We are down to exactly 11 days until the 87th Academy Awards. Let’s continue the countdown to Hollywood’s most important awards show with a look at the history of the Best Actor award.
However, there are a handful of two-time Best Actor winners. Marlon Brando, Gary Cooper, Dustin Hoffman, Tom Hanks, Fredric March, Jack Nicholson, Sean Penn and Spencer Tracy all won the award twice.
And if any one is curious, there is no way to actually see all Best Actor Oscar-winning performances. In 1929, Emil Jannings won the first award, which listed his performances in Josef Von Sternberg’s moody classic The Last Command and Victor Fleming’s The Way of All Flesh. The Fleming film is considered a lost film. (Lewis Stone’s Oscar-nominated performance in The Patriot will also never be seen. That film is also considered lost and is the only Best Picture nominee where no complete print exists.)
Since there are so many nominees, there may have been some you have forgotten about in the previous 86 years. So, we’re taking a look at some forgotten nominees who didn’t come home with the win.
The list is in chronological order.