And The Oscar/Golden Globe Almost Went To...

1. Leonardo DiCaprio

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,...

Best Actor-The Imitation Game-2014-Oscar Best Actor (Drama)-The Imitation Game-2014-Golden Globe Lost out to...Benedict Cumberbatch

2. Bill Nighy

Actor | Love Actually

Bill Nighy is an award-winning British character actor. He was born William Francis Nighy on December 12, 1949 in Caterham, Surrey, England, to Catherine Josephine (Whittaker), a psychiatric nurse from Glasgow, and Alfred Martin Nighy, who was English-born and managed a garage in Croydon.

At school,...

Best Actor-Foxcatcher-2014-Oscar Best Actor (Drama)-Foxcatcher-2014-Golden Globe Lost out to...Steve Carrell

3. Chris Pratt

Actor | Guardians of the Galaxy

Christopher Michael "Chris" Pratt was born on June 21, 1979 in Virginia, Minnesota and raised in Lake Stevens, Washington, to Kathleen Louise (Indahl), who worked at a supermarket, and Daniel Clifton Pratt, who remodeled houses. He is of mostly Norwegian descent. He graduated from Lake Stevens High...

Best Actor-American Sniper-2014-Oscar Lost out to...Bradley Cooper

4. 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, ...

BEST ACTOR-DALLAS BUYERS CLUB-2013-OSCAR BEST ACTOR (DRAMA)-DALLAS BUYERS CLUB-2014-GOLDEN GLOBE Lost out to...Matthew McConaughey

5. 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 ...

Best Actor-American Hustle-2013-Oscar Best Actor (Comedy Or Musical)-American Hustle-2013-Golden Globe Lost out to...Christian Bale

6. 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 ...

Best Actor-Nebraska-2013-Oscar Best Actor (Comedy Or Musical)-Nebraska-2013-Golden Globe Lost out to...Bruce Dern

7. Chris Evans

Actor | The Avengers

Christopher Robert Evans is an American actor, film producer, and director. Evans began his acting career in typical fashion: performing in school productions and community theatre.

He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Lisa (Capuano), who worked at the Concord Youth Theatre, and G. ...

Best Actor-The Wolf Of Wall Street-2013-Oscar BEST ACTOR (COMEDY OR MUSICAL)-THE WOLF OF WALL STREET-2013-GOLDEN GLOBE Lost out to...Leonardo DiCaprio

8. Liam Neeson

Actor | Kinsey

Liam Neeson was born on June 7, 1952 in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, to Katherine (Brown), a cook, and Bernard Neeson, a school caretaker. He was raised in a Catholic household. During his early years, Liam worked as a forklift operator for Guinness, a truck driver, an assistant architect and an ...

BEST ACTOR-LINCOLN-2012-OSCAR BEST ACTOR (DRAMA)-LINCOLN-2012-OSCAR Lost out to...Daniel Day-Lewis

9. Mel Gibson

Actor | Braveheart

Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson was born January 3, 1956 in Peekskill, New York, USA, as the sixth of eleven children of Hutton Gibson, a railroad brakeman, and Anne Patricia (Reilly) Gibson (who died in December of 1990). His mother was Irish, from County Longford, while his American-born father is ...

Best Actor-Les Miserables-2012-Oscar BEST ACTOR (COMEDY OR MUSICAL)-LES MISERABLES-2012-GOLDEN GLOBE Lost out to...Hugh Jackman

10. Vince Vaughn

Producer | The Break-Up

Vincent Anthony Vaughn was born on March 28, 1970, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, and was raised in Lake Forest, Illinois. His parents, Vernon Vaughn (a salesman and character actor), and Sharon Vaughn, née Sharon Eileen DePalmo (a real-estate agent and stockbroker) divorced in 1991. He has two ...

Best Actor-Silver Linings Playbook-2012-Oscar Best Actor (Comedy Or Musical)-Silver Linings Playbook-2012-Golden Globe Lost out to...Bradley Cooper

11. James Franco

Actor | Spring Breakers

Known for his breakthrough starring role on Freaks and Geeks (1999), James Franco was born April 19, 1978 in Palo Alto, California, to Betsy Franco, a writer, artist, and actress, and Douglas Eugene "Doug" Franco, who ran a Silicon Valley business. His mother is Jewish and his father was of ...

Best Actor-The Master-2012-Oscar Best Actor (Drama)-The Master-2012-Golden Globe# Lost out to...Joaquin Phoenix

12. John Hurt

Actor | Nineteen Eighty-Four

One of stage, screen and TV's finest transatlantic talents, slight, gravel-voiced, pasty-looking John Vincent Hurt was born on January 22, 1940, in Shirebrook, a coal mining village, in Derbyshire, England. The youngest child of Phyllis (Massey), an engineer and one-time actress, and Reverend ...

Best Actor-Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy-2011-Oscar Lost out to...Gary Oldman

13. Paul Bettany

Actor | WandaVision

Paul Bettany is an English actor. He first came to the attention of mainstream audiences when he appeared in the British film Gangster No. 1 (2000), and director Brian Helgeland's film A Knight's Tale (2001). He has gone on to appear in a wide variety of films, including A Beautiful Mind (2001), ...

BEST ACTOR-THE KING'S SPEECH-2010-OSCAR BEST ACTOR (DRAMA)-THE KING'S SPEECH-2010-GOLDEN GLOBE Lost out to...Colin Firth

14. Shia LaBeouf

Actor | Honey Boy

Shia LaBeouf's natural talent and raw energy have secured his place as one of Hollywood's leading men.

Most recently, LaBeouf starred alongside Vanessa Kirby and Ellen Burstyn in Kornel Mundruczo's Oscar® nominated Pieces of a Woman. In the critically acclaimed film, a grieving couple (Kirby/LaBeouf...

Best Actor-The Social Network-2010-Oscar Best Actor (Drama)-The Social Network-2010-Golden Globe Lost out to...Jesse Eisenberg

15. Cillian Murphy

Actor | 28 Days Later...

Striking Irish actor Cillian Murphy was born in Douglas, the oldest child of Brendan Murphy, who works for the Irish Department of Education, and a mother who is a teacher of French. He has three younger siblings. Murphy was educated at Presentation Brothers College, Cork. He went on to study law ...

Best Actor-127 Hours-2010-Oscar Best Actor (Drama)-127 Hours-2010-Golden Globe Lost out to...James Franco

16. Colin Farrell

Actor | The Lobster

Colin Farrell is one of Ireland's biggest stars in Hollywood and abroad. His film presence has been filled with memorable roles that range from an inwardly tortured hit man, to an adventurous explorer, a determined-but-failing writer, and the greatest military leader in history.

Farrell was born on ...

Best Actor-The Hurt Locker-2009-Oscar Lost out to...Jeremy Renner

17. Richard Gere

Actor | Chicago

Humanitarian and actor Richard Gere was born on August 31, 1949, in Philadelphia, the second of five children of Doris Anna (Tiffany), a homemaker, and Homer George Gere, an insurance salesman, both Mayflower descendants. Richard started early as a musician, playing a number of instruments in high ...

BEST ACTOR-MILK-2008-OSCAR Best Actor (Drama)-Milk-2008-Golden Globe Lost out to...Sean Penn

18. 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, ...

Best Actor-The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button-2008-Oscar Best Actor (Drama)-The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button-2008-Golden Globe Lost out to...Brad Pitt

19. 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...

Best Actor-The Wrestler-2008-Oscar BEST ACTOR (DRAMA)-THE WRESTLER-2008-GOLDEN GLOBE Lost out to...Mickey Rourke

20. 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 ...

Best Actor-Michael Clayton-2007-Oscar Best Actor (Drama)-Michael Clayton-2007-Golden Globe Lost out to...George Clooney

21. 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),...

Best Actor-Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street-2007-Oscar BEST ACTOR (COMEDY OR MUSICAL)-SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET-2007-GOLDEN GLOBE Lost out to...Johnny Depp

22. Zooey Deschanel

Actress | New Girl

Zooey Deschanel was born in 1980 into a showbiz family. Her father, Caleb Deschanel, is an Academy Award-nominated cinematographer (perhaps most notably for The Passion of the Christ (2004)) and her mother, Mary Jo Deschanel (née Weir), is an actress who appeared in Twin Peaks (1990). Her paternal ...

BEST ACTRESS-SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK-2012-OSCAR BEST ACTRESS (COMEDY OR MUSICAL)-SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK-2012-GOLDEN GLOBE Lost out to...Jennifer Lawrence

23. Annette Bening

Actress | American Beauty

Annette Bening was born on May 29, 1958 in Topeka, Kansas, the youngest of four children. Her family moved to California when she was young, and she grew up there. She graduated from San Francisco State University and began her acting career with the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, ...

Best Actress (Comedy Or Musical)-Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street-2007-Golden Globe Lost out to...Helena Bonham Carter

24. 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 ...

Best Supporting Actor-The Judge-2014-Oscar Best Supporting Actor-The Judge-2014-Golden Globe Lost out to...Robert Duvall

25. Gael García Bernal

Actor | Mozart in the Jungle

Gael García Bernal was born in Guadalajara to Patricia Bernal, an actress/model & José Ángel García, an actor/director. His stepfather's cinematographer Sergio Yazbek. He began his acting career as a child, working w/ his parents in a variety of plays. At 14, he starred in a soap opera called El ...

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR-DALLAS BUYERS CLUB-2013-OSCAR BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR-DALLAS BUYERS CLUB-2013-GOLDEN GLOBE Lost out to...Jared Leto

26. Jeremy Renner

Actor | The Hurt Locker

Jeremy Lee Renner was born in Modesto, California, the son of Valerie (Tague) and Lee Renner, who managed a bowling alley. After a tumultuous yet happy childhood with his four younger siblings, Renner graduated from Beyer High School and attended Modesto Junior College. He explored several areas of...

Best Supporting Actor-American Hustle-2013-Oscar Best Supporting Actor-American Hustle-2013-Golden Globe Lost out to...Bradley Cooper

27. 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,...

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR-INGLORIOUS BASTERDS-2009-OSCAR BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR-INGLORIOUS BASTERDS-2009-GOLDEN GLOBE Lost out to...Christoph Waltz

28. Remo Vinzens

Actor | Senior Torres

Remo Vinzens, born on December 22, 1975, in East Switzerland, embarked on his acting journey at the age of 20, pursuing studies in acting in Cologne and Zurich. Throughout his four years of training, Remo diligently immersed himself in various acting techniques, recognizing the unique benefits of ...

Best Supporting Actor-Invictus-2009-Oscar Best Supporting Actor-Invictus-2009-Golden Globe Lost out to...Matt Damon

29. Steve Carell

Actor | The Office

Steve Carell, one of America's most versatile comics, was born Steven John Carell on August 16, 1962, in Concord, Massachusetts. He is the son of Harriet Theresa (Koch), a psychiatric nurse, and Edwin A. Carell, an electrical engineer. His mother was of Polish descent and his father of Italian and ...

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR-THE DARK KNIGHT-2008-OSCAR BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR-THE DARK KNIGHT-2008-GOLDEN GLOBE Lost out to...Heath Ledger

30. 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 ...

Best Supporting Actor-Milk-2008-Oscar Lost out to...Josh Brolin

31. Jessica Biel

Actress | The Illusionist

Jessica Biel, has become one of Hollywood's most sought-out actresses. She was born in Ely, Minnesota, to Kimberly (Conroe) and Jonathan Edward Biel, who is a business consultant and GM worker. Biel was raised in Boulder, Colorado. She is of Hungarian Jewish, Danish, English, and German descent.

As ...

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS-LES MISERABLES-2012-OSCAR BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS-LES MISERABLES-2012-GOLDEN GLOBE Lost out to...Anne Hathaway

32. Emma Thompson

Actress | Sense and Sensibility

Emma Thompson was born on April 15, 1959 in Paddington, London, into a family of actors - father Eric Thompson and mother Phyllida Law, who has co-starred with Thompson in several films. Her sister, Sophie Thompson, is an actor as well. Her father was English-born and her mother is Scottish-born. ...

Best Supporting Actress-Silver Linings Playbook-2012-Oscar Lost out to...Jacki Weaver

33. Reese Witherspoon

Producer | Wild

Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon was born on March 22, 1976 in New Orleans, Louisiana to Betty Witherspoon, a registered nurse & John Draper Witherspoon, a military surgeon. Reese spent the first 4 years of her life in Wiesbaden, Hesse, Germany, where her father served as a lieutenant colonel in the ...

Best Supporting Actress-The Master-2012-Oscar Best Supporting Actress-The Master-2012-Golden Globe Lost out to...Amy Adams

34. Elliot Page

Actor | Juno

Elliot Page was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia to Martha Philpotts, a teacher, and Dennis Page, a graphic designer. Page wanted to start acting at an early age and attended the Neptune Theater School. They began their career at the age of 10 on the award-winning television series Pit Pony (1999), for...

Best Supporting Actress-Up In The Air-2009-Oscar Best Supporting Actress-Up In The Air-2009-Golden Globe Lost out to...Anna Kendrick

35. J Blakeson

Writer | I Care a Lot

J Blakeson is known for I Care a Lot (2020), The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009) and Culprits (2023).

Best Director-The Imitation Game-2014-Oscar Lost out to...Morten Tyldum

36. Ridley Scott

Producer | The Martian

Described by film producer Michael Deeley as "the very best eye in the business", director Ridley Scott was born on November 30, 1937 in South Shields, Tyne and Wear. His father was an officer in the Royal Engineers and the family followed him as his career posted him throughout the United Kingdom ...

Best Director-The Wolf Of Wall Street-2013-Oscar Lost out to...Martin Scorsese

37. 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 ...

Best Director-Frost/Nixon-2008-Oscar Best Director-Frost/Nixon-2008-Golden Globe Lost out to...Ron Howard

38. Spike Jonze

Producer | Her

Spike Jonze made up one-third (along with Andy Jenkins and Mark Lewman) of the triumvirate of genius minds behind Dirt Magazine, the brother publication of the much lamented ground-breaking Sassy Magazine. These three uncommon characters were all editors for Grand Royal Magazine as well, under the ...

Best Director-The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button-2008-Oscar Best Director-The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button-2008-Golden Globe Lost out to...David Fincher