| 1928 - | Emil Jannings, as Gen. Dolgorucki / Grand Duke Sergius Alexander, in The Last Command |
| 1929 - | Warner Baxter, as The Cisco Kid, in In Old Arizona |
| 1930 - | George Arliss, as Benjamin Disraeli, in Disraeli |
| 1931 - | Lionel Barrymore, as Stephen Ashe, in A Free Soul |
| 1932 - | Wallace Beery, as Andy "Champ" Purcell, in The Champ & Fredric March, as Dr. Henry L. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (tie) |
| 1933 - | Charles Laughton, as King Henry VIII of England, in The Private Life of Henry VIII |
| 1934 - | Clark Gable, as Peter Warne, in It Happened One Night |
| 1935 - | Victor McLaglen, as Gypo Nolan, in The Informer |
| 1936 - | Paul Muni, as Louis Pasteur, in The Story of Louis Pasteur |
| 1937 - | Spencer Tracy, as Manuel, in Captains Courageous |
| 1938 - | Spencer Tracy, as Father Flanagan, in Boys Town |
| 1939 - | Robert Donat, as Arthur Chipping, in Goodbye, Mr. Chips |
| 1940 - | James Stewart, as Macaulay Connor, in The Philadelphia Story |
| 1941 - | Gary Cooper, as Alvin C. York, in Sergeant York |
| 1942 - | James Cagney, as George M. Cohan, in Yankee Doodle Dandy |
| 1943 - | Paul Lukas, as Kurt Muller, in Watch on the Rhine |
| 1944 - | Bing Crosby, as Father Chuck O'Malley, in Going My Way |
| 1945 - | Ray Milland, as Don Birnam, in The Lost Weekend |
| 1946 - | Fredric March, as Al Stephenson, in The Best Years of Our Lives |
| 1947 - | Ronald Colman, as Anthony John, in A Double Life |
| 1948 - | Laurence Olivier, as Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, in Hamlet |
| 1949 - | Broderick Crawford, as Willie Stark, in All the King's Men |
| 1950 - | José Ferrer, as Cyrano de Bergerac, in Cyrano de Bergerac |
| 1951 - | Humphrey Bogart, as Charlie Allnut, in The African Queen |
| 1952 - | Gary Cooper, as Marshal Will Kane, in High Noon |
| 1953 - | William Holden, as Sgt. J.J. Sefton, in Stalag 17 |
| 1954 - | Marlon Brando, as Terry Malloy, in On the Waterfront |
| 1955 - | Ernest Borgnine, as Marty Piletti, in Marty |
| 1956 - | Yul Brynner, as King Mongkut of Siam, in The King and I |
| 1957 - | Alec Guinness, as Colonel Nicholson, in The Bridge on the River Kwai |
| 1958 - | David Niven, as Major Angus Pollock, in Separate Tables |
| 1959 - | Charlton Heston, as Judah Ben-Hur, in Ben-Hur |
| 1960 - | Burt Lancaster, as Elmer Gantry, in Elmer Gantry |
| 1961 - | Maximilian Schell, as Hans Rolfe, in Judgment at Nuremberg |
| 1962 - | Gregory Peck, as Atticus Finch, in To Kill a Mockingbird |
| 1963 - | Sidney Poitier, as Homer Smith, in Lilies of the Field |
| 1964 - | Rex Harrison, as Professor Henry Higgins, in My Fair Lady |
| 1965 - | Lee Marvin, as Kid Shelleen, in Cat Ballou |
| 1966 - | Paul Scofield, as Sir Thomas More, in A Man for All Seasons |
| 1967 - | Rod Steiger, as Police Chief Bill Gillespie, in In the Heat of the Night |
| 1968 - | Cliff Robertson, as Charly Gordon, in Charly |
| 1969 - | John Wayne, as Rooster Cogburn, in True Grit |
| 1970 - | George C. Scott, as Gen. George S. Patton Jr., in Patton |
| 1971 - | Gene Hackman, as Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, in The French Connection |
| 1972 - | Marlon Brando, as Vito Corleone, in The Godfather |
| 1973 - | Jack Lemmon, as Harry Stoner, in Save the Tiger |
| 1974 - | Art Carney, as Harry Coombes, in Harry and Tonto |
| 1975 - | Jack Nicholson, as Randle Patrick McMurphy, in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest |
| 1976 - | Peter Finch, as Howard Beale, in Network |
| 1977 - | Richard Dreyfuss, as Elliot Garfield, in The Goodbye Girl |
| 1978 - | Jon Voight, as Luke Martin, in Coming Home |
| 1979 - | Dustin Hoffman, as Ted Kramer, in Kramer vs. Kramer |
| 1980 - | Robert De Niro, as Jake LaMotta, in Raging Bull |
| 1981 - | Henry Fonda, as Norman Thayer, in On Golden Pond |
| 1982 - | Ben Kingsley, as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, in Gandhi |
| 1983 - | Robert Duvall, as Mac Sledge, in Tender Mercies |
| 1984 - | F. Murray Abraham, as Antonio Salieri, in Amadeus |
| 1985 - | William Hurt, as Luis Molina, in Kiss of the Spider Woman |
| 1986 - | Paul Newman, as Fast Eddie Felson, in The Color of Money |
| 1987 - | Michael Douglas, as Gordon Gekko, in Wall Street |
| 1988 - | Dustin Hoffman, as Raymond Babbitt, in Rain Man |
| 1989 - | Daniel Day-Lewis, as Christy Brown, in My Left Foot |
| 1990 - | Jeremy Irons, as Claus von Bülow, in Reversal of Fortune |
| 1991 - | Anthony Hopkins, as Hannibal Lecter, in The Silence of the Lambs |
| 1992 - | Al Pacino, as Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade, in Scent of a Woman |
| 1993 - | Tom Hanks, as Andrew Beckett, in Philadelphia |
| 1994 - | Tom Hanks, as Forrest Gump, in Forrest Gump |
| 1995 - | Nicolas Cage, as Ben Sanderson, in Leaving Las Vegas |
| 1996 - | Geoffrey Rush, as David Helfgott, in Shine |
| 1997 - | Jack Nicholson, as Melvin Udall, in As Good as It Gets |
| 1998 - | Roberto Benigni, as Guido Orefice, in Life Is Beautiful |
| 1999 - | Kevin Spacey, as Lester Burnham, in American Beauty |
| 2000 - | Russell Crowe, as Maximus Decimus Meridius, in Gladiator |
| 2001 - | Denzel Washington, as Alonzo Harris, in Training Day |
| 2002 - | Adrien Brody, as Wladyslaw Szpilman, in The Pianist |
| 2003 - | Sean Penn, as Jimmy Markum, in Mystic River |
| 2004 - | Jamie Foxx, as Ray Charles, in Ray |
| 2005 - | Philip Seymour Hoffman, as Truman Capote, in Capote |
| 2006 - | Forest Whitaker, as Idi Amin, in The Last King of Scotland |
| 2007 - | Daniel Day-Lewis, as Daniel Plainview, in There Will Be Blood |
| 2008 - | Sean Penn, as Harvey Milk, in Milk |
| 2009 - | Jeff Bridges, as Bad Blake, in Crazy Heart |
| 2010 - | Colin Firth, as King George VI, in The King's Speech |
