Every Best Actor Winner In Oscar History
By Jenn Reid
Winners in the 1990s
The 62 Academy Awards were held on March 26, 1990, and the Best Actor winner was Daniel Day-Lewis for My Left Foot. Day-Lewis famously used method acting for the role as a painter with cerebral palsy, and was confined to a wheelchair all through shooting and made the crew members carry and feed him between takes.
Jeremy Irons won in 1991 for Reversal of Fortune, and Anthony Hopkins took the award in 1992 for Silence of the Lambs, which is one of only three films to win all of the ‘Big Five’ awards: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay. The other two to sweep the Big Five were One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1974) and It Happened One Night (1934).
Al Pacino won in 1993 for Scent of a Woman, his first win and his 8th nomination. Tom Hanks won the next two awards for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump, making him the second actor to ever win back-to-back awards. He and Spencer Tracy are the only two actors to ever accomplish that feat in this category.
Nicolas Cage won the Oscar for Best Actor in 1996 for Leaving Las Vegas. Yes, Nic Cage seriously has an Oscar.
In 1997, Geoffrey Rush won for Shine, and in 1998, Jack Nicholson picked up his second Oscar for As Good As It Gets.
The last Oscars show of the 90s was on March 21, 1999 and the best actor trophy went to Roberto Benigni for Life is Beautifull. Benigni was the first Italian actor to win the award, and was only the second person to ever win an acting award for a film they directed (Laurence Olivier was the first for Hamlet in 1948). Life is Beautiful also picked up Best Foreign Film and Benigni’s enthusiastic, chair-climbing reaction is what he’s best remembered for these days.
Winners
1990: Daniel Day-Lewis – My Left Foot
1991: Jeremy Irons – Reversal of Fortunes
1992: Anthony Hopkins – Silence of the Lambs
1993: Al Pacino – Scent of a Woman
1994: Tom Hanks – Philadelphia
1995: Tom Hanks – Forrest Gump
1996: Nicolas Cage – Leaving Las Vegas
1997: Geoffrey Rush – Shine
1998: Jack Nicholson – As Good As It Gets
1999: Roberto Benigni – Life is Beautiful