National Board of Review Award for Best Actor

The National Board of Review Award for Best Actor is one of the annual film awards given (since 1945) by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.

Winners

• † = Academy Award for Best Actor
• ‡ = Nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor
• ¥ = Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
• § = Nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor

1940s

Year	Winner	Film	Role
1945	Ray Milland †	The Lost Weekend	Don Birnam
1946	Laurence Olivier ‡	Henry V	King Henry V
1947	Michael Redgrave ‡	Mourning Becomes Electra	Orin Mannon
1948	Walter Huston ¥	The Treasure of the Sierra Madre	Howard
1949	Ralph Richardson	The Heiress	Austin Sloper §
		The Fallen Idol	Baines

1950s

Year	Winner	Film	Role
1950	Alec Guinness	Kind Hearts and Coronets	Various
1951	Richard Basehart	Fourteen Hours	Robert Cosick
1952	Ralph Richardson	Breaking the Sound Barrier	John Ridgefield
1953	James Mason	The Desert Rats	Field Marshal Erwin von Rommel
		Face to Face	The Captain
		The Man Between	Ivo Kern
		Julius Caesar	Brutus
1954	Bing Crosby ‡	The Country Girl	Frank Elgin
1955	Ernest Borgnine †	Marty	Marty Piletti
1956	Yul Brynner	Anastasia	General Sergei Pavlovich Bounine
		The King and I	King Mongkut of Siam †
		The Ten Commandments	Pharaoh Rameses II
1957	Alec Guinness †	The Bridge on the River Kwai	Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson
1958	Spencer Tracy	The Last Hurrah	Mayor Frank Skeffington
		The Old Man and the Sea	The Old Man / Narrator ‡
1959	Victor Sjöström	Wild Strawberries	Professor Isak Borg

1960s

Year	Winner	Film	Role
1960	Robert Mitchum	Home from the Hill	Wade Hunnicutt
		The Sundowners	Paddy Carmody
1961	Albert Finney	Saturday Night and Sunday Morning	Arthur Seaton
1962	Jason Robards, Jr.	Long Day's Journey Into Night	James Tyrone, Jr.
		Tender is the Night	Dick Diver
1963	Rex Harrison ‡	Cleopatra	Julius Caesar
1964	Anthony Quinn ‡	Zorba the Greek (Alexis Zorbas)	Alexis Zorba
1965	Lee Marvin	Cat Ballou	Kid Shelleen/Tim Strawn †
		Ship of Fools	Bill Tenny
1966	Paul Scofield †	A Man for All Seasons	Thomas More
1967	Peter Finch	Far from the Madding Crowd	William Boldwood
1968	Cliff Robertson †	Charly	Charly Gordon
1969	Peter O'Toole ‡	Goodbye, Mr. Chips	Arthur Chipping

1970s

Year	Winner	Film	Role
1970	George C. Scott †	Patton	George S. Patton
1971	Gene Hackman †	The French Connection	Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle
1972	Peter O'Toole	Man of La Mancha	Don Quixote de La Mancha
		The Ruling Class	Jack Gurney ‡
1973	Al Pacino ‡	Serpico	Frank Serpico
	Robert Ryan	The Iceman Cometh	Larry Slade
1974	Gene Hackman	The Conversation	Harry Caul
1975	Jack Nicholson †	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest	Randle McMurphy
1976	David Carradine	Bound for Glory	Woody Guthrie
1977	John Travolta ‡	Saturday Night Fever	Tony Manero
1978	Jon Voight †	Coming Home	Luke Martin
	Laurence Olivier ‡	The Boys from Brazil	Ezra Lieberman
1979	Peter Sellers ‡	Being There	Chance

1980s

Year	Winner	Film	Role
1980	Robert De Niro †	Raging Bull	Jake LaMotta
1981	Henry Fonda †	On Golden Pond	Norman Thayer
1982	Ben Kingsley †	Gandhi	Mahatma Gandhi
1983	Tom Conti	Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence	John Lawrence
		Reuben, Reuben	Gowan McGland ‡
1984	Victor Banerjee	A Passage to India	Aziz H. Ahmed
1985	William Hurt †	Kiss of the Spider Woman	Luis Molina
	Raúl Juliá		Valentin Arregui
1986	Paul Newman †	The Color of Money	Fast Eddie Felson
1987	Michael Douglas †	Wall Street	Gordon Gekko
1988	Gene Hackman ‡	Mississippi Burning	Rupert Anderson
1989	Morgan Freeman ‡	Driving Miss Daisy	Hoke Colburn

1990s

Year	Winner	Film	Role
1990	Robert De Niro ‡	Awakenings	Leonard Lowe
	Robin Williams		Malcolm Sayer
1991	Warren Beatty ‡	Bugsy	Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel
1992	Jack Lemmon	Glengarry Glen Ross	Shelley Levene
1993	Anthony Hopkins	The Remains of the Day	James Stevens ‡
		Shadowlands	C. S. Lewis
1994	Tom Hanks †	Forrest Gump	Forrest Gump
1995	Nicolas Cage †	Leaving Las Vegas	Ben Sanderson
1996	Tom Cruise ‡	Jerry Maguire	Jerry Maguire
1997	Jack Nicholson †	As Good as It Gets	Melvin Udall
1998	Ian McKellen ‡	Gods and Monsters	James Whale
1999	Russell Crowe ‡	The Insider	Jeffrey Wigand

2000s

Year	Winner	Film	Role
2000	Javier Bardem ‡	Before Night Falls	Reinaldo Arenas
2001	Billy Bob Thornton	Bandits	Terry Lee Collins
		The Man Who Wasn't There	Ed Crane
		Monster's Ball	Hank Grotowski
2002	Campbell Scott	Roger Dodger	Roger Swanson
2003	Sean Penn	21 Grams	Paul Rivers
		Mystic River	Jimmy Markum †
2004	Jamie Foxx †	Ray	Ray Charles
2005	Philip Seymour Hoffman †	Capote	Truman Capote
2006	Forest Whitaker †	The Last King of Scotland	Idi Amin
2007	George Clooney ‡	Michael Clayton	Michael Clayton
2008	Clint Eastwood	Gran Torino	Walt Kowalski
2009	George Clooney ‡	Up in the Air	Ryan Bingham
	Morgan Freeman ‡	Invictus	Nelson Mandela

2010s

Year	Winner	Film	Role
2010	Jesse Eisenberg ‡	The Social Network	Mark Zuckerberg
2011	George Clooney ‡	The Descendants	Matt King
2012	Bradley Cooper ‡	Silver Linings Playbook	Pat Solitano
2013	Bruce Dern ‡	Nebraska	Woody Grant
2014	Oscar Isaac	A Most Violent Year	Abel Morales
	Michael Keaton ‡	Birdman	Riggan Thomson
2015	Matt Damon	The Martian	Mark Watney

See also

• New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
• National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor