by Richard Winterton

Created on: December 08, 2009   Last Updated: December 15, 2009

The Academy Award for Best Actor is awarded each year to an outstanding actor in a leading role, as decided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Before 1977, it was known as the "Academy Award of Merit for Performance by an Actor", yet has more commonly been referred to as simply the "Best Actor" award. During the first 3 Academy Awards' ceremonies, the nominated actor was acknowledged for his performances in up to 3 films. The 1931 ceremony, however, changed this so that actors nominated in this category were only nominated for their performances in a single role. The first actor to win an Academy Award for Best Actor was Emil Jennings in 1928. He is also the first non-American to win the award and the only performer to win for two films in the same year (The Last Command (1928) and The Way of All Flesh (1927).

Over the 81-year history of the Academy Awards, there have been 82 Best Actor Oscars awarded to 73 different actors. Only 9 actors in the history of academy have achieved Best Actor twice, including Sean Penn, Jack Nicholson, Tom Hanks and Marlon Brando. The only time in which two actors tied was during the 1931-32, in which the vote was split between Wallace Beery for his performance in The Champ (1931) and Frederic Marsh for Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1931). Spencer Tracy and Lawrence Oliver both hold the distinction for most number of nominations (each nominated 9 times), while British actor Peter O' Toole has been nominated 8 times, the most without actually winning.

Only 9 actors have been nominated for awards for what might be considered their debut roles (as leading men). Only 2, Ben Kingsley for Ghandi (1982) and Geoffrey Rush for Shine (1996), have won for debut performances. Others, such as Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate or Orson Welles in Citizen Kane, were only nominated for their debut roles. There have only been 3 actors who won an award for dual roles in the same film. They are Federic March as the title characters of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Lawrence Oliver for Hamlet and the voice of his dead father in Hamlet (1948), and Lee Marvin as Tim Strawn and Kid Shelleen in Cat Ballou (1965). 15th century English monarch Henry VIII is noted for being the most Oscar friendly role. Actors noted for the portrayal of the English King are Charles Laughton in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), Robert Shaw in A Man for All Seasons (1966) and Richard Burton in Anne of the Thousand Days (1969). The only actor to win as Henry VIII, however,

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