15 Actors with the Most Best Actor Oscar Wins in History
When you look at the Academy’s top honor for leading men, a small group stands apart for winning it more than once. These are the actors who have collected the most Best Actor statuettes, with the films and years that secured their place in Oscar history.
As of 2025, one performer sits alone with three wins, while a growing club has earned two. To round out the list, a few one-time winners with towering resumes appear as well, since they share the next-highest total and help complete a clear picture of who has earned the most in this category over the decades.
Daniel Day-Lewis
Daniel Day-Lewis holds a record three Best Actor Oscars for ‘My Left Foot’ in 1989, ‘There Will Be Blood’ in 2007, and ‘Lincoln’ in 2012. He is the only man to reach three wins in the category, and his Best Actor nominations also include ‘In the Name of the Father’, ‘Gangs of New York’, and ‘Phantom Thread’.
Each winning role was rooted in real or historically grounded figures. Christy Brown’s life story anchored ‘My Left Foot’, oilman Daniel Plainview drove the period epic ‘There Will Be Blood’, and the title role in ‘Lincoln’ capped a sweep that included Best Actor across major precursor awards.
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Tracy won consecutive Best Actor awards for ‘Captains Courageous’ in 1937 and ‘Boys Town’ in 1938. He was the first performer to achieve back to back wins in this category.
Tracy earned nine Best Actor nominations in total, which ties the category record. His career spans the formative studio era, and his two winning performances came from prestige dramas that were central to MGM’s slate in the late 1930s.
Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks won Best Actor for ‘Philadelphia’ in 1993 and again for ‘Forrest Gump’ in 1994. He is one of only two actors to win Best Actor in consecutive years.
His additional Best Actor nominations include ‘Big’, ‘Saving Private Ryan’, ‘Cast Away’, and ‘Captain Phillips’ was widely recognized across other categories. He later returned to the ceremony as a nominee in supporting for ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’.
Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson has two Best Actor wins for ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ in 1975 and ‘As Good as It Gets’ in 1997. He also owns a third Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for ‘Terms of Endearment’ in 1983.
Nicholson is a twelve-time Oscar nominee, with eight of those in Best Actor. His winning roles bookend two eras, from the New Hollywood breakout of the mid-1970s to a late-1990s lead that joined a broad group of nominations for the film across the ballot.
Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins won Best Actor for ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ in 1991 and for ‘The Father’ in 2020. The latter made him the oldest winner in any acting category at age eighty-three.
His Best Actor nominations also include ‘The Remains of the Day’, ‘Nixon’, ‘Amistad’, and ‘The Two Popes’. The two wins reflect long-spanning recognition that began in the early 1990s and continued three decades later.
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando won Best Actor for ‘On the Waterfront’ in 1954 and for ‘The Godfather’ in 1972. He did not attend the 1973 ceremony and declined the award in a protest that became one of the most documented Oscar moments.
Brando’s two wins came alongside several additional Best Actor nominations, including ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ and ‘Last Tango in Paris’. His first win aligned with Elia Kazan’s multiple Oscars for ‘On the Waterfront’, while the second followed one of the most watched films of the decade.
Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper won Best Actor for ‘Sergeant York’ in 1941 and for ‘High Noon’ in 1952. He later received an Honorary Award in 1961 for career achievements.
Cooper accumulated further Best Actor nominations for films such as ‘Mr. Deeds Goes to Town’ and ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’. His two wins reflect both wartime storytelling and a landmark Western that has remained central to discussions of the genre.
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman won Best Actor for ‘Kramer vs. Kramer’ in 1979 and for ‘Rain Man’ in 1988. He received additional Best Actor nominations for ‘The Graduate’, ‘Midnight Cowboy’, ‘Lenny’, ‘Tootsie’, and ‘Wag the Dog’.
His two wins cover family drama and a road-movie character study. Both performances also earned major industry prizes throughout their release seasons, placing Hoffman among the most nominated actors in the category.
Sean Penn
Sean Penn won Best Actor for ‘Mystic River’ in 2003 and for ‘Milk’ in 2008. His other Best Actor nominations include ‘Dead Man Walking’, ‘Sweet and Lowdown’, and ‘I Am Sam’.
The two wins represent distinct biographical and contemporary roles. Each performance also aligned with picture and director recognition for Clint Eastwood and Gus Van Sant in their respective years.
Fredric March
Fredric March won Best Actor for ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ in 1931 and for ‘The Best Years of Our Lives’ in 1946. The 1932 ceremony produced a rare tie in voting with Wallace Beery, and March was officially declared a co-winner.
His second win came for a postwar ensemble that collected multiple Oscars. March’s nominations also include ‘A Star Is Born’, which added to a long record of recognition across the 1930s and 1940s.
Adrien Brody
Adrien Brody won Best Actor for ‘The Pianist’ in 2002 and won again for ‘The Brutalist’, a 2024 release honored at the 2025 ceremony. He was twenty-nine at the time of his first win, which remains the youngest Best Actor victory.
The 2025 award elevated him into the two-time winners group for this category. Between those wins he continued to collect nominations and festival prizes across international projects and studio features.
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro has one Best Actor Oscar for ‘Raging Bull’ in 1980. He also won Best Supporting Actor for ‘The Godfather Part II’ in 1974.
His other Best Actor nominations include ‘Taxi Driver’, ‘The Deer Hunter’, ‘Awakenings’, and ‘Cape Fear’. He later added further nominations in supporting and as a producer, reflecting a long span of Academy recognition.
Denzel Washington
Denzel Washington has one Best Actor Oscar for ‘Training Day’ in 2001 and one Best Supporting Actor Oscar for ‘Glory’ in 1989. He is the most nominated Black actor in Academy history across all categories.
His additional Best Actor nominations include ‘Malcolm X’, ‘The Hurricane’, ‘Flight’, ‘Fences’, ‘Roman J. Israel, Esq.’, and ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’. This combination places him among the performers with the most overall acting nominations.
Al Pacino
Al Pacino has one Best Actor Oscar for ‘Scent of a Woman’ in 1992. His nominations in Best Actor also include ‘The Godfather Part II’ in a different category where he was recognized for supporting, while his lead nominations span ‘Serpico’, ‘Dog Day Afternoon’, and ‘…And Justice for All’.
Across his career he gathered multiple additional nominations in both lead and supporting. His Academy history shows recognition for work in courtroom drama, crime stories, and contemporary character studies.
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio has one Best Actor Oscar for ‘The Revenant’ in 2015. His other Best Actor nominations include ‘The Aviator’, ‘Blood Diamond’, ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, and ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’, and he also earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination for ‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape’.
His awards record includes further nominations as a producer on Best Picture contenders. He has remained a frequent nominee across the 2000s and 2010s with films that also drew wide recognition in directing, writing, and technical categories.
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