantic comedy "The Philadelphia Story". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032904/
14. Gary Cooper
Actor | High Noon
Born to Alice Cooper and Charles Cooper. Gary attended school at Dunstable school England, Helena Montana and Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa (then called Iowa College). His first stage experience was during high school and college. Afterwards, he worked as an extra for one year before getting a ...
For Alvin York in "Sergeant York". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034167/
15. James Cagney
Actor | Angels with Dirty Faces
One of Hollywood's preeminent male stars of all time, James Cagney was also an accomplished dancer and easily played light comedy. James Francis Cagney was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City, to Carolyn (Nelson) and James Francis Cagney, Sr., who was a bartender and amateur ...
For George M. Cohan in the 1942 musical "Yankee Doodle Dandy". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035575/
16. Paul Lukas
Actor | Watch on the Rhine
Oscar-winning actor Paul Lukas was born in Hungary and graduated from the School for Dramatic Arts. In 1916 he went to Kosice (Kassa) to be an actor; in 1918 he became an actor specializing in comedy. For ten years he was the most popular character player and romantic lead of the company. In 1918 ...
For Kurt Muller in the 1943 drama "Watch on the Rhine". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036515/awards
17. Bing Crosby
Actor | White Christmas
Bing Crosby was born Harry Lillis Crosby, Jr. in Tacoma, Washington, the fourth of seven children of Catherine (Harrigan) and Harry Lincoln Crosby, a brewery bookkeeper. He was of English and Irish descent. Crosby studied law at Gonzaga University in Spokane but was more interested in playing the ...
For his 1944 portrayal of Father Chuck O'Malley in "Going My Way". http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001078/awards
18. Ray Milland
Actor | The Lost Weekend
Ray Milland became one of Paramount's most bankable and durable stars, under contract from 1934 to 1948, yet little in his early life suggested a career as a motion picture actor.
Milland was born Alfred Reginald Jones in the Welsh town of Neath, Glamorgan, to Elizabeth Annie (Truscott) and Alfred ...
For his 1945 portrayal of Don Birnam in "The Lost Weekend". http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001537/awards
19. Fredric March
Actor | The Best Years of Our Lives
Fredric March began a career in banking but in 1920 found himself cast as an extra in films being produced in New York. He starred on the Broadway stage first in 1926 and would return there between screen appearances later on. He won plaudits (and an Academy Award nomination) for his send-up of ...
For his 1946 portrayal of Al Stephenson in "The Best Years of Our Lives". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036868/combined
20. Ronald Colman
Actor | A Double Life
British leading man of primarily American films, one of the great stars of the Golden Age. Raised in Ealing, the son of a successful silk merchant, he attended boarding school in Sussex, where he discovered amateur theatre. He intended to attend Cambridge and become an engineer, but his father's ...
1947 portrayal of Anthony John in "A Double Life". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039335/combined
21. Laurence Olivier
Actor | Sleuth
Laurence Olivier could speak William Shakespeare's lines as naturally as if he were "actually thinking them", said English playwright Charles Bennett, who met Olivier in 1927. Laurence Kerr Olivier was born in Dorking, Surrey, England, to Agnes Louise (Crookenden) and Gerard Kerr Olivier, a High ...
1948 portrayal of the Danish Prince Hamlet in the movie "Hamlet". He also directed this film. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040416/combined
22. Broderick Crawford
Actor | All the King's Men
Broderick Crawford is best remembered for two roles: his Oscar-winning turn as Willie Stark in All the King's Men (1949) and as Chief Dan Mathews on the syndicated TV series Highway Patrol (1955). He was also memorable as Judy Holliday's vulgar partner in Born Yesterday (1950), roles both actors ...
In the 1949 drama "All the King's Men", he portrayed Willie Stark. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041113/combined
23. José Ferrer
Actor | The Caine Mutiny
José Ferrer was a Puerto Rican actor and film director. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for playing the title character in Cyrano de Bergerac (1950). Ferrer was the first Puerto Rican actor to win an Academy Award, and also the first Hispanic actor to win an Academy Award.
In 1912, Ferrer was...
For the 1950 romantic drama "Cyrano de Bergerac". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042367/combined http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001207/reference
24. Humphrey Bogart
Actor | Casablanca
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was born in New York City, New York, to Maud Humphrey, a famed magazine illustrator and suffragette, and Belmont DeForest Bogart, a moderately wealthy surgeon (who was secretly addicted to opium). Bogart was educated at Trinity School, NYC, and was sent to Phillips Academy ...
Bogie won his best actor Oscar for portraying Charlie Allnut in the 1951 classic "The African Queen". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043265/combined http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000007/reference
25. Gary Cooper
Actor | High Noon
Born to Alice Cooper and Charles Cooper. Gary attended school at Dunstable school England, Helena Montana and Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa (then called Iowa College). His first stage experience was during high school and college. Afterwards, he worked as an extra for one year before getting a ...
His second Oscar win for best actor was for his dynamic portrayal of Marshal Will Kane in the 1952 western drama "High Noon". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044706/combined http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000011/reference
26. William Holden
Actor | Stalag 17
Billy Wilder proclaimed William Holden to be "the ideal motion picture actor". For almost four decades, the handsome, affable 'Golden Holden' was among Hollywood's most durable and engaging stars. He was born William Franklin Beedle Jr., one of three sons to a high school English teacher, Mary ...
For his role as J.J. Sefton in the 1953 film "Stalag 17
27. Marlon Brando
Actor | Apocalypse Now
Marlon Brando is widely considered the greatest movie actor of all time, rivaled only by the more theatrically oriented Laurence Olivier in terms of esteem. Unlike Olivier, who preferred the stage to the screen, Brando concentrated his talents on movies after bidding the Broadway stage adieu in ...
Though nominated three times prior, Marlon's first win as best actor in a leading role came from his portrayal of Terry Malloy in the 1954 crime drama "On The Waterfront".
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047296/combined
28. Ernest Borgnine
Actor | Marty
Ernest Borgnine was born Ermes Effron Borgnino on January 24, 1917 in Hamden, Connecticut. His parents were Anna (Boselli), who had emigrated from Carpi (MO), Italy, and Camillo Borgnino, who had emigrated from Ottiglio (AL), Italy. As an only child, Ernest enjoyed most sports, especially boxing, ...
His only Oscar award was for "Best Actor" in the 1955 romantic drama "Marty".
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047296/combined
29. Yul Brynner
Actor | The King and I
Exotic leading man of American films, famed as much for his completely bald head as for his performances, Yul Brynner masked much of his life in mystery and outright lies designed to tease people he considered gullible. It was not until the publication of the books "Yul: The Man Who Would Be King" ...
Won the Oscar for his portrayal of King Mongkut of Siam in "The King and I in 1956.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049408/combined
30. Alec Guinness
Actor | Star Wars
Alec Guinness was an English actor. He is known for his six collaborations with David Lean: Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations (1946), Fagin in Oliver Twist (1948), Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor), Prince Faisal in Lawrence...
For his portrayal of Lt. Colonel L. Nicholson in the epic "Bridge on the River Kwai".
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050212/combined
31. David Niven
Actor | Murder by Death
His mother was the French Lady Comynyplatt Henrietta de Gacher, his father was the British Lieutenant William Graham Niven, who died in the war when David was six years old. Niven was considered a difficult child to educate and had to change schools often until he finally went to Sandhurst Military...
For his portrayal of Major Angus Pollock in the film Separate Tables. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052182/combined
32. Charlton Heston
Actor | Ben-Hur
With features chiseled in stone, and renowned for playing a long list of historical figures, particularly in Biblical epics, the tall, well-built and ruggedly handsome Charlton Heston was one of Hollywood's top leading men of his prime and remained active in front of movie cameras for over sixty ...
For his portrayal of Jewish prince Judah Ben-Hur in the William Wyler epic Ben-Hur. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052618/combined
33. Burt Lancaster
Actor | From Here to Eternity
Burt Lancaster, one of five children, was born in Manhattan, to Elizabeth (Roberts) and James Henry Lancaster, a postal worker. All his grandparents were immigrants from the north of Ireland. He was a tough street kid who took an early interest in gymnastics. He joined the circus as an acrobat and ...
Best actor in Elmer Gantry. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053793/combined
34. Maximilian Schell
Actor | Judgment at Nuremberg
Maximilian Schell was the most successful German-speaking actor in English-language films since Emil Jannings, the winner of the first Best Actor Academy Award. Like Jannings, Schell won the Oscar, but unlike him, he was a dedicated anti-Nazi. Indeed, with the exception of Maurice Chevalier and ...
Maximilian won the Oscar for best actor for his role as defense attorney Hans Rolfe in the 1961 post WWII drama Judgment at Nuremberg. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055031/combined
35. Gregory Peck
Actor | To Kill a Mockingbird
Eldred Gregory Peck was born on April 5, 1916 in La Jolla, California, to Bernice Mae (Ayres) and Gregory Pearl Peck, a chemist and druggist in San Diego. He had Irish (from his paternal grandmother), English, and some German, ancestry. His parents divorced when he was five years old. An only child...
His portrayal of Atticus Finch defending a black man in the depression era south film "To Kill a Mockingbird" earned this Hollywood icon his only Oscar win.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056592/combined
36. Sidney Poitier
Actor | In the Heat of the Night
Sidney Poitier was a native of Cat Island, Bahamas, although born, two months prematurely, in Miami during a visit by his parents, Evelyn (Outten) and Reginald James Poitier. He grew up in poverty as the son of farmers, with his father also driving a cab in Nassau. Sidney had little formal ...
Nominated twice for a Best Actor in a Leading Role, Sidney's only Oscar win came from his role of Homer Smith in the 1963 drama "Lilies of the Field".
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057251/combined
37. Rex Harrison
Actor | My Fair Lady
Rex Harrison was born Reginald Carey Harrison in Huyton, Lancashire, England, to Edith Mary (Carey) and William Reginald Harrison, a cotton broker. He changed his name to Rex as a young boy, knowing it was the Latin word for "King". Starting out on his theater career at age 18, his first job at the ...
Though nominated twice for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Rex's only win was for his role of Professor Henry Higgins in the 1964 musical drama "My Fair Lady".
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058385/combined
38. Lee Marvin
Actor | The Dirty Dozen
American actor Lee Marvin was born Lamont Waltman Marvin Jr. in New York City. After leaving school aged 18, Marvin enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve in August 1942. He served with the 4th Marine Division in the Pacific Theater during World War II and after being wounded in action ...
Lee's sole Oscar came from his portrayal of Kid Shelleen/Tim Strawn in the 1965 comedy western "Cat Ballou".
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059017/combined
39. Paul Scofield
Actor | A Man for All Seasons
Though his number of film roles amount to a bit over 30, Paul Scofield has cast a giant shadow in the world of stage and film acting. He grew up in West Sussex, the son of a schoolmaster. He attended the Varndean School for Boys in Brighton. The love of acting came early. While still high school ...
For his portrayal of Sir Thomas More in the biographical drama "A Man for all Seasons".
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060665/combined
40. Rod Steiger
Actor | In the Heat of the Night
Rodney Stephen Steiger was born in Westhampton, New York, to Augusta Amelia (Driver) and Frederick Jacob Steiger, both vaudevillians. He was of German and Austrian ancestry. After his parents' divorce, Steiger was raised by his mother in Newark, New Jersey. He dropped out of Westside High school at...
Rod's only win of this award, despite a nomination the previous year, came from his portrayal of Police Chief Bill Gillespie in the 1967 crime drama "In the Heat of the Night".
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061811/combined
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