The New Oscar Actor Hierarchy - Anthony & Denzel Rising
Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 12:35PM by Nathaniel R
We last updated the male version of this list (see the actress list here) just after Leonardo DiCaprio was finally crowned for The Revenant (2015) but it's time for some adjustments. What follows is a list of Oscar's 34 All Time Favorite Actors. The only brand new addition to the list is Anthony Hopkins who enters the exclusive club due to two new consecutive nominations (including this year's bid The Father) significantly changing his previous 4/1 record. But there are other big changes. Actors who improved their standing since the last update five seasons ago are Denzel Washington (up several notches and a tier due to Fences and Roman Israel Esq), Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio (up a handful of notches each due to recent nominations), Jeff Bridges and Al Pacino (up a couple of notches each), and Daniel Day Lewis (up a tier with that Phantom Thread nomination but the same numeric placement -- the higher up you go the harder it is to rise much after all). A handful of other men are getting very close to joining this club after recent Oscar favor, too.
This royal club is restricted to men with 5 or more nominations. Only the acting statistics are accounted for so George Clooney, for example, is not (yet) ranked...
Now that many major stars are involved in producing these types of extra nominations stats are likely to make Oscar lists of the future progressively murkier so we're opting not to include them since this is a discussion of response to what happens in front of the camera by way of movie stars. (If you'd like to see how the ranks were determined --it's not as simple as basic addition or there would be way too many ties -- that's at the bottom of the post.)
OSCAR'S FOUR KINGS
And 30 other Royals
01 Jack Nicholson 12 noms | 3 wins
02 Laurence Olivier 10 Noms | 1 win | 2 honoraries
03 Paul Newman 9 noms | 1 win | 2 honoraries
04 Spencer Tracy 9 noms | 2 wins
(Their counterpart queens in Oscar's enamored eyes: Streep, Hepburn, Davis)
THE PRINCES
05 🔺 Al Pacino 9 noms | 1 win
06 Marlon Brando 8 noms | 2 wins
07 Jack Lemmon 8 noms | 2 wins
08 🔺 Denzel Washington 8 noms | 2 wins
09 Peter O'Toole 8 noms | 0 wins | honorary
10 Dustin Hoffman 7 noms | 2 wins
11 Robert De Niro 7 noms | 2 wins
12 🔺 Daniel Day-Lewis 6 noms | 3 wins
(Similarly celebrated women: Bergman, Page, Fonda)
DUKES
13 🔺 Jeff Bridges 7 noms | 1 win
14 Robert Duvall 7 noms | 1 win
15 🔺 Tom Hanks 6 noms | 2 wins
16 Michael Caine 6 noms | 2 wins
17 Richard Burton 7 noms | 0 wins
18 🔺 Leonardo DiCaprio 6 noms | 1 win
19 🔺 Anthony Hopkins 6 noms | 1 win
20 Gary Cooper 5 noms | 2 wins | honorary
21 James Stewart 5 noms | 1 win | honorary
22 Gregory Peck 5 noms | 1 win | honorary
(Similarly celebrated women: Audrey Hepburn, Amy Adams, Frances McDormand)
COUNTS, KNIGHTS, AND BARONS
23 Fredric March 5 noms | 2 wins
24 Sean Penn 5 noms | 2 wins
25 Gene Hackman 5 noms | 2 wins
26 Paul Muni 5 noms | 1 win
27 Morgan Freeman 5 noms | 1 win
28 Walter Brennan 4 noms | 3 wins
29 Alec Guiness 4 noms | 1 win | honorary
30 Charles Boyer 4 noms | 0 wins | honorary
31 Anthony Quinn 4 noms | 2 wins
32 Albert Finney 5 noms | 0 wins
33 Arthur Kennedy 5 noms | 0 wins
34 Warren Beatty 4 noms | 0 wins | honorary (his nominations in other categories more than double his acting haul making for a very unusual case since he's still primarily thought of as a movie star)
WHO IS NEXT?
What follows is NOT COMPREHENSIVE -- so don't complain that we missed anyone -- but merely a discussion prompt. Who is most likely to enter that very exclusive top 30+ to make it a top 40? Who will have to make due with the honors they've already received (which is of course far more than most actors ever could possibly dream of since even 1 nomination is a very very big deal and puts you in the history books)
Tantalizingly close to this list with 4 nominations...
🔺Christian Bale, 🔺 Bradley Cooper, 🔺 Willem Dafoe, 🔺 Joaquin Phoenix, 🔺 Brad Pitt (...and though they haven't been nominated for acting in a while you never know: George Clooney, Ed Harris, William Hurt)
3-timers that feel possible for a fourth...
Javier Bardem, Russell Crowe, 🔺 Woody Harrelson, 🔺 Gary Oldman, 🔺 Viggo Mortensen, Edward Norton, 🔺 Mark Ruffalo
2-Timers that feel possible for a third...
🔺Mahershala Ali, Benicio del Toro, 🔺 Adam Driver, 🔺 Ryan Gosling, Ethan Hawke, Jonah Hill, 🔺 Richard Jenkins, 🔺 Daniel Kaluuya, 🔺 Sam Rockwell, 🔺 Michael Shannon, and though they haven't been nominated in quite a while we can hope for Oscar comebacks for Michael Fassbender, Ralph Fiennes, and Jude Law since only two nominations for those careers feels vaguely cruel (hell, pointedly cruel in Fiennes case)
One nomination a long time ago. Seriously, when is the second one coming ?
Jake Gyllenhaal, Samuel L Jackson
Exciting and very talented actors that have never been nominated. What would it take?
Christopher Abbott, Jamie Bell, Colman Domingo, Idris Elba, Colin Farrell, Ben Foster, Hugh Grant, Kelvin Harrison Jr, Brian Tyree Henry, Nicholas Hoult, Oscar Isaac, Michael B Jordan, Barry Keoghan, Tracy Letts, James McAvoy, Ben Mendelsohn, Alessandro Nivola, Robert Pattinson, Dan Stevens, and Michael Stuhlbarg
How the ranks were determined. Number of nominations determines general placement. Once that's established wins are most important. In the event that someone has the same exact stats in nominations and wins, the tiebreaker factor in rank is that leading roles count more than supporting. If the tie stubbornly remains the tie is broken by endurance (how many years your nomination spread includes). Further mitigating factors: Three statues is so uncommon that it gives the actor a phantom extra nomination in terms of ranking (thus Daniel Day-Lewis is higher than he otherwise would be) but this phantom nomination only helps to determine relative rank and they may only vault over those who have not won competitive Oscars. Honorary statues give the actor a phantom extra boost with the same affect as an additional nomination or win (thus Paul Newman trumps Spencer Tracy) to be determined by the gate keeper yours truly. In the event that someone has multiple wins they may vault over the next immediate rivals if said rivals have never won a competitive Oscar (which is why a few people beat Richard Burton). Honorary statues also account for four nomination men like Sir Alec Guiness and Warren Beatty making the list which otherwise requires five nominations to enter.
Reader Comments (44)
I do think any of those men could rise to 4 or 5 esp Ed Harris or Norton with a juicy role and Bradley Cooper as his films coming up look very Oscary.
Daniel Kaluuya could become a new Denzel,he is such an exciting prescence and great with actresses Alison Williams,Dominique Fishback and Jodie Smith Turner.
AGREED on Jake Gyllenhaal and Samuel L. Jackson...
Somewhat off-topic, but Jamie Bell really should've been nominated for Billy Elliott!
Hugh Grant was close for FFJ, as was Idris Elba for Beasts.
I think a good chunk of that list will easily snag a nod with the right role: Idris Elba, Colin Farrell, Ben Foster, Nicholas Hoult, Oscar Isaac, Michael B Jordan, James McAvoy, Robert Pattinson
And Ben Medelsohn deserves a bigger career! Although didn't he get an Emmy nom recently? So I guess maybe his career is still on the rise.
Michael B. Jordan should be getting an Oscar nomination soon.
Of the 4 tiers I see Bale getting nominated again since he keeps getting noms. But I also see Cooper and Defoe easily winning and having overdue stories in the right season.
3 tier- Viggo and Ruffalo are popular so they probably get more nominations even though their last noms were not worthy performances.
2 tier- (sigh) guys we might have to settle for Fiennes getting an honorary award but never getting nominated again. Ditto for Samuel L Jackson.
For the never nominated if Jamie Bell gets that Fred Astaire movie up and running/dancing he gets his first nomination hands down. That should lead to him getting picked for better roles. He is young enough to have a long career to rack up other nominations later.
Still holding out hope for Tom Cruise. He was robbed for Magnolia. And I personally thought he deserved the nomination/win for Rain Man more than Dustin Hoffman.
Great list... Matt Damon sitting there at 3 as well, feels like he could have a few more in him. And agree with Gilbert you can't rule out Cruise.
Is it me, or is there just more exciting actresses out in the world? With the exception of a few names, these men don't necessarily make me want to buy a ticket for their latest film without word of mouth. I guess I'm not a completist for any of them now, sadly.
Samuel L Jackson feels like an inevitable winner, perhaps even for The Piano Lesson.
Denzel feels like the most likely to rise to the top group.
I've thought for awhile that Ethan Hawke could have the type of career, in terms of Oscar, that Jeff Bridges has had, in that he's aging well and could accumulate more awards acclaim as he ages as a result.
I just need Jamie Bell, James McAvoy, and Oscar Isaac to be nominated already. The latter should definitely there someday.
Is Dan Stevens a likely candidate via that recent movie I'M YOUR MAN coming out of Berlinale Film Festival? Or is that more of an Actress/International Feature play?
I love Sir Anthony, and I'm so glad he's here. What a fascinating career he's had. He's been turning in great performance for decades, and while it seemed his years of Oscar glory was in the 90s, I'm so glad he's back.
I know he doesn't have the right number of noms, but I'd say Daniel Day Lewis is one of the kings, especially with his work to nomination ratio. However, I highly suspect he'll come out of retirement and win a fourth Oscar. He's too good, and gives the type of performances that the Academy, no matter the era, finds undeniable.
Not sure if the Irishman was a true second-wind for Pacino or if it was a late-career honor. But, I think he'll back, especially with the new Gucci movie coming out. Hopefully, his commitment to Hunters season 2 is small/over with so he can focus more on films.
Denzel seems primed for a third win. The fact that he was nominated for a box-office bomb, Roman J Israel, indicates that they really like him.
Hoffman would be able to rise, but with his own sexual abuse scandals and the Meryl Streep slap/groping reveal, I can't imagine he'll make his way back (though they invited Mel back so...).
Bale and Oldman will get fourth nominations. They're both in their prime Oscar decades. I think Bardem could do it. He has a lot of goodwill, and I wouldn't be surprised if he was 7th for Skyfall.
Dafoe kind of defies logic - like Keaton he keeps getting nominations throughout the years, even for unlikely projects. He'll land another nod, largely because critics love him and give him a nice boost.
@Phillip H, Ben Mendolsohn won an emmy and was nominated for every season of his show.
Tom Cruise's last dramatic, non-action/thriller movie was Lions for Lambs which was released in 2007; I think he's done chasing an Oscar.
@MDA, I hope he'll get some more baity roles or the Academy will overcome genre bias for his other roles.
He definitely deserves an honorary at least.
I've always been a big fan of Tom's, but his desire to basically cycle through various franchises seems...odd. He clearly loves it, but he's too versatile for the films he does.
I think his Oscar hopes are dead, but between his performances in American Made and Tropic Thunder, he could score one more nomination for a comedic film. He's genuniley entertaining in those and that's a genre that the Academy, occasionally goes for. I just wish he'd accept his age and do an interesting non-action film again. If not for an Oscar, then just for his fans.
I’m confident Denzel will top this list one day.
The fact that Crowe is still a mere 3 Oscar noms deep in a career that is filled with Oscar ignored greatness like LA Confidential, Master & Commander, Cinderella Man, 3:10 to Yuma, American Gangster, Les Miserables, and Boy Erased is rather disrespectful.
It does annoy me that Daniel Day-Lewis is considered the greatest male actor of all time. He doesn't work enough to warrant that distinction. Denzel Washington will likely be in the double digits nomination wise for acting once his career wraps up with at least another competitive win.
Fassy still wins best cock.
While I'm not as confident as Keegan, it wouldn't surprise me to see Washington surpass Nicholson. His dedication to August Wilson probably won't help (I dont think Washington does any more of them as an actor). But he will be considered for basically every effort.
Denzel has done very average movies with the sole exemption of Malcolm X.
Cry Freedom? Boring Glory? Average Training Day? Good for a Sunday afternoon Flight? Good for a Sunday afternoon Fences? Couldn't finish it Roma Israel? LOL
@Fassy-Aaron Taylor Johnson
i think Bale will end up in the 7-10 club. it took them a long time to find him, but now that they have, he's on the board for a nom for anything he does well.
DiCaprio will likely score a few more nods too.
I don't care for Denzel, who makes very predictable choices to me, but they sure do love him. Still, he's 66. Will probably get one or two more nods, but getting five more over the next fifteen years to be out front of Nicholson seems unlikely?
I'm rooting for Fassbender, still probably the best actor of that group, to come roaring back. It's still one of Oscar's great crimes that he didn't win for Shame, let alone that he wasn't even nominated.
Denzel gave us John David so he must be punished.
PP -- HFPA agrees with you
1) The actresses/female actors list is more stellar and better than of this of male actors. Maybe because actresses are better or more interesting than actors? That one is truly Olympus. This one here has a varied level of talent - great and not so great. Some genius actors (like Edward G. Robinson) have never received a nomination and the reason for this is a mystery.
2) Why they say AMPAS doesn't like hansome men? All I see is a sea of hansome men. Those who are not beautiful or not so beautiful are charming, although I know that beauty is a personal concept. Paul Newman, Gregory Peck, Fredric March, Marlon Brando, Jeff Bridges, Richard Burton... Including the most beautiful of all time and all ages, Gary Cooper.
One actor who deserves an Oscar is Stanley Tucci. So, what would it take to get him a nomination? As I said when talking about the actresses, it would take the Academy to man up and put a definitive end to category fraud. After all, they have SO MANY rules in every category!
Don't know where to post this, but Nathaniel, where is today's Showbiz History?
Hopkins will still receive a couple more nominations (and I hope for a second win). Joaquin Phoenix is probabily going to rise higher and higher in the coming years, as do Denzel (I also hope for his third win) and Leo DiCaprio. Jeff Bridges, Tom Hanks, Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Willem Dafoe (it's time for this Oscar), Edward Norton, Ethan Hawke, Jake Gyllenhaal, Samuel L Jackson, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Cooper and Ralph Fiennes (unbelievable that he only has 2 nominations, the last one more than 20 years ago) will come back at some point. Hope hope Ed Harris and Sean Penn too, which seems unlikely but not impossible.
I agree with Gyllenhaal and Jackson. Gyllenhaal should have been nominated for Nightcrawler and Okja. Jackson should have been nominated for Unbreakable, Django Unchained, and The Banker.
Missy -- i had insomnia so slept through. sorry.
@HenriquePerez I'm still crossing my fingers Hopkins pulls off a surprise upset on Oscar night. I know it's very unlikely, and I have yet to see Bosman's performance, but Hopkins gives a performance for the ages and truly should be waltzing to his second win.
Crazy that Brando only won two Oscars, he should've had at least ONE more for "A Streetcar...", but they missed Bogart in '44 and then had to compensate.
Damn you, Paul Lukas.
Nathaniel, I do understand. Thank you.
I'm still so sad Boseman is robbing Hopkins, but I don't go in for narrative like some. I just purely base it on performance.
So many still outside the club: Jamie Bell, Ben Whishaw, Ben Mendohlson, Joel Edgerton, Colin Farrell, Guy Pearce, Ben Foster, Gael Garcia Bernal, Oscar Isaac, Garret Dillahunt, Anthony Mackie, etc.
Where is Jamie Foxx?!!
I really thought Joseph Gordon Levitt would finally get nominated this year
It's a pity that Travolta's career has gone literally nuts (even if his American Crime Story took him again to Globes and Emmy ceremonies), because he's a 2 timer that feels that could have been nominated many, many more times (but scientology plays as factor, it seems)... just choose your noms (and wins) from this set of performances (some of them, deservingly iconic)
Saturday Night Fever
Grease
Blow Out
Pulp Fiction
Get Shorty
Phenomenom
Swordfish
She's so Lovely
Primary Colors
A Civil Action
Hairspray
(even he made From Paris with Love completely worth watching, just by going SO over the top)
The only Travolta performances I would consider in the vicinity of Oscar-worthy are Saturday Night Fever, Phenomenon and Face/Off.
Yay! So happy you updated the men too and SO agree Gyllenhaal and Jackson should have multiple nominations.
I believe Anthony Hopkins would easily win another Oscar if he starred along with Jodie Foster in a final Silence of The Lambs where she has no choice but to kill him. And, because he loves her, he welcomes the silence of his lambs...
Of the younger generations, Kaluuya and Cooper feel like the most obvious to keep racking up nominations (Bale is a given).
I'm not sure about Gosling. I think he's respected, but he works infrequently and even then intersperses a lot of commercial plays. He'll be nominated again, but there might be significant gaps of 5-10 years each time.
Eddie Redmayne (not mentioned here, even with two noms) is kind of unusual. Still fairly young but his type of sensitivity on-screen doesn't feel like something the Academy will bestow mass laurels upon.
I think everyone respects Michael Shannon enormously but he's not chasing film success the way many actors do. His first love is the stage and he'll work with nobodies in film if his interest is struck. Also almost strictly a supporting player. But he's very much like Dafoe, so he might hit a hot period.
I think once Oscar Isaac gets over the first nomination hurdle, he could become a perennial.
Not discussed in the comments, but Adam Driver is a fascinating case. The next year seems like it could be his make-or-break (with Annette/Gucci/The Last Duel) in terms of how the industry views him. Everyone is aware of how talented he is, but there was definitely resistance for years from studios to cast him as a leading man. Is he competitive with Gosling? He also has quite a specific screen presence that the Academy might not want to over-award. It's really difficult to project with him. I have a friend who is convinced he could be the next Nicholson. I'm not quite there.
Fantastic work Nathaniel ! I was just at wiki last week to check out the ranking ...
I'm only missing Ewan McGregor on the list of "What would it take" ! .... would be actually a good new subject for Claudio to look at some of these careers ;-)
What do the Film Bitch Award actress and actor hierarchies look like?
Hopkings should win this Year. Sentiment should not win. Boseman was good yes. Nomination worthy yes, but win worthy in a strong actor field, like this? If he would still be alive, hopkins would definitly wind and hopefully so! PLEASE ACADEMY, PLEASE!!!! He is so deserving!!!