ranking of the top 30 greatest Best Actor winners in Oscar history.
More than 80 years later, the movie still puts a skip in your step.Christopher Rosen
28.
Greed is good and Douglas' performance is even better.Shirley Li
25.
Marlon Brando in ‘The Godfather’; Anthony Hopkins in ‘The Silence of the Lambs’; Sidney Poitier in ‘Lilies of the Field’.Credit:Everett; Orion Pictures Corp/Courtesy Everett; United Artists/Getty
It’s a huge, colorful, over-the-top role, one that Washington never shrinks from.
And yes, King Kong ain’t got s— on him.Kevin P. Sullivan
24.
Kevin Jacobsen
21.
Eddie Redmayne in ‘The Theory of Everything’.Liam Daniel
But that’s a bit like sayingMoby Dickis a book about fishing.
What it really is, is a movie about the morally destructive nature of envy.
As the composer Salieri,F.
James Cagney (left) in ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’.Everett Collection
you’ve got the option to see his jealousy devouring him from the inside like a cancer.
Salieri, on the other hand, is someone we can see in ourselves, albeit our worst selves.
Cillian Murphy Oppenheimer(2023)
Best Actor is often given to overtly showy performances and big transformations.
Jamie Foxx in ‘Ray’.Nicola Goode
There’s not an unmemorable line reading, not one physical movement wasted.
Philip Seymour Hoffman Capote(2005)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.
Philip Seymour Hoffmanlooked and sounded nothing likeTruman Capote.
For Capote, it wasIn Cold Blood, the nonfiction novel that changed American literature.
Ben Kingsley in ‘Gandhi’.Everett Collection
Has there ever been a better marriage of character and actor?
Actor-directorJohn Hustonwas a key reference point for Plainview’s oft-imitated diction, but the only obvious comparisons are literary.
Only Day-Lewis could transform this material into meme fodder a thousand “I drink your milkshake!”
Michael Douglas in ‘Wall Street’.Everett Collection
Daniel Plainview is only human, despite his best efforts.D.F.
This is also a significant Oscar win, as a rare horror performance to be acknowledged by the Academy.
Additionally, he won the award in a tie withThe Champ’s Wallace Beery, another rarity.
Denzel Washington (center) in ‘Training Day’.Robert Zuckerman
Then came the first breathtaking image a photo of the actor in full Lincoln makeup and costume.
Now, it’s Day-Lewis' portrayal that belongs to the ages.Anthony Breznican
8.
Standing next to his Japanese rival on the completed bridge, he reminisces about his life.
Laurence Olivier in ‘Hamlet’.Keystone-France/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
“And you wonder, you ask yourself, what the sum total represents.”
The afterthought, “What have I done?”
But his triumph at the 1976 ceremony was not simply a recognition of his remarkable hot streak.
Gene Hackman in ‘The French Connection’.Everett Collection
Despite half a century of cheap parody, it’s an inimitable acting achievement.K.P.S.
George C. Scott Patton(1970)
George C. Scott didn’t attend the Oscars to collect his honor.
Patton was not constrained by such humility.
Tom Hanks in ‘Philadelphia’.Ken Regan
Vain, ambitious, and intolerant of the suffering of others, he pushed the U.S.
Seventh Army through the Mediterranean and into the hellfire of Europe through sheer force of will.
God help me, I do love it so."
Sean Penn in ‘Milk’.Universal Pictures
Taking Method acting to a new extreme, De Niro famously put on 60 pounds to play post-prime LaMotta.
In theory, we shouldn’t be too impressed by this.
Jeremy Irons in ‘Reversal of Fortune’.Everett Collection
F. Murray Abraham in ‘Amadeus’.Everett Collection
Cillian Murphy in ‘Oppenheimer’.Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures
Anthony Hopkins in ‘The Silence of the Lambs’.Orion Pictures
Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in ‘It Happened One Night’.Getty Images
Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘The Revenant’.Kimberley French/20th Century Studios
Philip Seymour Hoffman in ‘Capote’.Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.
Gregory Peck in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’.Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty images
Daniel Day-Lewis in ‘There Will Be Blood’.Melinda Sue Gordon
Peter Finch in ‘Network’.Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Fredric March in ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’.Paramount Pictures/Getty
Daniel Day-Lewis in ‘Lincoln’.Film Frame/DreamWorks II Distribution Co.
Alec Guinness in ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’.Everett Collection
Sidney Poitier in ‘Lilies of the Field’.United Artists/Getty Images
Jack Nicholson in ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’.Mondadori Portfolio by Getty Images
Marlon Brando (right) in ‘The Godfather’.Paramount Pictures/Getty Images
George C. Scott in ‘Patton’.Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
Adrien Brody in ‘The Pianist’.Focus Features/Everett
Robert De Niro in ‘Raging Bull’.United Artists/Archive Photos/Getty Images
Marlon Brando in ‘On the Waterfront’.Columbia Pictures/Getty Images
