| Academy Award for Best Actor | |
|---|---|
The 2020 recipient: Anthony Hopkins | |
| Awarded for | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) |
| First awarded | 1929 (for performance in films released during the 1927/1928 film season) |
| Most recent winner | Anthony Hopkins The Father (2021) |
| Website | oscars |
The Academy Award for Best Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. The award is traditionally presented by the previous year's Best Actress winner.
The 1st Academy Awards were held in 1929 with Emil Jannings receiving the award for his roles in The Last Command (1928) and The Way of All Flesh (1927).[1] Currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the actors branch of AMPAS; winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy.[2]
In the first three years of the awards, actors were nominated as the best in their categories. At that time, all of their work during the qualifying period (as many as three films, in some cases) was listed after the award.[3] However, during the 3rd ceremony held in 1930, only one of those films was cited in each winner's final award, even though each of the acting winners had two films following their names on the ballots.[4] The following year, this system was replaced by the current system in which an actor is nominated for a specific performance in a single film.[3] Starting with the 9th ceremony held in 1937, the category was officially limited to five nominations per year.[3]
Since its inception, the award has been given to 83 actors. Daniel Day-Lewis has received the most awards in this category, with three wins. Spencer Tracy and Laurence Olivier were nominated on nine occasions, more than any other actor. Peter O'Toole is the most nominated actor in this category without a single win. James Dean remains the only actor to have been posthumously nominated in this category on more than one occasion. Peter Finch is the only actor to have received the award posthumously, for Network (1976). Italian actor Roberto Benigni was the first non-English performance winner for Life Is Beautiful (1997). At age 29, Adrien Brody became the youngest actor to win this award for The Pianist (2002), while Anthony Hopkins, at age 83, became the oldest winner for The Father (2020). As of the 93rd Academy Awards, Hopkins is the most recent winner in this category for his portrayal of Anthony in The Father.
In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of film release in Los Angeles County; the ceremonies are always held the following year.[5] For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months, from August 1 to July 31.[6] For the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1, 1932, to December 31, 1933.[6] Since the 7th ceremony held in 1935, the period of eligibility became the full previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31.[6]
|
Indicates the winner |
|---|---|
| § | Indicates winner who refused the award |
| † | Indicates posthumous winner |
| Year | Actor | Role(s) | Film | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1927/28 (1st) |
Emil Jannings [A]
|
Grand Duke Sergius Alexander August Schilling |
The Last Command The Way of All Flesh |
[7] |
| Richard Barthelmess | Nickie Elkins Patent Leather Kid |
The Noose The Patent Leather Kid | ||
| 1928/29 (2nd) [note 1] |
Warner Baxter
|
The Cisco Kid | In Old Arizona | [8] |
| George Bancroft | Thunderbolt Jim Lang | Thunderbolt | ||
| Chester Morris | Chick Williams | Alibi | ||
| Paul Muni | James Dyke | The Valiant | ||
| Lewis Stone | Count Pahlen | The Patriot |
| Year | Actor | Role(s) | Film | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020/21[102] (93rd) |
Anthony Hopkins
|
Anthony | The Father | [103] |
| Riz Ahmed | Ruben Stone | Sound of Metal | ||
| Chadwick Boseman (posthumous) | Levee Green | Ma Rainey's Black Bottom | ||
| Gary Oldman | Herman J. Mankiewicz | Mank | ||
| Steven Yeun | Jacob Yi | Minari |
|
The following individuals received two or more Best Actor awards:
|
The following individuals received four or more Best Actor nominations:
|
| Record | Actor | Film | Age (in years) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oldest winner | Anthony Hopkins | The Father | 83 | [104] |
| Oldest nominee | Anthony Hopkins | The Father | 83 | [104] |
| Youngest winner | Adrien Brody | The Pianist | 29 | [104] |
| Youngest nominee | Jackie Cooper | Skippy | 9 | [104] |
