My choices for best actor from 1920-2017, featuring the theme from 1492: Conquest of Paradise by Vangelis.
1920: John Barrymore, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
1921: Victor Sjostrom, The Phantom Carriage
1922: Max Schreck, Nosferatu
1923: Harold Lloyd, Safety Last!
1924: Gibson Gowland, Greed
1925: Lon Chaney, Phantom of the Opera
1926: Gösta Ekman, Faust
1927: Alfred Dieudonné, Napoleon
1928: Conrad Veidt, The Man Who Laughs
1929: Ronald Colman, Bulldog Drummond
1930: Lew Ayres, All Quiet on the Western Front
1931: Peter Lorre, M
1932: Boris Karloff, The Mummy
1933: Charles Laughton, Private Life of Henry VIII
1934: Harry Baur, Les Misérables
1935: Victor McLaglen, The Informer
1936: Charlie Chaplin, Modern Times
1937: Spencer Tracy, Captains Courageous
1938: James Cagney, Angels with Dirty Faces
1939: Charles Laughton, The Hunchback of Notre Dame
1940: Charlie Chaplin, The Great Dictator
1941: Gary Cooper, Meet John Doe
1942: Humphrey Bogart, Casablanca
1943: Joseph Cotten, Shadow of a Doubt
1944: Nikolai Cherkasov, Ivan the Terrible: Part I
1945: Ray Milland, The Lost Weekend
1946: James Stewart, It’s a Wonderful Life
1947: Robert Mitchum, Out of the Past
1948: Humphrey Bogart, Treasure of the Sierra Madre
1949: James Cagney, White Heat
1950: James Stewart, Harvey
1951: Robert Walker, Strangers on a Train
1952: Takashi Shimura, Ikiru
1953: William Holden, Stalag 17
1954: James Stewart, Rear Window
1955: Ernest Borgnine, Marty
1956: James Mason, Bigger Than Life
1957: Andy Griffith, A Face in the Crowd
1958: Kirk Douglas, The Vikings
1959: Bradford Dillman, Compulsion
1960: Anthony Perkins, Psycho
1961: Maximilian Schell, Judgment at Nuremberg
1962: Gregory Peck, To Kill a Mockingbird
1963: Steve McQueen, The Great Escape
1964: Peter Sellers, Dr. Strangelove
1965: Richard Burton, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
1966: Rock Hudson, Seconds
1967: Robert Blake, In Cold Blood
1968: Henry Fonda, Once Upon a Time in the West
1969: William Holden, The Wild Bunch
1970: Gian Maria Volonte, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
1971: Topol, Fiddler on the Roof
1972: Al Pacino, The Godfather
1973: Jack Lemmon, Save the Tiger
1974: Gene Hackman, The Conversation
1975: Al Pacino, Dog Day Afternoon
1976: Peter Finch, Network
1977: Bruno Ganz, The American Friend
1978: Anthony Hopkins, Magic
1979: Roy Scheider, All That Jazz
1980: John Hurt, The Elephant Man
1981: Jurgen Prochnow, Das Boot
1982: Paul Newman, The Verdict
1983: Peter Billingsley, A Christmas Story
1984: Harry Dean Stanton, Paris, Texas
1985: Aleksey Kravchenko, Come and See
1986: Jeff Goldblum, The Fly
1987: Max von Sydow, Pelle the Conqueror
1988: Eric Bogosian, Talk Radio
1989: Daniel Day-Lewis, My Left Foot
1990: Robert De Niro, Awakenings
1991: John Turturro, Barton Fink
1992: Clint Eastwood, Unforgiven
1993: David Thewlis, Naked
1994: Linus Roache, Priest
1995: Sam Neill, In the Mouth of Madness
1996: Billy Bob Thornton, Sling Blade
1997: Russell Crowe, L.A. Confidential
1998: Peter Mullan, My Name is Joe
1999: Richard Farnsworth, The Straight Story
2000: Guy Pearce, Memento
2001: Gene Hackman, The Royal Tenenbaums
2002: Jack Nicholson, About Schmidt
2003: Nicolas Cage, Matchstick Men
2004: Daniel Craig, Enduring Love
2005: Ray Winstone, The Proposition
2006: Ulrich Muhe, The Lives of Others
2007: Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
2008: Brendan Gleeson, In Bruges
2009: Sharlto Copley, District 9
2010: Javier Bardem, Biutiful
2011: Jean Dujardin, The Artist
2012: (Tie) Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master & Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
2013: Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
2014: Michael Keaton, Birdman
2015: Paul Dano, Love & Mercy
2016: Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water
2017: Harry Dean Stanton, Lucky
