Explore our collection of Best Actor Oscar winners, including Daniel Day-Lewis, Adrien Brody, Colin Firth, Forest Whitaker, Tom Hanks and Sean Penn. View full biographies, photos and videos, only at Biography.com.
Explore our collection of Best Actress Oscar winners, including Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Marion Cotillard, Vivien Leigh and Cher. View full biographies, photos and videos, only at Biography.com.
Explore Biography.com's collection of Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winners, including Edith Head and Cecil Beaton. See full biographies, photos and videos.
Explore Biography.com's collection of Best Director Oscar winners, including Ang Lee, Anthony Minghella, Barry Levinson, Bernardo Bertolucci, Carol Reed, Elia Kazan, Ethan Coen and Francis Ford Coppola.
Explore our collection of Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winners, including Ang Lee, Vittorio de Sica, Akira Kurosawa, Federico Fellini, Jacques Tati, Ingmar Bergman, Luis Buñuel, François Truffaut and Roberto Benigni. See full biographies, photos and videos, only at Biography.com.
Explore our collection of Best Original Score Oscar winners, including Bernard Herrmann, Aaron Copland, John Williams, Henry Mancini, Elmer Bernstein, Burt Bacharach, Charlie Chaplin and Prince. See full biographies, photos and videos, only at Biography.com.
Explore our collection of Best Picture Oscar winners, including Ben Affleck, George Clooney, James L. Brooks, Steven Spielberg, Kathryn Bigelow and Peter Jackson. View full biographies, photos and videos, only at Biography.com.
Explore our collection of Best Screenplay Oscar winners, including Quentin Tarantino, Sofia Coppola, Matt Damon, Billy Wilder, Emma Thompson and Orson Welles. View full biographies, photos and videos, only at Biography.com.
Explore our collection of Best Song Oscar winners, including Adele, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Isaac Hayes, Melissa Etheridge and Annie Lennox. View full biographies, photos and videos, only at Biography.com.
Explore our collection of Best Supporting Actor Oscar winners, including Christoph Waltz, Joe Pesci, Christopher Plummer, Walter Matthau and Frank Sinatra. View full biographies, photos and videos, only at Biography.com.
Explore our collection of Best Supporting Actress Oscar winners, including Anne Hathaway, Angelina Jolie, Penelope Cruz, Octavia Spencer, Juliette Binoche, Marisa Tomei and Whoopi Goldberg. View full biographies, photos and videos, only at Biography.com.
Truth is often more fascinating than fiction. Since the beginning of movies, actors have been portraying figures from history and bringing them to life on screen. Mastering the well-known mannerisms and characteristics of real world figures can be more challenging than portraying a fictional character. Enormous amounts of research and drastic physical transformations are not uncommon for actors wanting to properly inhabit their role on film. Whether playing a scheming Queen, a country singer, a temperamental boxer, or a pioneering writer, those performers who can accurately play the part often find Oscar gold as their reward. Here are the Academy Award-winning actors, and the larger-than-life people they portrayed.