Every Best Actor Winner In Oscar History

Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant. Image via 20th Century Fox

With the 89th annual Academy Awards around the corner, we take a look back at every Best Actor Oscar winner in history.

The Best Actor Oscar has only gone to 79 men since its inception in 1929, and even fewer actors have managed to take home more than one statue. Some of the greatest actors of all time have a Best Actor Oscar in their collection: Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Daniel-Day Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio to name a few. That doesn’t mean the Oscars always get it right. There are quite a few impressive names missing from this list, and the award has also gone to a few more surprising and forgotten faces.

A lot has changed since the Oscars started all the way back in the 1920s. For the first three years, actors were nominated and awarded for their general work and not one specific performance. That changed in the 1930s, and in 1937 it began to more closely resemble the Oscars we see today: five nominees being recognized for a one leading performance. The nominees are selected by the acting branch of the Academy only, but all Academy winners are eligible to vote on the winner.

Throughout Oscars history, there has only been one Best Actor tie, one posthumous win, two back-to-back winners and two actors who declined their award. Take a look through the surprising history of the Best Actor winners.