Top 25 Best Actor Oscar Winners of All Time 

I don't get how Daniel-Day Lewis wasn't on here for My Left Foot...

Daniel Day Lewis for My Left Foot is the best acting I have ever seen.

89. Charlton Heston (Ben-Hur 88. John Wayne (True Grit) 87. Paul Lukas (Watch On The Rhine) 86. George Arliss (Disraeli) 85. Art Carney (Harry & Tonto) 84. Sean Penn (Mystic River) 83. Spencer Tracy (Boys Town) 82. Russell Crowe (Gladiator) 81. Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln) 80. Cliff Robertson (Charly) 79. Burt Lancaster (Elmer Gantry) 78. Lee Marvin (Cat Ballou) 77. Jose Ferrer (Cyrano de Bergerac) 76. Jack Nicholson (As Good As It Gets) 75. Roberto Benigni (Life Is Beautiful) 74. Dustin Hoffman (Kramer Vs Kramer) 73. Eddie Redmayne (The Theory Of Everything) 72. Al Pacino (Scent Of A Woman) 71. Rod Steiger (In The Heat Of The Night) 70. Ben Kingsley (Gandhi) 69. Rex Harrison (My Fair Lady) 68. Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant) 67. Gary Cooper (Sergeant York) 66. Robert Donat (Goodbye, Mr. Chips) 65. Jack Lemmon (Save The Tiger) 64. Alec Guinness (The Bridge On The River Kwai) 63. Clark Gable (It Happened One Night) 62. Jon Voight (Coming Home) 61. Paul Muni (The Story Of Louis Pasteur) 60. Gary Cooper (High Noon) 59. Paul Scofield (A Man For All Seasons) 58. Wallace Berry (The Champ) 57. Fredric March (The Best Years Of Our Lives) 56. Gene Hackman (The French Connection) 55. James Stewart (The Philadelphia Story) 54. Laurence Olivier (Hamlet) 53. Sean Penn (Milk) 52. David Niven (Separate Tables) 51. Robert Duvall (Tender Mercies) 50. Ronald Colman (A Double Life) 49. Humphrey Bogart (The African Queen) 48. Nicolas Cage (Leaving Las Vegas) 47. F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus) 46. Emil Jannings (The Way Of All Flesh) 45. Michael Douglas (Wall Street) 44. Jeremy Irons (Reversal Of Fortune) 43. George C. Scott (Patton) 42. Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart) 41. Bing Crosby (Going My Way) 40. Tom Hanks (Philadelphia) 39. Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) 38. Forest Whitaker (The Last King Of Scotland) 37. Henry Fonda (On Golden Pond) 36. Geoffrey Rush (Shine) 35. Kevin Spacey (American Beatty) 34. Paul Newman (The Color Of Money) 33. Casey Affleck (Manchester By The Sea) 32. Gregory Peck (To Kill A Mokingbird) 31. William Holden (Stalag 17) 30. Maximilian Schell (Judgment At Nuremberg) 29. William Hurt (Kiss Of The Spider Woman) 28. Adrien Brody (The Pianist) 27. Marlon Brando (The Godfather) 26. James Cagney (Yankee Doodle Dandy) 25. Richard Dreyfuss (The Goodbye Girl) 24. Lionel Barrymore (A Free Soul) 23. Victor McLaglen (The Informer) 22. Peter Finch (Network) 21. Spencer Tracy (Captains Courageous) 20. Coliin Firth (The Kings Speech) 19. Warner Baxter (In Old Arizona) 18. Broderick Crawford (All The Kings Men) 17. Charles Laughton (The Private Life Of Henry The VIII) 16. Jean Dujardin (The Artist) 15. Ernest Borgnine (Marty) 14. Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club) 13. Denzel Washington (Training Day) 12. Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood) 11. Sidney Poitier (Lilies Of The Field) 10. Fredric March (Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde) 9. Jamie Foxx (Ray) 8. Marlon Brando (On The Waterfont) 7. Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump) 6. Daniel Day-Lewis (My Left Foot: The Story Of Christy Brown) 5. Dustin Hoffman (Rain Man) 4. Jack Nicholson (One Flew Over The Cuckoo"s Nest) 3. Ray Milland (The Lost Wekeend) 2. Anthony Hopkins (The Silence Of The Lambs) 1. Robert De Niro (Raging Bull) I really want to do some changes, but Im too lazy.

Where's Adrien Brody for The Pianist?

Nic Cage's performance in Leaving Las Vegas was one of the greatest things I have ever seen. Definitely deserved a place within the top 10.

All great actors. But I missed the Nicolas Cage in "Leaving Las Vegas", for me the best interpretation of a drunk in all of cinema.

1. Marlon Brando - Godfather 2. Robert De Niro -Raging Bull 3 - Anthony Hopkins- Silence 4. Al Pacino - Scent Of A Woman

AL PACINO.....?

Not a single actor mentioned here in top 25 can come even close to Robert De Niro for his performance in Raging bull. Forget Raging Bull, not a single actor can think of surpassing him . Such is our Bobby. Hands down , the greatest ever..!!

If I had to make a top 25 list it would have been 25. James Stewart - The Philadelphia Story 24. Humphrey Bogart- The African Queen 23. Spencer Tracy - Boys Town 22. Jeremy Irons- Reversal of Fortune 21. George C Scott- Patton 20. William Hurt- Kiss of the Spider Woman 19. Gary Cooper- High Noon 18. Gene Hackman - The French Connection 17. Peter Finch - Network 16. Daniel Day Lewis - My Left Foot 15. Clark Gable- It Happened One Night 14. F Murray Abraham - Amadeus 13. Dustin Hoffman - Rain Man 12. Ben Kingsley - Gandhi 11. Alec Guinness - Bridge on the River Kwai 10. Sidney Poitier - Lilies of the Field 9. Laurence Olivier - Hamlet 8. Marlon Brando - The Godfather 7. Jack Nicholson - One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest 6. Gregory Peck - To Kill a Mockingbird 5. Daniel Day Lewis - There will be blood 4. Robert de Niro- Raging Bull 3. Anthony Hopkins-Silence of the lambs 2. Tom Hanks- Forrest Gump 1. Marlon Brando - On the Waterfront

I think Al Pacinos’ performance in Scent of a Woman is unbelievable

The Silent of the Lambs... GREAT movie, Anthony superb actor

No Al Pacino??.... You must be kidding me.!!

What about Sean Penn in Mystic River? that was flawless!

My fave Oscar winners are: 1. Tom Hanks - Forrest Gump (1994) 2. Anthony Hopkins - The Silence of the Lambs (1991) 3. Clark Gable - It Happened One Night (1934) 4. Robert De Niro - Raging Bull (1980) 5. Marlon Brando - On the Waterfront (1954) 6. Henry Fonda - On Golden Pond (1981) 7. James Cagney - Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) 8. Tom Hanks - Philadelphia (1993) 9. Daniel Day Lewis - Lincoln (2012) 10. Jack Nicholson - One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest (1975) 11. Adrian Brody - The Pianist (2002) 12. Dustin Hoffman - Rain Man (1988) 13. George C. Scott - Patton (1970) 14. Kevin Spacey - American Beauty (1999) 15. Gary Cooper - Sergeant York (1941) 16. Charlton Heston - Ben - Hur (1959) 17. Geoffrey Rush - Shine (1996) 18. Rami Malek - Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) 19. Forest Whitaker - Last King of Scotland (2006) 20. Daniel Day Lewis - My Left Foot (1989) 21. Leonardo di Caprio - The Revenant (2015) 22. Spencer Tracy - Boys Town (1938) 23. Will Smith - King Richard (2021) 24. F Murray Abraham - Amadeus (1984) 25. Marlon Brando - The Godfather (1972)

I like your list. I was lucky enough to see most of these actors in their winning films. Daniel Day Lewis was great in There Will Be Blood but you forgot another Daniel Day Lewis movie where he also won an Oscar, My Left Foot which for me is the greatest performance by an actor on screen.You also forgot F. Murray Abraham who also won Best Actor in Amadeus.

This dude just put forest gump ahead of the godfather. And no Daniel Day Lewis in My Left Foot.

Here's My List 1. DDL - There Will Be Blood 2. Robert De Niro - Raging Bull 3. Anthony Hopkins - Silence of the Lambs 4. Jack Nicholson - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 5. Tom Hanks - Philadelphia 6. Marlon Brando - On the Waterfront 7. Nicholas Cage - Leaving Las Vegas 8. Dustin Hoffman - Rain Man 9. Gregory Peck - To Kill a Mockingbird 10. Peter Finch - Network 11. Marlon Brando - The Godfather 12. Kevin Spacey - American Beauty 13. Adrien Brody - The Pianist 14. Colin Firth - The King's Speech 15. Forest Whitaker - Last King of Scotland 16. DDL - Lincoln 17. Philip Seymour Hoffman - Capote 18. Tom Hanks - Forrest Gump 19. Sean Penn - Mystic River 20. Russell Crowe - Gladiator

All of us can endlessly debate who should be on this list and in what order...there are so many great choices but ultimately it is great to be reminded about all these great performances and to enjoy the excellent work in compiling them so artfully! Thanks for this!

I love the song you used over your picks

Some performances that you did not include that you should have were Spencer Tracy in "Captain's Courageous" (1937), Ernest Borgnine in "Marty" (1955), Burt Lancaster in "Elmer Gantry" (1960), and Henry Fonda in "On Golden Pond" (1981). Though I am glad that you included Spencer Tracy in "Boys Town" (1938), James Cagney in "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942), Gregory Peck in "To Kill A Mockingbird" (1962), Sidney Poitier in "Lilies Of The Field" (1963), Jack Nicholson in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" (1975), and Tom Hanks in "Forrest Gump" (1994).

fuck man, this was the best list ever, robert deniro is the king and marlon brando is god in this world of greatness

Now, you can finally added Leonardo Dicaprio for The Revenant

AL PACINO in Scent of a Woman should have been icluded

al pacino in scent of a woman number one

Al Pacino is The best !!!

Al Pacino Scent of A Woman ...???? Philip Seymour Hoffman Capote ..? =( Kevin Spacey - Usual Suspects ? Good list though just order not quite that :)

this is a PHENOMENAL video compilation and i watch it AT LEAST once a day for inspiration! Thank you so much. Your TALENT is appreciated. Can you please tell me what song is playing during the credits with the children's voices? It is BEAUTIFUL! Please don't stop what your doing because it is BRILLIANT!

Hi! I just want to say that there are no words to describe how great this video is. Congratulations, Jason, for great work!

Where is Murray Abraham as Antonio Salieri ?

Great performances from Cagney,Scott,Tracey,Stewart,Bogart,Cooper,Gable,Olivier,Brando,Peck and De Niro.

I disagree with some picks, but yea #1 is right.

No DDL for My Left Foot? Surely you must be joking

Marlon Brando's performance in On the Waterfront was STUNNING, still can't forget.. Gregory in To Kill a Mockingbird was great too.

This must have been a hard list for you to put together, Jason. I agree on your top ten, but believe Forrest Whitaker should have been included for "The Last King of Scotland" somewhere on the list.

This is my TOP 12 of Best Actor Oscar Winner: 1.Daniel Day-Lewis for "There will be Blood" 2.Al Pacino for "Scent of a Woman" 3.Kevin Spacey for "American Beauty" 4.Denzel Washington for "Training Day" 5.Jack Nicholson for "As Good As It Gets" 6.Michael Douglas for "Wall Street" 7.Gene Hackman for "The French Connection" 8.Adrien Brody for "The Pianist" 9.Ernest Borgnine for "Marty" 10.Daniel Day-Lewis for "Lincoln" 11.J.Nicholson for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest" 12.R.Crowe for "Gladiator"

William Holden, who won the BEST Actor Academy Award, for (1953) "Stalag 17," SHOULD be on this list!!!! He was FANTASTIC in that movie!!! William Holden, was (40) Years older than me, but I LOVE his acting, his very handsome face, and that magnificent voice!!!!😍

This list is very good! However, I would include F.Murray Abraham's amazing work in Amadeus, Alec Guinness's career best in The Bridge on the River Kwai and William Hurt's work in Kiss of The Spider Woman.

I agree with you. To me his most Oscar Worthy performance was in Dog Day Afternoon, unfortunately that also happened to be the same year as Jack Nicholson in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest.

De Niro's performance in raging bull is the best i have ever seen.

Yeeeesssssssss....! Yes,yes, yes... I was very expectant about what man could be crowned by you as the best of the best.And when the first flash of Raging Bull appeared, something exploded inside of me. Jake LaMotta is undoubtedly the character that de Niro needed to take his seat in the Olympus of Cinema.Thanks,Jason.. !!!

Road to Perdition (Title Theme)---Thomas Newman

Hi Renee! Thank you so much for the kind words. I really appreciate it. It's people like you that motivate me to keep creating art and videos and I'm so glad you enjoy them!

Where is Forest Whitaker for Last King of Scotland?

You missed Al Pacino in scent of a woman

@filip: make your own video than and stop spamming my page.

Awesome video! Your music choices make it sound more dramatic as we ascend to the top best actor winners. very nice

1.Al Pacino 2.Robert De Niro 3.Marlon Brando 4.Anthony Hopkins 5.Jack Nicolson

Al Pacino is not in your list ? .........jajajajajaaajajaaaaa

Hanks as Forrest Gump is among the worst rewarded by the academy! Try reconciling that with the fact that Mitchum, always impeccable, never recieved the statue. Great to see Cagney on the list, but where was Robert Duvall? Charles Laughton? All lists are arbitrary, i know but seriously...

Anything he's won in could make near the top of ur list, but I think My Left Foot was Daniel Day-Lewis's best work and deserved one of the highest spots

18 minutes Anthony Hopkins was onscreen for 118/minutes. This is not to. Say he didn’t deserve it. I am saying he delivered the most memorable performance in just 18 minutes.

Al pacino - scent of a woman, nowhere ?????????????

you forgot Alec Guiness...

Really glad to see Colin Firth. Lots of people don't like 'The King's Speech' because it won over "The Social Network", and forget how great was Colin Firth's performance.

Brando in Godfather 'mannered, silly' OK big guy. Any other actor would have hammed it up and turned the 'gangster' into a cartoonish villain. He completely played against that and created a the most softly spoken, family-orientated boss who never raised his voice and consequently was even more terrifying and realistic. He was genius.

Very good list. Hard to argue w/ any on it. My list would have Brando-On the Waterfront and De Niro-Raging Bull (1)(1a) among Oscar winners. My best performance of all time would be for a part that didn't win an Oscar: Dustin Hoffman - Midnight Cowboy. Incredible performance in that film.

That Gandhi walk gives me chills😘

F. Murray Abraham in Amadeus?

This is a very well-studied list, and I agree with most of the picks with a few differences. I would have Peck, as Atticus Finch at the very top, and would have fit Ronald Colman, in "A Double Life" in there somewhere. So many of these same actors gave great performances that did not win, Spencer Tracy MANY times over, and Denzil in "Malcolm X" and "Philadelphia." Bogie in "Casablanca" and "Treasure of the Sierra Madre," etc. Thanks for putting this together. Thoroughly enjoyed it!

I love jack nicholson's performance in one flew over the cuckoo's nest he is so great

nice list!! :) similar to mine... but my n.1 is Sir Anthony Hopkins in TSOTL :)

I don't think so you forgot Al Pacino

Why is Charlton Heston not on this list for Ben Hur....you really should do part 2 or something...

I love this, keep coming back to it, it never gets old.

Awesome list! I wouldn't change a thing. Maybe Daniel Day Lewis could have been represented by My Left Foot, or Tom Hanks by Saving Private Ryan, but either way, this is a very good list. Seeing my favorite actor of all time at number one was awesome.

I was waiting till the very end and I was gonna tell you "How the hell could you leave out Robert De Niro?" then he was number one. Good list with the exception of Denzel Washington, F Murray Abraham could have taken that spot.Your list though.

I’d put Kevin Spacey for American Beauty in the top 10

Kudos to Jason - great job putting this list together! I feel the following have to be added somewhere: - Russell Crowe in Gladiator - Jack Nicholson in As Good As it Gets - Robert Duvall in Tender Mercies - Paul Newman - The Color of Money - Lee Marvin in Cat Ballou To make room I would delete the following: - Peter Finch (I feel he only won because he died that year!) - Richard Dreyfuss - Jeremy Irons - Colin Firth - Denzel Washington Thanks for making this wonderful list!

Where's Al Pacino for scent of a woman ???

to be fair, Anthony Hopkins performance was more supporting than leading!!

NICE VIDEO WELL DONE COULD YOU PLEASE PUT THE TRAKCLIST IS VERY GOOD THANKS

Interesting selections! Personally, I would not put Tom Hanks for Forrest Gump nearly as high on the list, but I was very glad to see Anthony Hopkins for Hannibal Lecter very high on this list. If you're considering Best Supporting Actors as possibilities on this list (such as Denzel Washington), then I would recommend thinking of Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in "No Country for Old Men." Also, I love the music!

Jack Lemmon for"The Days of Wine and Roses" should be somewhere on a list!

Some day... you'll have to include Gary Oldman... that is, if Oscars ever go back to being based solely about talent and they get around to giving him one. :/ Oldman is one of the most underrated actors evah.

Good list however, Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman is missing. That in my books is the No. Oscar winning performance of all time. Thanks for sharing this with us all.

He's beyond great in raging bull and the thing is his paranoia of his wife cheating on him and how he cant be close to anyone, not even his own brother .. he reallly showed great acting when he''s crying about how he threw the fight in the lockerroom.

Great list but I am shocked beyond all belief how low Day-Lewis is.

Awesome video! I was a bit disappointed to see Alec Guinness missing, but we can't always get what we want.

Agreed! A fair number of people think he was a bad choice of winner, but I thought he was just downright brilliant; he deserved that oscar entirely.

Glad you saw that- many overlook him and this performance was stunning. He was really out of his comfort zone and it worked marvelously.

WOW what a video…the quality of its production and your list of actors are great. I tried to do a video list myself, but it’s nothing compared to yours…really nice job!!!

My top 25. Michael Douglas -Wall Street 24. James Cagney -Yankee Doodle Dandy 23. Spencer Tracy -Boys Town 22. Broderick Crawford -All The King's Men 21. Forrest Withaker -The Last King of Scotland 20. George C. Scott -Patton 19. Humphrey Bogart -The Africa Queen 18. Gary Cooper -Sargent York 17. Peter Finch -Network 16. Al Pacino -Scent of a Woman 15. James Steward -The Philadelphia Story 14. Sidney Pottier -Liles of Fields 13. Dustin Huffman -Kramer vs Kramer and Rain Man 12. Eddie Redmayne-The Theory of Everything / Leonardo DiCaprio -The Revenant 11. Colin Firth -The King's Speech 10. Jeremy Iron -Reversal of Fortune 9. Tom Hanks -Forest Gump 8. Jack Nicholson -One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 7. Casey Affleck -Manchester By the Sea / Gregory Peck -To Kill a Mockingbird / Maximilian Schell -Judgement at Núremberg 6. Charlton Heston -Ben-Hur 5. Sean Penn -Mystic River 4. Daniel Day-Lewis -My Lef Foot, There Will be Blood and Lincoln 3. Laurence Olivier -Hamlet 2. Clark Gable -It Happened One Night / Anthony Hopkins -The Silence of the Lambs 1. Marlon Brandon -The Godfather and On The Waterfront Honorable Mention William Holden -Stalag 17 Adrien Brody -The Pianist Philip Seymour-Hoffman -Capote Kevin Spacey -American Beauty

NO Heath ledger I'm done he was by far one of the best actors in the world if not the best... I mean for the amount of roles he played from being a gay cowboy to the psychiatric and sinister character Of the joker

Leonardo DiCaprio-The Revenant (2015)

denzel in training day is the best acting I have ever seen.

I'm actually glad that you put Anthony Hopkins and Jack Nicholson, but I honestly would like to see Dustin Hoffman, Robert de Niro, and Al Pacino rather than Michael Douglas, Tom Hanks, and Sean Penn-_- and I think that Hanks's performance in Philadelphia was MUCH better than he was in Forrest Gump

Coincidencia! !!! ROBERT DE NIRO. ...TORO SALVAJE... SIIIII

adrien brody's perfomance in the pianist or geoffrey rush's perfomance in shine should have been added

Vito Corleone looks so badass with the music.

Daniel Day-Lewis is the best actor of all time

well done. would've liked to see more speaking scenes (but i understand if copyright and length is an issue)

1. Dustin Hoffman - Rain man 2. Daniel Day-Lewis - My left foot 3. Tom Hanks - Forrest Gump 4. Marlon Brando - The Godfather 5. Jack Nicholson - One flew over the cuckoo's nest 6. Robert De Niro - Raging bull 7. Anthony Hopkins - The silence of the lambs 8. Ben Kingsley - Gandhi 9. Al Pacino - Scent of a woman 10. Marlon Brando - On the waterfront 11. Forest Whitaker - The last king of Scottland 12. George C. Scott - Patton 13. Jamie Foxx - Ray 14. F. Murray Abraham - Amadeus 15. Clarke Gable - It happend one night 16. Laurence Oliver - Hamlet 17. Denzel Washington - Training day 18. William Hurt - The kiss of the spider woman 19. Gene Hackman - French connection 20. Cliff Robertson - Charly 21. Kevin Spacey - American beauty 22. Alec Guinness - The bridge on the river Kwai 23. Philip Seymour Hoffman - Capote 24. Sean Penn - Mystic river 25. Russel Crowe - Gladiator

I still come back to this video 5 yrs later

My Top favorite Leading Performances that didn't even receive nominations but should've: 1.) Leonardo Dicaprio- The Departed 2.) Laurence Fishburne- Always Outgunned 3.) Tommy Lee Jones- The Missing 4.) Al Pacino- Carlito's Way 5.) Mickey Rourke- Sin City/Angel Heart 6.) Patrick Swayze- Too Wong Foo 7.) Wesley Snipes- New Jack City 8.) Brad Pitt- Troy 9.) Dustin Hoffman- Hook 10.) Johnny Depp- Public Enemies 11.) Nicholas Cage- City of Angels 12.) Kurt Russell- Dark Blue

Wait no Nicolas Cage for Leaving Las Vegas? That was a truly unique performance and more impressing than Denzel Washington in Training Day

Agree in most of them, but I feel that Daniel Day Lewis performance in There Will be Blood should be higher.It was outstanding in every sense of the word

Some really good choices :) but i would put Daniel Day Lewis for There Will Be Blood definitely higher (one of my favorite performances) and I think that Denzel Washington was very good in Training Day but in my opinion he was one of the weaker winners (he should have won in Malcolm X instead), but that's just my opinion :)

Spencer Tracey : There is no such thing as a bad boy Great acting thanks for posting Jason

Robert Duvall Tender Mercies❤❤❤❤. Couldn't agree more with #1.