Match the Best Actor Oscar Winners - 2010s Quiz

Answer: Colin Firth

With his second Academy Award nomination, Colin Firth won the Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of King George VI in "The King's Speech". He had previously been nominated in the same category in 2010 for "A Single Man". For his performance in "The King's Speech", Firth won the acting "Big Five" awards: Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe, Critics' Choice, and Screen Actors' Guild (SAG).

The film began while King George V (Michael Gambon) was still on the throne, and Albert, Duke of York (Firth) was pursuing treatment for a stammer that affected his second-in-line duties.

After several failed attempts, he tried a training regimen instituted by an unconventional speech therapist (Geoffrey Rush), which came just in time as his brother abdicated the throne, leaving George VI to provide moral support to the country during WWII.

The other nominees for Best Supporting Actor were Javier Bardem ("Biutiful"), Jeff Bridges ("True Grit"), Jesse Eisenberg ("The Social Network"), and James Franco ("127 Hours").

Answer: Jean Dujardin

Jean Dujardin became the first French actor to win the Best Actor Oscar when he picked up the award for his role as silent film star George Valentin in "The Artist". French actors Maurice Chevalier, Charles Boyer, and Gerard Depardieu all had previously been nominated in the category but hadn't won. "The Artist" was a black-and-white and mainly silent film, and the story followed Valentin as his career suffered and his personal life shattered with the onset of talkies.

A young woman Peppy (Bérénice Bejo), whose career he had launched, successfully made the transition to the new medium and came back to rescue her benefactor.

The other contenders for the award were Demián Bichir ("A Better Life"), George Clooney ("The Descendants"), Gary Oldman ("Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy"), and Brad Pitt ("Moneyball").

Answer: Daniel Day-Lewis

At the 85th Academy Award ceremony, Daniel Day-Lewis became the first actor to win three Best Actor Academy Awards when he picked up the Oscar for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in "Lincoln". It was his fifth nomination, all in the Best Actor category.

He had previously been nominated for "My Left Foot" (1990), "In the Name of the Father" (1993), "Gangs of New York" (2003), and "There Will Be Blood" (2008), and he won the Oscar for the first and last of those nominations. For his role in "Lincoln", Day-Lewis also swept the acting "Big Five" awards: Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe, Critics' Choice, and Screen Actors' Guild (SAG).

The historical drama "Lincoln" took place toward the end of Lincoln's life, as he struggled to get the 13th amendment (abolishing slavery) passed before the southern states returned to the Union.

The other nominees for Best Actor were Bradley Cooper ("Silver Linings Playbook"), Hugh Jackman ("Les Misérables"), Joaquin Phoenix ("The Master"), and Denzel Washington ("Flight").

Answer: Matthew McConaughey

With his first Academy Award nomination, Matthew McConaughey won the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of AIDS patient Rod Woodruff in "Dallas Buyers Club", which was based on a true story. Woodruff was a homophobic Texan who was given thirty days to live after being diagnosed with AIDS in the mid 1980s.

After obtaining a mixture of drugs and vitamins in Mexico to treat himself, he embarked on a business to provide the meds to other patients, initially for a profit but later out of compassion for the other victims of the disease. McConaughey and Jared Leto picked up the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor Oscars for their roles in the film, becoming only the fifth duo to do so (Sean Penn and Tim Robbins were the last to do so a decade earlier in "Mystic River").

The other Best Actor nominees were Christian Bale ("American Hustle"), Bruce Dern ("Nebraska"), Leonardo DiCaprio ("The Wolf of Wall Street"), and Chiwetel Ejiofor ("12 Years a Slave").

Answer: Eddie Redmayne

Another winner on his first Academy Award nomination, Eddie Redmayne picked up the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of physicist Stephen Hawking in "The Theory of Everything". The film began with Hawking as a student at Cambridge, shortly before being diagnosed with motor neurone disease and being given an estimated two years to live.

His girlfriend Jane (Felicity Jones) married him and supported him as the disease eventually took his mobility and his speech. In later years, he came to rely on his nurse Elaine who would become his controversial second wife.

The other contenders for the Best Actor Oscar were Steve Carrell ("Foxcatcher"), Bradley Cooper ("American Sniper"), Benedict Cumberbatch ("The Imitation Game"), and Michael Keaton ("Birdman").

Answer: Leonardo DiCaprio

With his fifth Academy Award nomination, Leonardo DiCaprio won the Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of mountain man Hugh Glass in "The Revenant". He received his first Academy Award nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category in 1994 for "What's Eating Gilbert Grape", and he received Best Actor nominations for "The Aviator" (2004), "Blood Diamond" (2006), and "The Wolf of Wall Street" (2014).

As a producer, he also received the Best Picture nomination for the latter film. DiCaprio picked up the acting "Big Five" awards (Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe, Critics' Choice, and SAG) for his role as Glass. Based on a true story, "The Revenant" told the tale of Glass's ordeal after being being left for dead in the Dakota wilderness following a bear attack.

After being rescued by an Army search party, Glass went after the man (Tom Hardy) who abandoned him and killed his son (Forrest Gooodluck). The other nominees in the Best Actor category were Bryan Cranston ("Trumbo"), Matt Damon ("The Martian"), Michael Fassbender ("Steve Jobs"), and Eddie Redmayne ("The Danish Girl").

Answer: Casey Affleck

With his second Academy Award nomination, Casey Affleck won the Oscar for Best Actor for his role as emotionally detached Lee Chandler in "Manchester by the Sea". He had previously been nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category for "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" in 2008.

In "Manchester by the Sea", Chandler was a brooding handyman who went back to his hometown to take care of his nephew (Lucas Hedges) following the death of his (Chandler's) brother (Kyle Chandler).

But the town brought back memories of a horrific tragedy, which made it difficult for Chandler to remain there with his nephew. Affleck's win was controversial, not for his performance, but because it was during the "Me Too" movement against sexual abuse; Affleck had settled out of court after being accused of sexual harrassment by two women during the filming of "I'm Not There". Presenter Brie Larson notably didn't applaud Affleck when he won the award, and Affleck declined to be a presenter the following year after an online petition garnered around 20,000 signatures to protest his appearance.

The other Best Actor contenders were Andrew Garfield ("Hacksaw Ridge"), Ryan Gosling ("La La Land"), Viggo Mortensen ("Captain Fantastic), and Denzel Washington ("Fences").

Answer: Gary Oldman

At the 90th Academy Awards ceremony, Gary Oldman won the Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in "Darkest Hour". He had a previous nomination in the same category for "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" in 2012. Oldman also swept the acting "Big Five" (Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe, Critics' Choice, and SAG) for his role as Churchill, and it was the first year that all of the acting categories were swept, with Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, and Allison Janney taking the Actress, Supporting Actor, and Supporting Actress awards, respectively.

As with Casey Affleck, Oldman's nomination was met with protests from the "Me Too" movement as Oldman had been accused by an ex-wife of choking and hitting her during an argument.

In Oldman's case, police investigated the allegations and declined to file charges, so he didn't suffer as much backlash as Affleck. "Darkest Hour" was one of two films in 2017 about the Dunkirk evacuation during WWII (the other film being titled "Dunkirk"), although "Darkest Hour" focused more on Churchill, from his rise to the role of Prime Minister to his struggles to maintain the position under pressure to negotiate peace with Germany.

The other nominees for the Best Actor Oscar were Daniel Day-Lewis ("Phantom Thread"), Daniel Kaluuya ("Get Out"), Denzel Washington ("Roman J. Israel, Esq."), and Timothée Chalamet ("Call Me by Your Name").

Answer: Rami Malek

With his first Academy Award nomination, Rami Malek won the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of the flamboyant Queen singer Freddie Mercury in "Bohemian Rhapsody". Mercury-lookalike Sacha Baron Cohen had originally been tagged for the role but he left the project over artistic disagreements. Malek, who had recently picked up an Emmy award for "Mr. Robot", was then selected, and although the film received criticism for its tame handling of Mercury's life, Malek received rave reviews for his performance.

The film focused on Mercury's early years with Queen through to the band's triumphant appearance at the "Live Aid" concert. The band's manager Paul Prenter (Allen Leech of "Downton Abbey" fame) was portrayed as the villain who seduced Mercury, driving him against his bandmates and eventually outing him to the media, something which the real Prenter's family denied.

The other contenders for the award were Bradley Cooper ("A Star is Born"), Christian Bale ("Vice"), Viggo Mortensen ("Green Book"), and Willem Dafoe ("At Eternity's Gate").

Answer: Joaquin Phoenix

With his fourth Academy Award nomination, Joaquin Phoenix won the Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of the title role in "Joker". He had previously been nominated for Best Supporting Actor for "Gladiator" in 2001 and for Best Actor for "Walk the Line" in 2006 and "The Master" in 2013. Phoenix swept the acting "Big Five" awards ( Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe, Critics' Choice, and SAG); the acting categories were swept for the second time, with Renee Zellweger, Brad Pitt, and Laura Dern winning the Actress, Supporting Actor, and Supporting Actress categories, respectively.

Although based on the "Batman" villain, "Joker" was more of a psychological film on mental illness and the cruelness of society. The film followed socially inept and mentally ill Arthur Fleck before he became the "Batman" criminal mastermind. Fleck suffered from a disorder that caused him to laugh inappropriately and was the result of abuse that he'd suffered as a child.

When social service funding was cut, Fleck was unable to get his medication, and after loosing his job and discovering the truth about his childhood, he mentally unraveled.

The other nominees for the Best Actor Oscar were Antonio Banderas ("Pain and Glory"), Leonardo DiCaprio ("Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"), Adam Driver ("Marriage Story"), and Jonathon Pryce ("The Two Popes").