The Best Actor Award at the Golden Globes has always been a coveted one. In 1951 it was divided into two, Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama and Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. This enabled the HFPA to simultaneously focus on the acting prowess displayed in both genres without being biased towards one particular genre. The only time a Best Actor award was refused was when in 1973; Marlon Brando refused the Best Actor award for his role in The Godfather as a protest against "U.S. imperialism and racism." He also refused the Oscar he won for the same role, the same year. A complete list of Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama winners is given below:
List of Winners
|
Year
|
Winner
|
|
1943
|
Paul Lukas
|
|
1944
|
Alexander Knox
|
|
1945
|
Ray Milland
|
|
1946
|
Gregory Peck
|
|
1947
|
Ronald Colman
|
|
1948
|
Laurence Olivier
|
|
1949
|
Broderick Crawford
|
|
1950
|
José Ferrer
|
|
1951
|
Fredric March
|
|
1952
|
Gary Cooper
|
|
1953
|
Spencer Tracy
|
|
1954
|
Marlon Brando
|
|
1955
|
Ernest Borgnine
|
|
1956
|
Kirk Douglas
|
|
1957
|
Alec Guinness
|
|
1958
|
David Niven
|
|
1959
|
Anthony Franciosa
|
|
1960
|
Burt Lancaster
|
|
1961
|
Maximilian Schell
|
|
1962
|
Gregory Peck
|
|
1963
|
Sidney Poitier
|
|
1964
|
Peter O'Toole
|
|
1965
|
Omar Sharif
|
|
1966
|
Paul Scofield
|
|
1967
|
Rod Steiger
|
|
1968
|
Peter O'Toole
|
|
1969
|
John Wayne
|
|
1970
|
George C. Scott
|
|
1971
|
Gene Hackman
|
|
1972
|
Marlon Brando
|
|
1973
|
Al Pacino
|
|
1974
|
Jack Nicholson
|
|
1975
|
Jack Nicholson
|
|
1976
|
Peter Finch
|
|
1977
|
Richard Burton
|
|
1978
|
Jon Voight
|
|
1979
|
Dustin Hoffman
|
|
1980
|
Robert DeNiro
|
|
1981
|
Henry Fonda
|
|
1982
|
Ben Kingsley
|
|
1983
|
Robert Duvall
|
|
1984
|
F. Murray Abraham
|
|
1985
|
Jon Voight
|
|
1986
|
Bob Hoskins
|
|
1987
|
Michael Douglas
|
|
1988
|
Dustin Hoffman
|
|
1989
|
Tom Cruise
|
|
1990
|
Jeremy Irons
|
|
1991
|
Nick Nolte
|
|
1992
|
Al Pacino
|
|
1993
|
Tom Hanks
|
|
1994
|
Tom Hanks
|
|
1995
|
Nicolas Cage
|
|
1996
|
Geoffrey Rush
|
|
1997
|
Peter Fonda
|
|
1998
|
Jim Carrey
|
|
1999
|
Denzel Washington
|
|
2000
|
Tom Hanks
|
|
2001
|
Russell Crowe
|
|
2002
|
Jack Nicholson
|
|
2003
|
Sean Penn
|
|
2004
|
Leonardo DiCaprio
|
|
2005
|
Philip Seymour Hoffman
|
|
2006
|
Forrest Whitaker
|
|
2007
|
Daniel Day-Lewis
|
|
2008
|
Mickey Rourke
|
|
2009
|
Jeff Bridges
|