The Best Actor Academy Award: Facts and Trivia

The Best Actor award should actually be titled "the best performance by an actor in a leading role." The same rules that govern the Best Actor category apply to the Best Actress category. (See the complete list of all Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor winners here)

Winners of Two Best Actor Oscars:

No male performer has yet won three Best Actor awards. Nine actors have won the Best Actor Oscar twice:

• Spencer Tracy for Captains Courageous (1937) and Boys Town (1938) -- consecutive
• Marlon Brando for On The Waterfront (1954) and The Godfather (1972)
• Gary Cooper for Sergeant York (1941) and High Noon (1952)
• Tom Hanks for Philadelphia (1993) and Forrest Gump (1994) - consecutive
• Dustin Hoffman for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and Rain Man (1988)
• Jack Nicholson for One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and As Good As It Gets (1997)
• Fredric March for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931/32) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
• Daniel Day-Lewis for My Left Foot (1989) and There Will Be Blood (2007)
• Sean Penn for Mystic River (2003) and Milk (2008)

Among them are the only two actors who have received two consecutive Best Actor statuettes, Spencer Tracy and Tom Hanks.

Top Best Actor Oscar Winner/Nominee	Best Actor Wins
Spencer Tracy 9 career nominations (9 B.A. noms), 2 wins	Captains Courageous (1937) Boys Town (1938)
Other Top Best Actor Oscar Winners and Nominees	Best Actor Wins
Jack Nicholson 12 career nominations (8 B.A. noms), 3 wins (2 B.A.)	One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975) As Good As It Gets (1997)
Laurence Olivier 11 career nominations 10 acting nominations (9 B.A. noms), 1 Win	Hamlet (1948)
Marlon Brando 8 career nominations (7 B.A. noms), 2 wins	On The Waterfront (1954) The Godfather (1972)
Dustin Hoffman 7 career nominations (all B.A. noms), 2 wins	Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) Rain Man (1988)
Tom Hanks 5 career nominations (all B.A. noms), 2 wins	Philadelphia (1993) Forrest Gump (1994)
Fredric March 5 career nominations (all B.A. noms), 2 wins	Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931/32) The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Gary Cooper 5 career nominations (all B.A. noms), 2 wins	Sergeant York (1941) High Noon (1952)
Daniel Day-Lewis 4 career nominations (all B.A. noms), 2 wins	My Left Foot (1989) There Will Be Blood (2007)
Sean Penn 5 career nominations (all B.A. noms), 2 wins	Mystic River (2003) Milk (2008)

Winners of Both a Lead and Supporting Actor Oscar:

The only other stars, other than Jack Nicholson, to win both a Best Actor and a Best Supporting Actor (BSA) Oscar are the following:

• Jack Nicholson (BA for One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and As Good As It Gets (1997), and BSA for Terms of Endearment (1983))
• Jack Lemmon (BA for Save the Tiger (1973), BSA for Mister Roberts (1955))
• Robert DeNiro (BA for Raging Bull (1980), BSA for The Godfather, Part II (1974))
• Gene Hackman (BA for The French Connection (1971), BSA for Unforgiven (1992))
• Kevin Spacey (BA for American Beauty (1999), BSA for The Usual Suspects (1995))
• Denzel Washington (BA for Training Day (2001), BSA for Glory (1989))
  

The Only Best Actor Tie:

In the Best Actor category, an unusual tie (the only occurrence among male acting performances) occurred in 1931/32 between Wallace Beery and Fredric March, for their respective performances in The Champ (1931/32) and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931/32).

Winning Trends:

Biographies of remarkable, real-life individuals (military figures or soldiers, law-and-order enforcers, historical figures) and portrayals of the mentally ill are heavily represented among male Oscar winners, particularly in the acting awards. It helps an actor's chances of winning an Oscar if the character dies a tragic death during the movie, or is slightly eccentric (or genius). An overwhelming number of actors have won the top acting (and supporting) awards for portraying characters with physical or mental disabilities or diseases (handicaps, tics, etc.):

• Fredric March won the Best Actor Oscar for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931/32)
• Harold Russell won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
• Cliff Robertson won the Best Actor Oscar for Charly (1968)
• John Mills won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Ryan's Daughter (1970)
• Jack Nicholson won the Best Actor Oscar for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
• Jon Voight won the Best Actor Oscar for Coming Home (1978)
• Timothy Hutton won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Ordinary People (1980)
• Dustin Hoffman won the Best Actor Oscar for Rain Man (1988)
• Daniel Day-Lewis won the Best Actor Oscar for My Left Foot (1989)
• Anthony Hopkins won the Best Actor Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
• Al Pacino won the Best Actor Oscar for Scent of a Woman (1992)
• Tom Hanks won the Best Actor Oscar for Philadelphia (1993) and for Forrest Gump (1994)
• Geoffrey Rush won the Best Actor Oscar for Shine (1996)
• Jack Nicholson won the Best Actor Oscar for As Good As It Gets (1997)
• Jamie Foxx won the Best Actor Oscar for Ray (2004)
• Forest Whitaker won the Best Actor Oscar for The Last King of Scotland (2006)
• Sean Penn won the Best Actor Oscar for Milk (2008)

And a number of other actors have won awards for portraying alcoholic characters:

• Lionel Barrymore won the Best Actor Oscar for A Free Soul (1930/31)
• Van Heflin won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Johnny Eager (1942)
• Ray Milland won the Best Actor Oscar for The Lost Weekend (1945)
• Lee Marvin won the Best Actor Oscar for Cat Ballou (1965)
• Nicolas Cage won the Best Actor Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
• James Coburn won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Affliction (1998)

Oscar victories for Best Actor haven't always been for the stars' best work either, but have often been an effort to right past injustices, or retroactively for an entire body of work:

• 56 year-old Ronald Colman's late win as Best Actor for A Double Life (1947) - a tribute to his entire silent and sound film career
• 62 year-old John Wayne's belated win as Best Actor for True Grit (1969), when he should have been honored years earlier for Stagecoach (1939), Red River (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), The Quiet Man (1952), The Searchers (1956), or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
• James Stewart's win for Best Actor (his first and sole award) for his role in The Philadelphia Story (1940) was because he had lost the previous year for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
• Jack Lemmon won his sole Best Actor award for Save the Tiger (1973), but he should have won instead when nominated for Some Like It Hot (1959), The Apartment (1960), or Days of Wine and Roses (1962)
• Paul Newman's sole Oscar win for reprising his "Hustler" role as pool player Eddie Felson in The Color of Money (1986) was a dubious honor - it really represented praise for his entire career's work, for his colorful non-conformist roles in The Hustler (1961), Hud (1963), and Cool Hand Luke (1967)
• A late-career win was also given to Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman (1992) for his role as a blind, suicidal ex-Army officer, after seven acting nominations, including four Best Actor losses for Serpico (1973), The Godfather, Part II (1974), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), and And Justice For All (1979), and three other Best Supporting Actor losses ( The Godfather (1972), Dick Tracy (1990) and Glengarry Glen Ross (1992))
• Sean Connery won Best Supporting Actor for The Untouchables (1987), but he should have been nominated (and won) for earlier, more deserving performances in The Hill (1965), The Molly Maguires (1970), or The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
• John Gielgud won Best Supporting Actor for his performance as the butler in Arthur (1981), but he should have won instead for either Julius Caesar (1953), Richard III (1955) or Becket (1964)
• A seriously-ill, 76 year-old Henry Fonda won Best Actor for On Golden Pond (1981), despite the brilliant performance of Burt Lancaster in Atlantic City (1981). Fonda should have won years earlier for any number of performances, including The Grapes of Wrath (1940) or The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)

Also, elderly nominees seem to fare better, such as 54 year-old Art Carney winning the Best Actor Oscar for Harry and Tonto (1974), 60 year-old Peter Finch's posthumous Best Actor award for Network (1976), 80 year-old George Burns winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for The Sunshine Boys (1975), Melvyn Douglas winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Being There (1979), Don Ameche winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Cocoon (1985), and 72 year-old Alan Arkin winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Little Miss Sunshine (2006). Many other elderly actors have been nominated for supporting roles, including Eric von Stroheim for Sunset Boulevard (1950), Sessue Hayakawa for The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), John Mills for Ryan's Daughter (1970), Lee Strasberg for The Godfather, Part II (1974), Burgess Meredith for Rocky (1976), Robert Preston for Victor/Victoria (1982), Denholm Elliott for A Room With a View (1986), and Armin Mueller-Stahl for Shine (1996).

Posthumous Acting Nominations and Award(s):

There are only been seven post-humous nominees in Academy history. Only two posthumous nominees have won the Oscar: Peter Finch and Heath Ledger - see below:

• Jeanne Eagels - unofficially nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for The Letter (1928/29) posthumously (Academy records indicated that she was "under consideration" for an award)
• James Dean - the only actor who was twice nominated (in two consecutive years) for a Best Actor Oscar after his death and lost, for East of Eden (1955), and Giant (1956)
• Spencer Tracy - nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) posthumously
• Peter Finch - nominated and winning the Best Actor Oscar for Network (1976) posthumously - Finch was the first performer to have won the Oscar after his death
• Ralph Richardson - nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) posthumously
• Italian actor Massimo Troisi - nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for The Postman (Il Postino) (1995) posthumously
• Heath Ledger - nominated and winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for The Dark Knight (2008) posthumously - the second performer to win posthumously

Geoffrey Rush became the first Australian actor to win Best Actor (for the role of the mad pianist in Shine (1996)) since Peter Finch won posthumously for Network (1976).

The Most Best Actor Nominations:

The most nominated actors (including both Best Actor and Best Supporting roles) are Jack Nicholson (12), Laurence Olivier (10), Spencer Tracy (9), and Paul Newman (9). Actors with the highest number of Best Actor nominations include:

• Spencer Tracy (9) - with two wins (1937, 1938); three were consecutive nominations (from 1936-1938), and two others were consecutive nominations (from 1960-1961)
• Laurence Olivier (9) - with one win (1948); two were consecutive nominations (from 1939-1940)
• Jack Nicholson (8) - with three wins (two B.A. wins in 1975, 1997); three were consecutive nominations (from 1973-1975)
• Paul Newman (8) - with one win (1986); two were consecutive nominations (from 1981-1982)
• Peter O'Toole (8) - with no wins; two were consecutive nominations (from 1968-1969)
• Marlon Brando (7) - with two wins (1954, 1972); four were consecutive nominations (from 1951-1954) (A RECORD!)
• Dustin Hoffman (7) - with two wins (1979, 1988)
• Jack Lemmon (7) - with two wins (one B.A. win in 1973); two were consecutive nominations (from 1959-1960)
• Richard Burton (6) - with no wins; three were consecutive nominations (from 1964-1966)
• Tom Hanks (5) - with two wins (1993, 1994); two were consecutive nominations (from 1993-1994)
• Fredric March (5) - with two wins (1931/32, 1946); two were consecutive nominations (from 1930/31-1931/32)
• Gary Cooper (5) - with two wins (1941, 1952); three were consecutive nominations (from 1941-1943)
• Robert De Niro (5) - with two wins (one B.A. win in 1980); two were consecutive nominations (from 1990-1991)
• Paul Muni (5) - with one win (1936); two were consecutive nominations (from 1936-1937)
• Al Pacino (5) - with one win (1992); three were consecutive nominations (from 1973-1975)
• Gregory Peck (5) - with one win (1962); three were consecutive nominations (from 1945-1947)
• James Stewart (5) - with one win (1940); two were consecutive nominations (from 1939-1940)
• Sean Penn (5) - with two wins (2003 and 2008); nominations were from 1995-2008
• Jeff Bridges (5) - with no wins
• Daniel Day-Lewis (4) - with two wins (1989, 2007)
• Ronald Colman (4) - with one win (1947); two were in the same year (1929/30)
• Albert Finney (4) - win no wins; two were consecutive nominations (from 1983-1984)
• James Cagney (3) - with one win (1942); the two others were in different decades: 1938 and 1955
• Denzel Washington (3) - with one win (2001); highest for an African-American
• William Hurt (3) - with one win (1985); three were consecutive nominations (from 1985-1987)
• Russell Crowe (3) - with one win (2000); three were consecutive nominations (from 1999-2001)
• Humphrey Bogart (3) - with one win (1951)
• Johnny Depp (3) - with no wins

In 1997, Jack Nicholson tied Walter Brennan for the most wins (3) for a male performer (Brennan has three Best Supporting Actor trophies, Nicholson has two for Best Actor and one for Best Supporting Actor).

Peter O'Toole is the only star to lose with eight Best Actor Oscar nominations. Richard Burton was nominated seven times (and never won), although his first nomination was as Best Supporting Actor for My Cousin Rachel (1952) -- his last six nominations were as Best Actor.

African-American Notables:

There have only been eighteen African-American nominations for Best Actor, divided amongst 12 different performers. Four actors (Poitier, Freeman, Washington and Smith) have been nominated twice (or more) for the top award. Some regard Denzel Washington as the first African-American performer to win Best Actor -- because previous Oscar-winner Sidney Poitier was of Bahamas descent:

#	Best Actor Nominee	Film
1	Sidney Poitier	The Defiant Ones (1958)
2	Sidney Poitier	Lilies of the Field (1963) (win)
3	James Earl Jones	The Great White Hope (1970)
4	Paul Winfield	Sounder (1972)
5	Dexter Gordon	'Round Midnight (1986)
6	Morgan Freeman	Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
7	Morgan Freeman	The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
8	Denzel Washington	Malcolm X (1992)
9	Denzel Washington	The Hurricane (1999)
10	Denzel Washington	Training Day (2001) (win)
11	Laurence Fishburne	What's Love Got to Do With It (1993)
12	Will Smith	Ali (2001)
13	Will Smith	The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
14	Don Cheadle	Hotel Rwanda (2004)
15	Jamie Foxx	Ray (2004) (win)
16	Terrence Howard	Hustle & Flow (2005)
17	Forest Whitaker	The Last King of Scotland (2006) (win)
18	Morgan Freeman	Invictus (2009)

In total, there have only been 20 different African-American performers nominated for the top award (either Best Actor or Best Actress). Only twelve awards have been won by African-Americans in both lead and supporting categories (four Best Actor, one Best Actress, four Best Supporting Actor, and three Best Supporting Actress). Only five black performers have won the Oscar in the lead category (four Best Actor, one Best Actress). Only four African-American actors have won the Best Actor Oscar:

• Sidney Poitier for Lilies of the Field (1963)
• Denzel Washington for Training Day (2001)
• Jamie Foxx for Ray (2004)
• Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland (2006)

Five of the 20 acting nominations in 2004 and 2006 were African-American nominees. This bested the record of three nominated blacks that occurred in three different years (2001, 1985, and 1972):

• 2001: Halle Berry for Monster's Ball, Denzel Washington for Training Day, and Will Smith for Ali
• 1985: Whoopi Goldberg, Margaret Avery and Oprah Winfrey for The Color Purple
• 1972: Diana Ross for Lady Sings the Blues, and Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield for Sounder

Jamie Foxx also set a record for being the first black to debut as a nominee in two categories in the same year, lead and supporting, for Ray (2004) and Collateral (2004).

Denzel Washington is the only black actor nominated five times for Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor. He is the only black actor to have won two competitive Oscars (as Best Supporting Actor for Glory (1989) and as Best Actor for Training Day (2001)).

Two African-American actors have been nominated for Best Actor in the same year, numerous times:

Morgan Freeman's Best Supporting Actor win for Million Dollar Baby (2004), paired with Jamie Foxx's Best Actor win for Ray (2004), was the first time that African-American actors won in their respective categories in the same year.

In three instances, African-Americans have won two of the four acting prizes:

• 2006: Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland, Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls
• 2004: Morgan Freeman for Million Dollar Baby, Jamie Foxx for Ray
• 2001: Halle Berry for Monster's Ball, Denzel Washington for Training Day

Latino, Asian and Other Ethnic-Minority (Non-English) Performers:

There have been only a few Best Actor Oscar wins by ethnic/other minority (or non-English) performers:

• Italian actor Roberto Benigni won the Best Actor Oscar for Life is Beautiful (1998) - he was the first male actor to win an Oscar for a foreign-language film (his Best Actor Oscar win was only the second time a nominee won an acting Oscar for a foreign language film role - the earlier winner was Sophia Loren)
• Ben Kingsley, with half-Indian (birth name Krishna Bhanji) and half-English descent, won the Best Actor Oscar for Gandhi (1982) - he became the first South Asian performer to achieve such a feat
• Puerto Rican-born Jose Ferrer won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)

Notable ethnic/minority performance nominations for Best Actor include:

• Ben Kingsley was nominated as Best Actor for House of Sand and Fog (2003)
• Spanish/Latino actor Javier Bardem was nominated as Best Actor for Before Night Falls (2000)
• Italian actor Massimo Troisi was nominated as Best Actor for The Postman (Il Postino) (1995)
• French actor Gerard Depardieu was nominated as Best Actor for Cyrano de Bergerac (1990)
• Swedish actor Max Von Sydow was nominated as Best Actor for Pelle the Conqueror (1988)
• Mexican-American Edward James Olmos was nominated as Best Actor for Stand and Deliver (1988)
• Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni was nominated as Best Actor for Dark Eyes (1987)
• Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni was nominated as Best Actor for A Special Day (1977)
• Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini was nominated as Best Actor for Seven Beauties (1976)
• Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni was nominated as Best Actor for Divorce - Italian Style (1962)
• Mexican-born Anthony Quinn was nominated twice as Best Actor for Wild is the Wind (1957) and Zorba the Greek (1964)
• Puerto Rican-born Jose Ferrer was nominated as Best Actor for Moulin Rouge (1952)

Note: In 1985, all ten of the Best Actor/Actress nominees were American-born - the first time in Oscar history. Also, in 1964 and in 2007, all four winners of the performance/acting Oscars were non-Americans.

Multiple Nominations for the Same Character -- The Most Oscar-Friendly Role:

The character of Henry VIII has the most acting nominations (three) and is the most Oscar-friendly role:

• Charles Laughton as Henry VIII in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) - the only winner of the three - a Best Actor Oscar
• Robert Shaw as Henry VIII in A Man for All Seasons (1966) - nominated as Best Supporting Actor
• Richard Burton as Henry VIII in Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) - nominated as Best Actor

Other historical or fictional characters with two acting nominations include: Norman Maine, Mr. Arthur Chipping ("Mr. Chips"), Father Chuck O'Malley, King Henry V, Professor Henry Higgins, Cyrano de Bergerac, Joe Pendleton, President Richard Nixon, Vito Corleone. (See below).

Multiple Nominations for the Same Character:

Four actors have been nominated twice for playing the same character in two different films (wins are marked with an *):

• Bing Crosby as Father O'Malley in Going My Way (1944)* and The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)
• Paul Newman as Fast Eddie Felson in The Hustler (1961) and The Color of Money (1986)*
• Peter O'Toole as King Henry II in Becket (1964) and The Lion in Winter (1968)
• Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather, Part II (1974)

(*Crosby won Best Actor for his first role, and Newman won Best Actor for his second role.)

Performers who were nominated as Best Actor for the same character in different films in different years include:

• Fredric March and James Mason as Norman Maine in A Star is Born (1937) and A Star is Born (1954)
• Robert Donat and Peter O'Toole as Mr. Arthur Chipping ("Mr. Chips") in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969)
• Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh as King Henry V in Henry V (1944) and Henry V (1989) - both were directed by their stars
• Charles Laughton and Richard Burton as King Henry VIII in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) and Anne of the Thousand Years (1969)
• Leslie Howard and Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins in Pygmalion (1938) and My Fair Lady (1964)
• Jose Ferrer and Gerard Depardieu as Cyrano de Bergerac in Cyrano de Bergerac (1950) and Cyrano de Bergerac (1990)
• Robert Montgomery and Warren Beatty as Joe Pendleton in Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) and Heaven Can Wait (1978)
• Anthony Hopkins and Frank Langella as President Richard Nixon in Nixon (1995) and Frost/Nixon (2008)

Robert De Niro won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as Vito Corleone in The Godfather, Part II (1974), the role for which Marlon Brando had previously won Best Actor in The Godfather (1972).

Only one actress has ever received two nominations for playing the same character in two different films:

• Cate Blanchett became the fifth performer to draw mentions for the same role (Queen Elizabeth I) in two different films: Best Actress for Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) and Best Actress for Elizabeth (1998)

Multiple Nominations - Double-Nominees:

After 1929/30, an actor could not receive more than one nomination per category. In 1944, the rules permitted Barry Fitzgerald to be nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor (which he won) for the same performance - Father Fitzgibbon in Going My Way (1944). Subsequently, new rules have prevented this from re-occurring, although an actor may still be nominated in both categories for two different roles. (See the Best Supporting Actress page for further information on female double nominees.) Barry Fitzgerald is the only actor to be nominated for both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for the same character in the same year.

Since then, two other male performers have been double-nominated in a single year (wins are marked with *) - Pacino was the first actor to be nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor in two different roles; the second actor in Oscar history to do so was Jamie Foxx in 2004:

• Barry Fitzgerald (Best Actor for Going My Way (1944)* and Best Supporting Actor for Going My Way (1944))
• Al Pacino (Best Actor for Scent of a Woman (1992)* and Best Supporting Actor for Glengarry Glen Ross (1992))
• Jamie Foxx (Best Actor for Ray (2004)* and Best Supporting Actor for Collateral (2004))

One Nomination for Multiple Roles:

Peter Sellers is the only actor to be nominated (as Best Actor) for playing three entirely-different roles in the same film, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) - as Captain Lionel Mandrake, President Merkin Muffley, and Dr. Strangelove. He lost his bid to Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady (1964).

Entire Cast Nominations:

Three films have had the entire speaking casts nominated for awards:

• Sleuth (1972), with Best Actor nominations for Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier
• Give 'Em Hell, Harry! (1975), with a Best Actor nomination for James Whitmore
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), with various nominations for all four cast members, Elizabeth Taylor (Best Actress win), Richard Burton (Best Actor loss), George Segal (Best Supporting Actor loss), and Sandy Dennis (Best Supporting Actress win)

Actors Who Won An Oscar for a Dual Role:

• Fredric March, Best Actor winner for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931/32): Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
• Laurence Olivier, Best Actor winner for Hamlet (1948, UK): Hamlet and the Voice of the Ghost (uncredited)
• Lee Marvin, Best Actor winner for Cat Ballou (1965): Tim Strawn and Kid Shelleen

The Best Actor Award for Two Films in the Same Year:

• Emil Jannings was the only performer to win the Best Actor award for his performances in two films in the same year: The Last Command (1927/28) and The Way of All Flesh (1927/28) - he was the very first actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor; the Switzerland-born actor was the first non-American to win the award, which was presented to him a month before the ceremony

Winning Co-Stars: Best Actor and Best Actress in the Same Film

Seven films have won in both the leading actor and leading actress categories:

• Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night (1934)
• Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
• Peter Finch and Faye Dunaway in Network (1976)
• Jon Voight and Jane Fonda in Coming Home (1978)
• Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn in On Golden Pond (1981)
• Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster in The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
• Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt in As Good As It Gets (1997)

Films With the Most Oscars for Acting: (see also here)
The Only Films in Which Three Stars Won Performance Oscars

• A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) - 12 nominations total, 4 acting nominations, 3 acting wins: Vivien Leigh (Best Actress), Karl Malden (Best Supporting Actor), Kim Hunter (Best Supporting Actress)
• Network (1976) - 10 nominations total, 5 acting nominations, 3 acting wins: Peter Finch (Best Actor), Faye Dunaway (Best Actress), Beatrice Straight (Best Supporting Actress)

Film Debut Nominees/Winners:

Not a single actor has ever won the Best Actor Oscar for a feature film debut. A few of those below had very small debuting roles before a substantial film appearance. Others have received nominations for Best Actor for their debut role (a sampling):

• Paul Muni in The Valiant (1928/29) (nomination)
• Lawrence Tibbett in The Rogue Song (1929-30) (nomination)
• Orson Welles in Citizen Kane (1941) (nomination)
• Montgomery Clift in The Search (1948) (nomination)
• Alan Arkin in The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! (1966) (nomination) (he had a minor role in a film a decade earlier)
• Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate (1967) (nomination)
• Ben Kingsley in Gandhi (1982) (he had a bit role in his feature film debut, Fear is the Key (1972))
• Geoffrey Rush in Shine (1997) (he had a bit role in a few earlier films, including Hoodwink (1981))

Reprising an Acclaimed Stage Role:

Six Best Actor winners won the Oscar for an acclaimed stage role that they reprised on the screen. Those with an asterisk (*) won both a Best Actor Oscar and a Tony Award for musical roles they had created on stage:

• George Arliss for Disraeli (1929/30)
• Paul Lukas for Watch on the Rhine (1943)
• Jose Ferrer for Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)
• Yul Brynner for The King and I (1956) *
• Rex Harrison for My Fair Lady (1964) *
• Paul Scofield in A Man For All Seasons (1966)

Oscar-Winning Roles First on TV:

The only two Best Actor winners who first played their Oscar-winning roles on TV were:

• Maximilian Schell for Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) [Note: Schell is the lowest-billed performer to win a Best Actor Academy Award. He received fifth billing - behind Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, and Marlene Dietrich.]
• Cliff Robertson for Charly (1968)

Longest Time Period Between First and Last Nomination/Win:

• 48 years - Katharine Hepburn was first nominated and won Best Actress for Morning Glory (1932/33) and then 48 years later was nominated and won Best Actress for On Golden Pond (1981) - her fourth (and last) Oscar win!
• 41 years - Henry Fonda was first nominated in 1940 as Best Actor for The Grapes Of Wrath (1940), and wasn't nominated again until 41 years later - when he won his sole Oscar (Best Actor) for On Golden Pond (1981)
• 40 years - Mickey Rooney was first nominated as Best Actor for Babes in Arms (1939), then as Best Actor for The Human Comedy (1943), then as Best Supporting Actor for The Bold and the Brave (1956), and then as Best Supporting Actor for The Black Stallion (1979), 40 years later, but he didn't ever win!
• 39 years - Jack Palance was nominated as Best Supporting Actor for Sudden Fear (1952) and then as Best Supporting Actor for Shane (1953) - it was a time span of 39 years from his first nomination to his eventual victory as Best Supporting Actor for City Slickers (1991)
• 38 years - Alan Arkin was nominated as Best Actor for The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968), and then had to wait 38 years for his Best Supporting Actor nomination (and win) for Little Miss Sunshine (2006). He was nominated one other time in his career, Best Actor for The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming! (1966)
• 38 years - Helen Hayes had to wait 38 years between her only Oscar nominations (both wins), Best Actress for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931/32), and Best Supporting Actress for Airport (1970)
• 37 years - Albert Finney was first nominated as Best Actor for Tom Jones (1963) and then received three more nominations for Best Actor: for Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Dresser (1983), and Under the Volcano (1984) -- 37 years after his first nomination, he received his fifth and final Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Erin Brockovich (2000) - he never won!

Longest Gap Between First Nomination and First Winning Film:

• 41 years - Henry Fonda was first nominated in 1940 as Best Actor for The Grapes Of Wrath (1940), and didn't win an acting award (Best Actor) until 41 years later for On Golden Pond (1981), and these were his only two career acting nominations (Note: Fonda did receive a producing Best Picture nomination for 12 Angry Men (1957))
• 32 years - Geraldine Page was first nominated in 1953 as Best Supporting Actress for Hondo (1953), and won Best Actress for A Trip to Bountiful (1985), 32 years later; she was the only actress with seven unsuccessful nominations (in both categories) before finally winning Best Actress with nomination # 8
• 28 years - Paul Newman was first nominated in 1958 as Best Actor for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), and won Best Actor for The Color of Money (1986), 28 years later; he was the only actor with six unsuccessful Best Actor nominations before finally winning Best Actor with nomination # 7 - and he later added another nomination as Best Actor for Nobody's Fool (1994), and his first Best Supporting Actor nomination also came later for Road to Perdition (2002)
• 25 years - Shirley MacLaine was first nominated in 1958 as Best Actress for Some Came Running (1958), and won Best Actress for Terms of Endearment (1983), 25 years later
• 20 years - Al Pacino was first nominated in 1972 as Best Supporting Actor for The Godfather (1972), and won Best Actor for Scent of a Woman (1992), 20 years later
• 20 years - John Wayne was first nominated in 1949 as Best Actor for Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), and won Best Actor for True Grit (1969), 20 years later
• 18 years - Ronald Colman was first nominated in 1929/30 as Best Actor for Bulldog Drummond (1929/30), and won Best Actor for A Double Life (1947), 18 years later
• 17 years - Gregory Peck was first nominated in 1945 as Best Actor for The Keys of the Kingdom (1945), and won Best Actor for To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), 17 years later
• 14 years - Susan Sarandon was first nominated in 1981 as Best Actress for Atlantic City (1981), and won Best Actress for Dead Man Walking (1995), 14 years later
• 13 years - Rod Steiger was first nominated in 1954 as Best Supporting Actor for On the Waterfront (1954), and won Best Actor for In the Heat of the Night (1967), 13 years later
  

Shortest Best Actor Performance:

• Anthony Hopkins had the shortest screen time for his Best Actor Oscar win - as Hannibal "Cannibal" Lecter in Silence of the Lambs (1991) - supposedly 16 minutes of screen time

Only Non-Human Best Actor-Nominated Performance:

• Jeff Bridges as the alien 'Starman' in Starman (1984)

Directors Directing Themselves to a Best Actor Oscar:

• The only two actors/performers to direct themselves in a film and win a Best Actor Oscar are British actor Laurence Olivier as the title character in Hamlet (1948, UK), and Italian actor Roberto Benigni as Guido in Life is Beautiful (1998, It.).

Winning Performances Portraying Royalty:

• Charles Laughton, Best Actor as King Henry VIII in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1932/33)
• Yul Brynner, Best Actor as King Mongkut of Siam in The King and I (1956)
• Ingrid Bergman, Best Actress as Anastasia (possibly daughter of murdered Russian czar Nicholas II) in Anastasia (1956)
• Katharine Hepburn, Best Actress as Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter (1968)
• Helen Mirren, Best Actress as Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006)

Married Winners and Nominees:

Only three times have married couples (husband-wife) had acting Oscars:

• Laurence Olivier, Best Actor for Hamlet (1948), and Vivien Leigh, Best Actress for Gone With the Wind (1939) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
• Paul Newman, Best Actor for The Color of Money (1986), and Joanne Woodward, Best Actress for The Three Faces of Eve (1957) - Newman also directed Woodward to her second Best Actress nomination for his Best Picture-nominated film Rachel, Rachel (1968)
• Catherine Zeta-Jones, Best Supporting Actress for Chicago (2002), and husband Michael Douglas, Best Actor for Wall Street (1987)

There are others (girlfriend/boyfriend, or unmarried companions) who are close to (or have achieved) the same milestone:

• Spencer Tracy, Best Actor and Katharine Hepburn, Best Actress for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
• Amy Madigan, Best Supporting Actress for Twice in a Lifetime (1985), and Ed Harris, nominated four times (1995, 1998, 2000, 2002) [Note: Harris directed himself to a Best Actor nomination for Pollock (2000)]
• Susan Sarandon, Best Actress for Dead Man Walking (1995) (directed by her Best Director-nominated husband (unofficial live-in) Tim Robbins); Robbins won Best Supporting Actor for Mystic River (2003); earlier, Sarandon was married to Chris Sarandon, nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
• Others: Jack Nicholson-Anjelica Huston, Al Pacino-Diane Keaton, and William Hurt-Marlee Matlin

Five married couples have earned acting nominations in the same year (three times, a husband-and-wife team have been nominated for the same picture):

• Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, Best Actor and Best Actress nominations for The Guardsman (1932) - both lost
• Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress nominations for Witness for the Prosecution (1957) - both lost
• Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor (win), Best Actor and Best Actress nominations for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
• Frank Sinatra, Best Supporting Actor nomination (and win) for From Here to Eternity (1953), and Ava Gardner, Best Actress nomination for Mogambo (1953)
• Rex Harrison, Best Actor nomination for Cleopatra (1963), and Rachel Roberts, Best Actress nomination for This Sporting Life (1963)

The only divorced couple to co-star in a film with each receiving an Oscar nomination:

• William Powell and Carole Lombard, Best Actor and Best Actress nominations for My Man Godfrey (1936)

Youngest and Oldest Best Actors:

Note: The calculated time is from date of birth to the date of either (1) the nominations announcement, or (2) the date of the awards ceremony.