Top 10: Oscar's All Time Favorite Leading Men
Tuesday, November 13, 2018 at 12:45PM by Nathaniel R
I was shocked to realize that De Niro, Hanks, Penn, and Pacino -- none of them made the top ten!
Okay okay. Since we did Supporting Men and Supporting Women during the summer, I figured we should complete the set. Who are Oscar's 10 favorite leading men? We'll work the ranking like so: Nominations count most, with wins acting like half a nomination to help determine rank. The tiebreaker is the spread of time of nominations which can denote either long term fandom on the Academy's part or shortlived enthusiasms. If there's still a tie at that point, other Oscar statistics (like if they were nominated for producing or supporting or whatnot) break the tie.
Only 20 men throughout film history have scored 5 or more nominations for Best Lead Actor and though this year's currently pulsing competition for Best Actor is chalk full of previous nominees, none of them are regulars to that degree. Here are the ten runners up followed by the all-time top ten list...
20. Robert De Niro (76, 78, 80*, 90, 91)
19. Gregory Peck (45,46,47,49,62*)
18. Al Pacino (73, 74, 75, 79, 92*)
17. Jimmy Stewart (39,40*,46,50,59)
16. Paul Muni (29,33,36*,37,59)
15. Richard Burton (53,64,65,66,69,77)
14. Tom Hanks (88, 93*, 94*, 98, 00)
13. Sean Penn (95, 99, 01, 03*, 08*)
12. Gary Cooper (36,41*,42,43,52*) ...very recently booted from the top ten.
11. Fredric March (31,32*,37,46*,51) ... very recently booted from the top ten.
okay on to the top ten list...
The Ten Most Oscar-Lauded LEADING ACTORS
For the purposes of this super specific list, only "Best Leading Actor" stats counts though some of these men were also nominated a time or two in Supporting.
10 DENZEL WASHINGTON (6 nominations, 1 win, across a 26 year span)
New entry to the list in his sixtysomething years. He has doubled his previous lead nomination count in just the past six years with Flight, Fences, and Roman J Israel Esq ... and maybe he came close to a third Oscar and second win in lead with Fences? Who knows. At 63 he's still a box office draw so he might even be able to move up this list if he keeps mixing in the dramas with his more shoot-em-up fare.
09 JACK LEMMON (7 nominations, 1 win, across a 34 year span)
Lemmon won on his very first nomination (Supporting for Mister Roberts) and never returned to the supporting category again... though perhaps he should have though that's a topic for another post. Lemmon died in 2001 leaving behind a huge filmography with multiple classics including all-time greats Some Like It Hot and The Apartment. (He was an even bigger favorite at the Golden Globes with a jawdropping 22 nominations, 4 wins, and 2 special awards.)
08 DANIEL DAY LEWIS (6 nominations, 3 wins, across a 28 year span)
Like Denzel, a new entry to the list due to just the last six years with an historic third win (Lincoln) and sixth nomination (Phantom Thread). He has officially retired but he is only 61 (the youngest living person on this list) so maybe someone will coax him out of retirement in ten years or so for another Oscar go.
07 PETER O'TOOLE (8 nominations across a 44 year span)
He shared, with Richard Burton, the distinction of being both a hugely acclaimed British thespian and a bonafide movie star who was perpetually left at the altar by Oscar. O'Toole's best shot was arguably that first nomination for Lawrence of Arabia, but he had the bad luck to be up against Gregory Peck's career capper in To Kill a Mockingbird. O'Toole receive an Honorary Oscar in 2003 and then miraculously showed up again competitively afterwards (Venus). He died five years ago at 81, having worked non-stop since the mid '50s.
06 MARLON BRANDO (7 nominations, 2 wins, across a 23 year span)
One of the most influential actors of all time. He holds the distinction of being the youngest man with whom the Academy was ever fully obsessed; he had four nominations and a win before he even turned 31! Though younger men have been nominated and have won, none have ever excited Oscar that much that consistently before middle age (which is where Oscar voters love their men). Though Brando won two Best Actor Oscars (On the Waterfront and The Godfather) it's still a shame that he didn't win for A Streetcar Named Desire. If he had that would be the only film to have ever won all four acting awards and he'd still be the youngest man to have ever won Best Actor. He did hold that latter distinction for two decades until Richard Dreyfuss in The Goodbye Girl, and then Adrien Brody in The Pianist took that title)
05 DUSTIN HOFFMAN (7 nominations, 2 wins, across a 31 year span)
Hoffman was, in his time, one of the most distinct movie stars to have ever emerged. There had never really been a leading man like him (consider that the original short list for the lead in The Graduate included both Robert Redford and Warren Beatty). For the first twenty years of his career or so Oscar just loved him. Hoffman's last nomination was for Wag the Dog twenty-one years ago and he's worked far less frequently since and mostly in supporting roles. Hoffman is currently 81 years old but since he still works will some enterprising young filmmaker seek him out for a plum role? You never know with the screen legends when one last important role might surface.
04 PAUL NEWMAN (8 nominations, 1 win, across a 36 year span)
Like many matinee idols, Oscar made Paul Newman wait forever for that golden statue. But at least they didn't ignore his incredible acting due to his extreme beauty. Though an Oscar win for any of his early iconic roles would have looked great in retrospect (particularly Hud) at least they finally found a way to reward him when he reprised his role from The Hustler in The Color of Money in the 1980s.
03 LAURENCE OLIVIER (9 nominations, 1 win across a 40 year span)
From our modern perspective Sir Laurence Olivier's intense fandom within the Academy is perhaps the hardest to figure (within the confines of this list). There's the problem of one of his nominations involving blackface (yikes) but the biggest issue is the absence of multiple iconic classics that people still watch (Hitchcock's Rebecca obviously still excluded). Though his Hamlet still holds up, Shakespeare on film never gets "definitive" versions since Hollywood keeps remaking them -- if not to the extent of how often they get do-overs on stage. Oliviers all caps ACTING belongs to an earlier era and also reflects his giant prestige as a stage actor. He's surely still the most famous Shakespeare on Film actor... so much so that Kenneth Branagh, is forever the Olivier 2.0 having attempted the same stage/screen both acting and directing triumphs (Henry V, Hamlet) and being regarded as something of a Ham.
02 JACK NICHOLSON (8 nominations, 2 wins, across a 33 year span)
This living legend, a major star since 1969's Easy Rider (supporting actor nomination), retired after the flop How Do You Know? in 2010 and is currently 81 years old. He was going to come out of retirement for the remake of Toni Erdmann but has since departed the project. If he changes his mind, it's not so hard to imagine him winning a 4th Oscar to tie Katharine Hepburn for 'most wins' and also become the oldest Best Actor winner ever (Henry Fonda has held that record for 36 years after winning for On Golden Pond when he was 76). Nicholson holds the unique distinction of being runner up for BOTH Oscar's Favorite Leading Actor and Oscar's Favorite Supporting Actor so in short, he's Oscar's favorite (male) actor, period.
01 SPENCER TRACY (9 nominations, 2 wins, across a 32 year span)
He was 36 when he received his first nomination (San Francisco) though Tracy often arguably read as older than he was on film, something that benefitted him in the long run. He was essentially an Oscar favorite from the very beginning of his career until the very end. His last nomination (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner) was a posthumous nod, the star having died just seventeen days after filming wrapped and six months before the movie premiered. Making the final nomination even more meaningful was that it was in tandem with his love Katharine Hepburn. The pair, who never married (Tracy was married to another woman his whole life, though they were estranged), made 9 films together; this was the only one which brought them both nominations. Their first film together Woman of the Year (1942) did bring Hepburn a nomination, though. Tracy also holds the distinction of the being the first man in any category to win back-to-back Oscars (Boys Town in 1937 and Captains Courageous, 1938).
Who will join the list next?
Here are the only other living actors with 3 or more nominations in Best Actor in a Leading Role. (If they've been nominated this current decade --even in supporting-- they have an arrow by their name indicating that Oscar is still paying attention to them.)
DiCaprio, Caine, Freeman, Clooney. Who will be back soon?
5 nominations
- 🔺Robert De Niro (76, 78, 80*, 90, 91)
- Al Pacino (73, 74, 75, 79, 92*)
- Tom Hanks (88, 93*, 94*, 98, 00)
- Sean Penn (95, 99, 01, 03*, 08*)
4 nominations
- 🔺 Leonardo DiCaprio (2004, 2006, 2013, 2015*)
- Michael Caine (1966, 1972, 1983, 2002)
- Warren Beatty (1967, 1978, 1981, 1991)
- Albert Finney (1963, 1974, 1983, 1984)
3 nominations
- William Hurt (1985*, 1986, 1987)
- 🔺Jeff Bridges (1984, 2009*, 2010)
- 🔺Robert Duvall (1979, 1983*, 1997)
- Anthony Hopkins (1991*, 1993, 1995)
- Russell Crowe (1999, 2000*, 2001)
- Morgan Freeman (1989, 1994, 2009)
- Kirk Douglas (1949, 1952, 1956)
- 🔺George Clooney (2007, 2009, 2011)
- Johnny Depp (2003, 2004, 2007)
MIGHT BECOME A THREE-TIME NOMINEE FOR LEAD ACTOR THIS VERY YEAR...
- Viggo Mortensen (2007, 2016, ...and 2018 ???)
- Bradley Cooper (2012, 2014, ...and 2018 ???)
- Clint Eastwood (1992, 2004, ... and 2018 ???)
- Ryan Gosling (2006, 2016, ... and 2018 ???)
This is a LOT to discuss but have at it, please.
Reader Comments (53)
Jack -- I DID. fixed just now.
Cash -- :(
Coming late to this, just want to say thanks to Nathaniel for all this hard work, and thanks to Film Experience fans for such great discussion. This blog is always so interesting to visit.
I concur with those who were surprised by the fact that Henry Fonda didn't get as many Oscar nominations as they expected. My real pet peeve is still Cary Grant, who should have made the top 20. His classic performances still stand up, but he was in comedies so - no Oscar nominations. I will watch a Henry Fonda or Jimmy Stewart film before a Spencer Tracy one any day.
I also agree that the great Peter O'toole and Albert Finney were sadly overlooked by Oscar.
I wish that Paul Newman had won more often.
Finally, I think Daniel Day Lewis has been over-rewarded and Tom Hanks slightly under rewarded.
As for Oscar I hope Ryan Gosling gets a win soon. (He reminds me a little of Paul Newman in the sense that he gets taken for granted).
I think that
Jacob Tremblay
Tom Holland
Lucas Hedges
Timothee Chalamet
Armie Hammer
will figure out in the future in this list of Oscar favorite leading man.
they are the youngest group of male actors that I am biggest fan of.
may be if Hollywood will be nice to
Oscar Isaac
Tom Hardy
Benedict Cumberbatch
they could get noms and wins
(Tom should had been nominated for Bronson, Warrior, Fury Road and Locke; Isaac for Llewyn Davis and Most Violent Year)