These are the Academy Awards for Best Actor. The films are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 went to the best actor in 1999.
- 1928 Emil Jannings - The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh
- 1929 Warner Baxter - In Old Arizona
- 1930 George Arliss - Disraeli
- 1931 Lionel Barrymore - A Free Soul
- 1932 Wallace Beery - The Champ and Fredric March - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
- 1933 Charles Laughton - The Private Life of Henry VIII
- 1934 Clark Gable - It Happened One Night
- 1935 Victor McLaglen - The Informer
- 1936 Paul Muni - The Story of Louis Pasteur
- 1937 Spencer Tracy - Captains Courageous
- 1938 Spencer Tracy - Boys Town
- 1939 Robert Donat - Goodbye, Mr. Chips
- 1940 James Stewart - The Philadelphia Story
- 1941 Gary Cooper - Sergeant York
- 1942 James Cagney - Yankee Doodle Dandy
- 1943 Paul Lukas - Watch on the Rhine
- 1944 Bing Crosby - Going My Way
- 1945 Ray Milland - The Lost Weekend
- 1946 Fredric March - The Best Years of Our Lives
- 1947 Ronald Colman - A Double Life
- 1948 Laurence Olivier - Hamlet
- 1949 Broderick Crawford - All the King's Men
- 1950 José Ferrer - Cyrano de Bergerac
- 1951 Humphrey Bogart - The African Queen
- 1952 Gary Cooper - High Noon
- 1953 William Holden - Stalag 17
- 1954 Marlon Brando - On the Waterfront
- 1955 Ernest Borgnine - Marty
- 1956 Yul Brynner - The King and I
- 1957 Alec Guinness - The Bridge on the River Kwai
- 1958 David Niven - Separate Tables
- 1959 Charlton Heston - Ben-Hur
- 1960 Burt Lancaster - Elmer Gantry
- 1961 Maximilian Schell - Judgment at Nuremberg
- 1962 Gregory Peck - To Kill a Mockingbird
- 1963 Sidney Poitier - Lilies of the Field
- 1964 Rex Harrison - My Fair Lady
- 1965 Lee Marvin - Cat Ballou
- 1966 Paul Scofield - A Man for All Seasons
- 1967 Rod Steiger - In the Heat of the Night
- 1968 Cliff Robertson - Charly
- 1969 John Wayne - True Grit
- 1970 George C. Scott - Patton (declined)
- 1971 Gene Hackman - The French Connection
- 1972 Marlon Brando - The Godfather (declined)
- 1973 Jack Lemmon - Save the Tiger
- 1974 Art Carney - Harry and Tonto
- 1975 Jack Nicholson - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
- Walter Matthau - The Sunshine Boys
- Al Pacino - Dog Day Afternoon
- Maximilian Schell - The Man in the Glass Booth
- James Whitmore - Give 'em Hell, Harry
- 1976 Peter Finch - Network
- Robert De Niro - Taxi Driver
- Giancarlo Giannini - Seven Beauties (Pasqualino Settebellezze)
- William Holden - Network
- Sylvester Stallone - Rocky
- 1977 Richard Dreyfuss - The Goodbye Girl
- 1978 Jon Voight - Coming Home
- 1979 Dustin Hoffman - Kramer vs. Kramer
- 1980 Robert De Niro - Raging Bull
- 1981 Henry Fonda - On Golden Pond
- 1982 Ben Kingsley - Gandhi
- 1983 Robert Duvall - Tender Mercies
- 1984 F. Murray Abraham - Amadeus
- 1985 William Hurt - Kiss of the Spider Woman
- 1986 Paul Newman - The Color of Money
- 1987 Michael Douglas - Wall Street
- 1988 Dustin Hoffman - Rain Man
- 1989 Daniel Day-Lewis - My Left Foot
- 1990 Jeremy Irons - Reversal of Fortune
- 1991 Anthony Hopkins - The Silence of the Lambs
- 1992 Al Pacino - Scent of a Woman
- 1993 Tom Hanks - Philadelphia
- 1994 Tom Hanks - Forrest Gump
- 1995 Nicolas Cage - Leaving Las Vegas
- 1996 Geoffrey Rush - Shine
- 1997 Jack Nicholson - As Good As It Gets
- 1998 Roberto Benigni - Life Is Beautiful
- 1999 Kevin Spacey - American Beauty
- 2000 Russell Crowe - Gladiator
- 2001 Denzel Washington - Training Day
- 2002 Adrien Brody - The Pianist