1996
Cuba Gooding Jr.---Jerry Maguire
William H. Macy---Fargo
Armin Mueller-Stahl---Shine
Edward Norton---Primal Fear
James Woods---Ghosts of Mississippi
1995
Kevin Spacey---The Usual Suspects
James Cromwell---Babe
Ed Harris---Apollo 13
Brad Pitt---12 Monkeys
Tim Roth---Rob Roy
1994
Martin Landau---Ed Wood
Samuel L. Jackson---Pulp Fiction
Chazz Palmintieri---Bullets Over Broadway
Paul Scofield---Quiz Show
Gary Sinise---Forrest Gump
1993
Tommy Lee Jones---The Fugitive
Leonardo DiCaprio---What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
Ralph Fiennes---Schindler’s List
John Malkovich---In the Line of Fire
Pete Postlethaite---In the Name of the Father
1992
Gene Hackman---Unforgiven
Jaye Davidson---The Crying Game
Jack Nicholson---A Few Good Men
Al Pacino---Glengarry Glen Ross
David Paymer---Mr. Saturday Night
1991
Jack Palance---City Slickers
Tommy Lee Jones---JFK
Harvey Keitel---Bugsy
Ben Kingsley---Bugsy
Michael Lerner---Barton Fink
1990
Joe Pesci---GoodFellas
Bruce Davison---Longtime Companion
Andy Garcia---The Godfather, Part III
Graham Greene---Dances With Wolves
Al Pacino---Dick Tracy
1989
Denzel Washington---Glory
Dan Ackroyd---Driving Miss Daisy
Danny Aiello---Do the Right Thing
Marlon Brando---A Dry White Season
Martin Landau---Crimes and Misdemeanors
1988
Kevin Kline---A Fish Called Wanda
Alec Guinness---Little Dorrit
Martin Landau---Tucker: The Man and his Dream
River Phoenix---Running on Empty
Dean Stockwell---Married to the Mob
1987
Sean Connery---The Untouchables
Albert Brooks---Broadcast News
Morgan Freeman---Street Smart
Vincent Gardenia---Moonstruck
Denzel Washington---Cry Freedom
1986
Michael Caine---Hannah and Her Sisters
Tom Berenger---Platoon
Willem Dafoe---Platoon
Denholm Elliot---A Room With A View
Dennis Hopper---Hoosiers
1985
Don Ameche---Cocoon
Klaus Maria Brandauer---Out of Africa
William Hickey---Prizzi’s Honor
Robert Loggia---Jagged Edge
Eric Roberts---Runaway Train
1984
Haing S. Ngor---The Killing Fields
Adolph Caesar---A Soldier’s Story
John Malkovich---Places in the Heart
Pat Morita---The Karate Kid
Ralph Richardson---Greystroke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes
1983
Jack Nicholson---Terms of Endearment
Charles Durning---To Be or Not to Be
John Lithgow---Terms of Endearment
Sam Shepard---The Right Stuff
Rip Torn---Cross Creek
1982
Louis Gossett Jr.---An Officer and a Gentleman
Charles Durning---The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
John Lithgow---The World According to Garp
James Mason---The Verdict
Robert Preston---Victor/Victoria
1981
John Gielgud---Arthur
James Coco---Only When I Laugh
Ian Holm---Chariots of Fire
Jack Nicholson---Reds
Howard E. Rollins---Ragtime
1980
Timothy Hutton---Ordinary People
Judd Hirsch---Ordinary People
Michael O’Keefe---The Great Santini
Joe Pesci---Raging Bull
Jason Robards---Melvin and Howard
1979
Melvyn Douglas---Being There
Robert Duvall---Apocalypse Now
Frederic Forrest---The Rose
Justin Henry---Kramer vs. Kramer
Mickey Rooney---The Black Stallion
1978
Christopher Walken---The Deer Hunter
Bruce Dern---Coming Home
Richard Farnsworth---Comes a Horseman
John Hurt---Midnight Express
Jack Warden---Heaven Can Wait
1977
Jason Robards---Julia
Mikhail Baryshnikov---The Turning Point
Peter Firth---Equus
Alec Guinness---Star Wars
Maximillian Schell---Julia
1976
Jason Robards---All The President’s Men
Ned Beatty---Network
Burgess Meredith---Rocky
Laurence Olivier---Marathon Man
Burt Young---Rocky
1975
George Burns---The Sunshine Boys
Brad Dourif---One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Burgess Meredith---The Day of the Locust
Chris Sarandon---Dog Day Afternoon
Jack Warden---Shampoo
1974
Robert De Niro---The Godfather, Part II
Fred Astaire---The Towering Inferno
Jeff Bridges---Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
Michael V. Gazzo---The Godfather, Part II
Lee Strasberg---The Godfather, Part II
1973
John Houseman---The Paper Chase
Vincent Gardenia---Bang the Drum Slowly
Jack Gilford---Save the Tiger
Jason Miller---The Exorcist
Randy Quaid---The Last Detail
1972
Joel Grey---Cabaret
Eddie Albert---The Heartbreak Kid
James Caan---The Godfather
Robert Duvall---The Godfather
Al Pacino---The Godfather
1971
Ben Johnson---The Last Picture Show
Jeff Bridges---The Last Picture Show
Leonard Frey---Fiddler on the Roof
Richard Jaeckel---Sometimes a Great Notion
Roy Schieder---The French Connection
1970
John Mills---Ryan’s Daughter
Richard Castellano---Lovers and Other Strangers
Chief Dan George---Little Big Man
Gene Hackman---I Never Sang For My Father
John Marley---Love Story
1969
Gig Young---They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
Rupert Crosse---The Reivers
Elliot Gould---Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
Jack Nicholson---Easy Rider
Anthony Quayle---Anne of the Thousand Days
1968
Jack Albertson---The Subject Was Roses
Seymour Cassel---Faces
Daniel Massey---Star!
Jack Wild---Oliver
Gene Wilder---The Producers
1967
George Kennedy---Cool Hand Luke
John Cassavetes---The Dirty Dozen
Gene Hackman---Bonnie and Clyde
Cecil Kellaway---Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
Michael J. Pollard---Bonnie and Clyde
1966
Walter Matthau---The Fortune Cookie
Mako---The Sand Pebbles
James Mason---Georgy Girl
George Segal---Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Robert Shaw---A Man for All Seasons
1965
Martin Balsam---A Thousand Clowns
Ian Bannen---The Flight of the Phoenix
Tom Courtenay---Doctor Zhivago
Michael Dunn---Ship of Fools
Frank Finlay---Othello
1964
Peter Ustinov---Topkapi
John Gielgud---Becket
Stanley Holloway---My Fair Lady
Edmond O’Brien---Seven Days in May
Lee Tracy---The Best Man
1963
Melvyn Douglas---Hud
Nick Adams---Twilight of Honor
Bobby Darin---Captain Newman, M.D.
Hugh Griffith---Tom Jones
John Huston---The Cardinal
1962
Ed Begley Jr.---Sweet Bird of Youth
Victor Buono---Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
Telly Savalas---The Bird Man of Alcatraz
Omar Sharif---Lawrence of Arabia
Terence Stamp---Billy Budd
1961
George Chakiris---West Side Story
Montgomery Clift---Judgment at Nuremburg
Peter Falk---Pocketful of Miracles
Jackie Gleason---The Hustler
George C. Scott---The Hustler
1960
Peter Ustinov---Spartacus
Peter Falk---Murder Inc.
Jack Kruschen---The Apartment
Sal Mineo---Exodus
Chill Willis---The Alamo
1959
Hugh Griffith---Ben-Hur
Arthur O’ Connell---Anatomy of a Murder
George C. Scott---Anatomy of a Murder
Robert Vaughan---The Young Philadelphians
Ed Wynn---The Diary of Anne Frank
1958
Burl Ives---The Big Country
Theodore Bikel---The Defiant Ones
Lee J. Cobb---The Brothers Karamazov
Arthur Kennedy---Some Came Running
Gig Young---Teacher’s Pet
1957
Red Buttons---Sayonara
Vittorio de Sica---A Farewell to Arms
Sessu Hayakawa---The Bridge on the River Kwai
Arthur Kennedy---Peyton Place
Russ Tamblyn---Peyton Place
1956
Anthony Quinn---Lust for Life
Don Murray---Bus Stop
Anthony Perkins---Friendly Persuasion
Mickey Rooney---The Bold and the Beautiful
Robert Stack---Written on the Wind
1955
Jack Lemmon---Mister Roberts
Arthur Kennedy---Trial
Joe Mantell---Marty
Sal Mineo---Rebel Without a Cause
Arthur O’Connell---Picnic
1954
Edmond O’Brien---The Barefoot Contessa
Lee J. Cobb---On the Waterfront
Karl Malden---On the Waterfront
Rod Steiger---On the Waterfront
Tom Tully---The Caine Mutiny
1953
Frank Sinatra---From Here to Eternity
Eddie Albert---Roman Holiday
Brandon de Wilde---Shane
Jack Palance---Shane
Robert Strauss---Stalag 17
1952
Anthony Quinn---Viva Zapata!
Richard Burton---My Cousin Rachel
Arthur Hunnicutt---The Big Sky
Victor McLaglen---The Quiet Man
Jack Palance---Sudden Fear
1951
Karl Malden---A Streetcar Named Desire
Leo Genn---Quo Vadis
Kevin McCarthy---Death of a Salesman
Peter Ustinov---Quo Vadis
Gig Young---Come Fill the Cup
1950
George Sanders---All About Eve
Jeff Chandler---Broken Arrow
Edmund Gwenn---Mister 880
Sam Jaffe---The Asphalt Jungle
Erich Von Stronheim---Sunset Boulevard
1949
Dean Jagger---12 O’Clock High
John Ireland---All the King’s Men
Arthur Kennedy---Champion
Ralph Richardson---The Heiress
James Whitmore---Battleground
1948
Walter Huston---The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Charles Bickford---Johnny Belinda
Jose Ferrer---Joan of Arc
Oscar Homolka---I Remember Mama
Cecil Kellaway---Luck of the Irish
1947
Edmund Gwenn---Miracle of 34th Street
Charles Bickford---The Farmer’s Daughter
Thomas Gomez---Ride the Pink Horse
Robert Ryan---Crossfire
Richard Widmark---Kiss of Death
1946
Harold Russell---The Best Years of Our Lives
Charles Coburn---The Green Years
William Demaret---The Jolson Story
Claude Rains---Notorious
Clifton Webb---The Razor’s Edge
1945
James Dunn---A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Michael Chekhov---Spellbound
John Dall---The Corn is Green
Robert Mitchum---The Story of G.I. Joe
J. Carrol Naish---A Medal for Benny
1944
Barry Fitzgerald---Going My Way
Hume Cronyn---The Seventh Cross
Claude Rains---Mr. Skeffington
Clifton Webb---Laura
Monty Woolley---Since You Went Away
1943
Charles Coburn---The More the Merrier
Charles Bickford---The Song of Bernadette
J. Carrol Naish---Sahara
Claude Rains---Casablanca
Akim Tamiroff---For Whom the Bell Tolls
1942
Van Heflin---Johnny Eager
William Bendix---Wake Island
Walter Huston---Yankee Doodle Dandy
Frank Morgan---Tortilla Flat
Henry Travers---Mrs. Miniver
1941
Donald Crisp---How Green Was My Valley
Walter Brennan---Sergeant York
Charles Coburn---The Devil and Miss Jones
James Gleason---Here Comes Mr. Jordan
Sydney Greenstreet---The Maltese Falcon
1940
Walter Brennan---The Westerner
Albert Baserman---Foreign Correspondent
William Gargan---They Knew What They Wanted
Jack Oakie---The Great Dictator
James Stephenson---The Letter
1939
Thomas Mitchell---Stagecoach
Brian Aherne---Juarez
Harry Carey---Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Brian Donlevy---Beau Geste
Claude Rains---Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
1938
Walter Brennan---Kentucky
John Garfield---Four Daughters
Gene Lockhart---Algiers
Robert Morley---Marie Antoinette
Basil Rathbone---If I Were King
1937
Joseph Schildkraut---The Life of Emile Zola
Ralph Bellamy---The Awful Truth
Thomas Mitchell---The Hurricane
H.B. Warner---Lost Horizon
Roland Young---Topper
1936
Walter Brennan---Come and Get It
Mischa Auer---My Man Godfrey
Stuart Erwin---Pigskin Parade
Basil Rathbone---Romeo and Juliet
Akim Tamiroff---The General Died at Dawn