Best Actor Oscar Winners

Congratulations to Cillian Murphy for his Best Actor Oscar win for Oppenheimer
Congratulations to Cillian Murphy for his Best Actor Oscar win for Oppenheimer

Want to know the best Best Actor Oscar Winners?  How about the worst Best Actor Oscar Winners?  Curious about Best Actor Oscar Winners box office grosses or which Best Actor Oscar Winners picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Best Actor Oscar Winners Movies got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which one got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place …. because we have all of that information.

Since 1927, there have been 97 Best Actor Oscar Winners. This page will rank all 97 movies from Best to Worst in five different sortable columns of information.  If you use the sort and search buttons the massive table becomes very interactive.

Table Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In The Table Below

The really cool thing about ther table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort by the winners
  • Sort by actual domestic box office grosses (in millions)
  • Sort by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort by critic reviews and audiences voting.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins
  • Sort Best Actor Oscar Winners by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.  The ceiling to earn points for box office is $200 million…once a movie passes that mark it stops earning points in that category.
 
Charlton Heston in 1959's Ben-Hur
Charlton Heston in 1959’s Ben-Hur

Some possibly interesting stats from the above table:

  1. These movies combined for 570 Oscar® nominations and 264 Oscar® wins.
  2. 63 of these movies earned more than $100 million in adjusted box office gross.
  3. The combined average when looking at critic/audience rating was 71.59%

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.

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79 thoughts on “Best Actor Oscar Winners

  1. Flora
    I saw The King’s Speech because I am a fan of Colin Firth. I also find the story of how if his brother hadn’t abdicated, England might not have declared war on Germany as Edward thought Hitler was right.

    Perhaps I should list what films I’ve seen in movie score order? No, I have not seen Ben-Hur.

    The French Connection

    Bridge on the River Kwai

    The lost Weekend

    My Fair Lady

    Rain Man

    The Best Years of Our Lives

    Forest Gump

    Yankee Doodle dandy

    On Golden Pond

    Boys Town

    To Kill a Mockingbird

    American Beauty (saw wit a group of friends)

    On the Waterfront

    The King and I

    Going My Way

    In the Heat of the night

    THE Philedelphia Story

    Hamlet

    The King’s Speech

    It happened One Night

    Philidelphia

    Cat Ballou

    Elmer Gantry

    Scent of a Woman

    High Noon

    The African Queen

    Mystic River

    The Champ

    Network

    Judgement at Nuremburg

    The Color of money

    Separate Tables

    life is Beautiful

    Marty

    Goodbye Mr. Chips

    Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde

    Goodbye Mr. Chips

    Stalag 17

    lillies of the field

    the Informer

    Wall Street

    The Private life of Henry VIII

    A Double life

    A Free Soul

    In writing these all out, I see I missed including a couple when I made my first post. I have actually seen 44, not 41. That is then 52%. So that is better.

    Now I’m off to see The Bat.

    1. Hey Flora thanks for your list….I am sure Steve is shocked that you have not seen Ben-Hur. And good to know that you are back over 50%….as for The King’s Speech they really did not cover Edward and his involvement with Germany. So in reading your list I see you have seen Life is Beautiful….what did you think about that movie? I feel it is a great performance by Benigni and his acceptance speech/walk to the stage is one of the more memorable ones.

      1. I’m not one for epics in general, and especially religious epics. The ones I have seen star my favourite actors and even then, they were not among the first films of theirs that I saw.

        I enjoyed life is Beautiful a lot but it has been years since I saw it. . I loved his acceptance speech.

        Re: the King’s speech. Canada signed a piece of paper in 1948 to become an independent country, for all that we are still part of the commonwealth. Until then, any war that England entered on any side, so did Canada. Thus, while U.S. entered WWII in 1941, Canada entered in 1939-against Germany. But had Edward remained King, Canada may very well have been fighting on the other side OR involved in a revolutionary war. That is a frightening thought. So to see how Mrs. simpson entranced him and got him to abdicate despite George desperately trying to avoid the throne is fascinating.

        1. Hey Flora….sounds logical….you seem to have many rules about watching movies….are these rules written down or do they change as the years go along? Glad to see you liked Life is Beautiful as well.

          As for Canada and its history….wow I had no idea….and my mom has never talked about that and she was an Canadian citizen until 1980 or so. I might not have been born if our two countries had been at war in the 1940s…not sure my mom would have been coming to Va Beach Virginia for vacation in the late 1950s if that would have happened…thanks for the history lesson

          1. rules are made to be broken, Cogerson. some are rules, yes. Some are just preferences if there are several choices available.-like having several movies on TV at the same time. Which one do I pick? The one that was made only ten years ago and is a comedy? Or the 1940 suspense film. as such the rules are not written down.

            so many “rules” as you call them are simply a lack of interest in certain genres or the way films are made now. There have always been remakes and sequels, but now it seems that is all they have. But Oscar winners-usually I see these movies after the awards season-are usually worthy of having been nominated so I think I will like them.

          2. Hey Flora…you forgot to mention the under no conditions will you ever watch an Adam Sandler movie(my wife has the same rule)….lol. I am just kidding with you about your rules. Well so far this hub has been one of my worst received hubs….so I am thinking I will wait on the Best Actress hub….so I will let you decide on my next hub….Steve has suggested I do one year as a subject….so pick a year between 1946 and 1959 but not 1954(only have the Top 30 for that year)….and sorry 1939 does not have much box office information.

  2. First-the top ten lists:

    I have seen 6 of the top ten movies based on box office: 2,4, 5,7,9,and 10. My favourite is Bridge on the River Kwai. I wish I could take back the time I spent watching Forest Gump at a friend’s house and just spent the time talking to my friend.

    Of the top ten by critics score:

    I have seen half of them. f course, To Kill A mockingbird is my favourite. I have also seen #2,5,7, and 9.

    For the top ten by movie score: I have seen 4 of them: #3,5,6,and 7. The lost Weekend was quite ahead of its time.

    Regarding the overall movie score list:

    The highest ranking film I have seen is #3: the French Connection. I’ve seen it only once. The lowest film ranking I’ve seen is #79: A Free Soul.

    The most recent film I’ve seen is last year’s winner: The King’s Speech.

    The oldest film I’ve seen is A Free Soul from 1931.

    I have seen 11 of the top 20, 19 of the top 30, and 31 of the top 50. Up to that point I was running about 60%.

    From then on, the number of films I saw dropped me back down to nearly half of the overall movies. Overall, I have seen 41 of these films. That is 49%.

    And because we are talking about Oscar winners, my tendency to watch only films made during the studio system era doesn’t relate. Going by films made since and including the year I was born, I have seen 11 films on the list.

    1. I forgot to say that my favourite movie on the entire list after Gregory’s performance is It Happened One Night.

      1. Hey Flora…well It Happened One Night and To Kill A Mockingbird are two great movies with strong performances by Clark Gable and Gregory Peck. During my Oscar marathon…I would say I was the most impressed with Peck in Mockingbird(yes I only watched it for the first time about 2 years ago) and Robert Benigni in Life is Beautiful. I only watched Life is Beautiful because it was on my list…but after seeing the movie….it moved to my greatest films of all-time list….it is a wonderfully sad moving funny movie…and I highly recommend it.

    2. Hey Flora…first of all..thanks for your excellent comment…second of all…Of the Top 10 box office…I knew you had not seen Godfather, Cuckoo’s Nest and Sgt York(war movie)…but I do think I was aware you had not seen Ben-Hur yet…I will have to go back to the Heston hub to see if I missed something. Third of all…some of the critic Top 10 you have not seen are classic movies…violent but classic movies…at some point in time you should watch them.

      I am surprised your % went so far down after you reached #51….because if you look at the bottom part of the list more than half of movies were made before you were born. Looking at your % it looks like you are at 60% movies before you were born and 32% movies after you were born….which makes me wonder what drew you to watch The King’s Speech? As always thanks for stopping by

  3. Ok, Cogerson. It’s a fact. You simply cannot write a bad or even mediocre page! Always super informative, interesting and so well put-together!! I would never claim to be an expert on “guessing” who may or may not have had an OSCAR-winning role….except one time. After watching Hopkins in “Silence of the Lambs,” when the hair on the back of my neck was still standing, 2 hours after I got home. He scared the ever-lovin C**P out of me!!!! Thanks Cogerson. Loved this page.

    1. Hey fpher48….wow that is a very nice compliment and it is greatly appreciated….Anthony Hopkins hit a homerun with that role and I do not think you were the only one that it scared….he got less scary as those movies went along…but he was terrific in Silence of the Lambs…I remember when that movie came out people were upset that he got nominated for Best Actor…as opposed to Best Supporting Actor(because he has a smaller part than Jodie Foster)…but I think over the years that argument has long since faded away. Thanks for stopping by.

  4. It took me 27 years to watch “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” on cable….I wouldn’t have gotten the irony and poignancy at 15….same with Network,I saw that about 2 years ago.;)

    Your Movie Score System Is Both Inventive And Professional.Thanks For Sharing Cogerson.;)

    1. Hey Mentalist acer….I think time sometimes makes a movie better…especially as we get older and wiser. I know I personally never got upset or teary eyed when watching a movie when I was younger..now I seem more emotional about movies as I have gotten older….I understand some scenes so much better. Thanks for the great compliment and for stopping by.

  5. I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.”

    Grest Stuff Conanson, plenty of facts and figures to rummage thru here.

    It’s always good to see Ben-Hur number one on a list [wink] I’m surprised at how popular it is in adjusted dollars. The Ten Commandments made a bit more money methinks?

    Charlton “Omega Man” Heston was only nominated once and he made that count. 🙂

    The Godfather number one on your moviescore list, great film.

    You’ve watched a lot more Oscar winners than I have, I count only 48 out of 84. I still haven’t seen Burt Lancaster in Elmer Fudd Gantry, seen bits of it does that count? 🙂

    I have’t seen Ray either or Crazy Heart.

    It’ll be interesting to see who gets nominated this year, I think Shia le Boff and his leggy girlfriend can’t remember her name, in Transformers 3 Rise of the Moon are in with a chance at some kind of award. Bruce?

    That lead ape in Reboot of the Planet of the Apes was pretty good too, forgot his name um Franco?

    Fascinating Oscar page looking forward to the next one, cheers!

    1. Hey Steve thanks for checking out my latest hub. The Godfather has so many great lines…I think you could do an entire hub on just the best lines from the Godfather. Ben-Hur was number one in box office and Charlton finished in the Top 10….hopefully you feel that is giving one of your favorite movies enough love…and yes Ten Commandments easily beats Ben-Hur at the box office…just over a billion for Commandments in adjusted box office.

      I think you have to watch the whole movie for you to be able to count it…so no you do not get to count Elmer Gantry….but 48 is a respectable number. As for next year’s nominees I think Shia and the girl have great chances…I was just afraid I would jinx it by talking about it….Transformers 3 should at least get a Best Picture nomination….lol. As for the ape….if they would not nominate Andy Serkis for his role as Gollum…I do not think the lead ape has a very good chance….lol. Thanks as always for checking out my page

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