Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
Academy Award for best actor
References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics
Images & Videos
Brendan Fraser smiles and holds up his Oscar trophy while wearing a black tuxedo after winning Best Actor for The Whale at the 2022 Academy Awards.
Illustration of Oscar statuettes with a large gold figure in front and the words 'Who decides?' in bold white letters on a blue banner across the center.
Related Questions
Quick Facts
Also called:
Oscar for best actor
Related Topics:
acting
Academy Award
Britannica AI Icon
Adding us as a Preferred Source tells Google you trust our content, so our articles show up more often in your Google Search, Discover feed, and AI Overviews.
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
print Print
Please select which sections you would like to print:
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

External Websites
Brendan Fraser smiles and holds up his Oscar trophy while wearing a black tuxedo after winning Best Actor for The Whale at the 2022 Academy Awards.
Brendan Fraser American-Canadian actor Brendan Fraser holding an Oscar at the 95th Academy Awards ceremony after being named best actor, 2023.

Academy Award for best actor

Academy Award
Also known as: Oscar for best actor
Written and fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
History
Top Questions

What is the Academy Award for best actor?

Who has won the most Oscars for best actor?

Who has the most Oscar nominations for best actor?

Who won the Oscar for best actor in 2026?

Illustration of Oscar statuettes with a large gold figure in front and the words 'Who decides?' in bold white letters on a blue banner across the center.
Who Votes For the Oscars?When winners thank “the Academy,” who are they talking about?
See all videos for this article

Academy Award for best actor, award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, located in Beverly Hills, California. It honors the male actor in a leading role who delivered the most outstanding performance in a movie of a given year, as determined by the academy’s voting members. The prize was presented in 1929 at the first Academy Awards ceremony, and it recognized work in films from 1927–28. It was not until the seventh ceremony, in 1935, that only performances in movies released the previous year were eligible for consideration. The winning actors are given a gold-plated statuette known as an Oscar. Daniel Day-Lewis has won the most Academy Awards for best actor (three), and a number of actors have received two such Oscars, including Spencer Tracy and Tom Hanks, both of whom won in consecutive years. Below is a list of the winning actors and the films for which they won. The year is when the award was presented.

1929 and 1930s

1940s and 1950s

1960s and 1970s

1980s and 1990s

2000s and 2010s

2020s

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Will Gosner.