- 2024: Robert Downey Jr. - Oppenheimer
- 2023: Ke Huy Quan - Everything Everywhere All at Once
- 2022: Troy Kotsur - CODA
- 2021: Daniel Kaluuya - Judas and the Black Messiah[c]
- 2020: Brad Pitt - Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
- 2019: Mahershala Ali - Green Book
- 2018: Sam Rockwell - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
- 2017: Mahershala Ali - Moonlight
- 2016: Mark Rylance - Bridge of Spies
- 2015: J. K. Simmons - Whiplash
- 2014: Jared Leto - Dallas Buyers Club
- 2013: Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained
- 2012: Christopher Plummer - Beginners
- 2011: Christian Bale - The Fighter
- 2010: Christoph Waltz - Inglourious Basterds
- 2009: Heath Ledger † - The Dark Knight
- 2008: Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men
- 2007: Alan Arkin - Little Miss Sunshine
- 2006: George Clooney - Syriana
- 2005: Morgan Freeman - Million Dollar Baby
- 2004: Tim Robbins - Mystic River
- 2003: Chris Cooper - Adaptation
- 2002: Jim Broadbent - Iris
- 2001: Benicio del Toro - Traffic
- 2000: Michael Caine - The Cider House Rules
- 1999: James Coburn - Affliction
- 1998: Robin Williams - Good Will Hunting
- 1997: Cuba Gooding Jr. - Jerry Maguire
- 1996: Kevin Spacey - The Usual Suspects
- 1995: Martin Landau - Ed Wood
- 1994: Tommy Lee Jones - The Fugitive
- 1993: Gene Hackman - Unforgiven
- 1992: Jack Palance - City Slickers
- 1991: Joe Pesci - GoodFellas
- 1990: Denzel Washington - Glory
- 1989: Kevin Kline - A Fish Called Wanda
- 1988: Sean Connery - The Untouchables
- 1987: Michael Caine - Hannah and Her Sisters
- 1986: Don Ameche - Cocoon
- 1985: Haing S. Ngor - The Killing Fields
- 1984: Jack Nicholson - Terms of Endearment
- 1983: Louis Gossett Jr. - An Officer and a Gentleman
- 1982: John Gielgud - Arthur
- 1981: Timothy Hutton - Ordinary People
- 1980: Melvyn Douglas - Being There
- 1979: Christopher Walken - The Deer Hunter
- 1978: Jason Robards - Julia
- 1977: Jason Robards - All the President's Men
- 1976: George Burns - The Sunshine Boys
- 1975: Robert De Niro - The Godfather Part II
- 1974: John Houseman - The Paper Chase
- 1973: Joel Grey - Cabaret
- 1972: Ben Johnson - The Last Picture Show
- 1971: John Mills - Ryan's Daughter
- 1970: Gig Young - They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
- 1969: Jack Albertson - The Subject Was Roses
- 1968: George Kennedy - Cool Hand Luke
- 1967: Walter Matthau - The Fortune Cookie
- 1966: Martin Balsam - A Thousand Clowns
- 1965: Peter Ustinov - Topkapi
- 1964: Melvyn Douglas - Hud
- 1963: Ed Begley - Sweet Bird of Youth
- 1962: George Chakiris - West Side Story
- 1961: Peter Ustinov - Spartacus
- 1960: Hugh Griffith - Ben-Hur
- 1959: Burl Ives - The Big Country
- 1958: Red Buttons - Sayonara
- 1957: Anthony Quinn - Lust for Life
- 1956: Jack Lemmon - Mister Roberts
- 1955: Edmond O'Brien - The Barefoot Contessa
- 1954: Frank Sinatra - From Here to Eternity
- 1953: Anthony Quinn - Viva Zapata!
- 1952: Karl Malden - A Streetcar Named Desire
- 1951: George Sanders - All About Eve
- 1950: Dean Jagger - Twelve O'Clock High
- 1949: Walter Huston - The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
- 1948: Edmund Gwenn - Miracle on 34th Street
- 1947: Harold Russell - The Best Years of Our Lives
- 1946: James Dunn - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
- 1945: Barry Fitzgerald - Going My Way[a]
- 1944: Charles Coburn - The More the Merrier
- 1943: Van Heflin - Johnny Eager
- 1942: Donald Crisp - How Green Was My Valley
- 1941: Walter Brennan - The Westerner
- 1940: Thomas Mitchell - Stagecoach
- 1939: Walter Brennan - Kentucky
- 1938: Joseph Schildkraut - The Life of Emile Zola
- 1937: Walter Brennan - Come and Get It
- 1936: Not Introduced
- 1935: Not Introduced
- 1934: Not Introduced
- 1933: Not Introduced
- 1932: Not Introduced
- 1931: Not Introduced
- 1930: Not Introduced
- 1929: Not Introduced
