Alternative Best Actor Winners and Nominees - In the English Language
by luukhulsman | created - 06 Feb 2017 | updated - 06 Feb 2017 | PublicI decided to select (sometimes) alternative winners and nominees for the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role. I also extended the number of nominees to ten, to make sure that more great performances are taken into account.
1. Leonardo DiCaprio
Actor | Inception
Few actors in the world have had a career quite as diverse as Leonardo DiCaprio's. DiCaprio has gone from relatively humble beginnings, as a supporting cast member of the sitcom Growing Pains (1985) and low budget horror movies, such as Critters 3 (1991), to a major teenage heartthrob in the 1990s,...
2015
Winning for "The Revenant"
Nominees:
Tom Courtenay - "45 Years"
Bryan Cranston - "Trumbo"
Matt Damon - "The Martian"
Michael Fassbender - "Steve Jobs"
Tom Hanks - "Bridge of Spies"
Michael B. Jordan - "Creed"
Ian McKellen - "Mr. Holmes"
Eddie Redmayne - "The Danish Girl"
Jacob Tremblay - "Room
2. Eddie Redmayne
Actor | Les Misérables
British actor Eddie Redmayne won the Academy Award for Best Actor (for The Theory of Everything (2014)).
Edward John David Redmayne was born and raised in London, England, the son of Patricia (Burke) and Richard Charles Tunstall Redmayne, a businessman. His great-grandfather was Sir Richard ...
2014
Winning for "The Theory of Everything"
Nominees:
Steve Carell - "Foxcatcher"
Bradley Cooper - "American Sniper"
Benedict Cumberbatch - "The Imitation Game"
Ralph Fiennes - "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
Jake Gyllenhaal - "Nightcrawler"
Philip Seymour Hoffman - "A Most Wanted Man"
Michael Keaton - "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)"
Matthew McConaughey - "Interstellar"
David Oyelowo - "Selma"
3. Matthew McConaughey
Actor | Interstellar
American actor and producer Matthew David McConaughey was born in Uvalde, Texas. His mother, Mary Kathleen (McCabe), is a substitute school teacher originally from New Jersey. His father, James Donald McConaughey, was a Mississippi-born gas station owner who ran an oil pipe supply business. He is ...
2013
Winning for "Dallas Buyers Club"
Nominees:
Christian Bale - "American Hustle"
Bruce Dern - "Nebraska"
Leonardo DiCaprio - "The Wolf of Wall Street"
Chiwetel Ejiofor - "12 Years a Slave"
Jake Gyllenhaal - "Prisoners"
Tom Hanks - "Captain Phillips"
Oscar Isaac - "Inside Llewelyn Davis"
Joaquin Phoenix - "Her"
Robert Redford - "All Is Lost"
4. Daniel Day-Lewis
Actor | There Will Be Blood
Born in London, England, Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is the second child of Cecil Day-Lewis, Poet Laureate of the U.K., and his second wife, actress Jill Balcon. His maternal grandfather was Sir Michael Balcon, an important figure in the history of British cinema and head of the famous Ealing ...
2012
Winning for "Lincoln"
Nominees:
Bradley Cooper - "Silver Linings Playbook"
Jake Gyllenhaal - "End of Watch"
Tom Hardy - "Lawless"
John Hawkes - "The Sessions"
Hugh Jackman - "Les Misérables"
Frank Langella - "Robot & Frank"
Joaquin Phoenix - "The Master"
Suraj Sharma - "Life of Pi"
Denzel Washington - "Flight"
5. Jean Dujardin
Actor | The Artist
In 1995 he began his first one man show, the same year he met Bruno Salomone, Eric Collado, Emmanuel Joucla and Eric Massot with whom he created the "Nous Ç Nous". In 1999, he became "Loulou" in Un gars, une fille (1999). This part permitted him to show his talent to a larger public. Since the end ...
2011
Winning for "The Artist"
Nominees:
Demián Bichir - "A Better Life"
George Clooney - "The Descendants"
Michael Fassbender - "Shame"
Joseph Gordon-Levitt - "50/50"
Ryan Gosling - "Drive"
Tom Hardy - "Warrior"
Gary Oldman - "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy"
Brad Pitt - "Moneyball"
Michael Shannon - "Take Shelter"
6. Colin Firth
Actor | A Single Man
Colin Andrew Firth was born into an academic family in Grayshott, Hampshire, England. His mother, Shirley Jean (Rolles), was a comparative religion lecturer at the Open University, and his father, David Norman Lewis Firth, lectured on history at Winchester University College (formerly King Alfred's...
2010
Winning for "The King's Speech"
Nominees:
Ben Affleck - "The Town"
Jeff Bridges - "True Grit"
Leonardo DiCaprio - "Inception"
Leonardo DiCaprio - "Shutter Island"
Robert Duvall - "Get Low"
Jesse Eisenberg - "The Social Network"
James Franco - "127 Hours"
Ryan Gosling - "Blue Valentine"
Ewan McGregor - "The Ghost Writer"
7. Jeff Bridges
Actor | The Big Lebowski
Jeffrey Leon Bridges was born on December 4, 1949 in Los Angeles, California, the son of well-known film and TV star Lloyd Bridges and his long-time wife Dorothy Dean Bridges (née Simpson). He grew up amid the happening Hollywood scene with big brother Beau Bridges. Both boys popped up, without ...
2009
Winning for "Crazy Heart"
Nominees:
George Clooney - "Up in the Air"
Sharlto Copley - "District 9"
Colin Firth - "A Single Man"
Morgan Freeman - "Invictus"
Joseph Gordon-Levitt - "(500) Days of Summer"
Viggo Mortensen - "The Road"
Jeremy Renner - "The Hurt Locker"
Sam Rockwell - "Moon"
Michael Stuhlbarg - "A Serious Man"
8. Mickey Rourke
Actor | Sin City
Mickey Rourke was born Phillip Andre Rourke, Jr. on September 16, 1952, in Schenectady, New York, the son of Annette Elizabeth (Cameron) and Philip Andre Rourke. His father was of Irish and German descent, and his mother was of mostly English and French-Canadian ancestry. When he was six years old,...
2008
Winning for "The Wrestler"
Nominees:
Leonardo DiCaprio - "Revolutionary Road"
Clint Eastwood - "Gran Torino"
Colin Farrell - "In Bruges"
Michael Fassbender - "Hunger"
Brendan Gleeson - "In Bruges"
Richard Jenkins - "The Visitor"
Frank Langella - "Frost/Nixon"
Sean Penn - "Milk"
Brad Pitt - "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
9. Daniel Day-Lewis
Actor | There Will Be Blood
Born in London, England, Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is the second child of Cecil Day-Lewis, Poet Laureate of the U.K., and his second wife, actress Jill Balcon. His maternal grandfather was Sir Michael Balcon, an important figure in the history of British cinema and head of the famous Ealing ...
2007
Winning for "There Will Be Blood"
Nominees:
Christian Bale - "Rescue Dawn"
Josh Brolin - "No Country for Old Men"
George Clooney - "Michael Clayton"
Johnny Depp - "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
Tommy Lee Jones - "In the Valley of Elah"
James McAvoy - "Atonement"
Viggo Mortensen - "Eastern Promises"
Brad Pitt - "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"
Denzel Washington - "American Gangster"
10. Forest Whitaker
Actor | The Last King of Scotland
Forest Steven Whitaker has packaged a king-size talent into his hulking 6' 2", 220 lb. frame. He won an Academy Award for his performance as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the film The Last King of Scotland (2006), and has also won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA. He is the fourth African-American male to...
2006
Winning for "The Last King of Scotland"
Nominees:
Christian Bale - "The Prestige"
Daniel Craig - "Casino Royale"
Leonardo DiCaprio - "Blood Diamond"
Leonardo DiCaprio - "The Departed"
Ryan Gosling - "Half Nelson"
Peter O'Toole - "Venus"
Clive Owen - "Children of Men"
Brad Pitt - "Babel"
Will Smith - "The Pursuit of Happyness"
11. Philip Seymour Hoffman
Actor | The Master
Film and stage actor and theater director Philip Seymour Hoffman was born in the Rochester, New York, suburb of Fairport to Marilyn (Loucks), a lawyer and judge, and Gordon Stowell Hoffman, a Xerox employee, and was mostly of German, Irish, English and Dutch ancestry. After becoming involved in ...
2005
Winning for "Capote"
Nominees:
Russell Crowe - "Cinderella Man"
Robert Downey, Jr. - "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang"
Ralph Fiennes - "The Constant Gardener"
Terrence Howard - "Hustle & Flow"
Tommy Lee Jones - "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada"
Heath Ledger - "Brokeback Mountain"
Viggo Mortensen - "A History of Violence"
Joaquin Phoenix - "Walk the Line"
David Strathairn - "Good Night, and Good Luck"
12. Jamie Foxx
Actor | Collateral
Jamie Foxx is an American actor, singer and comedian. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor, BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, for his work in the biographical film Ray (2004). The same year, he was nominated for the Academy...
2004
Winning for "Ray"
Nominees:
Christian Bale - "The Machinist"
Jim Carrey - "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"
Don Cheadle - "Hotel Rwanda"
Tom Cruise - "Collateral"
Johnny Depp - "Finding Neverland"
Leonardo DiCaprio - "The Aviator"
Clint Eastwood - "Million Dollar Baby"
Paul Giamatti - "Sideways"
Bill Murray - "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou"
Tell Your Friends