Empire Award for Best Actor


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 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. Hugh Jackman is the most recent winner in this category for his role in Logan.

Winners and nominees

In the list below, winners are listed first in the colored row in boldface, followed by the other nominees. The number of the ceremony appears in parentheses after the awards year, linked to the article on that ceremony.
KeyDescription
Indicates the winner

1990s

2000s

2010s

Multiple awards and nominations

Multiple awards

, the following individuals received two or more Best Actor awards:
AwardsFilm
2James McAvoy
2Johnny Depp
2Matt Damon

Multiple nominations

, the following individuals received two or more Best Actor nominations:
NominationsFilm
5Johnny Depp
4Andy Serkis
4Daniel Craig
4Leonardo DiCaprio
4Matt Damon
4Viggo Mortensen
3Christian Bale
3Daniel Day-Lewis
3Jim Carrey
3Robert Downey, Jr.
3Tom Cruise
3Tom Hanks
2Benedict Cumberbatch
2Christoph Waltz
2Daniel Radcliffe
2Eddie Redmayne
2Hugh Jackman
2James McAvoy
2Kevin Spacey
2Martin Freeman
2Ryan Gosling