Research in Progress: August 2021
Winners of the Best Actor Oscar category, from the first year, 1929 to the present.
In Oscar’s 93 year history, 82 individuals have won the Best Actor Oscar, some more than once.
Youngest and Oldest Winners
I have analyzed the age distribution of the Best Actor winners. They run in age from the youngest recipients, Adrien Brody, 29, for The Pianist in 2002, to the oldest one, Henry Fonda, who was 76, when he won his first and only Oscar, for On Golden Pond in 1981.
Nine of the 79 men have won multiple Oscars, most of them within the same category (Best Actor), others in both the lead and supporting leagues.
Best Actor: Record Holder, Daniel Day-Lewis
Daniel Day-Lewis, the acclaimed and brilliant British thespian, is the only actor to have won three Best Actor Oscars, in 1989 for My Left Foot; in 2007 for There Will Be Blood; and in 2012 for Lincoln.
In 2017, Day-Lewis made his final film, Phantom Thread, for which he received yet another Best Actor nomination.
Winner of 3 Oscars: Jack Nicholson
The estimable Jack Nicholson has also won three Oscars, two of which are Best Actors: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in 1975 and As Good As It Gets in 1997. His third win is as Best Supporting Actor, Terms of Endearment in 1983.
Three-Time Winners: 1 Actor
Daniel Day-Lewis
Two-Time Winners: 8 Actors
Men have won two competitive Oscars in the same category, Best Actor:
Fredric March, 1932; 1946
Spencer Tracy, 1937; 1938
Gary Cooper, 1941; 1952
Marlon Brando, 1954; 1972
Dustin Hoffman, 1979; 1988
Tom Hanks, 1993; 1994
Sean Penn, 2003; 2008
Foreign Actors in Silent Films
Emil Jannings (German), the first Best Actor, 1927-28
Jean Dujardin (French), The Artist, 2010
One Nomination–One Win
Twenty-seven of the Best Actors (one third) have been nominated only once
Emil Jannings (for two performances in the same year)
Warner Baxter, In Old Arizona, 1928-29
George Arliss (for two performances in the same year)
Lionel Barrymore, A Free Soul, 1930-31
Victor McLaglen, The Informer, 1935
Paul Lukas, Watch on the Rhine, 1943
Ray Milland, The Lost Weekend, 1945
Broderick Crawford, All the King’s Men, 1949
Ernest Borgnine, Marty, 1955
Yul Brynner, The King and I, 1956
David Niven, Separate Tables, 1958
Charlton Heston, Ben-Hur, 1959
Lee Marvin, Cat Ballou, 1965
Cliff Robertson, Charly, 1968
Art Carney, Harry and Tonto, 1974
F. Murray Abraham, Amadeus, 1984
Michael Douglas, Wall Street, 1987
Jeremy Irons, Reversal of Fortune, 1990
Roberto Benigni, Life Is Beautiful, 1998
Adrien Brody, The Pianist, 2002
Jamie Foxx, Ray, 2004 (in the same year also nominated for Supporting Actor)
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote, 2005
Forest Whitaker, Last King of Scotland, 2006
Jean DuJardin, The Artist, 2010
Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club, 2013
Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything, 2015
Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea, 2017 (Affleck was previously nominated for Supporting Actor)
Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody, 2018
Joaquin Phoenix, Joker, 2019 (Phoenix had been nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 2000 for Gladiator).
