6 Best Oscar Best Actor Winners of the 1960s

By Vlad Zakh · June 21, 2026

Drama intensethought provoking

The Academy Award for Best Actor in the 1960s crowned a decade of commanding, morally complex leading performances.

True Grit (1969) 01

True Grit (1969)

IMDb ★ 7.3

A tough, one-eyed marshal helps a determined young woman track down her father's killer.

Charly (1968) 02

Charly (1968)

IMDb ★ 6.8

An intellectually disabled man undergoes an experimental surgery that temporarily transforms him into a genius.

Cat Ballou (1965) 03

Cat Ballou (1965)

IMDb ★ 6.9

A schoolteacher hires a washed-up gunslinger to protect her father's land from a ruthless cattle syndicate.

Lilies of the Field (1963) 04

Lilies of the Field (1963)

IMDb ★ 7.1

An itinerant handyman is persuaded by a group of nuns to help them build a chapel in the desert.

Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) 05

Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)

IMDb ★ 8.0

American judges preside over the trial of German judges accused of complicity in Nazi war crimes.

Elmer Gantry (1960) 06

Elmer Gantry (1960)

IMDb ★ 7.4

A charismatic, opportunistic con man ingratiates himself into a traveling evangelist's revival ministry.

Vlad Zakh

Vlad Zakh

Founder, Movieix

Founder of Movieix, built to fix a specific annoyance: most recommendation sites are just algorithm-driven noise. Our lists are researched and organized by who's in a film, where it's from, and the mood you're actually in tonight.