List of Oscar Best Actors - By Year
| Released | Actor | Role | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Jean Dujardin | George Valentin | The Artist |
| 2011 | Colin Firth | King George VI | The King's Speech |
| 2009 | Jeff Bridges | Bad Blake | Crazy Heart |
| 2006 | Forest Whitaker | Idi Amin | The Last King of Scotland |
| 2005 | Philip Seymour Hoffman | Truman Capote | Capote |
| 2004 | Jamie Foxx | Ray Charles | Ray |
| 2003 | Sean Penn | Jimmy Markum | Mystic River |
| 2002 | Adrien Brody | Wladyslaw Szpilman | The Pianist |
| 2001 | Denzel Washington | Alonzo Harris | Training Day |
| 2001 | Russell Crowe | Maximus Decimus Meridius | Gladiator |
| 2000 | Kevin Spacey | Lester Burnham | American Beauty |
| 1998 | Roberto Benigni | Guido Orefice | Life is Beautiful |
| 1996 | Geoffrey Rush | David Helfgott | Shine |
| 1995 | Nicolas Cage | Ben Sanderson | Leaving Las Vegas |
| 1993 | Tom Hanks | Andrew Beckett | Philadelphia |
| 1992 | Al Pacino | Lieut. Col. Frank Slade | Scent of a Woman |
| 1991 | Anthony Hopkins | Dr. Hannibal Lecter | The Silence of the Lambs |
| 1990 | Jeremy Irons | Claus von Bulow | Reversal of Fortune |
| 1989 | Daniel Day-Lewis | Christy Brown | My Left Foot |
| 1987 | Michael Douglas | Gordon Gekko | Wall Street |
| 1986 | Paul Newman | 'Fast Eddie' Felson | The Color of Money |
| 1985 | F. Murray Abraham | Antonio Salieri | Amadeus |
| 1985 | William Hurt | Luis Molina | Kiss of the Spider Woman |
| 1983 | Ben Kingsley | Mahatma Gandhi | Gandhi |
| 1983 | Robert Duvall | Mac Sledge | Tender Mercies |
| 1981 | Henry Fonda | Norman Thayer | On Golden Pond |
| 1980 | Dustin Hoffman | Ted Kramer | Kramer vs. Kramer |
| 1980 | Robert De Niro | Jake LaMotta | Raging Bull |
| 1978 | Jon Voight | Luke Martin | Coming Home |
| 1977 | Richard Dreyfuss | Elliot Garfield | The Goodbye Girl |
| 1976 | Jack Nicholson | Randle Patrick (R. P.) 'Mac' McMurphy | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest |
| 1976 | Peter Finch | Howard Beale | Network |
| 1974 | Art Carney | Harry Coombes | Harry and Tonto |
| 1973 | Jack Lemmon | Harry Stoner | Save the Tiger |
| 1971 | Gene Hackman | Jimmy 'Popeye' Doyle | The French Connection |
| 1971 | George C. Scott | Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. | Patton |
| 1969 | John Wayne | Marshal Reuben J. 'Rooster' Cogburn | True Grit |
| 1968 | Cliff Robertson | Charly Gordon | Charly |
| 1968 | Rod Steiger | Police Chief Bill Gillespie | In the Heat of the Night |
| 1966 | Paul Scofield | Sir Thomas More | A Man for All Seasons |
| 1965 | Lee Marvin | Kid Shelleen/Tim Strawn | Cat Ballou |
| 1965 | Rex Harrison | Professor Henry Higgins | My Fair Lady |
| 1963 | Sidney Poitier | Homer Smith | Lilies of the Field |
| 1962 | Gregory Peck | Atticus Finch | To Kill a Mockingbird |
| 1961 | Maximillian Schell | Hans Rolfe | Judgment at Nuremburg |
| 1960 | Burt Lancaster | Elmer Gantry | Elmer Gantry |
| 1960 | Charlton Heston | Judah Ben-Hur | Ben-Hur |
| 1958 | David Niven | Major Angus Pollock | Separate Tables |
| 1957 | Alec Guinness | Col. Nicholson | The Bridge On The River Kwai |
| 1956 | Ernest Borgnine | Marty Piletti | Marty |
| 1956 | Yul Brynner | King Mongkut of Siam | The King and I |
| 1955 | Marlon Brando | Terry Malloy | On the Waterfront |
| 1953 | William Holden | Sgt. J.J. Sefton | Stalag 17 |
| 1951 | Humphrey Bogart | Charlie Allnut | The African Queen |
| 1950 | Broderick Crawford | Willie Stark | All the King's Men |
| 1950 | Jose Ferrer | Cyrano de Bergerac | Cyrano de Bergerac |
| 1949 | Laurence Olivier | Hamlet, Prince of Denmark | Hamlet |
| 1947 | Ronald Colman | Anthony John | A Double Life |
| 1945 | Bing Crosby | Father Chuck O'Malley | Going My Way |
| 1945 | Ray Milland | Don Birnam | The Lost Weekend |
| 1943 | Paul Lukas | Kurt Muller | Watch on the Rhine |
| 1942 | James Cagney | George M. Cohan | Yankee Doodle Dandy |
| 1941 | Gary Cooper | Alvin Cullum York | Sergeant York |
| 1940 | James Stewart | Macaulay Connor | The Philadelphia Story |
| 1939 | Robert Donat | Mr. Charles Chipping (Mr. Chips) | Goodbye, Mr. Chips |
| 1937 | Spencer Tracy | Manuel | Captains Courageous |
| 1936 | Paul Muni | Louis Pasteur | The Story of Louis Pasteur |
| 1935 | Clark Gable | Peter Warne | It Happened One Night |
| 1935 | Victor McLaglen | Gypo Nolan | The Informer |
| 1933 | Charles Laughton | King Henry VIII | The Private Life of Henry VIII |
| 1932 | Fredric March | Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde | Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde |
| 1932 | Wallace Beery | The Champ | The Champ |
| 1931 | Lionel Barrymore | Stephen Ashe | A Free Soul |
| 1930 | George Arliss | Benjamin Disraeli | Disraeli |
| 1929 | Warner Baxter | The Cisco Kid | In Old Arizona |
| 1928 | Emil Jannings | August Schilling/Gen. Dolgorucki | The Way of All Flesh, The Last Command |