Oscar Actor Hierarchy 2024 Edition
Tuesday, March 12, 2024 at 12:00PM by Nathaniel R
Just one more nomination and the Poor Things men will make the list!
When we last updated the male version of this list Anthony Hopkins had yet to win his second Oscar for The Father (2021). Also moving up the list since then are Denzel Washington (who forced an expansion of the throne room itself with his 9th acting nod via Tragedy of Macbeth) and Robert De Niro with his 8th nomination for Killers of the Flower Moon. Despite a few moves up the latter the only "new" entry is Bradley Cooper, scoring his 5th acting nod for Maestro though that poor things duo Mark Ruffalo (just nominated) and Willem Dafoe (just missed) both feel likely to enter in the next year or three given how often they work and the plum roles that come there way. They have identical Oscar stats with 4 nominations and 0 wins each.
What follows is a list of Oscar's 35 All Time Favorite Actors. As with the women 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.)
🔺 =indicates movement up the chart since the 2020 nominations
† = deceased so their stats won't change
OSCAR'S FIVE 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
05 🔺 Denzel Washington 9 noms | 2 wins
The top men are practically in a dead heat, stats wise, which means the throne room was already overstuffed with four men... and then Denzel Washington entered not so long ago! Their counterpart queens for a Holy Trinity and are way out in front of the pack: Streep, Hepburn, Davis)
THE PRINCES
06 Al Pacino 9 noms | 1 win
07 Marlon Brando † 8 noms | 2 wins
08 🔺 Robert De Niro 8 noms | 2 wins
09 Jack Lemmon † 8 noms | 2 wins
10 Peter O'Toole † 8 noms | 0 wins | honorary
11 Dustin Hoffman 7 noms | 2 wins
12 Daniel Day-Lewis 6 noms | 3 wins
DUKES
13 Jeff Bridges 7 noms | 1 win
14 Robert Duvall 7 noms | 1 win
15 Tom Hanks 6 noms | 2 wins
16 🔺 Anthony Hopkins 6 noms | 2 wins
17 Michael Caine 6 noms | 2 wins
18 Richard Burton † 7 noms | 0 wins
19 Leonardo DiCaprio 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
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
31 🔺 Bradley Cooper 5 noms | 0 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...
🔺 Javier Bardem, 🔺 Mark Ruffalo, Christian Bale, 🔺 Willem Dafoe, Joaquin Phoenix, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Ed Harris
3-timers that feel possible for a fourth...
Russell Crowe, Woody Harrelson, Gary Oldman, Viggo Mortensen, Edward Norton, and 🔺 Ryan Gosling
2-Timers that feel possible for a third with the right role...
Mahershala Ali, Benicio del Toro, Adam Driver, 🔺 J.K. Simmons, Ethan Hawke, 🔺Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Kaluuya, Sam Rockwell, Michael Shannon, Michael Fassbender, and (we pray) Ralph Fiennes
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 (6)
I think Denzel has everything to keep getting nominations. His next role is the Spike Lee-directed remake of one of the greatest films of all time, Akira Kurosawa's High and Low. In Mifune's role, I can easily see him winning like Pacino in Scent of a Woman, riffing on a performance by Vittorio Gassman.
Also, he has this Hannibal epic for Netflix and he'll be in Gladiator 2.
Washington is the one I think will rise further maybe eventually tie Jack,he's always good and though i'm more of a fan of his unnominated work like Courage Under Fire or Devil in a Blue Dress he has come very close at least once since his 2nd win.
Denzel feels primed for a third Oscar, and I wouldn't be shocked if it happens with Spike Lee. Denzel always does the work for a buzzed role, and I think he'd have a strong narrative in a Spike joint. He seems to have a good sense of when to coast on movie star charisma (aka most of his action/thriller films) and when to dig deep (his nominated roles). He also does a ton of press for his in-contention roles, and is really supportive to up and coming actors.
Javier Bardem and Christian Bale will be here. Bale makes strange choices, but it's easy to see him making it back. Bardem works a lot and seems to have a good track record of making it in for films with decent buzz.
One big difference between this list and the actresses, is that the Academy seems to have given a lot of honorary Oscars to actors with wins.
Perhaps a Hot Take, but I think Denzel is already over-nominated. Those noms for Flight and MacBeth were, ahem, generous to say the least, and the one for Roman J Israel, Esq was a real head-scratcher. I think he can often make very lazy choices.
I could see Jeff Bridges or Tom Hanks coming through with one more nomination, and Sean Penn if he ever decided to come back to acting.
And Bradley Cooper feels likely for another two, three, or four nominations ahead...he's very young and super talented.
The better performance won.
Did the better performance win last year? No.
Now that the Oscar season is an entire year long, there is far too much politicking and commentary about why certain actors should win.
This year felt like everyone wanted to anoint a winner to make up for the atrocities of how governments have treated an entire group of people.
If we want the best performance to win, we need to remove politics.
EricB: So you are saying Denzel is the male equivalent of Meryl Streep?