The Top 25 Best Actor Winners So Far (Updated for 2026)

Welcome back to the column, folks! Believe it or not, this series is close to done with for this year, as we’ve come to one of the last installments. In fact, it’s the penultimate one. We can mourn that next week, but for now, we press on. Continuing a tradition I’ve been keen on for years, I’m ranking the new crop of Academy Award winners. For nearly all of the Oscar categories, you’ll see me list the top 25 recipients of that prize. Sometimes, our newest winner will appear. Other times, they’ll be relegated to the Honorable Mention category. Who knows, maybe one or two won’t even make the cut? It’s a list series that I’ll do each and every single year, in the weeks after the ceremony concludes. So, while this is a fun way to think about the Oscars in the aftermath of the latest telecast, it’s also a beginning for another column here on the site. Of course, definitely show us your own lists as well, in the comments section below. We’re definitely keen to know what you think!

Another big one is coming today for you all…Best Actor! Yes, the Best Actor category, one of the most prestigious at the Academy Awards (so much so that it infamously came after Best Picture at a recent ceremony, misbegotten as that choice was). Actor often is where movie stars get to be honored, sometimes for their best work, but often in films that just happen to have them at the right place and the right time. My top picks, however, don’t fall into that trap. Perhaps controversially, my top two winners of this Oscar are Nicolas Cage for Leaving Las Vegas (my all-time favorite acting performance, overall) and Tom Hanks for Philadelphia. The next five on this list, in alphabetical order to maintain some mystery, would be Casey Affleck for Manchester by the Sea, Marlon Brando for On the Waterfront, Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln, Robert De Niro for Raging Bull, and Jack Nicholson for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. What of Anthony Hopkins, one of our more recent winners, you might ask? His performance in The Father did initially make my top ten, but you’ll have to read on below to find out exactly where it falls this year, just like with our more recent winners in Brendan Fraser for The Whale, Cillian Murphy for Oppenheimer, and Adrien Brody‘s second win for The Brutalist. What of Michael B. Jordan, our newest winner for Sinners? Read on to find out…

Here now are what I consider to be the 25 best winners of the Oscar for Best Actor, to date:

25. Ernest Borgnine – Marty
24. Forest Whitaker – The Last King of Scotland
23. Sean Penn – Milk
22. Michael B. Jordan – Sinners
21. George C. Scott – Patton
20. Jack Nicholson – As Good As It Gets
19. Cillian Murphy – Oppenheimer
18. Gene Hackman – The French Connection
17. Laurence Olivier – Hamlet
16. Philip Seymour Hoffman – Capote
15. Marlon Brando – The Godfather
14. Gregory Peck – To Kill a Mockingbird
13. Brendan Fraser – The Whale
12. Anthony Hopkins – The Father
11. Peter Finch – Network
10. Tom Hanks – Forrest Gump
9. Daniel Day-Lewis – There Will Be Blood
8. Anthony Hopkins – The Silence of the Lambs
7. Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea
6. Jack Nicholson – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
5. Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln
4. Marlon Brando – On the Waterfront
3. Robert De Niro – Raging Bull
2. Tom Hanks – Philadelphia
1. Nicolas Cage – Leaving Las Vegas

Honorable Mention: Adrien Brody – The Brutalist, Colin Firth – The King’s Speech, Dustin Hoffman – Rain Man, Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything, Cliff Robertson – Charly, and Kevin Spacey – American Beauty

Stay tuned for the final category next week!