1927/28;Emil Jannings;The Way of All Flesh;Victor Fleming
1928/29;Warner Baxter;In Old Arizona;Irving Cummings
1929/30;George Arliss;Disraeli;Alfred E. Green
1930/31;Lionel Barrymore;A Free Soul;Clarence Brown
1931/32;Wallace Beery;The Champ;Franco Zeffirelli
1932/33;Charles Laughton;The Private Life of Henry VIII;Alexander Korda
1934;Clark Gable;It Happened One Night;Frank Capra
1935;Victor McLaglen;The Informer;John Ford
1936;Paul Muni;The Story of Louis Pasteur;William Dieterle
1937;Spencer Tracy;Captains Courageous;Victor Fleming
1938;Spencer Tracy;Boys Town;Norman Taurog
1939;Robert Donat;Goodbye, Mr. Chips;Sam Wood
1940;James Stewart;The Philadelphia Story;George Cukor
1941;Gary Cooper;Sergeant York;Howard Hawks
1942;James Cagney;Yankee Doodle Dandy;Michael Curtiz
1943;Paul Lukas;Watch on the Rhine;Herman Shumlin
1944;Bing Crosby;Going My Way;Leo McCarey
1945;Ray Milland;The Lost Weekend;Billy Wilder
1946;Frederic March;The Best Years of Our Lives;William Wyler
1947;Ronald Colman;A Double Life;George Cukor
1948;Laurence Olivier;Hamlet;Laurence Olivier
1949;Broderick Crawford;All the King's Men;Robert Rossen
1950;Jose Ferrer;Cyrano de Bergerac;Michael Gordon
1951;Humphrey Bogart;The African Queen;John Huston
1952;Gary Cooper;High Noon;Fred Zinnemann
1953;William Holden;Stalag 17;Billy Wilder
1954;Marlon Brando;On the Waterfront;Elia Kazan
1955;Ernest Borgnine;Marty;Delbert Mann
1956;Yul Brynner;The King and I;Walter Lang
1957;Alec Guinness;The Bridge on the River Kwai;David Lean
1958;David Niven;Separate Tables;Delbert Mann
1959;Charlton Heston;Ben-Hur;William Wyler
1960;Burt Lancaster;Elmer Gantry;Richard Brooks
1961;Maximilian Schell;Judgment at Nuremberg;Stanley Kramer
1962;Gregory Peck;To Kill a Mockingbird;Robert Mulligan
1963;Sidney Poitier;Lilies of the Field;Ralph Nelson
1964;Rex Harrison;My Fair Lady;Ralph Nelson
1965;Lee Marvin;Cat Ballou;Elliot Silverstein
1966;Paul Scofield;A Man for All Seasons;Fred Zinnemann
1967;Rod Steiger;In the Heat of the Night;Norman Jewison
1968;Cliff Robertson;Charly;Ralph Nelson
1969;John Wayne;True Grit;Henry Hathaway
1970;George C. Scott;Patton;Franklin J. Schaffner
1971;Gene Hackman;The French Connection;William Friedkin
1972;Marlon Brando;The Godfather;Francis Ford Coppola
1973;Jack Lemmon;Save the Tiger;John G. Avildsen
1974;Art Carney;Harry and Tonto;Paul Mazursky
1975;Jack Nicholson;One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest;Miloš Forman
1976;Peter Finch;Network;Sidney Lumet
1977;Richard Dreyfuss;The Goodbye Girl;Herbert Ross
1978;Jon Voight;Coming Home;Hal Ashby
1979;Dustin Hoffman;Kramer vs. Kramer;Robert Benton
1980;Robert De Niro;Raging Bull;Martin Scorsese
1981;Henry Fonda;On Golden Pond;Mark Rydell
1982;Ben Kingsley;Gandhi;Richard Attenborough
1983;Robert Duvall;Tender Mercies;Bruce Beresford
1984;F. Murray Abraham;Amadeus;Miloš Forman
1985;William Hurt;Kiss of the Spider Woman;Héctor Babenco
1986;Paul Newman;The Color of Money;Martin Scorsese
1987;Michael Douglas;Wall Street;Oliver Stone
1988;Dustin Hoffman;Rain Man;Barry Levinson
1989;Daniel Day-Lewis;My Left Foot;Jim Sheridan
1990;Jeremy Irons;Reversal of Fortune;Barbet Schroeder
1991;Anthony Hopkins;The Silence of the Lambs;Jonathan Demme
1992;Al Pacino;Scent of a Woman;Martin Brest
1993;Tom Hanks;Philadelphia;Jonathan Demme
1994;Tom Hanks;Forrest Gump;Robert Zemeckis
1995;Nicolas Cage;Leaving Las Vegas;Mike Figgis
1996;Geoffrey Rush;Shine;Scott Hicks
1997;Jack Nicholson;As Good as It Gets;James L. Brooks
1998;Roberto Benigni;Life is Beautiful;Roberto Benigni
1999;Kevin Spacey;American Beauty;Sam Mendes
2000;Russell Crowe;Gladiator;Ridley Scott
2001;Denzel Washington;Training Day;Antoine Fuqua
2002;Adrien Brody;The Pianist;Roman Polanski
2003;Sean Penn;Mystic River;Clint Eastwood
2004;Jamie Foxx;Ray;Taylor Hackford
2005;Philip Seymour Hoffman;Capote;Bennett Miller
2006;Forest Whitaker;The Last King of Scotland;Kevin Macdonald
2007;Daniel Day-Lewis;There Will Be Blood;Paul Thomas Anderson
2008;Sean Penn;Milk;Gus Van Sant
2009;Jeff Bridges;Crazy Heart;Scott Cooper
2010;Colin Firth;The King's Speech;Tom Hooper
2011;Jean Dujardin;The Artist;Michel Hazanavicius
2012;Daniel Day-Lewis;Lincoln;Steven Spielberg
2013;Matthew McConaughey;Dallas Buyers Club;Jean-Marc Vallée
2014;Eddie Redmayne;The Theory of Everything;James Marsh
2015;Leonardo DiCaprio;The Revenant;Alejandro González Iñárritu
2016;Casey Affleck;Manchester by the Sea;Kenneth Lonergan
2017;Gary Oldman;Darkest Hour;Joe Wright
2018;Rami Malek;Bohemian Rhapsody;Bryan Singer