# New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor

The New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor is one of the awards given by the New York Film Critics Circle to honor the finest achievements in film-making.

## Winners
### 1930s

| Year | Winner | Film | Role |
| 1935 | Charles Laughton | Mutiny on the Bounty | Captain William Bligh |
| 1935 | Charles Laughton | Ruggles of Red Gap | Marmaduke Ruggles |
| 1936 | Walter Huston | Dodsworth | Sam Dodsworth |
| 1937 | Paul Muni | The Life of Emile Zola | Émile Zola |
| 1938 | James Cagney | Angels with Dirty Faces | Rocky Sullivan |
| 1939 | James Stewart | Mr. Smith Goes to Washington | Jefferson "Jeff" Smith |

### 1940s

| Year | Winner | Film | Role |
| 1940 | Charlie Chaplin | The Great Dictator | Hynkel – Dictator of Tomania / Jewish Barber |
| 1941 | Gary Cooper | Sergeant York | Alvin York |
| 1942 | James Cagney | Yankee Doodle Dandy | George M. Cohan |
| 1943 | Paul Lukas | Watch on the Rhine | Kurt Muller |
| 1944 | Barry Fitzgerald | Going My Way | Father Fitzgibbon |
| 1945 | Ray Milland | The Lost Weekend | Don Birnam |
| 1946 | Laurence Olivier | Henry V | King Henry V of England |
| 1947 | William Powell | Life with Father | Clarence Day, Sr. |
| 1947 | William Powell | The Senator Was Indiscreet | Senator Melvin G. Ashton |
| 1948 | Laurence Olivier | Hamlet | Hamlet |
| 1949 | Broderick Crawford | All the King's Men | Willie Stark |

### 1950s

| Year | Winner | Film | Role |
| 1950 | Gregory Peck | Twelve O'Clock High | Frank Savage |
| 1951 | Arthur Kennedy | Bright Victory | Larry Nevins |
| 1952 | Ralph Richardson | The Sound Barrier | John Ridgefield |
| 1953 | Burt Lancaster | From Here to Eternity | First Sergeant Milton Warden |
| 1954 | Marlon Brando | On the Waterfront | Terry Malloy |
| 1955 | Ernest Borgnine | Marty | Marty Piletti |
| 1956 | Kirk Douglas | Lust for Life | Vincent van Gogh |
| 1957 | Alec Guinness | The Bridge on the River Kwai | Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson |
| 1958 | David Niven | Separate Tables | Angus Pollock |
| 1959 | James Stewart | Anatomy of a Murder | Paul Biegler |

### 1960s

| Year | Winner | Film | Role |
| 1960 | Burt Lancaster | Elmer Gantry | Elmer Gantry |
| 1961 | Maximilian Schell | Judgment at Nuremberg | Hans Rolfe |
| 1962 | No award given (newspaper strike) | No award given (newspaper strike) | No award given (newspaper strike) |
| 1963 | Albert Finney | Tom Jones | Tom Jones |
| 1964 | Rex Harrison | My Fair Lady | Henry Higgins |
| 1965 | Oskar Werner | Ship of Fools | Willie Schumann |
| 1966 | Paul Scofield | A Man for All Seasons | Sir Thomas More |
| 1967 | Rod Steiger | In the Heat of the Night | Police Chief Bill Gillespie |
| 1968 | Alan Arkin | The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter | John Singer |
| 1969 | Jon Voight | Midnight Cowboy | Joe Buck |

### 1970s

| Year | Winner | Film | Role |
| 1970 | George C. Scott | Patton | George S. Patton, Jr. |
| 1971 | Gene Hackman | The French Connection | Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle |
| 1972 | Laurence Olivier | Sleuth | Andrew Wyke |
| 1973 | Marlon Brando | Last Tango in Paris (Ultimo tango a Parigi) | Paul |
| 1974 | Jack Nicholson | Chinatown | J. J. "Jake" Gittes |
| 1974 | Jack Nicholson | The Last Detail | Signalman 1st Class Billy "Badass" Buddusky |
| 1975 | Jack Nicholson | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest | Randle McMurphy |
| 1976 | Robert De Niro | Taxi Driver | Travis Bickle |
| 1977 | John Gielgud | Providence | Clive Langham |
| 1978 | Jon Voight | Coming Home | Luke Martin |
| 1979 | Dustin Hoffman | Kramer vs. Kramer | Ted Kramer |

### 1980s

| Year | Winner | Film | Role |
| 1980 | Robert De Niro | Raging Bull | Jake LaMotta |
| 1981 | Burt Lancaster | Atlantic City | Lou Pascal |
| 1982 | Ben Kingsley | Gandhi | Mahatma Gandhi |
| 1983 | Robert Duvall | Tender Mercies | Mac Sledge |
| 1984 | Steve Martin | All of Me | Roger Cobb |
| 1985 | Jack Nicholson | Prizzi's Honor | Charley Partanna |
| 1986 | Bob Hoskins | Mona Lisa | George Mortwell |
| 1987 | Jack Nicholson | Ironweed | Francis Phelan |
| 1988 | Jeremy Irons | Dead Ringers | Beverly Mantle / Elliot Mantle |
| 1989 | Daniel Day-Lewis | My Left Foot | Christy Brown |

### 1990s

| Year | Winner | Film | Role |
| 1990 | Robert De Niro | Awakenings | Leonard Lowe |
| 1990 | Robert De Niro | Goodfellas | James "Jimmy the Gent" Conway |
| 1991 | Anthony Hopkins | The Silence of the Lambs | Dr. Hannibal Lecter |
| 1992 | Denzel Washington | Malcolm X | Malcolm X |
| 1993 | David Thewlis | Naked | Johnny |
| 1994 | Paul Newman | Nobody's Fool | Donald "Sully" Sullivan |
| 1995 | Nicolas Cage | Leaving Las Vegas | Ben Sanderson |
| 1996 | Geoffrey Rush | Shine | David Helfgott |
| 1997 | Peter Fonda | Ulee's Gold | Ulysses "Ulee" Jackson |
| 1998 | Nick Nolte | Affliction | Wade Whitehouse |
| 1999 | Richard Farnsworth | The Straight Story | Alvin Straight |

### 2000s

| Year | Winner | Film | Role |
| 2000 | Tom Hanks | Cast Away | Chuck Noland |
| 2001 | Tom Wilkinson | In the Bedroom | Matt Fowler |
| 2002 | Daniel Day-Lewis | Gangs of New York | William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting |
| 2003 | Bill Murray | Lost in Translation | Bob Harris |
| 2004 | Paul Giamatti | Sideways | Miles Raymond |
| 2005 | Heath Ledger | Brokeback Mountain | Ennis Del Mar |
| 2006 | Forest Whitaker | The Last King of Scotland | Idi Amin |
| 2007 | Daniel Day-Lewis | There Will Be Blood | Daniel Plainview |
| 2008 | Sean Penn | Milk | Harvey Milk |
| 2009 | George Clooney | Up in the Air | Ryan Bingham |

### 2010s

| Year | Winner | Film | Role |
| 2010 | Colin Firth | The King's Speech | King George VI |
| 2011 | Brad Pitt | Moneyball | Billy Beane |
| 2011 | Brad Pitt | The Tree of Life | Mr. O'Brien |
| 2012 | Daniel Day-Lewis | Lincoln | Abraham Lincoln |
| 2013 | Robert Redford | All Is Lost | Our Man |
| 2014 | Timothy Spall | Mr. Turner | J. M. W. Turner |
| 2015 | Michael Keaton | Spotlight | Walter "Robby" Robinson |
| 2016 | Casey Affleck | Manchester by the Sea | Lee Chandler |
| 2017 | Timothée Chalamet | Call Me by Your Name | Elio Perlman |
| 2018 | Ethan Hawke | First Reformed | Reverend Ernst Toller |
| 2019 | Antonio Banderas | Pain and Glory | Salvador Mallo |

### 2020s

| Year | Winner | Film | Role |
| 2020 | Delroy Lindo | Da 5 Bloods | Paul |
| 2021 | Benedict Cumberbatch | The Power of the Dog | Phil Burbank |
| 2022 | Colin Farrell | After Yang | Jake |
| 2022 | Colin Farrell | The Banshees of Inisherin | Pádraic Súilleabháin |
| 2023 | Franz Rogowski | Passages | Tomas |
| 2024 | Adrien Brody | The Brutalist | László Tóth |

## Multiple awards
### 4 wins

* Daniel Day-Lewis (1989, 2002, 2007, 2012)
* Jack Nicholson (1974, 1975, 1985, 1987)

### 3 wins

* Robert De Niro (1976, 1980, 1990)
* Burt Lancaster (1953, 1960, 1981)
* Laurence Olivier (1946, 1948, 1972)

### 2 wins

* Marlon Brando (1954, 1973)
* James Cagney (1938, 1942)
* James Stewart (1939, 1959)
* Jon Voight (1969, 1978)