The Academy Awards have been handing out a Best Actor trophy since the very first ceremony in 1928. Emil Jannings for a combo of “The Last Command” and “The Way of All Flesh” was the first recipient for his leading roles. The most recent champ was Joaquin Phoenix for “Joker.”
Since then, only one man has won the category three times: Daniel Day-Lewis for “My Left Foot,” “There Will Be Blood” and “Lincoln.” The only two times with back-to-back victories were for Spencer Tracy (“Captains Courageous” and “Boys Town”) and Tom Hanks (“Philadelphia” and “Forrest Gump”).
Beyond those two actors, the ones with two lead wins have included Marlon Brando, Gary Cooper, Dustin Hoffman, Fredric March, Jack Nicholson and Sean Penn. Tracy and Laurence Olivier are the ones with the most nominations at nine.
The oldest winner was Henry Fonda (“On Golden Pond”) at age 76. The oldest nominee was Anthony Hopkins (“The Father”) at age 83. The youngest winner was Adrien Brody (“The Pianist”) at age 29. The youngest nominee was Jackie Cooper (“Skippy”) at age 9.
Click through our updated photo gallery of every Academy Award-winning Best Actor, from the most recent Oscar winner to the very first champion.
Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?
