Best Actor Oscar Winners

For his performances as Gen. Dolgorucki / Grand Duke Sergius Alexanderin in The Last Command and as August Schilling in The Way of All Flesh (1927-1928)

Nominee:
▪ Richard Barthelmess - The Noose as Nickie Elkins and The Patent Leather Kid as Patent Leather Kid

» Was the very first person to receive an Academy Award

Nominees:
▪ George Bancroft - Thunderbolt as Thunderbolt Jim Lang
▪ Chester Morris - Alibi as Chick Williams (No. 1065)
▪ Paul Muni - The Valiant as James Dyke
▪ Lewis Stone - The Patriot as Count Pahlen

Nominees:
▪ George Arliss - The Green Goddess as The Raja of Rukh
▪ Wallace Beery - The Big House as 'Machine Gun' Butch Schmidt
▪ Maurice Chevalier - The Big Pond as Pierre Mirande and The Love Parade as Count Alfred Renard
▪ Ronald Colman - Bulldog Drummond as Capt. Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond and Condemned as Michel
▪ Lawrence Tibbett - The Rogue Song as Yegor

For his performance as Stephen Ashe in A Free Soul (1930-1931)

Nominees:
▪ Adolphe Menjou - The Front Page as Walter Burns
▪ Jackie Cooper - Skippy as Skippy Skinner
▪ Richard Dix - Cimarron as Yancey Cravat
▪ Fredric March - The Royal Family of Broadway as Tony Cavendish

For his performance as Dr. Henry L. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931-1932)

Nominee:
▪ Alfred Lunt - The Guardsman as The Actor

Nominees:
▪ Laurence Olivier - Henry V as King Henry V of England
▪ Larry Parks - The Jolson Story as Al Jolson
▪ Gregory Peck - The Yearling as Ezra 'Penny' Baxter
▪ James Stewart - It's a Wonderful Life as George Bailey

Nominees:
▪ Leslie Howard - Berkeley Square as Peter Standish
▪ Paul Muni - I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang as James Allen

For his performance as Peter Warne in It Happened One Night (1934)

Nominees:
▪ Frank Morgan - The Affairs of Cellini as Alessandro, Duke of Florence
▪ William Powell - The Thin Man as Nick Charles

For his performance as Gypo Nolan in The Informer (1935)

Nominees:
▪ Clark Gable - Mutiny on the Bounty as Christian
▪ Charles Laughton - Mutiny on the Bounty as Bligh
▪ Franchot Tone - Mutiny on the Bounty as Byam
▪ Paul Muni - Black Fury as Joe Radek

Nominees:
▪ Gary Cooper - Mr. Deeds Goes to Town as Longfellow Deeds
▪ Walter Huston - Dodsworth as Sam Dodsworth
▪ William Powell - My Man Godfrey as Godfrey
▪ Spencer Tracy - San Francisco as Father Mullin

Nominees:
▪ Charles Boyer - Conquest as Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte
▪ Fredric March - A Star Is Born as Norman Maine
▪ Robert Montgomery - Night Must Fall as Danny
▪ Paul Muni - The Life of Emile Zola as Emile Zola

For his performance as Father Flanagan in Boys Town (1938)

Nominees:
▪ Charles Boyer - Algiers as Pepe le Moko
▪ James Cagney - Angels with Dirty Faces as Rocky Sullivan
▪ Robert Donat - The Citadel as Andrew
▪ Leslie Howard - Pygmalion as Professor Henry Higgins

Nominees:
▪ Laurence Olivier - Wuthering Heights as Heathcliff
▪ Clark Gable - Gone with the Wind as Rhett Butler
▪ Mickey Rooney - Babes in Arms as Mickey Moran
▪ James Stewart - Mr. Smith Goes to Washington as Jefferson Smith

For his performance as Macaulay Connor in The Philadelphia Story (1940)

Nominees:
▪ Charles Chaplin - The Great Dictator as Adenoid Hynkel / A Jewish Barber
▪ Henry Fonda - The Grapes of Wrath as Tom Joad
▪ Raymond Massey - Abe Lincoln in Illinois as Abraham Lincoln
▪ Laurence Olivier - Rebecca as 'Maxim' de Winter

For his performance as Alvin Cullum York in Sergeant York (1941)

Nominees:
▪ Cary Grant - Penny Serenade as Roger Adams
▪ Walter Huston - The Devil and Daniel Webster as Mr. Scratch
▪ Robert Montgomery - Here Comes Mr. Jordan as Joe Pendleton
▪ Orson Welles - Citizen Kane as Charles Foster Kane

Nominees:
▪ Marlon Brando - Viva Zapata! as Emiliano Zapata
▪ Kirk Douglas - The Bad and the Beautiful as Jonathan
▪ José Ferrer - Moulin Rouge as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec / The Comte de Toulouse-Lautrec
▪ Alec Guinness - The Lavender Hill Mob as Henry Holland

For his performance as George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

Nominees:
▪ Ronald Colman - Random Harvest as Charles Rainier
▪ Gary Cooper - The Pride of the Yankees as Henry Louis 'Lou' Gehrig
▪ Walter Pidgeon - Mrs. Miniver as Clem Miniver
▪ Monty Woolley - The Pied Piper as Howard

Nominees:
▪ Humphrey Bogart - Casablanca as Rick Blaine
▪ Gary Cooper - For Whom the Bell Tolls as Robert Jordan
▪ Walter Pidgeon - Madame Curie as Pierre Curie
▪ Mickey Rooney - The Human Comedy as Homer Macauley

For his performance as Father Chuck O'Malley in Going My Way (1944)

Nominees:
▪ Charles Boyer - Gaslight as Gregory Anton
▪ Barry Fitzgerald - Going My Way as Father Fitzgibbon
▪ Cary Grant - None but the Lonely Heart as Ernie Mott
▪ Alexander Knox - Wilson as Woodrow Wilson

For his performance as Don Birnam in The Lost Weekend (1945)

Nominees:
▪ Bing Crosby - The Bells of St. Mary's as Father Chuck O'Malley
▪ Gene Kelly - Anchors Aweigh as Joseph Brady
▪ Gregory Peck - The Keys of the Kingdom as Father Francis Chisholm
▪ Cornel Wilde - A Song to Remember as Frédéric Chopin

For his performance as Anthony John in A Double Life (1947)

Nominees:
▪ John Garfield - Body and Soul as Charlie Davis
▪ Gregory Peck - Gentleman's Agreement as Philip Schuyler Green aka Greenberg
▪ Michael Redgrave - Mourning Becomes Electra as Orin Mannon
▪ William Powell - Life with Father as Clarence Day, Sr.

For his performance as Hamlet, Prince of Denmark in Hamlet (1948)
(not attended the ceremony)

Nominees:
▪ Lew Ayres - Johnny Belinda as Dr. Robert Richardson
▪ Montgomery Clift - The Search as Ralph 'Steve' Stevenson
▪ Dan Dailey - When My Baby Smiles at Me as 'Skid' Johnson
▪ Clifton Webb - Sitting Pretty as Lynn Belvedere

For his performance as Willie Stark in All the King's Men (1949)

Nominees:
▪ Kirk Douglas - Champion as Michael 'Midge' Kelly
▪ Gregory Peck - Twelve O'Clock High as General Savage
▪ Richard Todd - The Hasty Heart as Cpl. Lachlan 'Lachie' MacLachlan
▪ John Wayne - Sands of Iwo Jima as Sgt. John M. Stryker

Nominees:
▪ Louis Calhern - The Magnificent Yankee as Oliver Wendell Holmes
▪ William Holden - Sunset Boulevard as Joe Gillis
▪ James Stewart - Harvey as Elwood P. Dowd
▪ Spencer Tracy - Father of the Bride as Stanley T. Banks

For his performance as Charlie Allnut in The African Queen (1951)

Nominees:
▪ Marlon Brando - A Streetcar Named Desire as Stanley Kowalski
▪ Montgomery Clift - A Place in the Sun as George Eastman
▪ Arthur Kennedy - Bright Victory as Larry Nevins
▪ Fredric March - Death of a Salesman as Willy Loman

For his performance as Sgt. J.J. Sefton in Stalag 17 (1953)

Nominees:
▪ Marlon Brando - Julius Caesar as Mark Antony
▪ Richard Burton - The Robe as Marcellus Gallio
▪ Burt Lancaster - From Here to Eternity as 1st Sgt. Milton Warden
▪ Montgomery Clift - From Here to Eternity as Pvt. Robert E. Lee 'Prew' Prewitt

For his performance as Terry Malloy in On The Waterfront (1954)
Video on Youtube

Nominees:
▪ Humphrey Bogart - The Caine Mutiny as Philip Francis Queeg
▪ Bing Crosby - The Country Girl as Frank Elgin
▪ James Mason - A Star Is Born as Norman Maine
▪ Dan O'Herlihy - Robinson Crusoe as Robinson Crusoe

For his performance as Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather (1972)
(But he refused in protest for the treatment given to the American Indians by the film industry)
Video on Youtube

Nominees:
▪ Michael Caine - Sleuth as Milo Tindle
▪ Laurence Olivier - Sleuth as Andrew Wyke
▪ Peter O'Toole - The Ruling Class as Jack Gurney, 14th Earl of Gurney
▪ Paul Winfield - Sounder as Nathan Lee Morgan

For his performance as Marty Piletti in Marty (1955)

Nominees:
▪ James Cagney - Love Me or Leave Me as Martin Snyder
▪ James Dean - East of Eden as Cal Trask (posthumous nomination)
▪ Frank Sinatra - The Man with the Golden Arm as Frankie Machine
▪ Spencer Tracy - Bad Day at Black Rock as John J. Macreedy

For his performance as King Mongkut of Siam in The King and I (1956)

Nominees:
▪ James Dean - Giant as Jett Rink (posthumous nomination)
▪ Kirk Douglas - Lust for Life as Vincent Van Gogh
▪ Rock Hudson - Giant as Jordan "Bick" Benedict Jr.
▪ Laurence Olivier - Richard III as Richard III

For his performance as Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
(not attended the ceremony)

Nominees:
▪ Marlon Brando - Sayonara as Maj. Lloyd 'Ace' Gruver - USAF
▪ Anthony Franciosa - A Hatful of Rain as Polo Pope
▪ Charles Laughton - Witness for the Prosecution as Sir Wilfrid Robarts, lawyer
▪ Anthony Quinn - Wild Is the Wind as Gino

Nominees:
▪ Tony Curtis - The Defiant Ones as John 'Joker' Jackson
▪ Paul Newman - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as Brick Pollitt
▪ Sidney Poitier - The Defiant Ones as Noah Cullen
▪ Spencer Tracy - The Old Man and the Sea as The Old Man / Narrator

For his performance as Judah Ben-Hur in Ben-Hur (1959)

Nominees:
▪ Laurence Harvey - Room at the Top as Joe Lampton
▪ Jack Lemmon - Some Like It Hot as Jerry - 'Daphne'
▪ Paul Muni - The Last Angry Man as Dr. Sam Abelman
▪ James Stewart - Anatomy of a Murder as Paul Biegler

For his performance as Elmer Gantry in Elmer Gantry (1960)

Nominees:
▪ Trevor Howard - Sons and Lovers as Walter Morel
▪ Jack Lemmon - The Apartment as C. C. 'Bud' Baxter
▪ Laurence Olivier - The Entertainer as Archie Rice
▪ Spencer Tracy - Inherit the Wind as Henry Drummond

Nominees:
▪ Charles Boyer - Fanny as Cesar
▪ Paul Newman - The Hustler as Eddie Felson
▪ Spencer Tracy - Judgment at Nuremberg as Chief Judge Dan Haywood
▪ Stuart Whitman - The Mark as Jim Fuller

For his performance as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Other nominees:
▪ Burt Lancaster - Birdman of Alcatraz as Robert Stroud
▪ Jack Lemmon - Days of Wine and Roses as Joe Clay
▪ Marcello Mastroianni - Divorce, Italian Style as Ferdinando Cefalù
▪ Peter O'Toole - Lawrence of Arabia as T. E. Lawrence

For his performance as Homer Smith in Lilies of the Field (1963)
Video on Youtube

Nominees:
▪ Albert Finney - Tom Jones as Tom Jones
▪ Richard Harris - This Sporting Life as Frank Machin
▪ Rex Harrison - Cleopatra as Caesar
▪ Paul Newman - Hud as Hud Bannon

For his performance as Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady (1964)

Nominees:
▪ Richard Burton - Becket as Thomas Becket
▪ Peter O'Toole - Becket as King Henry II
▪ Anthony Quinn - Zorba the Greek as Alexis Zorba
▪ Peter Sellers - Dr. Strangelove as Group Captain Lionel Mandrake / President Merkin Muffley / Dr. Strangelove

For his performance as Kid Shelleen / Tim Strawn in Cat Ballou (1965)

Nominees:
▪ Richard Burton - The Spy Who Came in from the Cold as Alec Leamas
▪ Laurence Olivier - Othello as Othello
▪ Rod Steiger - The Pawnbroker as Sol Nazerman
▪ Oskar Werner - Ship of Fools as Willie Schumann

For his performance as Sir Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons (1966)

Nominees:
▪ Alan Arkin - The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming as Lt. Rozanov
▪ Richard Burton - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? as George
▪ Michael Caine - Alfie as Alfie Elkins
▪ Steve McQueen - The Sand Pebbles as Holman

For his performance as Police Chief Bill Gillespie in In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Video on Youtube

Nominees:
▪ Warren Beatty - Bonnie and Clyde as Clyde Barrow
▪ Dustin Hoffman - The Graduate as Benjamin Braddock
▪ Paul Newman - Cool Hand Luke as Luke Jackson
▪ Spencer Tracy - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner as Matt Drayton (posthumous nomination)

For his performance as Charly Gordon in Charly (1968)

Nominees:
▪ Alan Arkin - The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter as John Singer
▪ Alan Bates - The Fixer as Yakov Bok
▪ Ron Moody - Oliver! as Fagin
▪ Peter O'Toole - The Lion in Winter as Henry II

For his performance as Marshal Reuben J. 'Rooster' Cogburn in True Grit (1969)
Video on Youtube

Nominees:
▪ Richard Burton - Anne of the Thousand Days as King Henry VIII
▪ Dustin Hoffman - Midnight Cowboy as Enrico Salvatore 'Ratso' Rizzo
▪ Peter O'Toole - Goodbye, Mr. Chips as Arthur Chipping
▪ Jon Voight - Midnight Cowboy as Joe Buck

For his performance as Gen. George S. Patton Jr. in Patton (1970) (declined)

Nominees:
▪ Melvyn Douglas - I Never Sang for My Father as Tom Garrison
▪ James Earl Jones - The Great White Hope as Jack Jefferson
▪ Jack Nicholson - Five Easy Pieces as Robert Eroica Dupea
▪ Ryan O'Neal - Love Story as Oliver Barrett IV

For his performance as Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in The French Connection (1971)

Nominees:
▪ Peter Finch - Sunday Bloody Sunday as Dr. Daniel Hirsh
▪ Walter Matthau - Kotch as Joseph P. Kotcher
▪ George C. Scott - The Hospital as Dr. Herbert Bock
▪ Chaim Topol - Fiddler on the Roof as Tevye

For his performance as Harry Stoner in Save the Tiger (1973)
Video on Youtube

Nominees:
▪ Marlon Brando - Last Tango in Paris as Paul
▪ Jack Nicholson - The Last Detail as SM1 Billy 'Bad Ass' Buddusky
▪ Al Pacino - Serpico as Frank Serpico
▪ Robert Redford - The Sting as Johnny Hooker

For his performance as Harry Coombes in Harry and Tonto (1974)

Nominees:
▪ Albert Finney - Murder on the Orient Express as Hercule Poirot
▪ Dustin Hoffman - Lenny as Lenny Bruce
▪ Jack Nicholson - Chinatown as Jake 'J.J.' Gittes
▪ Al Pacino - The Godfather Part II as Don Michael Corleone

For his performance as R.P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Video on Youtube

Nominees:
▪ Walter Matthau - The Sunshine Boys as Willy Clark
▪ Al Pacino - Dog Day Afternoon as Sonny Wortzik
▪ Maximilian Schell - The Man in the Glass Booth as Arthur Goldman
▪ James Whitmore - Give 'em Hell, Harry! as Harry Truman

For his performance as Melvin Udall in As Good as It Gets (1997)

Nominees:
▪ Matt Damon - Good Will Hunting as Will Hunting
▪ Robert Duvall - The Apostle as Euliss 'Sonny' Dewey-The Apostle E.F.
▪ Peter Fonda - Ulee's Gold as Ulee Jackson
▪ Dustin Hoffman - Wag the Dog as Stanley Motss

For his performance as Howard Beale in Network (1976) (posthumous win)

Nominees:
▪ Robert De Niro - Taxi Driver as Travis Bickle
▪ Giancarlo Giannini - Seven Beauties as Pasqualino Frafuso
▪ William Holden - Network as Max Schumacher
▪ Sylvester Stallone - Rocky as Rocky Balboa

Nominees:
▪ Woody Allen - Annie Hall as Alvy Singer
▪ Richard Burton - Equus as Martin Dysart
▪ Marcello Mastroianni - A Special Day as Gabriele
▪ John Travolta - Saturday Night Fever as Tony Manero

For his performance as Luke Martin in Coming Home (1978)

Nominees:
▪ Warren Beatty - Heaven Can Wait as Joe Pendleton
▪ Gary Busey - The Buddy Holly Story as Buddy Holly
▪ Robert De Niro - The Deer Hunter as Michael Vronsky
▪ Laurence Olivier - The Boys from Brazil as Ezra Lieberman

For his performance as Ted Kramer in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Video on Youtube

Nominees:
▪ Jack Lemmon - The China Syndrome as Jack Godell
▪ Al Pacino - …And Justice for All as Arthur Kirkland
▪ Roy Scheider - All That Jazz as Joe Gideon
▪ Peter Sellers - Being There as Chance

For his performance as Raymond Babbitt in Rain Man (1988)

Nominees:
▪ Gene Hackman - Mississippi Burning as Agent Rupert Anderson
▪ Tom Hanks - Big as Josh Baskin
▪ Edward James Olmos - Stand and Deliver as Jaime Escalante
▪ Max von Sydow - Pelle the Conqueror as Lassefar

For his performance as Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull (1980)
Video on Youtube

Nominees:
▪ Robert Duvall - The Great Santini as Lieutenant Colonel Bull Meechum
▪ John Hurt - The Elephant Man as John Merrick
▪ Jack Lemmon - Tribute as Scottie Templeton
▪ Peter O'Toole - The Stunt Man as Eli Cross