| Academy Award for Best Actor | |
|---|---|
The 2021 recipient: Will Smith | |
| 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 | Will Smith King Richard (2022) |
| Most awards | Daniel Day-Lewis (3) |
| Most nominations | Laurence Olivier and Spencer Tracy (9) |
| 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] During the third ceremony 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 ninth ceremony in 1937, the category was officially limited to five nominations per year.[3]
Since its inception, the award has been given to 84 actors. Daniel Day-Lewis has won the award a record three times. Spencer Tracy and Laurence Olivier were nominated a record nine times. Peter O'Toole is the most nominated actor in this category without a single win. James Dean is the only actor posthumously nominated more than once. Peter Finch is the only posthumous winner, for Network (1976). Italian actor Roberto Benigni gave the first winning non-English performance in Life Is Beautiful (1997). At 29, Adrien Brody of The Pianist (2002) is the youngest winner, and Anthony Hopkins, 83, is the oldest, for playing Anthony in The Father (2020).[5] As of the 94th Academy Awards, Will Smith is the most recent winner for King Richard.
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.[6] For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months, from August 1 to July 31.[7] For the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1, 1932, to December 31, 1933.[7] Since the 7th ceremony held in 1935, the period of eligibility became the full previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31.[7]
|
Indicates the winner |
|---|---|
| § | Indicates winner who refused the award |
| † | Indicates a 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 |
[8] |
| 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 | [9] |
| 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 [103] (93rd) |
Anthony Hopkins
|
Anthony | The Father | [104] |
| 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 | ||
| 2021 (94th) |
Will Smith
|
Richard Williams | King Richard | [105] |
| Javier Bardem | Desi Arnaz | Being the Ricardos | ||
| Benedict Cumberbatch | Phil Burbank | The Power of the Dog | ||
| Andrew Garfield | Jonathan Larson | Tick, Tick... Boom! | ||
| Denzel Washington | Lord Macbeth | The Tragedy of Macbeth |
|
The following individuals received two or more Best Actor awards:
|
The following individuals received four or more Best Actor nominations:
|
| Record | Actor | Film | Year | Age | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oldest Winner | Anthony Hopkins | The Father | 2020 | 83 | [106] |
| Oldest Nominee | [106] | ||||
| Youngest Winner | Adrien Brody | The Pianist | 2002 | 29 | [106] |
| Youngest Nominee | Jackie Cooper | Skippy | 1931 | 9 | [106] |
