Match the Best Actor Oscar Winners - 1920s/30s Quiz

Answer: Emil Jannings

German actor Emil Jannings won the Academy Award for Best Actor at the first ceremony, which was held in 1929 to recognize films from 1927 and 1928. At that ceremony, performers could be nominated for their work in multiple films, and Jannings won for his work in "The Way of All Flesh" and "The Last Command".

In the 1927 silent film "The Way of All Flesh", Jannings portrayed happily-married bank clerk August Schiller, who was swindled by a seductress. After realizing that he was mistakenly believed to be killed by a train, he decided to live his life alone, viewing his family from afar. Sadly, only fragments of the film's ending are known to exist.

It is the only Academy Award-winning acting performance in a lost film.

Answer: Emil Jannings

The other film for which Emil Jannings won the first Academy Award for Best Actor was the 1928 silent film "The Last Command". In the film, Jannings portrayed the Czar's cousin, Grand Duke Sergius Alexander. Told in flashback, the story started with the down-and-out Alexander being cast as an extra in a Hollywood film, only to later realize that the director (William Powell) was a man that he once had jailed during the Russian Revolution.

The only other contender for the Best Actor award at the first Academy Awards ceremony was Richard Barthelmess, nominated for his work in the films "The Noose" and "The Patent Leather Kid".

Answer: Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin was the first recipient of an Honorary Oscar, although there were actually two Honorary Oscars awarded at the first Academy Awards ceremony with the Warner Brothers studio also receiving acknowledgement for producing "The Jazz Singer".

The official decree on Chaplin's award was "To Charles Chaplin, for versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing and producing 'The Circus'". "The Circus" didn't receive any nominations, but apparently Chaplin was in consideration for Best Actor, and he was removed from the process to be awarded the Honorary Oscar instead. Chaplin had been involved in a particularly nasty and scandalous divorce case while he was working on the film, and it's possible that the Academy wanted to make sure his work on the film was recognized in case voting members allowed these other considerations to cloud their judgement when voting for the awards.

The silent film featured Chaplin's Little Tramp as the accidental star of a circus who was hired to be a clown but only achieved laughs when mayhem occurred.

The highlight of the film was a sequence in which Chaplin performed a variety of difficult stunts on a high wire while being badgered and disrobed by monkeys.

Answer: Warner Baxter

At the second Academy Awards ceremony, Warner Baxter won the Oscar for his role as the western bandit, the Cisco Kid in "In Old Arizona". In the film, which was based on a short story by O. Henry, the Cisco Kid set up his girlfriend (Dorothy Burgess) after discovering that she had betrayed him to a soldier (Edmund Lowe) for reward money.

The film was a talkie which featured singing by Baxter and the soldiers. The other nominees considered for the award were George Bancroft ("Thunderbolt"), Chester Morris ("Alibi"), Paul Muni ("The Valiant"), and Lewis Stone ("The Patriot").

Answer: George Arliss

George Arliss became the first British actor to win an Academy Award when he picked up the Oscar for his portrayal of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in "Disraeli". He was well-familiar with the role, having played it on Broadway and in a 1921 silent film. Arliss was also the earliest-born performer to win an acting Oscar, having been born in April 1868 (Marie Dressler who won the Best Actress award in 1932 was also born in 1868 but in November).

The film focused around Disraeli's involvement in buying the Suez Canal and securing India for Queen Victoria. Arliss was also nominated for his work in the film "The Green Goddess", which was filmed before "Disraeli" but released afterwards at Arliss's request because he wanted to make his talkie debut in "Disraeli".

The other nominees for Best Actor were Wallace Beery ("The Big House"), Maurice Chevalier ("The Big Pond" and "The Love Parade"), Ronald Colman ("Bulldog Drummond" and "Condemned"), and Lawrence Tibbett ("The Rogue Song").

Answer: Lionel Barrymore

Lionel Barrymore won the Best Actor Oscar for his role as alcoholic attorney Stephen Ashe in "A Free Soul". He was the first member of the Barrymore family to win an Academy Award, and he was also the first Barrymore to receive an Academy Award nomination, having been nominated in the director category the previous year for "Madame X". Additionally, with this acting and directing nominations, he became the first person to be nominated in more than one category.

In the film, Ashe had to defend the ex-boyfriend (Leslie Howard) of his wild child daughter (Norma Shearer) for the murder of a gangster (Clark Gable) with whom his daughter was involved.

The other nominees for the award were Richard Dix ("Cimarron"), Fredric March ("The Royal Family of Broadway"), Adolphe Menjou ("The Front Page"), and nine-year-old Jackie Cooper ("Skippy").

Answer: Fredric March

There was a tie in the Best Actor category at the fifth Academy Awards, but it wasn't a true tie. The Academy rules at the time held that if there was less than a three vote difference between the winner and the runner-up, the results would be declared a tie. Fredric March was the true winner of the award for his portrayal of the title characters in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"; he received one vote more than runner-up Wallace Beery, according to the official Oscars website. March became the first performer to win an Oscar for technically portraying two characters in the same film.

The film was based on the Robert Louis Stevenson novel about a mild-mannered doctor whose experiment with drugs led to his evil alter ego. John Barrymore, who had played the role in a 1920 silent version of the story, was actually the studio's first choice for the remake, but he wasn't available so March got the role because he resembled Barrymore. Wallace Beery was declared to be the other winner of the Best Actor award for "The Champ", and Alfred Lunt was the sole non-winning nominee for "The Guardsman".

Answer: Wallace Beery

Wallace Beery was the other winner of the Best Actor Oscar at the fifth Academy Awards. He picked up the award for his role as washed-up boxer Andy "Champ" Purcell in "The Champ". It was his second nomination, having been previously nominated for the 1930 film, "The Big House".

The tearjerker "The Champ" followed the attempts of Purcell to get his life back together for the sake of his young son Dink (Jackie Cooper). Fredric March was the co-winner of the Oscar for his work in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", and Alfred Lunt ("The Guardsman") was the other nominee for the Best Actor award.

Answer: Charles Laughton

With his first Academy Award nomination, Charles Laughton won the Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of the title character in the British film, "The Private Life of Henry VIII". This was reportedly the first Oscar win for a non-Hollywood production.

The film followed Henry VIII's marriages from Anne Boleyn (Merle Oberon) to Catherine Parr (Everley Gregg), with Laughton's wife Elsa Lanchester portraying Anne of Cleaves. Apparently Catherine of Aragon was omitted from the film due to a lack of interest.

The other Best Actor nominees were Leslie Howard ("Berkeley Square") and Paul Muni ("I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang").

Answer: Clark Gable

Clark Gable won the Best Actor Oscar for his role as reporter Peter Warne in "It Happened One Night", which was the first film to capture the "Big Five" Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director (Frank Capra), Best Actor (Gable), Best Actress (Claudette Colbert), and Best Writing (Robert Riskin).

It was Gable's first Academy Award nomination. In the film, in exchange for an exclusive story, Warne agreed to help a wayward heiress (Colbert) reunite with her fortune-hunting husband against the wishes of her family, but he ended up falling for her along the way.

The other contenders for the award were Frank Morgan ("The Affairs of Cellini") and William Powell ("The Thin Man").

Answer: Victor McLaglen

With his first nomination, Victor McLaglen won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as ex-IRA operative Gypo Nolan in "The Informer". In the film, which took place in Dublin in 1922, the unstable Nolan turned in a fellow IRA buddy for the reward money, with which he intended to buy passage to America.

But after Nolan got drunk and squandered the cash, the IRA realized he was the informer. The other nominees were Clark Gable, Charles Laughton, and Franchot Tone (all for "Mutiny on the Bounty") and Paul Muni ("Black Fury"). Muni's nomination was a write-in - the last year that the Academy allowed write-in nominations.

Answer: Paul Muni

Paul Muni won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the title character in "The Story of Louis Pasteur". He had three prior nominations for "The Valiant", "I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang", and "Black Fury". "The Story of Louis Pasteur" was a fictionalized biopic that focused on the French medical academy's initial dismissal of Pasteur's ideas as he pushed for sanitation in medical practices and developed vaccines for anthrax and rabies.

The other contenders for the Best Actor Oscar were Gary Cooper ("Mr. Deeds Goes to Town"), Walter Huston ("Dodsworth"), William Powell ("My Man Godfrey"), and Spencer Tracy ("San Francisco").

Answer: Spencer Tracy

At the 10th Academy Award ceremony, Spencer Tracy won the Best Actor Oscar for his role as fisherman Manuel Fidello in "Captains Courageous". It was his second nomination, having been nominated the year before for "San Francisco". Based on the Rudyard Kipling novel, the film told the story of a spoiled rich kid (Freddie Bartholomew) who fell overboard from a trans-Atlantic steamship and was rescued by a fishing ship off Canada.

He developed a friendship with Fidello, the man who rescued him, during the three months he was on the ship, and he matured considerably when tragedy struck before the ship returned to port.

The other nominees in the category were Charles Boyer ("Conquest"), Fredric March ("A Star is Born"), Robert Montgomery ("Night Must Fall"), and Paul Muni ("The Life of Emile Zola").

Answer: Spencer Tracy

Spencer Tracy won his second Oscar for his portrayal of Father Edward Flanagan in "Boys Town", making him the first actor to win two Oscars and to win in consecutive years (Luise Rainer achieved the same feat for actresses a year earlier than Tracy). Tracy had previous nominations for "San Francisco" and "Captains Courageous", winning his first Oscar for the latter film. "Boys Town" was a fictionalized account of the home for delinquent boys that Flanagan established in Nebraska.

In the film, Whitey (Mickey Rooney) was a particularly difficult boy whose brother was an escaped convict, and Whitey had to choose between joining his brother or trying for a better life through Boys Town.

The other Best Actor nominees were Charles Boyer ("Algiers"), James Cagney ("Angels with Dirty Faces"), Robert Donat ("The Citadel"), and Leslie Howard ("Pygmalion").

Answer: Robert Donat

Robert Donat won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as teacher Charles Edward Chipping in "Goodbye, Mr. Chips". He had a prior nomination in the previous year for "The Citadel". Based on a novella by James Hilton, the British film followed the career of a strict Latin teacher at a boys school who became much beloved by the students over the years thanks to the personal skills he learned from his wife (Greer Garson) during their brief marriage.

The other nominees in the category were Clark Gable ("Gone with the Wind"), Laurence Olivier ("Wuthering Heights"), Mickey Rooney ("Babes in Arms"), and James Stewart ("Mr. Smith Goes to Washington").