Empire Award for Best Actor

Empire Award for Best Actor
Awarded for	Best performance by an actor in a leading role
Country	United Kingdom
Presented by	Empire magazine
First awarded	1996
Currently held by	Matt Damon - The Martian (2016)

The Empire Award for Best Actor is an Empire Award presented annually by the British film magazine Empire to honor an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role while working within the film industry. The Empire Award for Best Actor is one of five ongoing awards which were first introduced at the 1st Empire Awards ceremony in 1996 (the others being Best Actress, Best Director, Best Film and Best British Film) with Nigel Hawthorne receiving the award for his role in The Madness of King George. Winners are voted by the readers of Empire magazine.

Since its inception, the award has been given to 18 actors. Johnny Depp and James McAvoy have received the most awards in this category with two awards each. Johnny Depp was nominated on five occasions, more than any other actor. Matt Damon is the most recent winner in this category for his role in The Martian (film).

Winners and nominees

In the list below, winners are listed first in boldface, followed by the other nominees. The number of the ceremony (1st, 2nd, etc.) appears in parentheses after the awards year, linked to the article (if any) on that ceremony.

1990s

Year	Actor	Film	Ref.
1996 (1st)	Nigel Hawthorne	The Madness of King George	[1]
1997 (2nd)	Morgan Freeman	Seven	[2]
1998 (3rd)	Kevin Spacey	L.A. Confidential	[3]
1999 (4th)	Tom Hanks	Saving Private Ryan	[4][5]
	Jeff Bridges	The Big Lebowski
	Jim Carrey	The Truman Show
	Matt Damon	Good Will Hunting
	Samuel L. Jackson	Jackie Brown

2000s

Year	Actor	Film	Ref.
2000 (5th)	Pierce Brosnan	The World Is Not Enough	[6][7]
	Brad Pitt	Fight Club
	Bruce Willis	The Sixth Sense
	Keanu Reeves	The Matrix
	Tom Cruise	Eyes Wide Shut
2001 (6th)	Russell Crowe	Gladiator	[8][9]
	George Clooney	O Brother, Where Art Thou?
	Jim Carrey	Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas
	John Cusack	High Fidelity
	Kevin Spacey	American Beauty
2002 (7th)	Elijah Wood	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	[10][11] [12]
	Benicio del Toro	Traffic
	Billy Bob Thornton	The Man Who Wasn't There
	Haley Joel Osment	A.I. Artificial Intelligence
	Viggo Mortensen	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2003 (8th)	Tom Cruise	Minority Report	[13]
	Colin Farrell	Minority Report
	Mike Myers	Austin Powers in Goldmember
	Tom Hanks	Road to Perdition
	Viggo Mortensen	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
2004 (9th)	Johnny Depp	Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl	[14]
	Daniel Day-Lewis	Gangs of New York
	Hugh Jackman	X2
	Sean Astin	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
	Viggo Mortensen	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2005 (10th)	Matt Damon	The Bourne Supremacy	[15]
	Jim Carrey	Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
	Johnny Depp	Finding Neverland
	Tobey Maguire	Spider-Man 2
	Tom Cruise	Collateral
2006 (11th)	Johnny Depp	Charlie And The Chocolate Factory	[16][17] [18]
	Andy Serkis	King Kong
	Christian Bale	Batman Begins
	Matt Dillon	Crash
	Viggo Mortensen	A History of Violence
2007 (12th)	Daniel Craig	Casino Royale	[19]
	Christian Bale	The Prestige
	Johnny Depp	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
	Leonardo DiCaprio	The Departed
	Sacha Baron Cohen	Borat
2008 (13th)	James McAvoy	Atonement	[20]
	Daniel Radcliffe	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
	Gerard Butler	300
	Matt Damon	The Bourne Ultimatum
	Simon Pegg	Hot Fuzz
2009 (14th)	Christian Bale	The Dark Knight	[21]
	Daniel Craig	Quantum of Solace
	Daniel Day-Lewis	There Will Be Blood
	Johnny Depp	Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
	Robert Downey, Jr.	Iron Man

2010s

Year	Actor	Film	Ref.
2010 (15th)	Christoph Waltz	Inglourious Basterds	[22][23]
	Michael Caine	Harry Brown
	Robert Downey, Jr.	Sherlock Holmes
	Robert Pattinson	The Twilight Saga: New Moon
	Sam Worthington	Avatar
2011 (16th)	Colin Firth	The King's Speech	[24][25]
	Aaron Taylor-Johnson	Kick-Ass
	James Franco	127 Hours
	Jesse Eisenberg	The Social Network
	Leonardo DiCaprio	Inception
2012 (17th)	Gary Oldman	Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy	[26]
	Andy Serkis	Rise of the Planet of the Apes
	Daniel Craig	The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
	Daniel Radcliffe	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
	Ryan Gosling	Drive
2013 (18th)	Martin Freeman	The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey	[27]
	Christoph Waltz	Django Unchained
	Daniel Craig	Skyfall
	Daniel Day-Lewis	Lincoln
	Robert Downey, Jr.	The Avengers
2014 (19th)	James McAvoy	Filth	[28]
	Chiwetel Ejiofor	12 Years a Slave
	Leonardo DiCaprio	The Wolf of Wall Street
	Martin Freeman	The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
	Tom Hanks	Captain Phillips
2015 (20th)	Andy Serkis	Dawn of the Planet of the Apes	[29][30]
	Benedict Cumberbatch	The Imitation Game
	Bradley Cooper	American Sniper
	Eddie Redmayne	The Theory of Everything
	Richard Armitage	The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
2016 (21st)	Matt Damon	The Martian	[31]
	Leonardo DiCaprio	The Revenant
	Michael Fassbender	Macbeth & Steve Jobs
	Tom Hardy	Legend & Mad Max: Fury Road
	Michael B. Jordan	Creed

Multiple awards and nominations

Multiple awards

The following individuals received two or more Best Actor awards:

Awards	Film
2	James McAvoy
	Johnny Depp
	Matt Damon

Multiple nominations

The following individuals received two or more Best Actor nominations:

Nominations	Film
5	Johnny Depp
4	Daniel Craig
	Viggo Mortensen
	Leonardo DiCaprio
	Matt Damon
3	Andy Serkis
	Christian Bale
	Daniel Day-Lewis
	Jim Carrey
	Robert Downey, Jr.
	Tom Cruise
	Tom Hanks
2	Christoph Waltz
	Daniel Radcliffe
	James McAvoy
	Kevin Spacey
	Martin Freeman

References

1. "Past Winners - 1996". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2003. Retrieved September 16, 2011.
2. "Past Winners - 1997". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2003. Retrieved September 16, 2011.
3. "Past Winners - 1998". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2003. Retrieved September 16, 2011.
4. "Past Winners - 1999". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2003. Retrieved September 16, 2011.
5. "Best Actor". Empireonline.co.uk. 1999. Archived from the original on August 19, 2000.
6. "Past Winners - 2000". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2003. Retrieved September 16, 2011.
7. "Empire 2000 Awards: Nominations Announced. Sixth Sense is an early leader". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. February 2, 2000. Retrieved September 28, 2014.
8. "Past Winners - 2001". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2003. Retrieved September 16, 2011.
9. "Best Actor". Empireonline.co.uk. 2001. Archived from the original on March 16, 2002.
10. "2002 Awards Winners". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2013. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
11. "Best Actor". Empireonline.co.uk. 2001. Archived from the original on June 12, 2002.
12. "Empire Magazine reports on the 2002 Empire Awards: Best Actor/Best Actress". Empire. United Kingdom: Bauer Consumer Media (154): 54. April 2002. Retrieved September 18, 2011.
13. "Best Actor". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2003. Retrieved September 17, 2011.
14. "Best Actor". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2004. Retrieved September 17, 2011.
15. "Best Actor". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2005. Retrieved September 15, 2011.
16. "2006 Awards Winners". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2013. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
17. "2006 Awards Winners Announced! The Sony Ericsson Empire Awards in full". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. March 13, 2006. Retrieved September 29, 2014.
18. "Best Actor". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2006. Archived from the original on June 13, 2013.
19. "Best Actor". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2007. Retrieved September 18, 2011.
20. "Best Actor". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2008. Retrieved September 15, 2011.
21. "Best Actor". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2009. Retrieved September 19, 2011.
22. "Best Actor". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2010. Retrieved September 20, 2011.
23. Reynolds, Simon (February 25, 2010). "In Full: Empire Awards 2010 nominees". Digital Spy. Hearst Magazines UK. Retrieved September 27, 2014.
24. "2011 Awards Winners". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2013. Retrieved September 27, 2014.
25. "Best Actor". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2011. Archived from the original on June 13, 2013.
26. "Best Actor". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2012. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
27. "Best Actor". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2013. Retrieved August 18, 2004.
28. "Best Actor". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2014. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
29. "Best Actor". Empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. 2015. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
30. Barraclough, Leo (March 30, 2015). "'Interstellar' wins Film, Director at Empire Awards". Variety.com. Penske Business Media. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
31. Jameson Empire Awards 2016: Star Wars and Mad Max lead the nominations

External links