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Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Prior to the 49th Academy Awards...
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The Last Command
The Last Command (1928) is a silent film, written by John F. Goodrich and Herman J. Mankiewicz, from a story by Lajos Biró, and directed by Josef von Sternberg.
The plot concerns a Tsarist Russian officer, Grand Duke Sergeus Alexander (Emil Jannings...
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The Way of All Flesh
The Way of All Flesh is a 1927 film that was written by Lajos Biró, Jules Furthman, Julian Johnson and Ernest Maas from a story by Perley Poore Sheehan. The film was directed by Victor Fleming and is unrelated to Samuel Butler's novel The Way of All...
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In Old Arizona
In Old Arizona is a 1929 Western film, directed by Irving Cummings and Raoul Walsh, nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The film, which was based around the character of the Cisco Kid in the story The Caballero's Way by O....
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Disraeli
Disraeli (1929) is a film that was adapted by Julien Josephson and De Leon Anthony from a play by Louis N. Parker. The film was directed by Alfred E. Green.
The story is a highly fictionalized episode in the life of British Prime Minister Benjamin...
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The Green Goddess
The Green Goddess is the name of two American motion pictures, the first made in 1923 and the second in 1930.
The 1923 silent film was adapted for the screen by Forrest Halsey from the William Archer stage play also called The Green Goddess and...
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A Free Soul
A Free Soul (1931) is a Pre-Code film which tells the story of an alcoholic defense attorney who must defend his daughter's ex-boyfriend on a charge of murdering the mobster she had started a relationship with; a mobster whom her father had...
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The Champ
The Champ is a 1931 movie that was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. It was written by Frances Marion, Leonard Praskins and Wanda Tuchock, and directed by King Vidor. The movie stars Wallace Beery (Andy "Champ" Purcell) and Jackie...
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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) is a horror film directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Fredric March. The film is an adaptation of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), the Robert Louis Stevenson tale of a man who takes a potion which...
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The Private Life of Henry VIII
The Private Life of Henry VIII is a 1933 film about Henry VIII, King of England. It was written by Lajos Biró and Arthur Wimperis, and directed by Sir Alexander Korda.
Charles Laughton won the 1933 Academy Award as Best Actor for his performance as...
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It Happened One Night
It Happened One Night is an 1934 American comedy with elements of screwball comedy directed by Frank Capra, in which a pampered socialite (Claudette Colbert) tries to get out from under her father's thumb, and falls in love with a roguish reporter ...
The Informer
The Informer is a 1935 dramatic film, released by RKO. The plot concerns the underside of the Irish War of Independence, set in 1922. It stars Victor McLaglen, Heather Angel, Preston Foster, Margot Grahame, Wallace Ford, Una O'Connor and J.M....
The Story of Louis Pasteur
The Story of Louis Pasteur is a 1936 biographical film. It starred Paul Muni as the renowned scientist. It was written by Toni Pollastre and Sheridan Gibney, and Edward Chodorov (uncredited), and directed by William Dieterle.
The film was nominated...
Captains Courageous
Captains Courageous is a 1937 MGM family adventure film. Based on the novel by Rudyard Kipling, it had its world premiere at the elegant Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles. The movie was produced by Louis D. Lighton and directed by Victor Fleming...
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Boys Town
Boys Town (1938) is a biographical drama film based on Father Edward J. Flanagan's work with a group of disadvantaged and delinquent boys in a home that he founded and named "Boys Town". It stars Spencer Tracy as Father Edward J. Flanagan, and...
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Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a 1939 British film based on the novel of the same name by James Hilton. It was directed by Sam Wood, and starred Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills, and Paul Henreid. The screenplay was adapted from the...
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The Philadelphia Story
The Philadelphia Story is a 1940 romantic comedy film directed by George Cukor, starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and James Stewart. Based on a Broadway play of the same name by Philip Barry, with screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart and an...
Sergeant York
Sergeant York is a 1941 biographical film about the life of Alvin York, the most-decorated American soldier of World War I. It was directed by Howard Hawks and was the highest-grossing film of the year.
The movie was adapted by Harry Chandlee, Abem...
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Yankee Doodle Dandy
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) is a biographical musical film about George M. Cohan (pronounced "Coe-Han"), the actor / singer / dancer / playwright / songwriter / producer / theatre owner / director / choreographer known as "The Man Who Owns Broadway",...
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Watch on the Rhine
Watch on the Rhine is a 1943 American drama film directed by Herman Shumlin. The screenplay by Dashiell Hammett is based on the 1941 play of the same title by Lillian Helman.
In 1940, German-born engineer Kurt Muller, his American wife Sara, and...
Going My Way
Going My Way, a 1944 film directed by Leo McCarey. It is a light-hearted musical comedy/drama about a new young priest (Bing Crosby) taking over a parish from an established old veteran (Barry Fitzgerald). Crosby sings five songs in the film. It was...
The Lost Weekend
The Lost Weekend is a 1945 dramatic film directed by Billy Wilder and starring Ray Milland and Jane Wyman. The film was based on a novel of the same title by Charles R. Jackson about a writer who drinks heavily out of frustration over the accusation...
The Best Years of Our Lives
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) is an American drama film about three servicemen trying to piece their lives back together after coming home from World War II.
Samuel Goldwyn was motivated to produce the film after his wife Frances read an August...
A Double Life
A Double Life is a 1947 film noir which tells the story of an actor whose mind becomes affected by the character he portrays. The movie starred Ronald Colman and Signe Hasso. It was directed by George Cukor and written for the screen by Ruth Gordon...
Hamlet
Hamlet is a 1948 British film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, directed by and starring Sir Laurence Olivier. Hamlet was Olivier's second film as director, and also the second of his three Shakespeare films. It is the only one of...
All the King's Men
All the King's Men is a 1949 drama film based on the Robert Penn Warren novel of the same name. It was directed by Robert Rossen and starred Broderick Crawford in the role of Willie Stark.
All The King's Men is the story of the rise of politician...
Cyrano de Bergerac
Cyrano de Bergerac (1950) is a black-and-white feature film based on the 1897 French Alexandrine verse drama Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. It uses poet Brian Hooker's 1923 English blank verse translation as the basis for its screenplay. The...
The African Queen
The African Queen is an American 1951 drama film adapted from the 1935 novel by C. S. Forester. The film was directed by John Huston and produced by Sam Spiegel and John Woolf. The screenplay was adapted by James Agee, John Huston, John Collier and...
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High Noon
High Noon is an American 1952 western film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. The film tells in real time the story of a town marshal forced to face a gang of killers by himself. The screenplay was written by Carl...
Stalag 17
Stalag 17 is a 1953 war film which tells the story of a group of American airmen held in a German World War II prisoner of war camp, who come to suspect that one of their number is a traitor. It was adapted from a Broadway play.
Produced and...
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On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront is a 1954 American drama film about mob violence and corruption among longshoremen. The film was directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Rod Steiger, Karl Malden and Lee J....
Marty
Marty is a teleplay by Paddy Chayefsky which was telecast live May 24, 1953, on The Goodyear Television Playhouse with Rod Steiger in the title role. The 1955 film adaptation was directed by Delbert Mann, and starred Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair....
The King and I
The King and I is a 1956 musical film made by 20th Century Fox, directed by Walter Lang and produced by Charles Brackett and Darryl F. Zanuck. The screenplay by Ernest Lehman is based on the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II musical The King...
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 British World War II film by David Lean based on the novel The Bridge over the River Kwai by French writer Pierre Boulle. The film is a work of fiction but borrows the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942...
Separate Tables
Separate Tables is a 1958 American drama film based on two one-act plays by Terence Rattigan that were collectively known by this name. It was directed by Delbert Mann, and adapted by Rattigan, John Gay and an uncredited John Michael Hayes.
The film...
Ben-Hur
Ben-Hur (or Benhur) is a 1959 epic film directed by William Wyler, the third film version of Lew Wallace's 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. It premiered at Loew's State Theatre in New York City on November 18, 1959. The film went on to win...
Elmer Gantry
Elmer Gantry is a 1960 drama film about a con man and a female evangelist selling religion to small town America. Adapted by director Richard Brooks, the film is based on the 1927 novel by Sinclair Lewis and stars Burt Lancaster and Jean Simmons....
Judgment at Nuremberg
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) is a fictionalized film account of the post-World War II Nuremberg Trials, written by Abby Mann and directed by Stanley Kramer, starring Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich, Maximilian Schell...
To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill A Mockingbird is a 1962 American drama film adaptation of Harper Lee's novel of the same name. It was directed by Robert Mulligan and stars Mary Badham in the role of Scout and Gregory Peck in the role of Atticus Finch.
In 1995, the film was...
Lilies of the Field
Lilies of the Field is a 1962 book by William Edmund Barrett which was made into a 1963 film and adapted for the musical stage with the title Look to the Lilies. It tells the story of a Black-American itinerant worker who encounters a group of East...
My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady is a 1964 musical film adaptation of the Lerner and Loewe stage musical, My Fair Lady, based on the film adaptation of the stage play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. The ending and the ballroom scene are from the 1938 film Pygmalion...
Cat Ballou
Cat Ballou is a 1965 comedy-western film which tells the story of a woman who hires a famous gunman to protect her father's ranch, and later to avenge his murder, but finds that the man she hires is not what she expected. The movie stars Jane Fonda,...
A Man for All Seasons
A Man for All Seasons is a 1966 film based on Robert Bolt's play of the same name about Sir Thomas More. Paul Scofield, who had played More in the West End stage premiere, also took the role in the film. It was directed by Fred Zinnemann, who had...
In the Heat of the Night
In the Heat of the Night is a 1967 film based on the John Ball novel published in 1965, which tells the story of an African-American police detective from Philadelphia who becomes involved in a murder investigation in a racist small town in...
Charly
Charly is a 1968 film which tells the fictional story of a mentally challenged bakery worker who is the subject of an experiment to increase human intelligence. The film stars Cliff Robertson, Claire Bloom, Lilia Skala, Leon Janney and Dick Van...
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True Grit
True Grit is a 1969 Western film directed by Henry Hathaway and starring John Wayne as U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn. The film is adapted from the 1968 novel, True Grit, by Charles Portis.
After Frank Ross (John Pickard) is killed by his hired-hand,...
Patton
Patton (UK: Patton: Lust for Glory) is a 1970 biographical war film about U.S. General George S. Patton during World War II. It stars George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Michael Bates, and Karl Michael Vogler. It was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner from...
The French Connection
The French Connection is a 1971 American crime film directed by William Friedkin. The film was adapted and fictionalized by Ernest Tidyman from the non-fiction book by Robin Moore. It tells the story of New York Police Department detectives named ...
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American thriller film based on the 1969 novel of the same name by Mario Puzo and directed by Francis Ford Coppola from a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola, and Robert Towne (uncredited). It stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James...
Save the Tiger
Save the Tiger is a 1973 film which tells a story of moral conflict in modern America. It stars Jack Lemmon, Jack Gilford, Laurie Heineman, Thayer David, Lara Parker and Liv Lindeland. The film is adapted from the novel of the same title by Steve...
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Harry and Tonto
Harry and Tonto is a 1974 film directed by Paul Mazursky and starring Art Carney.
Harry Coombes is an elderly widower who is forced from his Upper West Side apartment in New York City when his building is condemned. He initially stays with his son's...
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a 1975 American drama film directed by Miloš Forman. The film is an adaptation of the 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. The movie was the second to win all five major Academy Awards (Best...
Network
Network is a 1976 satirical film about a fictional television network, Union Broadcasting System (UBS), and its struggle with poor ratings. It was written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet, and stars Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter...
The Goodbye Girl
The Goodbye Girl is a 1977 American comedy film. Directed by Herbert Ross, the film stars Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason, Quinn Cummings, and Paul Benedict. The original screenplay by Neil Simon centers on an odd trio—an egotistical struggling actor...
Coming Home
Coming Home is a 1978 drama film which tells the story of an injured Vietnam War veteran's difficulty in re-entering civilian life after his return from the war. It stars Jane Fonda, Jon Voight, Bruce Dern, Penelope Milford, Robert Carradine and...
Kramer vs. Kramer
Kramer vs. Kramer is a 1979 film adapted by Robert Benton from the novel by Avery Corman, and directed by Benton. The film tells the story of a married couple's divorce and its impact on everyone involved, including the couple's young son. It...
Raging Bull
Raging Bull is a 1980 American biographical film directed by Martin Scorsese, adapted by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin from the memoir Raging Bull: My Story. It stars Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta, a middleweight boxer whose sadomasochistic rage,...
Gandhi
Gandhi is a 1982 biographical film based on the life of Mahatma Gandhi, who led the nonviolent resistance movement against British colonial rule in India during the first half of the 20th century. The film was directed by Richard Attenborough and...
On Golden Pond
On Golden Pond is a 1981 American drama film directed by Mark Rydell. The screenplay by Ernest Thompson was adapted from his 1979 play of the same title.
The plot focuses on aging couple Ethel and Norman Thayer, who spend each summer at their home...
Tender Mercies
Tender Mercies is a 1983 American film drama directed by Bruce Beresford. The screenplay by Horton Foote focuses on Mac Sledge, a recovering alcoholic country music singer who seeks to turn his life around through his relationship with a young widow...
Amadeus
Peter Shaffer's Amadeus is a 1984 musical film directed by Miloš Forman and written by Peter Shaffer. Adapted from Shaffer's stage play Amadeus, the story is based loosely on the lives of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, two composers...
