List of Best Actor winners by age at win

This is a list of winners of the Academy Award of Merit for Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to an actor who has Delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. More popularly known as the Academy Award (or the Oscar) for Best Actor, this award was initially presented at the 1st Academy Awards ceremony for 1927 and 1928 and was most recently presented at the 79th Academy Awards ceremony for 2006. Throughout the past 79 years, accounting for ties and repeat winners, AMPAS has presented a total of 80 Best Actor awards to 73 different actors. This is a list of winners arranged in descending order by age of the actor on the date of the award ceremony in which he was named Best Actor.

List of winners

Rank	Name	Film	Annual	Year	Date of Birth	Date of Award	Notes
1	Henry Fonda	On Golden Pond	54th	1981	May 16, 1905	March 29, 1982
2	John Wayne	True Grit	42nd	1969	May 26, 1907	April 7, 1970
3	George Arliss	Disraeli	3rd	1929 / 1930	April 10, 1868	November 5, 1930
4	Paul Newman	The Color of Money	59th	1986	January 26, 1925	March 30, 1987
5	Jack Nicholson	As Good As It Gets	70th	1997	April 22, 1937	March 23, 1998
6	Peter Finch	Network	49th	1976	September 28, 1916	March 28, 1977	Posthumous
7	Ronald Colman	A Double Life	20th	1947	February 9, 1891	March 20, 1948
8	Rex Harrison	My Fair Lady	37th	1964	March 5, 1908	April 5, 1965
9	Art Carney	Harry and Tonto	47th	1974	November 4, 1918	April 8, 1975
10	Anthony Hopkins	The Silence of the Lambs	64th	1991	December 31, 1937	March 30, 1992
11	Lionel Barrymore	A Free Soul	4th	1930 / 1931	April 28, 1878	November 10, 1931
12	Robert Duvall	Tender Mercies	56th	1983	January 5, 1931	April 9, 1984
13	Al Pacino	Scent of a Woman	65th	1992	April 25, 1940	March 29, 1993
14	Humphrey Bogart	The African Queen	24th	1951	December 25, 1899	March 20, 1952
15	Gary Cooper	High Noon	25th	1952	May 7, 1901	March 19, 1953
16	Dustin Hoffman	Rain Man	61st	1988	August 8, 1937	March 29, 1989
17	Fredric March	The Best Years of Our Lives	19th	1946	August 31, 1897	March 13, 1947
18	Victor McLaglen	The Informer	8th	1935	December 10, 1886	March 5, 1936
19	Jack Lemmon	Save the Tiger	46th	1973	February 8, 1925	April 2, 1974
20	David Niven	Separate Tables	31st	1958	March 1, 1910	April 6, 1959
21	Marlon Brando	The Godfather	45th	1972	April 3, 1924	March 27, 1973	Refused
22	Paul Lukas	Watch on the Rhine	16th	1943	May 26, 1895	March 2, 1944
23	Wallace Beery	The Champ	5th	1931 / 1932	April 1, 1885	November 18, 1932	Tie
24	Burt Lancaster	Elmer Gantry	33rd	1960	November 2, 1913	April 17, 1961
25	Denzel Washington	Training Day	74th	2001	December 28, 1954	March 24, 2002
26	Gregory Peck	To Kill a Mockingbird	35th	1962	April 5, 1916	April 8, 1963
27	Roberto Benigni	Life Is Beautiful	71st	1998	October 27, 1952	March 21, 1999
28	Geoffrey Rush	Shine	69th	1996	July 6, 1951	March 24, 1997
29	Forest Whitaker	The Last King of Scotland	79th	2006	July 15, 1961	February 25, 2007
30	F. Murray Abraham	Amadeus	57th	1984	October 24, 1939	March 25, 1985
31	Paul Scofield	A Man for All Seasons	39th	1966	January 21, 1922	April 10, 1967
32	Emil Jannings	The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh	1st	1927 / 1928	July 23, 1884	May 16, 1929
33	Alec Guinness	The Bridge on the River Kwai	30th	1957	April 2, 1914	March 26, 1958
34	James Cagney	Yankee Doodle Dandy	15th	1942	July 17, 1899	March 4, 1943
35	Cliff Robertson	Charly	41st	1968	September 9, 1925	April 14, 1969
36	Michael Douglas	Wall Street	60th	1987	September 25, 1944	April 11, 1988
37	Sean Penn	Mystic River	76th	2003	August 17, 1960	February 29, 2004
38	George C. Scott	Patton	43rd	1970	October 18, 1927	April 15, 1971	Refused
39	Rod Steiger	In the Heat of the Night	40th	1967	April 14, 1925	April 10, 1968
40	Dustin Hoffman	Kramer vs. Kramer	52nd	1979	August 8, 1937	April 14, 1980
41	Jeremy Irons	Reversal of Fortune	63rd	1990	September 19, 1948	March 25, 1991
42	José Ferrer	Cyrano de Bergerac	23rd	1950	January 8, 1909	March 29, 1951
43	Gene Hackman	The French Connection	44th	1971	January 30, 1930	April 10, 1972
44	Lee Marvin	Cat Ballou	38th	1965	February 19, 1924	April 18, 1966
45	Bing Crosby	Going My Way	17th	1944	May 3, 1903	March 15, 1945
46	Laurence Olivier	Hamlet	21st	1948	May 22, 1907	March 24, 1949
47	Paul Muni	The Story of Louis Pasteur	9th	1936	September 22, 1895	March 4, 1937
48	Warner Baxter	In Old Arizona	2nd	1928 / 1929	March 29, 1889	April 3, 1930
49	Gary Cooper	Sergeant York	14th	1941	May 7, 1901	February 26, 1942
50	Kevin Spacey	American Beauty	72nd	1999	July 26, 1959	March 26, 2000
51	Jon Voight	Coming Home	51st	1978	December 29, 1938	April 9, 1979
52	Ben Kingsley	Gandhi	55th	1982	December 31, 1943	April 11, 1983
53	Ray Milland	The Lost Weekend	18th	1945	January 3, 1907	March 7, 1946
54	Ernest Borgnine	Marty	28th	1955	January 24, 1917	March 21, 1956
55	Jack Nicholson	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest	48th	1975	April 22, 1937	March 29, 1976
56	Spencer Tracy	Boys Town	11th	1938	April 5, 1900	February 23, 1939
57	Tom Hanks	Forrest Gump	67th	1994	July 9, 1956	March 27, 1995
58	Philip Seymour Hoffman	Capote	78th	2005	July 23, 1967	March 5, 2006
59	Broderick Crawford	All the King's Men	22nd	1949	December 9, 1911	March 23, 1950
60	Spencer Tracy	Captains Courageous	10th	1937	April 5, 1900	March 10, 1938
61	Tom Hanks	Philadelphia	66th	1993	July 9, 1956	March 21, 1994
62	Robert De Niro	Raging Bull	53rd	1980	August 17, 1943	March 31, 1981
63	Jamie Foxx	Ray	77th	2004	December 13, 1967	February 27, 2005
64	Sidney Poitier	Lilies of the Field	36th	1963	February 20, 1927	April 13, 1964
65	Russell Crowe	Gladiator	73rd	2000	April 7, 1964	March 25, 2001
66	Yul Brynner	The King and I	29th	1956	July 11, 1920	March 27, 1957
67	William Hurt	Kiss of the Spider Woman	58th	1985	March 20, 1950	March 24, 1986
68	William Holden	Stalag 17	26th	1953	April 17, 1918	March 25, 1954
69	Charlton Heston	Ben-Hur	32nd	1959	October 4, 1924	April 4, 1960
70	Fredric March	Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde	5th	1931 / 1932	August 31, 1897	November 18, 1932	Tie
71	Robert Donat	Goodbye, Mr. Chips	12th	1939	March 18, 1905	February 29, 1940
72	Charles Laughton	The Private Life of Henry VIII	6th	1932 / 1933	July 1, 1899	March 16, 1934
73	Clark Gable	It Happened One Night	7th	1934	February 1, 1901	February 27, 1935
74	Daniel Day-Lewis	My Left Foot	62nd	1989	April 29, 1957	March 26, 1990
75	James Stewart	The Philadelphia Story	13th	1940	May 20, 1908	February 27, 1941
76	Nicolas Cage	Leaving Las Vegas	68th	1995	January 7, 1964	March 25, 1996
77	Maximilian Schell	Judgment at Nuremberg	34th	1961	December 8, 1930	April 9, 1962
78	Marlon Brando	On the Waterfront	27th	1954	April 3, 1924	March 30, 1955
79	Richard Dreyfuss	The Goodbye Girl	50th	1977	October 29, 1947	April 3, 1978
80	Adrien Brody	The Pianist	75th	2002	April 14, 1973	March 23, 2003

External links

Oscars.org (official Academy site)
Oscar.com (official ceremony promotional site)
The Academy Awards Database (official site)

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List of Best Actor winners by age at win

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List of Best Actor winners by age at win

List of winners

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See Also

List of male film actors (L-Z)

List of male film actors (A-K)

List of Japanese Prime Ministers by longevity

Oldest living United States governor

List of United States politicians by generation