BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role

Best Actor in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film Award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.

From 1952 to 1967, there were two Best Actor awards: one for a British actor and another for a foreign actor.

In 1968, the two prizes of British and Foreign actor were combined to create a single Best Actor award.

Its current title, for Best Actor in a Leading Role, has been used since 1995.

Ralph Richardson was the first recipient of this award winning for The Sound Barrier (1952)
Black and white photo of Marlon Brando in the film, A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948
Marlon Brando won three times for Viva Zapata! (1952), Julius Caesar (1953), and On the Waterfront (1954)
John Gielgud won for Julius Caesar (1953)
Laurence Olivier won for Richard III (1955)
Ernest Borgnine won for Marty (1955)
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Peter Finch has won five times for A Town Like Alice (1956), The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960), No Love for Johnnie (1961), Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) and Network (1976)
Alec Guinness won for The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Henry Fonda won for 12 Angry Men (1957)
Black and white photo of Sidney Poitier in 1963
Sidney Poitier won in 1958 for his performance in The Defiant Ones , thus becoming the first black actor to win in this category [ 1 ] [ 2 ]
Jack Lemmon won for I'm All Right Jack (1958)
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Jack Lemmon won three times for Some Like It Hot (1959), The Apartment (1960) and The China Syndrome (1979)
Paul Newman won for The Hustler (1961)
Peter O'Toole won for No Love for Johnnie (1961)
Burt Lancaster won twice for his roles in Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) and Atlantic City (1981)
Marcello Mastroianni won twice in Divorce Italian Style (1963), and Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1964)
Photo of Richard Burton in The Robe, 1953
Richard Burton won for The Spy Who Came in from the Cold / Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
Richard Attenborough won in 1968 for his roles in the films Guns at Batasi / Seance on a Wet Afternoon
Lee Marvin won for The Killers / Cat Ballou (1965)
Paul Scofield won for A Man for All Seasons (1966)
Rod Steiger won twice consecutively for his roles in The Pawnbroker (1966) and In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Spencer Tracy won for his role in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (1968)
Photo of Dustin Hoffman attending the French premiere of his film, Quartet in 2013
Dustin Hoffman won twice for his roles in three films Midnight Cowboy / John and Mary (1969), and Tootsie (1983)
Robert Redford won for three films in 1970: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid / Downhill Racer / Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here
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Gene Hackman won for The French Connection and The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
Walter Matthau won for his roles in Charley Varrick and Pete 'n' Tillie (1973)
Photo of Jack Nicholson attending the Cannes Film Festival in 2002
Jack Nicholson won twice for The Last Detail / Chinatown (1974), and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Photo of Al Pacino attending the Venice Film Festival in 2004
Al Pacino won for The Godfather Part II / Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
John Hurt won for his role in The Elephant Man (1980)
Ben Kingsley won for Gandhi (1982)
Michael Caine won for Educating Rita (1983)
Sean Connery won for The Name of the Rose (1987)
John Cleese won for A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
Photo of Daniel Day-Lewis at the 2013 Jaguar Mille Miglia event.
Daniel Day-Lewis is the first actor to win this award four times, in 1989, 2002, 2007, and 2012, for his performances in My Left Foot , Gangs of New York , There Will Be Blood and Lincoln , respectively
Photo of Sir Anthony Hopkins at the 2009 Tuscan Sun Festival in Cortona, Italy
Anthony Hopkins won three times for The Silence of the Lambs (1991), The Remains of the Day (1993) and The Father (2020) [ 3 ]
Robert Downey Jr. won for Chaplin (1992)
Hugh Grant won for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
Geoffrey Rush won for Shine (1996)
Robert Carlyle won for The Full Monty (1997)
Roberto Benigni won for Life Is Beautiful (1998)
Kevin Spacey won for American Beauty (1999)
Jamie Bell won for Billy Elliot (2000)
Photo of Crowe at the London film premiere for State of Play, 21 April 2009
Russell Crowe won for playing John Forbes Nash Jr. in A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Bill Murray won for Lost in Translation (2003)
Jamie Foxx won for Ray (2004)
Philip Seymour Hoffman won for Capote (2005)
Forest Whitaker won for The Last King of Scotland (2006)
Mickey Rourke won for The Wrestler (2008)
Photo of Colin Firth at the San Diego Comic-Con International in 2017
Colin Firth won two consecutive Best Actor awards for his performances in 2009's A Single Man and 2010's The King's Speech
Jean Dujardin won for The Artist (2011)
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Chiwetel Ejiofor became the first black-British actor to win this category for his performance in 12 Years a Slave (2013)
Eddie Redmayne won for The Theory of Everything (2014)
Leonardo DiCaprio won for The Revenant (2015)
Casey Affleck won for Manchester by the Sea (2016)
Gary Oldman won for Darkest Hour (2017)
Rami Malek won for Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
Joaquin Phoenix won for Joker (2019)
Will Smith won for King Richard (2021).
Austin Butler won for Elvis (2022)
Cillian Murphy won for Oppenheimer (2023)