| 1st Academy Awards (1927-1928) | Emil Jannings | “The Last Command” “The Way of All Flesh” | Grand Duke Sergius Alexander August Schilling |
| 2nd Academy Awards (1928-1929) | Warner Baxter | “In Old Arizona” | The Cisco Kid |
| 3rd Academy Awards (1929-1930) | George Arliss | “Disraeli” | Benjamin Disraeli |
| 4th Academy Awards (1930-1931) | Lionel Barrymore | “A Free Soul” | Stephen Ashe |
| 5th Academy Awards (1931-1932) (TIE) | Wallace Beery Fredric March | “The Champ” “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” | Andy “Champ” Purcell Dr. Henry Jekyll / Mr. Edward Hyde |
| 6th Academy Awards (1932-1933) | Charles Laughton | “The Private Life of Henry VIII” | King Henry VIII |
| 7th Academy Awards (1934) | Clark Gable | “It Happened One Night” | Peter Warne |
| 8th Academy Awards (1935) | Victor McLaglen | “The Informer” | Gypo Nolan |
| 9th Academy Awards (1936) | Paul Muni | “The Story of Louis Pasteur” | Louis Pasteur |
| 10th Academy Awards (1937) | Spencer Tracy | “Captains Courageous” | Manuel Fidello |
| 11th Academy Awards (1938) | Spencer Tracy [2] | “Boys Town” | Father Flanagan |
| 12th Academy Awards (1939) | Robert Donat | “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” | Charles Edward Chipping |
| 13th Academy Awards (1940) | James Stewart | “The Philadelphia Story” | Macaulay “Mike” Connor |
| 14th Academy Awards (1941) | Gary Cooper | “Sergeant York” | Sgt. Alvin York |
| 15th Academy Awards (1942) | James Cagney | “Yankee Doodle Dandy” | George M. Cohan |
| 16th Academy Awards (1943) | Paul Lukas | “Watch on the Rhine” | Kurt Muller |
| 17th Academy Awards (1944) | Bing Crosby | “Going My Way” | Father Chuck O’Malley |
| 18th Academy Awards (1945) | Ray Milland | “The Lost Weekend” | Don Birnam |
| 19th Academy Awards (1946) | Fredric March | “The Best Years of Our Lives” | Platoon Sergeant Al Stephenson |
| 20th Academy Awards (1947) | Ronald Colman | “A Double Life” | Anthony John |
| 21st Academy Awards (1948) | Laurence Olivier | “Hamlet” | Hamlet, Prince of Denmark |
| 22nd Academy Awards (1949) | Broderick Crawford | “All the King’s Men” | Willie Stark |
| 23rd Academy Awards (1950) | José Ferrer | “Cyrano de Bergerac” | Cyrano de Bergerac |
| 24th Academy Awards (1951) | Humphrey Bogart | “The African Queen” | Charlie Allnut |
| 25th Academy Awards (1952) | Gary Cooper [2] | “High Noon” | Marshal Will Kane |
| 26th Academy Awards (1953) | William Holden | “Stalag 17” | Sgt. J.J. Sefton |
| 27th Academy Awards (1954) | Marlon Brando | “On the Waterfront” | Terry Malloy |
| 28th Academy Awards (1955) | Ernest Borgnine | “Marty” | Marty Piletti |
| 29th Academy Awards (1956) | Yul Brynner | “The King and I” | King Mongkut of Siam |
| 30th Academy Awards (1957) | Alec Guinness | “The Bridge on the River Kwai” | Lt. Colonel Nicholson |
| 31st Academy Awards (1958) | David Niven | “Separate Tables” | Major Angus Pollock |
| 32nd Academy Awards (1959) | Charlton Heston | “Ben-Hur” | Judah Ben-Hur |
| 33rd Academy Awards (1960) | Burt Lancaster | “Elmer Gantry” | Elmer Gantry |
| 34th Academy Awards (1961) | Maximilian Schell | “Judgment at Nuremberg” | Hans Rolfe |
| 35th Academy Awards (1962) | Gregory Peck | “To Kill a Mockingbird” | Atticus Finch |
| 36th Academy Awards (1963) | Sidney Poitier | “Lilies of the Field” | Homer Smith |
| 37th Academy Awards (1964) | Rex Harrison | “My Fair Lady” | Professor Henry Higgins |
| 38th Academy Awards (1965) | Lee Marvin | “Cat Ballou” | Kid Shelleen and Tim Strawn |
| 39th Academy Awards (1966) | Paul Scofield | “A Man for All Seasons” | Sir Thomas More |
| 40th Academy Awards (1967) | Rod Steiger | “In the Heat of the Night” | Police Chief Bill Gillespie |
| 41st Academy Awards (1968) | Cliff Robertson | “Charly” | Charly Gordon |
| 42nd Academy Awards (1969) | John Wayne | “True Grit” | Reuben “Rooster” Cogburn |
| 43rd Academy Awards (1970) | George C. Scott | “Patton” | General George S. Patton Jr. |
| 44th Academy Awards (1971) | Gene Hackman | “The French Connection” | Detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle |
| 45th Academy Awards (1972) | Marlon Brando [2] | “The Godfather” | Vito Corleone |
| 46th Academy Awards (1973) | Jack Lemmon | “Save the Tiger” | Harry Stoner |
| 47th Academy Awards (1974) | Art Carney | “Harry and Tonto” | Harry Coombes |
| 48th Academy Awards (1975) | Jack Nicholson | “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” | Randle Patrick “Mac” McMurphy |
| 49th Academy Awards (1976) | Peter Finch | “Network” | Howard Beale |
| 50th Academy Awards (1977) | Richard Dreyfuss | “The Goodbye Girl” | Elliot Garfield |
| 51st Academy Awards (1978) | Jon Voight | “Coming Home” | Luke Martin |
| 52nd Academy Awards (1979) | Dustin Hoffman | “Kramer Vs. Kramer” | Ted Kramer |
| 53rd Academy Awards (1980) | Robert De Niro | “Raging Bull” | Jake LaMotta |
| 54th Academy Awards (1981) | Henry Fonda | “On Golden Pond” | Norman Thayer Jr. |
| 55th Academy Awards (1982) | Ben Kingsley | “Gandhi” | Mahatma Gandhi |
| 56th Academy Awards (1983) | Robert Duvall | “Tender Mercies” | Mac Sledge |
| 57th Academy Awards (1984) | F. Murray Abraham | “Amadeus” | Antonio Salieri |
| 58th Academy Awards (1985) | William Hurt | “Kiss of the Spider Woman” | Luis Molina |
| 59th Academy Awards (1986) | Paul Newman | “The Color of Money” | Fast Eddie Felson |
| 60th Academy Awards (1987) | Michael Douglas | “Wall Street” | Gordon Gekko |
| 61st Academy Awards (1988) | Dustin Hoffman [2] | “Rain Man” | Raymond Babbitt |
| 62nd Academy Awards (1989) | Daniel Day-Lewis | “My Left Foot” | Christy Brown |
| 63rd Academy Awards (1990) | Jeremy Irons | “Reversal of Fortune” | Claus von Bülow |
| 64th Academy Awards (1991) | Anthony Hopkins | “The Silence of the Lambs” | Dr. Hannibal Lecter |
| 65th Academy Awards (1992) | Al Pacino | “Scent of a Woman” | Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade |
| 66th Academy Awards (1993) | Tom Hanks | “Philadelphia” | Andrew “Andy” Beckett |
| 67th Academy Awards (1994) | Tom Hanks [2] | “Forrest Gump” | Forrest Gump |
| 68th Academy Awards (1995) | Nicolas Cage | “Leaving Las Vegas” | Ben Sanderson |
| 69th Academy Awards (1996) | Geoffrey Rush | “Shine” | David Helfgott |
| 70th Academy Awards (1997) | Jack Nicholson [2] | “As Good as It Gets” | Melvin Udall |
| 71st Academy Awards (1998) | Roberto Benigni | “Life Is Beautiful” | Guido Orefice |
| 72nd Academy Awards (1999) | Kevin Spacey | “American Beauty” | Lester Burnham |
| 73rd Academy Awards (2000) | Russell Crowe | “Gladiator” | Maximus Decimus Meridius |
| 74th Academy Awards (2001) | Denzel Washington | “Training Day” | Det. Sgt. Alonzo Harris |
| 75th Academy Awards (2002) | Adrien Brody | “The Pianist” | Władysław Szpilman |
| 76th Academy Awards (2003) | Sean Penn | “Mystic River” | Jimmy Markum |
| 77th Academy Awards (2004) | Jamie Foxx | “Ray” | Ray Charles |
| 78th Academy Awards (2005) | Philip Seymour Hoffman | “Capote” | Truman Capote |
| 79th Academy Awards (2006) | Forest Whitaker | “The Last King of Scotland” | Idi Amin |
| 80th Academy Awards (2007) | Daniel Day-Lewis [2] | “There Will Be Blood” | Daniel Plainview |
| 81st Academy Awards (2008) | Sean Penn [2] | “Milk” | Harvey Milk |
| 82nd Academy Awards (2009) | Jeff Bridges | “Crazy Heart” | Otis “Bad” Blake |
| 83rd Academy Awards (2010) | Colin Firth | “The King’s Speech” | King George VI |
| 84th Academy Awards (2011) | Jean Dujardin | “The Artist” | George Valentin |
| 85th Academy Awards (2012) | Daniel Day-Lewis [3] | “Lincoln” | Abraham Lincoln |
| 86th Academy Awards (2013) | Matthew McConaughey | “Dallas Buyers Club” | Ron Woodroof |
| 87th Academy Awards (2014) | Eddie Redmayne | “The Theory of Everything” | Stephen Hawking |
| 88th Academy Awards (2015) | Leonardo DiCaprio | “The Revenant” | Hugh Glass |
| 89th Academy Awards (2016) | Casey Affleck | “Manchester by the Sea” | Lee Chandler |
| 90th Academy Awards (2017) | Gary Oldman | “Darkest Hour” | Winston Churchill |
| 91st Academy Awards (2018) | Rami Malek | “Bohemian Rhapsody” | Freddie Mercury |
| 92nd Academy Awards (2019) | Joaquin Phoenix | “Joker” | Arthur Fleck / Joker |
| 93rd Academy Awards (2020) | Anthony Hopkins [2] | “The Father” | Anthony |
| 94th Academy Awards (2021) | Will Smith | “King Richard” | Richard Williams |
| 95th Academy Awards (2022) | Brendan Fraser | “The Whale” | Charlie |
