Oscars: 101 acting winners hail from 29 other countries

Matthew Stewart
·5 min read

Since the inception of the Academy Awards, the U.S.-based organization behind them has always strived to honor worldwide film achievements. Their extensive roster of competitive acting winners alone consists of artists from 30 unique countries, three of which (Korea, Malaysia, and Vietnam) first gained representation during the 2020s. The last full decade’s worth of triumphant performers hail from eight countries, while 42.1% of the individual actors nominated during that time originate from outside of America.

The academy’s history of recognizing acting talent on a global scale dates all the way back to the inaugural Oscars ceremony in 1929, when Swiss-born Emil Jannings (who was of German and American parentage) won Best Actor for his work in both “The Last Command” and “The Way of All Flesh.” Over the next three years, the Best Actress prize was exclusively awarded to Canadians: Mary Pickford (“Coquette”), Norma Shearer (“The Divorcee”), and Marie Dressler (“Min and Bill”).

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The only two instances of entire quartets of acting champs coming from foreign shores occurred in 1965 and 2008. The first case involved Russian-born Lila Kedrova (“Zorba the Greek”) and Brits Rex Harrison (“My Fair Lady”), Julie Andrews (“Mary Poppins”), and Peter Ustinov (“Topkapi”), while the second concerned Marion Cotillard (“La Vie en Rose”) of France, Javier Bardem (“No Country for Old Men”) of Spain, and Daniel Day-Lewis (“There Will Be Blood”) and Tilda Swinton (“Michael Clayton”) of England.

Over the course of 96 ceremonies, 317 individual performers have won 370 Oscars (taking into account the respective Best Actor and Actress ties of 1932 and 1969). Of these, 101 came from outside the U.S. to take home 120 trophies. Among the 29 represented non-American birth countries, England unequivocally leads with 48 thespians originating from there having clinched 56 Oscars.

Since 1929, the respective lead actor and actress awards have gone to non-American-born performers 33 and 36 times. Following the 1937 establishment of the supporting acting categories, there have been 30 male and 21 female winners of this kind.

The 93 Oscar-winning performers listed below are sorted by country of strongest association (meaning where they primarily lived as children, in most cases) with any differing birthplaces noted. Included are two (Sidney Poitier and Nicole Kidman) of non-American parentage who were born in the U.S. but spent minimal portions of their childhoods there. In addition, 10 actors who were born elsewhere but raised primarily in the U.S. are not included (leaving just 25 listed countries). They are Claudette Colbert (born in France), Paul Muni (Ukraine), sisters Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland (Japan), Harold Russell (Canada), Anthony Quinn (Mexico), Elizabeth Taylor (England), Natalie Portman (Israel), Mark Rylance (England), and Ke Huy Quan (Vietnam).

Australia
Cate Blanchett
Russell Crowe (moved from New Zealand at four)
Peter Finch (born in England; moved to his father’s home country at nine after briefly living in France and India)
Nicole Kidman (born in the U.S.; moved to her parents’ home country at four)
Heath Ledger
Geoffrey Rush

Austria
Joseph Schildkraut
Christoph Waltz

The Bahamas
Sidney Poiter (born in the U.S.; moved to his parents’ home country as an infant, then back to his birth country at 15)

Belgium
Audrey Hepburn (lived in England and the Netherlands for part of her childhood)

Cambodia
Haing S. Ngor

Canada
Marie Dressler (moved to the U.S. as a preteen)
Walter Huston
Mary Pickford
Christopher Plummer
Norma Shearer

England
Julie Andrews
George Arliss
Peggy Ashcroft
Christian Bale (born in Wales; moved to his parents’ home country at two after briefly living in Spain)
Jim Broadbent
Michael Caine
Julie Christie (moved from India at six)
Olivia Colman
Ronald Colman
Donald Crisp
Daniel Day-Lewis
Judi Dench
Robert Donat
Colin Firth
Greer Garson
John Gielgud
Alec Guinness
Edmund Gwenn
Rex Harrison
Wendy Hiller
John Houseman (moved from Romania as a young child; settled in the U.S. at 22)
Jeremy Irons
Glenda Jackson
Daniel Kaluuya
Ben Kingsley
Charles Laughton
Vivien Leigh (born in India; lived in England, France, and Italy before settling in England at 18)
Victor McLaglen
Helen Mirren
John Mills
David Niven
Gary Oldman
Laurence Olivier
Vanessa Redgrave
Eddie Redmayne
Margaret Rutherford
George Sanders (born in Russia; moved to his father’s home country at 11)
Paul Scofield
Maggie Smith
Tilda Swinton
Jessica Tandy
Emma Thompson
Peter Ustinov
Rachel Weisz
Kate Winslet

France
Juliette Binoche
Marion Cotillard
Jean Dujardin
Simone Signoret (born in Germany; moved to her parents’ home country at two)

Germany
Emil Jannings (born in Switzerland; moved to his mother’s home country as a young child)
Luise Rainer (lived in Austria and Switzerland for part of her childhood)

Greece
Katina Paxinou

Hungary
Paul Lukas

Ireland
Barry Fitzgerald
Brenda Fricker
Cillian Murphy

Italy
Roberto Benigni
Sophia Loren
Anna Magnani

Japan
Miyoshi Umeki

Kenya
Lupita Nyong’o (born in Mexico; moved to her parents’ home country as an infant)

Korea
Youn Yuh-jung

Malaysia
Michelle Yeoh (moved to England at 15)

New Zealand
Anna Paquin (born in Canada; moved to her mother’s home country at four)

Russia
Yul Brynner (moved to China at seven, France at 13, and Switzerland at 17; settled in the U.S. at 20)
Lila Kedrova (lived in Germany and France as a teenager)

Scotland
Sean Connery

South Africa
Charlize Theron

Spain
Javier Bardem
Penélope Cruz

Sweden
Ingrid Bergman
Alicia Vikander

Switzerland
Maximilian Schell (born in Austria; moved to his father’s home country at eight)

Wales
Hugh Griffith
Anthony Hopkins
Ray Milland
Catherine Zeta-Jones (moved to England at 15)

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