Ranking all the winners of the Academy Award for best actor over the past 25 years
The surest path for a famous actor to win an Oscar? Play another famous dude.
The Academy Awards have long held biopics in high favor, and Oscars have feted many best actor winners for their portrayals of historical figures and real-life personalities. Just this year, 3 out of 5 spots are taken by performers dipping into the past, including Bradley Cooper ("Maestro"), Colman Domingo ("Rustin") and Cillian Murphy ("Oppenheimer").
Yet Murphy's biggest competition is Paul Giamatti, with his lovably crusty "The Holdovers" history professor who feels real enough for those who had grumpy teachers back in the day. Fortunately for Giamatti, Hollywood's biggest night has celebrated its share of fictional figures, too, like Jean Dujardin's silent-movie star in "The Artist" and Denzel Washington's volatile cop in "Training Day."
In honor of another trophy to be handed out Sunday, here are the best actor Oscar winners of the past 25 years, definitively ranked:
25. Rami Malek, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (2019)
The mediocre Queen biopic remains one of the most head-scratching best picture nominees in recent memory. Malek at least does his part as Freddie Mercury, capturing the legendary frontman's strutting and magnetic demeanor. He inhabits the role of an icon rather than putting on a karaoke impression.
24. Kevin Spacey, ‘American Beauty’ (2000)
Recent sexual assault allegations against Spacey have done a number on his reputation and added a few creepy layers to some moments in "Beauty." That said, Sam Mendes' tale of suburban strife and dysfunction remains an intriguing time capsule, with Spacey as a dad experiencing a midlife crisis who develops a crush on his daughter's bestie (Mena Suvari).
23. Colin Firth, ‘The King’s Speech’ (2011)
Colin Firth lends an Everyman vibe to the future George VI in the historical drama. A stammer mars the public-speaking episodes of Prince Albert of York, so he sees an Australian therapist (Geoffrey Rush) for help. Getting the words becomes hugely important when he becomes king and has to address the nation after declaring war on Nazi Germany.
22. Adrien Brody, ‘The Pianist’ (2003)
Roman Polanski made Adrien Brody practice Chopin for hours a day to play Polish-Jewish pianist Władysław Szpilman. It's Brody's emotionally sturdy performance, though, that powers the Holocaust drama based on Szpilman's memoir, which follows the musician's harrowing years of survival in the Warsaw ghetto.
21. Casey Affleck, ‘Manchester by the Sea’ (2017)
Among a standout cast in Kenneth Lonergan's stirring family drama, Affleck deftly navigates a whole range of emotions as a contentious Boston handyman and black sheep of his New England hometown. His brother's death brings him back, a return that also forces him to confront a crippling tragedy from the past.
20. Jeff Bridges, ‘Crazy Heart’ (2010)
Give Bridges a guitar and a cowboy hat, let him sing a little bit with that gravelly voice, and you've got yourself a movie. His Bad Blake in the musical drama is an alcoholic country singer who, after meeting a journalist (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and her young son, becomes inspired to hit the road to redemption.
19. Eddie Redmayne, ‘The Theory of Everything’ (2015)
The bright-eyed Redmayne really fits the part of a brainiac – especially in a story about one of our greatest minds. The romantic drama casts the British actor as Stephen Hawking, who woos lit student Jane (Felicity Jones) and has big ideas when it comes to astrophysics, even as the debilitating effects of ALS take hold.
18. Matthew McConaughey, ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ (2014)
Dramatic weight loss, downhome charm, and most importantly, an underdog swagger all fuel McConaughey's commitment to telling Ron Woodroof's story. The movie features the Texan actor as the real-life rodeo cowboy dying of AIDS who brought experimental drugs from across the border to fellow patients in desperate need of hope.
17. Sean Penn, ‘Milk’ (2009)
Penn's personality pops on screen and he also gives a darn good political speech as Harvey Milk. The biopic charts the inspiring story of the first openly gay man elected to public office in California, plus the homophobic threats that rise against him, and Penn's triumphant spirit is infectious throughout.
16. Roberto Benigni, ‘Life Is Beautiful’ (1999)
As the only best actor winner for a non-English language role, Benigni (who also directs) embraces slapstick comedy as Guido, a goofy Jewish Italian bookshop owner. He then adds elements of dark melancholy and devoted parenthood as Guido's family is taken to a concentration camp and he plays games with his son to hide the horrors of their situation.
15. Joaquin Phoenix, ‘Joker’ (2020)
While the late Heath Ledger did the comic book supervillain best, Phoenix wasn't too shabby in Todd Phillips' 1970s-inspired origin tale/crime thriller. Phoenix dons makeup and transforms, taking a disturbed disaster of a stand-up comedian down the dark and dangerous path to being a killer clown.
14. Forest Whitaker, ‘The Last King of Scotland’ (2007)
Whitaker seems like a pretty gentle soul in general, be it with interviews or flicks such as "Black Panther." That guy wouldn't murder anybody. That's why he's so scary good as Idi Amin in this drama, where a Scottish doctor (James McAvoy) befriends the gregarious Ugandan dictator and then sees his brutal reign up close.
13. Jean Dujardin, ‘The Artist’ (2012)
Adorable pooch Uggie helped fuel "Artist"-mania at the Oscars, but Dujardin − the only French star to ever win best actor − did his part too. He works an old-school Hollywood retro style like a champ, playing a 1920s silent-film star who falls for a rising ingenue (Bérénice Bejo) and faces an existential crisis with the coming of "talkies."
12. Philip Seymour Hoffman, ‘Capote’ (2006)
Wielding a high-pitched voice and mercurial demeanor, Hoffman aced his transformation into Truman Capote for the biopic, based on the creation of "In Cold Blood." Hoffman's take on the famous writer dripped eccentricity and also intense curiosity, as Capote forms a connection with killer Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.).
11. Will Smith, ‘King Richard’ (2022)
"The Slap" somewhat derailed the discussion of Smith's victory for playing Richard Williams, the ultra-competitive tennis dad of Venus and Serena. It remains a highlight in Smith's blockbuster career, though, as he lends passion, willful stubbornness and understanding to a complicated sports figure.
10. Gary Oldman, ‘Darkest Hour’ (2018)
As Oldman will gladly tell you, “I do like the odd disguise to hide behind." And underneath fake jowls, hairpieces and a foam body suit, Oldman plays Winston Churchill like a political force of nature as the World War II leader gives rousing speeches and leads England against the growing Nazi threat.
9. Sean Penn, ‘Mystic River’ (2004)
In Clint Eastwood's haunting neo-noir mystery, Penn is top-notch as a grieving father with some shady undertones. He, Kevin Bacon and Tom Robbins are old Boston friends marked by a childhood trauma, and their bonds are tested as Penn's ex-con character seeks street justice for his daughter's murder.
8. Brendan Fraser, ‘The Whale’ (2023)
The only thing more enormous than Fraser's prosthetic suit is the incredible empathy on display. The erstwhile "Encino Man" gives a career-best showing as a 600-pound queer online English teacher with congestive heart failure, yearning to make things right with his estranged teen daughter before it's too late.
7. Leonardo DiCaprio, ‘The Revenant’ (2016)
Leo's one Oscar win in an iconic career should be good enough for the top 10 – the fact he takes on a bear just cements it. DiCaprio plays the role of real-life frontiersman Hugh Glass with savagery, humility and an impressively bushy beard as he survives deadly animals and humans alike to track down his son's killer.
6. Denzel Washington, ‘Training Day’ (2002)
King Kong ain't got nothing on him. As a corrupt but charismatic narcotics detective putting an on-the-rise officer (Ethan Hawke) through his paces, Washington is uncannily great at finding an unpredictable moral gray area that leaves one guessing: Is he a force for good, evil, or somewhere in between?
5. Russell Crowe, “Gladiator’ (2001)
Crowe's Roman warrior Maximus, a general banished to slavery thanks to a petulant young emperor (Joaquin Phoenix) who rises back to glory, is a throwback to old-school Hollywood action heroes that still works. The actor harnesses raw physicality, steely nerve and unshakable honor to portray an energizing guy taking on an empire.
4. Jamie Foxx, ‘Ray’ (2005)
In a biopic that chronicles Ray Charles' life, loves, vices and songs, Foxx unleashes his musical skills – the man's got a gift for piano playing and singing. Those talents pair nicely with the emotional heft it takes to play an entertaining genius who touched the world yet who was also far from a perfect man.
3. Daniel Day-Lewis, ‘Lincoln’ (2013)
Day-Lewis, an actor's actor if there ever was one, breathes life into one of the greatest presidents in profound fashion. In Steven Spielberg's historical drama, which focuses on Lincoln's final months working to abolish slavery via the 13th Amendment, Day-Lewis uncannily looks the part and also fills it with grace and gravitas.
2. Daniel Day-Lewis, ‘There Will Be Blood’ (2008)
But Day-Lewis can also be a pretty fantastic antagonist, as in Paul Thomas Anderson's Western-tinged period spectacle. Sporting a villainous mustache, he dives into a go-for-broke, outrageous role as Daniel Plainview, an ambitious oil man who locks horns with a crafty religious sort (Paul Dano). Daniel's rage erupts like a volcano and yet he still sells lines like "I drink your milkshake" to add a madcap element to a murderous tour de force.
1. Anthony Hopkins, ‘The Father’ (2021)
He's been both Hannibal Lecter and Richard Nixon, yet this is the Hopkins role that's hardest to forget. Florian Zeller's drama casts him as an elderly London man with Alzheimer's slowly losing his grip on the reality around him: loved ones, memories, just everyday existence. The immersive character study puts the audience inside the mind of a person with dementia, and through Hopkins' brilliant performance, we feel his confusion, anger, terror and, ultimately, child-like vulnerability.
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