Actors with Multiple Oscar Nominations for Best Actor.

1. Spencer Tracy

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...

9 Noms.

1. San Francisco - 1936 2. Captains Courageous - 1937 (WON) 3. Boys Town - 1938 (WON) 4. Father of the Bride - 1950 5. Bad Day at Black Rock - 1955 6. The Old Man and the Sea - 1958 7. Inherit the Wind - 1960 8. Judgment at Nuremberg - 1961 9. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner - 1967

2. 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 ...

9 Noms.

1. Wuthering Heights - 1939 2. Rebecca - 1940 3. Henry V - 1946 4. Hamlet - 1948 (WON) 5. Richard III - 1956 6. The Entertainer - 1960 7. Othello - 1965 8. Sleuth - 1972 9. The Boys from Brazil - 1978

3. Jack Nicholson

Actor | Chinatown

Jack Nicholson, an American actor, producer, director and screenwriter, is a three-time Academy Award winner and twelve-time nominee. Nicholson is also notable for being one of two actors - the other being Michael Caine - who have received an Oscar nomination in every decade from the '60s through ...

8 Noms.

1. Five Easy Pieces - 1970 2. The Last Detail - 1973 3. Chinatown - 1974 4. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - 1975 (WON) 5. Prizzi's Honor - 1985 6. Ironweed - 1987 7. As Good as It Gets - 1997 (WON) 8. About Schmidt - 2002

4. Peter O'Toole

Actor | Lawrence of Arabia

A leading man of prodigious talents, Peter O'Toole was born and raised in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, the son of Constance Jane Eliot (Ferguson), a Scottish nurse, and Patrick Joseph O'Toole, an Irish metal plater, football player and racecourse bookmaker. Upon leaving school, he decided to become a...

8 Noms.

1. Lawrence of Arabia - 1962 2. Becket - 1964 3. The Lion in Winter - 1968 4. Goodbye, Mr. Chips - 1969 5. The Ruling Class - 1972 6. The Stunt Man - 1980 7. My Favorite Year - 1982 8. Venus - 2006

5. Paul Newman

Actor | The Hustler

Screen legend, superstar, and the man with the most famous blue eyes in movie history, Paul Leonard Newman was born on January 26, 1925, in Cleveland, Ohio, the second son of Arthur Sigmund Newman (died 1950) and Theresa Fetsko (died 1982). His elder brother was Arthur S. Newman Jr., named for ...

8 Noms.

1. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - 1958 2. The Hustler - 1961 3. Hud - 1963 4. Cool Hand Luke - 1967 5. Absence of Malice - 1981 6. The Verdict - 1982 7. The Color of Money - 1986 (WON) 8. Nobody's Fool - 1994

6. Dustin Hoffman

Actor | Tootsie

Dustin Lee Hoffman was born in Los Angeles, California, to Lillian (Gold) and Harry Hoffman, who was a furniture salesman and prop supervisor for Columbia Pictures. He was raised in a Jewish family (from Ukraine, Russia-Poland, and Romania). Hoffman graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1955, ...

7 Noms.

1. The Graduate - 1967 2. Midnight Cowboy - 1969 3. Lenny - 1974 4. Kramer vs. Kramer - 1979 (WON) 5. Tootsie - 1982 6. Rain Man - 1988 (WON) 7. Wag the Dog - 1997

7. 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 ...

7 Noms.

1. A Streetcar Named Desire - 1951 2. Viva Zapata! - 1952 3. Julius Caesar - 1953 4. On the Waterfront - 1954 (WON) 5. Sayonara - 1957 6. The Godfather - 1972 (WON) 7. Last Tango in Paris - 1973

8. Denzel Washington

Actor | Fences

Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. was born on December 28, 1954 in Mount Vernon, New York. He is the middle of three children of a beautician mother, Lennis, from Georgia, and a Pentecostal minister father, Denzel Washington, Sr., from Virginia. After graduating from high school, Denzel enrolled at ...

7 Noms.

1. Malcolm X - 1992 2. The Hurricane - 1999 3. Training Day - 2001 (WON) 4. Flight - 2012 5. Fences - 2016 6. Roman J. Israel, Esq. - 2017 7. The Tragedy of Macbeth - 2021

9. Jack Lemmon

Actor | The Apartment

Jack Lemmon was born in Newton, Massachusetts, to Mildred Lankford Noel and John Uhler Lemmon, Jr., the president of a doughnut company. His ancestry included Irish (from his paternal grandmother) and English. Jack attended Ward Elementary near his Newton, MA home. At age 9 he was sent to Rivers ...

7 Noms.

1. Some Like It Hot - 1959 2. The Apartment - 1960 3. Days of Wine and Roses - 1962 4. Save the Tiger - 1973 (WON) 5. The China Syndrome - 1979 6. Tribute - 1980 7. Missing - 1982

10. Daniel Day-Lewis

Actor | There Will Be Blood

Born in London, England, Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is the second child of Cecil Day-Lewis, Poet Laureate of the U.K., and his second wife, actress Jill Balcon. His maternal grandfather was Sir Michael Balcon, an important figure in the history of British cinema and head of the famous Ealing ...

6 Noms.

1. My Left Foot - 1989 (WON) 2. In the Name of the Father - 1993 3. Gangs of New York - 2002 4. There Will Be Blood - 2007 (WON) 5. Lincoln - 2012 (WON) 6. Phantom Thread - 2017

11. Richard Burton

Actor | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Probably best-remembered for his turbulent personal life with Elizabeth Taylor (whom he married twice), Richard Burton was nonetheless also regarded as an often brilliant British actor of the post-WWII period.

Burton was born Richard Walter Jenkins in 1925 into a Welsh (Cymraeg)-speaking family in ...

6 Noms.

1. The Robe - 1953 2. Becket - 1964 3. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - 1965 4. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - 1966 5. Anne of the Thousand Days - 1969 6. Equus - 1977

12. Leonardo DiCaprio

Actor | Inception

Few actors in the world have had a career quite as diverse as Leonardo DiCaprio's. DiCaprio has gone from relatively humble beginnings, as a supporting cast member of the sitcom Growing Pains (1985) and low budget horror movies, such as Critters 3 (1991), to a major teenage heartthrob in the 1990s,...

5 Noms.

1. The Aviator - 2004 2. Blood Diamond - 2006 3. The Wolf of Wall Street - 2013 4. The Revenant - 2015 (WON) 5. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - 2019

13. Robert De Niro

Actor | Cape Fear

One of the greatest actors of all time, Robert De Niro was born on August 17, 1943 in Manhattan, New York City, to artists Virginia (Admiral) and Robert De Niro Sr. His paternal grandfather was of Italian descent, and his other ancestry is Irish, English, Dutch, German, and French. He was trained ...

5 Noms.

1. Taxi Driver - 1976 2. The Deer Hunter - 1978 3. Raging Bull - 1980 (WON) 4. Awakenings - 1990 5. Cape Fear - 1991

14. Tom Hanks

Producer | Cast Away

Thomas Jeffrey Hanks was born in Concord, California, to Janet Marylyn (Frager), a hospital worker, and Amos Mefford Hanks, an itinerant cook. His mother's family, originally surnamed "Fraga", was entirely Portuguese, while his father was of mostly English ancestry. Tom grew up in what he has ...

5 Noms.

1. Big - 1988 2. Philadelphia - 1993 (WON) 3. Forrest Gump - 1994 (WON) 4. Saving Private Ryan - 1998 5. Cast Away - 2000

15. Al Pacino

Actor | Serpico

Alfredo James "Al" 'Pacino established himself as a film actor during one of cinema's most vibrant decades, the 1970s, and has become an enduring and iconic figure in the world of American movies.

He was born April 25, 1940 in Manhattan, New York City, to Italian-American parents, Rose (nee Gerardi)...

5 Noms.

1. Serpico - 1973 2. The Godfather Part II - 1974 3. Dog Day Afternoon - 1975 4. ...And Justice for All - 1979 5. Scent of a Woman - 1992 (WON)

16. Sean Penn

Actor | Mystic River

Sean Penn is a powerhouse film performer capable of intensely moving work, who has gone from strength to strength during a colourful film career, and who has drawn much media attention for his stormy private life and political viewpoints.

Sean Justin Penn was born in Los Angeles, California, the ...

5 Noms.

1. Dead Man Walking - 1995 2. Sweet and Lowdown - 1999 3. I Am Sam - 2001 4. Mystic River - 2003 (WON) 5. Milk - 2008 (WON)

17. 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 ...

5 Noms.

1. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington - 1939 2. The Philadelphia Story - 1940 (WON) 3. It's a Wonderful Life - 1946 4. Harvey - 1950 5. Anatomy of a Murder - 1959

18. 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 ...

5 Noms.

1. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town - 1936 2. Sergeant York - 1941 (WON) 3. The Pride of the Yankees - 1942 4. For Whom the Bell Tolls - 1943 5. High Noon - 1952 (WON)

19. 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...

5 Noms.

1. The Keys of the Kingdom - 1945 2. The Yearling - 1946 3. Gentleman's Agreement - 1947 4. Twelve O'Clock High - 1949 5. To Kill a Mockingbird - 1962 (WON)

20. Fredric March

Actor | Inherit the Wind

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 ...

5 Noms.

1. The Royal Family of Broadway - 1930/31 2. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - 1931/32 (WON) 3. A Star Is Born - 1937 4. The Best Years of Our Lives - 1946 (WON) 5. Death of a Salesman - 1951

21. 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 ...

5 Noms.

1. The Valiant - 1928/29 2. I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang - 1932/33 3. The Story of Louis Pasteur - 1936 (WON) 4. The Life of Emile Zola - 1937 5. The Last Angry Man - 1959

22. Michael Caine

Actor | The Dark Knight

Michael Caine was born as Maurice Joseph Micklewhite in London, to Ellen (née Burchell), a cook, and Maurice Micklewhite Sr., a fish-market porter. He had a younger brother, Stanley Caine, and an older maternal half-brother named David Burchell. He left school at age 15 and took a series of ...

4 Noms.

1. Alfie - 1966 2. Sleuth - 1972 3. Educating Rita - 1983 4. The Quiet American - 2002

23. Anthony Hopkins

Actor | The Silence of the Lambs

Anthony Hopkins was born on December 31, 1937, in Margam, Wales, to Muriel Anne (Yeats) and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker. His parents were both of half Welsh and half English descent. Influenced by Richard Burton, he decided to study at College of Music and Drama and graduated in 1957. In 1965, ...

4 Noms.

1. The Silence of the Lambs - 1991 (WON) 2. The Remains of the Day - 1993 3. Nixon - 1995 4. The Father - 2020 (WON)

24. Bradley Cooper

Actor | A Star Is Born

Bradley Charles Cooper was born on January 5, 1975 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His mother, Gloria (Campano), is of Italian descent, and worked for a local NBC station. His father, Charles John Cooper, who was of Irish descent, was a stockbroker. Immediately after Bradley graduated from the ...

4 Noms.

1. Silver Linings Playbook - 2012 2. American Sniper - 2014 3. A Star Is Born - 2018 4. Maestro - 2023

25. Warren Beatty

Actor | Reds

Since starring in his first film, Splendor in the Grass (1961), Warren Beatty has been said to have demonstrated a greater longevity in movies than any actor of his generation. Few people have taken so many responsibilities for all phases of the production of films as producer, director, writer, ...

4 Noms.

1. Bonnie and Clyde - 1967 2. Heaven Can Wait - 1978 3. Reds - 1981 4. Bugsy - 1991

26. Albert Finney

Actor | Murder on the Orient Express

The son of a Lancashire bookmaker, Albert Finney came to motion pictures via the theatre. In 1956, he won a scholarship to RADA where his fellow alumni included Peter O'Toole and Alan Bates. He joined the Birmingham Repertory where he excelled in plays by William Shakespeare. A member of the Royal ...

4 Noms.

1. Tom Jones - 1963 2. Murder on the Orient Express - 1974 3. The Dresser - 1983 4. Under the Volcano - 1984

27. 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 ...

4 Noms.

1. From Here to Eternity - 1953 2. Elmer Gantry - 1960 (WON) 3. Birdman of Alcatraz - 1962 4. Atlantic City - 1981

28. Charles Boyer

Actor | Gaslight

Charles Boyer studied philosophy before he went to the theater where he gave his debut in 1920. Although he had at first no intentions to pursue a career at the movies (his first movie was Man of the Sea (1920) by Marcel L'Herbier) he used his chance in Hollywood after several filming stations all ...

4 Noms.

1. Conquest - 1937 2. Algiers - 1938 3. Gaslight - 1944 4. Fanny - 1961

29. Joaquin Phoenix

Actor | Walk the Line

Joaquin Phoenix was born Joaquin Rafael Bottom in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Arlyn (Dunetz) and John Bottom, and is the middle child in a brood of five. His parents, from the continental United States, were then serving as Children of God missionaries. His mother is from a Jewish family from New ...

3 Noms.

1. Walk the Line - 2005 2. The Master - 2012 3. Joker - 2019 (WON)

30. Jeff Bridges

Actor | The Big Lebowski

Jeffrey Leon Bridges was born on December 4, 1949 in Los Angeles, California, the son of well-known film and TV star Lloyd Bridges and his long-time wife Dorothy Dean Bridges (née Simpson). He grew up amid the happening Hollywood scene with big brother Beau Bridges. Both boys popped up, without ...

3 Noms.

1. Starman - 1984 2. Crazy Heart - 2009 (WON) 3. True Grit - 2010

31. Javier Bardem

Actor | Skyfall

Javier Bardem belongs to a family of actors that have been working on films since the early days of Spanish cinema.

He was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, to actress Pilar Bardem (María del Pilar Bardem Muñoz) and businessman José Carlos Encinas Doussinague. His maternal grandparents were...

3 Noms.

1. Before Night Falls - 2000 2. Biutiful - 2010 3. Being the Ricardos - 2021

32. Gary Oldman

Actor | Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Gary Oldman is a talented English movie star and character actor, renowned for his expressive acting style. One of the most celebrated thespians of his generation, with a diverse career encompassing theatre, film and television, he is known for his roles as Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy (1986), ...

3 Noms.

1. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - 2011 2. Darkest Hour - 2017 (WON) 3. Mank - 2020

33. George Clooney

Actor | The Ides of March

George Timothy Clooney was born on May 6, 1961, in Lexington, Kentucky, to Nina Bruce (née Warren), a former beauty pageant queen, and Nick Clooney, a former anchorman and television host (who was also the brother of singer Rosemary Clooney). He has Irish, English, and German ancestry. Clooney ...

3 Noms.

1. Michael Clayton - 2007 2. Up in the Air - 2009 3. The Descendants - 2011

34. Russell Crowe

Actor | Les Misérables

Russell Ira Crowe was born in Wellington, New Zealand, to Jocelyn Yvonne (Wemyss) and John Alexander Crowe, both of whom catered movie sets. His maternal grandfather, Stanley Wemyss, was a cinematographer. Crowe's recent ancestry includes Welsh (where his paternal grandfather was born, in Wrexham),...

3 Noms.

1. The Insider - 1999 2. Gladiator - 2000 (WON) 3. A Beautiful Mind - 2001

35. Johnny Depp

Actor | Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II was born on June 9, 1963 in Owensboro, Kentucky, to Betty Sue Palmer (née Wells), a waitress, and John Christopher Depp, a civil engineer. He was raised in Florida. He dropped out of school when he was 15, and fronted a series of music-garage bands, including one ...

3 Noms.

1. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl - 2003 2. Finding Neverland - 2004 3. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - 2007

36. Robert Duvall

Actor | The Apostle

Veteran actor and director Robert Selden Duvall was born on January 5, 1931, in San Diego, CA, to Mildred Virginia (Hart), an amateur actress, and William Howard Duvall, a career military officer who later became an admiral. Duvall majored in drama at Principia College (Elsah, IL), then served a ...

3 Noms.

1. The Great Santini - 1980 2. Tender Mercies - 1983 (WON) 3. The Apostle - 1997

37. Morgan Freeman

Actor | Driving Miss Daisy

With an authoritative voice and calm demeanor, this ever popular American actor has grown into one of the most respected figures in modern US cinema. Morgan was born on June 1, 1937 in Memphis, Tennessee, to Mayme Edna (Revere), a teacher, and Morgan Porterfield Freeman, a barber. The young Freeman...

3 Noms.

1. Driving Miss Daisy - 1989 2. The Shawshank Redemption - 1994 3. Invictus - 2009

38. Viggo Mortensen

Actor | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Since his screen debut as a young Amish farmer in Peter Weir's Witness (1985), Viggo Mortensen's career has been marked by a steady string of well-rounded performances.

Mortensen was born in New York City, to Grace Gamble (Atkinson) and Viggo Peter Mortensen, Sr. His father was Danish, his mother ...

3 Noms.

1. Eastern Promises - 2007 2. Captain Fantastic - 2016 3. Green Book - 2018

39. Will Smith

Producer | The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Willard Carroll "Will" Smith II (born September 25, 1968) is an American actor, comedian, producer, rapper, and songwriter. He has enjoyed success in television, film, and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him "the most powerful actor in Hollywood". Smith has been nominated for five Golden ...

3 Noms.

1. Ali - 2001 2. The Pursuit of Happyness - 2006 3. King Richard - 2021 (WON)

40. William Hurt

Actor | A History of Violence

William McChord Hurt was born in Washington, D.C., to Claire Isabel (McGill) and Alfred McChord Hurt, who worked at the State Department. He was trained at Tufts University and The Juilliard School and has been nominated for four Academy Awards, including the most recent nomination for his ...

3 Noms.

1. Kiss of the Spider Woman - 1985 (WON) 2. Children of a Lesser God - 1986 3. Broadcast News - 1987

41. Jon Voight

Actor | Midnight Cowboy

Jon Voight is an American actor of German and Slovak descent. He has won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his role as paraplegic Vietnam War veteran Luke Martin in the war film "Coming Home" (1978). He has also been nominated for the same award other two times. He was first ...

3 Noms.

1. Midnight Cowboy - 1969 2. Coming Home - 1978 (WON) 3. Runaway Train - 1985

42. Robin Williams

Actor | Mrs. Doubtfire

Robin McLaurin Williams was born on Saturday, July 21st, 1951, in Chicago, Illinois, a great-great-grandson of Mississippi Governor and Senator, Anselm J. McLaurin. His mother, Laurie McLaurin (née Janin), was a former model from Mississippi, and his father, Robert Fitzgerald Williams, was a Ford ...

3 Noms.

1. Good Morning, Vietnam - 1987 2. Dead Poets Society - 1989 3. The Fisher King - 1991

43. 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 ...

3 Noms.

1. Casablanca - 1943 2. The African Queen - 1951 (WON) 3. The Caine Mutiny - 1954

44. 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 ...

3 Noms.

1. Angels with Dirty Faces - 1938 2. Yankee Doodle Dandy -1942 (WON) 3. Love Me or Leave Me - 1955

45. Montgomery Clift

Actor | From Here to Eternity

Edward Montgomery Clift (nicknamed 'Monty' his entire life) was born on October 17, 1920 in Omaha, Nebraska, just after his twin sister Roberta (1920-2014) and eighteen months after his brother Brooks Clift. He was the son of Ethel "Sunny" Anderson (Fogg; 1888-1988) and William Brooks Clift (1886-...

3 Noms.

1. The Search - 1948 2. A Place in the Sun - 1951 3. From Here to Eternity - 1953

46. 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 ...

3 Noms.

1. Going My Way - 1944 (WON) 2. The Bells of St. Mary's - 1945 3. The Country Girl - 1954

47. Kirk Douglas

Actor | The Final Countdown

Cleft-chinned, steely-eyed and virile star of international cinema who rose from being "the ragman's son" (the name of his best-selling 1988 autobiography) to become a bona fide superstar, Kirk Douglas, also known as Issur Danielovitch Demsky, was born on December 9, 1916 in Amsterdam, New York. ...

3 Noms.

1. Champion - 1949 2. The Bad and the Beautiful - 1952 3. Lust for Life - 1956

48. 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 ...

3 Noms.

1. It Happened One Night - 1934 (WON) 2. Mutiny on the Bounty - 1935 3. Gone with the Wind - 1939

49. 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). ...

3 Noms.

1. The Private Life of Henry VIII - 1932/33 (WON) 2. Mutiny on the Bounty - 1935 3. Witness for the Prosecution - 1957

50. 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 ...

3 Noms.

1. Bulldog Drummond Condemned - 1929/30 2. Random Harvest - 1942 3. A Double Life - 1947

51. 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 ...

3 Noms.

1. Sunset Boulevard - 1950 2. Stalag 17 - 1953 (WON) 3. Network - 1976

52. Marcello Mastroianni

Actor | La dolce vita

Marcello Mastroianni was born in Fontana Liri, Italy in 1924, but soon his family moved to Turin and then Rome. During WW2 he was sent to a German prison camp, but he managed to escape and hide in Venice. He debuted in films as an extra in Marionette (1939), then started working for the Italian ...

3 Noms.

1. Divorce Italian Style - 1962 2. A Special Day - 1977 3. Dark Eyes - 1987

53. William Powell

Actor | The Thin Man

William Powell was on the New York stage by 1912, but it would be ten years before his film career would begin. In 1924 he went to Paramount Pictures, where he was employed for the next seven years. During that time, he played in a number of interesting films, but stardom was elusive. He did ...

3 Noms.

1. The Thin Man - 1934 : BA (1) 2. My Man Godfrey - 1936 : BA (2) 3. Life with Father - 1947 : BA (3)”

54. Ryan Gosling

Actor | Blue Valentine

Born Ryan Thomas Gosling on November 12, 1980, in London, Ontario, Canada, he is the son of Donna (Wilson), a secretary, and Thomas Ray Gosling, a traveling salesman. Ryan was the second of their two children, with an older sister, Mandi. His ancestry is French-Canadian, as well as English, ...

2 Noms.

1. Half Nelson - 2006 2. La La Land - 2016

55. Christian Bale

Actor | The Dark Knight

Christian Charles Philip Bale was born in Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK on January 30, 1974, to English parents Jennifer "Jenny" (James) and David Bale. His mother was a circus performer and his father, who was born in South Africa, was a commercial pilot. The family lived in different countries ...

2 Noms.

1. American Hustle - 2013 2. Vice - 2018

56. Andrew Garfield

Actor | Hacksaw Ridge

Andrew Russell Garfield was born in Los Angeles, California, to a British mother, Lynn, and American father, Richard Garfield. When he was three, he moved to Surrey, U.K., with his parents and older brother. He is of English and Polish Jewish heritage. Andrew was raised in a middle class family, ...

1. Hacksaw Ridge - 2016 2. Tick, Tick...Boom! - 2021

57. Benedict Cumberbatch

Actor | The Imitation Game

Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch was born and raised in London, England. His parents, Wanda Ventham and Timothy Carlton (born Timothy Carlton Congdon Cumberbatch), are both actors. He is a grandson of submarine commander Henry Carlton Cumberbatch, and a great-grandson of diplomat Henry Arnold ...

1. The Imitation Game - 2014 2. The Power of the Dog - 2021

58. Alan Arkin

Actor | Argo

Alan Arkin was an Academy Award-winning American actor who was also an acclaimed director, producer, author, singer and composer.

He was born Alan Wolf Arkin on March 26, 1934, in Brooklyn, New York. His family were Jewish emigrants from Russia and Germany. In 1946, the Arkins moved from Brooklyn to...

2 Noms.

1. The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming - 1966 2. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter - 1968

59. Nicolas Cage

Actor | Face/Off

Nicolas Cage was born Nicolas Kim Coppola in Long Beach, California, the son of comparative literature professor August Coppola (whose brother is director Francis Ford Coppola) and dancer/choreographer Joy Vogelsang. He is of Italian (father) and Polish and German (mother) descent. Cage changed his...

2 Noms.

1. Leaving Las Vegas - 1995 (WON) 2. Adaptation - 2002

60. Tom Cruise

Actor | Top Gun

In 1976, if you had told fourteen-year-old Franciscan seminary student Thomas Cruise Mapother IV that one day in the not too distant future he would be Tom Cruise, one of the top 100 movie stars of all time, he would have probably grinned and told you that his ambition was to join the priesthood. ...

2 Noms.

1. Born on the Fourth of July - 1989 2. Jerry Maguire - 1996

61. Richard Dreyfuss

Actor | The Goodbye Girl

Richard Dreyfuss is an American leading man, who has played his fair share of irritating pests and brash, ambitious hustlers.

He was born Richard Stephen Dreyfus in Brooklyn, New York, to Geraldine (Robbins), an activist, and Norman Dreyfus, a restaurateur and attorney. His paternal grandparents ...

2 Noms.

1. The Goodbye Girl - 1977 (WON) 2. Mr. Holland's Opus - 1995

62. Clint Eastwood

Actor | Million Dollar Baby

Clinton Eastwood Jr. was born May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, to Clinton Eastwood Sr., a bond salesman and later manufacturing executive for Georgia-Pacific Corporation, and Ruth Wood (née Margaret Ruth Runner), a housewife turned IBM clerk. He grew up in nearby Piedmont. At school Clint took ...

2 Noms.

1. Unforgiven - 1992 2. Million Dollar Baby - 2004

63. Colin Firth

Actor | A Single Man

Colin Andrew Firth was born into an academic family in Grayshott, Hampshire, England. His mother, Shirley Jean (Rolles), was a comparative religion lecturer at the Open University, and his father, David Norman Lewis Firth, lectured on history at Winchester University College (formerly King Alfred's...

2 Noms.

1. A Single Man - 2009 2. The King's Speech - 2010 (WON)

64. 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...

2 Noms.

1. The Lavender Hill Mob - 1952 2. The Bridge on the River Kwai - 1957 (WON)

65. Gene Hackman

Actor | The French Connection

Eugene Allen Hackman was born in San Bernardino, California, the son of Anna Lyda Elizabeth (Gray) and Eugene Ezra Hackman, who operated a newspaper printing press. He is of Pennsylvania Dutch (German), English, and Scottish ancestry, partly by way of Canada, where his mother was born. After ...

2 Noms.

1. The French Connection - 1971 (WON) 2. Mississippi Burning - 1988

66. Richard Harris

Actor | Unforgiven

Richard St John Harris was born on October 1, 1930 in Limerick, Ireland, to a farming family, one of nine children born to Mildred (Harty) and Ivan Harris. He attended Crescent College, a Jesuit school, and was an excellent rugby player, with a strong passion for literature. Unfortunately, a bout ...

2 Noms.

1. This Sporting Life - 1963 2. The Field - 1990

67. 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 ...

2 Noms.

1. Cleopatra - 1963 2. My Fair Lady - 1964 (WON)

68. Ben Kingsley

Actor | Sexy Beast

Ben Kingsley was born Krishna Bhanji on December 31, 1943 in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England. His father, Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji, was a Kenyan-born medical doctor, of Gujarati Indian descent, and his mother, Anna Lyna Mary (Goodman), was an English actress. Ben began to act in stage plays during ...

2 Noms.

1. Gandhi - 1982 (WON) 2. House of Sand and Fog - 2003

69. Walter Matthau

Actor | The Odd Couple

Walter Matthau was best known for starring in many films which included Charade (1963), The Odd Couple (1968), Grumpy Old Men (1993), and Dennis the Menace (1993). He often worked with Jack Lemmon and the two were Hollywood's craziest stars.

He was born Walter Jake Matthow in New York City, New York...

2 Noms.

1. Kotch - 1971 2. The Sunshine Boys - 1975

70. Nick Nolte

Actor | Warrior

Nick Nolte was born in Omaha, Nebraska and began his career on stage at the Pasadena Playhouse and in regional theatre productions. His breakthrough role was in the TV miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man (1976), playing the role of "Tom/Tommy Jordache". Nick Nolte said that when he played a young man in ...

2 Noms.

1. The Prince of Tides - 1991 2. Affliction - 1998

71. Brad Pitt

Actor | Fight Club

William Bradley "Brad" Pitt was born on December 18, 1963 in Shawnee, Oklahoma and raised in Springfield, Missouri to Jane Etta Pitt (née Hillhouse), a school counselor & William Alvin "Bill" Pitt, a truck company manager. At Kickapoo High School, Pitt was involved in sports, debating, student ...

2 Noms.

1. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - 2008 2. Moneyball - 2011

72. Matt Damon

Actor | Good Will Hunting

Matthew Paige Damon was born on October 8, 1970, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Kent Damon, a stockbroker, realtor and tax preparer, and Nancy Carlsson-Paige, an early childhood education professor at Lesley University. Matt has an older brother, Kyle, a sculptor. His father was of English and ...

2 Noms.

1. Good Will Hunting - 1997 2. The Martian - 2015

73. Eddie Redmayne

Actor | Les Misérables

British actor Eddie Redmayne won the Academy Award for Best Actor (for The Theory of Everything (2014)).

Edward John David Redmayne was born and raised in London, England, the son of Patricia (Burke) and Richard Charles Tunstall Redmayne, a businessman. His great-grandfather was Sir Richard ...

2 Noms.

1. The Theory Of Everything - 2014 (WON) 2. The Danish Girl - 2015

74. 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 ...

2 Noms.

1. The Defiant Ones - 1958 2. Lilies of the Field - 1963 (WON)

75. Mickey Rooney

Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Mickey Rooney was born Joe Yule Jr. on September 23, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York. He first took the stage as a toddler in his parents vaudeville act at 17 months old. He made his first film appearance in 1926. The following year, he played the lead character in the first Mickey McGuire short film. ...

2 Noms.

1. Babes in Arms - 1939 2. The Human Comedy - 1943

76. Geoffrey Rush

Actor | The King's Speech

Geoffrey Roy Rush was born on July 6, 1951, in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, to Merle (Bischof), a department store sales assistant, and Roy Baden Rush, an accountant for the Royal Australian Air Force. His mother was of German descent and his father had English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. ...

2 Noms.

1. Shine - 1996 (WON) 2. Quills - 2000

77. Peter Sellers

Actor | Being There

Often credited as the greatest comedian of all time, Peter Sellers was born Richard Henry Sellers to a well-off acting family in 1925 in Southsea, a suburb of Portsmouth. He was the son of Agnes Doreen "Peg" (Marks) and William "Bill" Sellers. His parents worked in an acting company run by his ...

2 Noms.

1. Dr. Strangelove - 1964 2. Being There - 1979

78. John Travolta

Actor | Pulp Fiction

John Joseph Travolta was born in Englewood, New Jersey, one of six children of Helen Travolta (née Helen Cecilia Burke) and Salvatore/Samuel J. Travolta. His father was of Italian descent and his mother was of Irish ancestry. His father owned a tire repair shop called Travolta Tires in Hillsdale, ...

2 Noms.

1. Saturday Night Fever - 1977 2. Pulp Fiction - 1994

79. James Dean

Actor | East of Eden

James Byron Dean was born February 8, 1931 in Marion, Indiana, to Mildred Marie (Wilson) and Winton A. Dean, a farmer turned dental technician. His mother died when Dean was nine, and he was subsequently raised on a farm by his aunt and uncle in Fairmount, Indiana. After grade school, he moved to ...

2 Noms.

1. East of Eden - 1955 2. Giant - 1956

80. Peter Finch

Actor | Network

Despite being one of the finest actors of his generation, Peter Finch will be remembered as much for his reputation as a hard-drinking, hell-raising womanizer as for his performances on the screen. He was born in London in 1916 and went to live in Sydney, Australia, at the age of ten. There, he ...

2 Noms.

1. Sunday Bloody Sunday - 1971 2. Network - 1976 (WON)

81. Henry Fonda

Actor | 12 Angry Men

This remarkable, soft-spoken American began in films as a diffident juvenile. With passing years, he matured into a star character actor who exemplified not only integrity and strength, but an ideal of the common man fighting against social injustice and oppression. He was born in Grand Island, ...

2 Noms.

1. The Grapes of Wrath - 1940 2. On Golden Pond - 1981 (WON)

82. Cary Grant

Actor | North by Northwest

Once told by an interviewer, "Everybody would like to be Cary Grant", Grant is said to have replied, "So would I."

Cary Grant was born Archibald Alec Leach on January 18, 1904 in Horfield, Bristol, England, to Elsie Maria (Kingdon) and Elias James Leach, who worked in a factory. His early years in ...

2 Noms.

1. Penny Serenade - 1941 2. None but the Lonely Heart - 1944

83. Anthony Quinn

Actor | Alexis Zorbas

Anthony Quinn was born Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (some sources indicate Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca) on April 21, 1915, in Chihuahua, Mexico, to Manuela (Oaxaca) and Francisco Quinn, who became an assistant cameraman at a Los Angeles (CA) film studio. His paternal grandfather was Irish, ...

2 Noms.

1. None but the Lonely Heart - 1957 2. Zorba the Greek - 1964

84. 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...

2 Noms.

1. The Pawnbroker - 1965 2. In the Heat of the Night - 1967 (WON)

85. John Wayne

Actor | True Grit

John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison in Iowa, to Mary Alberta (Brown) and Clyde Leonard Morrison, a pharmacist. He was of English, Scottish, Ulster-Scots, and Irish ancestry.

Clyde developed a lung condition that required him to move his family from Iowa to the warmer climate of southern ...

2 Noms.

1. Sands of Iwo Jima - 1949 2. True Grit - 1969 (WON)

86. George C. Scott

Actor | Patton

George C. Scott was an immensely talented actor, a star of the big screen, stage and television. He was born on October 18, 1927 in Wise, Virginia, to Helena Agnes (Slemp) and George Dewey Scott. At the age of eight, his mother died, and his father, an executive at Buick, raised him. In 1945, he ...

2 Noms.

1. Patton - 1970 (WON) 2. The Hospital - 1971

87. 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 ...

2 Noms.

1. Judgment at Nuremberg - 1961 (WON) 2. The Man in the Glass Booth - 1975

88. Walter Pidgeon

Actor | Forbidden Planet

Walter Pidgeon, a handsome, tall and dark-haired man, began his career studying voice at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He then did theater, mainly stage musicals. He went to Hollywood in the early 1920s, where he made silent films, including Mannequin (1926) and Sumuru (1927). ...

2 Noms.

1. Mrs. Miniver - 1942 2. Madame Curie - 1943

89. Robert Montgomery

Actor | Night Must Fall

Robert Montgomery was born Henry Montgomery Jr., the elder son of New York businessman Henry Montgomery and his wife, Mary Weed (Barney), a native of Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. Montgomery had a younger brother, Donald. He was not related to Belinda Montgomery.

As a child, he enjoyed a ...

2 Noms.

1. Night Must Fall - 1937 2. Here Comes Mr. Jordan - 1941

90. Walter Huston

Actor | The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

For many years Walter Huston had two passions: his career as an engineer and his vocation for the stage. In 1909 he dedicated himself to the theatre, and made his debut on Broadway in 1924. In 1929 he journeyed to Hollywood, where his talent and ability made him one of the most respected actors in ...

2 Noms.

1. Dodsworth - 1936 2. The Devil and Daniel Webster - 1941

91. Leslie Howard

Actor | Pygmalion

Leslie Howard Steiner was born in London to Lilian (Blumberg) and Ferdinand "Frank" Steiner. His father was a Hungarian Jewish immigrant, and his English mother was of German Jewish and mostly English descent. Leslie went to Dulwich College, then worked as a bank clerk until the outbreak of World ...

2 Noms.

1. Berkeley Square - 1932/33 2. Pygmalion - 1938

92. 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...

2 Noms.

1. Cyrano de Bergerac - 1950 (WON) 2. Moulin Rouge - 1952