Greatest Film Performances by Year 1928 ‑ 1939

1. Vivien Leigh - Gone With the Wind
2. James Stewart - Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
3. Clark Gable - Gone With the Wind
4. Greta Garbo - Ninotchka
5. Judy Garland - The Wizard of Oz
6. Laurence Olivier - Wuthering Heights
7. Robert Donat - Goodbye, Mr. Chips
8. Bette Davis - Dark Victory
9. Thomas Mitchell - Stagecoach
10. John Wayne - Stagecoach
11. Claude Rains - Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
12. Ray Bolger - The Wizard of Oz
13. Greer Garson - Goodbye, Mr. Chips
14. Jean Renoir - Rules of the Game
15. Henry Fonda - Young Mr. Lincoln
16. Olivia de Havilland - Gone with the Wind
17. Mickey Rooney - Babes in Arms
18. Irene Dunne - Love Affair
19. Thomas Mitchell - Gone With the Wind
20. Geraldine Fitzgerald - Wuthering Heights

1. Cary Grant - Bringing Up Baby
2. Bette Davis - Jezebel
3. James Cagney - Angels with Dirty Faces
4. Katharine Hepburn - Bringing Up Baby
5. Katharine Hepburn - Holiday
6. Spencer Tracy - Boys Town
7. Leslie Howard - Pygmalion
8. Wendy Hiller - Pygmalion
9. Margaret Sullavan - Three Comrades
10. Robert Donat - The Citadel
11. Errol Flynn - The Adventures of Robin Hood
12. Arletty - Hotel Du Nord
13. Michael Redgrave - The Lady Vanishes
14. Mickey Rooney - Boys Town
15. Fay Bainter - White Banners
16. Michel Simon- Port of Shadows
17. Jean Gabin - La Bete Humaine
18. Michele Morgan - Port of Shadows
19. Norma Shearer - Marie Antoinette
20. Jean Gabin - Port of Shadows

1. Jean Gabin - Pepe Le Moko
2. Jean Gabin - The Grand Illusion
3. Spencer Tracy - Captains Courageous
4. Robert Montgomery - Night Must Fall
5. Cary Grant - The Awful Truth
6. Irene Dunne -- The Awful Truth
7. Barbara Stanwyck - Stella Dallas
8. Paul Muni - The Good Earth
9. Charles Boyer - Conquest
10. Fredric March - A Star Is Born
11. Janet Gaynor - A Star Is Born
12. Luise Rainer - The Good Earth
13. Paul Muni - The Life of Emile Zola
14. Ronald Colman - The Prisoner of Zenda
15. Beulah Bondi - Make Way for Tomorrow
16. Victor Moore - Make Way for Tomorrow
17. Joseph Schildkraut - The Life of Emile Zola
18. May Whitty - Night Must Fall
19. Thomas Mitchell - The Hurricane
20. Ralph Bellamy - The Awful Truth

1. Charlie Chaplin - The Modern Times
2. Greta Garbo - Camille
3. Gary Cooper - Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
4. Paul Muni - The Story of Louis Pasteur
5. Irene Dunne - Theodora Goes Wild
6. Walter Huston - Dodsworth
7. Carole Lombard - My Man Godfrey
8. William Powell - My Man Godfrey
9. Luise Rainer - The Great Ziegfeld
10. Spencer Tracy - San Francisco
11. Fred Astaire - Swing Time
12. Ginger Rogers - Swing Time
13. Jean Arthur - Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
14. Paulette Godard - Modern Times
15. Walter Brennan - Come and Get It
16. Miriam Hopkins - These Three
17. Gladys George - Valiant Is the Word for Carrie
18. Eugene Pallette - My Man Godfrey
19. Irene Dunne - Show Boat
20. Akim Tamiroff - The General Died at Dawn

1. Charles Laughton - Mutiny on the Bounty
2. Victor McLaglen - The Informer
3. Katharine Hepburn - Alice Adams
4. Fred Astaire - Top Hat
5. Bette Davis - Dangerous
6. Clark Gable - Mutiny on the Bounty
7. Boris Karloff - The Bride of Frankenstein
8. Paul Muni - Black Fury
9. Ginger Rogers - Top Hat
10. Greta Garbo - Anna Karenina
11. Miriam Hopkins - Becky Sharp
12. Groucho Marx - A Night at the Opera
13. Errol Flynn - Captain Blood
14. Robert Donat - The 39 Steps
15. Elisabeth Bergner - Escape Me Never
16. Merle Oberon - The Dark Angel
17. Claudette Colbert - Private Worlds
18. Franchot Tone - Mutiny on the Bounty
19. Elsa Lancaster - The Bride of Frankenstein
20. Olivia de Havilland - Captain Blood

1. Bette Davis - Of Human Bondage
2. Clark Gable - It Happened One Night
3. Claudette Colbert - It Happened One Night
4. William Powell - The Thin Man
5. Myrna Loy - The Thin Man
6. Peter Lorre - The Man Who Knew Too Much
7. W.C. Fields - It's a Gift
8. Michel Simon - L’atalante
9. Shirley Temple - Bright Eyes
10. Jean Gabin - Maria Chapdelaine
11. Stan Laurel - Babes in Toyland
12. Oliver Hardy - Babes in Toyland
13. Frank Morgan - The Affairs of Cellini
14. Norma Shearer - The Barretts of Wimpole Street
15. Grace Moore - One Night of Love
16. Charles Laughton - The Barretts of Wimpole Street
17. John Barrymore - Twentieth Century
18. Victor McLaglen - The Lost Patrol
19. Claudette Colbert - Imitation of Life
20. Marlene Dietrich - The Scarlet Empress

1. Charles Laughton - The Private Life of Henry VIII
2. Katharine Hepburn - Little Women
3. Katharine Hepburn - Morning Glory
4. Greta Garbo - Queen Christina
5. Claude Rains - The Invisible Man
6. Groucho Marx - Duck Soup
7. Oliver Hardy - Sons of the Desert
8. Stan Laurel - Sons of the Desert
9. Barbara Stanwyck - The Bitter Tea of General Yen
10. Rudolf Klein-Rogge - The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
11. Marie Dresser - Dinner at Eight
12. Leslie Howard - Berkeley Square
13. John Barrymore - Counsellor At Law
14. Jean Harlow - Bombshell
15. May Robson - Lady for a Day
16. Jean Harlow - Dinner at Eight
17. Diana Wynyard - Cavalcade
18. Paul Lukas - Little Women
19. James Cagney - Footlight Parade
20. Warner Baxter - 42nd Street

1. 1. Paul Muni - I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
2. Jean Harlow - Red Dust
3. Paul Muni - Scarface
4. Greta Garbo - Grand Hotel
5. Marlene Dietrich - Shanghai Express
6. John Barrymore - Grand Hotel
7. Miriam Hopkins - Trouble in Paradise
8. Herbert Marshall - Trouble in Paradise
9. Clark Gable - Red Dust
10. Joan Crawford - Grand Hotel
11. Gary Cooper - A Farewell to Arms
12. Marie Dressler - Emma
13. Michel Simon - Boudu Saved From Drowning
14. Oliver Hardy- Pack Up Your Troubles
15. Stan Laurel - Pack Up Your Troubles
16. Maurice Chevalier - Love Me Tonight
17. Boris Karloff - The Mummy
18. Johnny Weissmuller - Tarzan the Ape Man
19. Olga Baclanova - Freaks
20. Jeanette MacDonald - Love Me Tonight

1. Peter Lorre - M
2. Charlie Chaplin - City Lights
3. James Cagney - The Public Enemy
4. Fredric March - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
5. Edward G. Robinson - Little Caesar
6. Boris Karloff - Frankenstein
7. Helen Hayes - The Sin of Madelon Claudet
8. Wallace Beery - The Champ
9. Bela Lugosi - Dracula
10. Irene Dunne - Cimarron
11. Lionel Barrymore - A Free Soul
12. Ronald Colman - Arrowsmith
13. Barbara Stanwyck - Night Nurse
14. Michel Simon - La Chienne
15. Jackie Cooper - Skippy
16. Alfred Lunt - The Guardsman
17. Lynn Fontanne -- The Guardsman
18. Adolphe Menjou - The Front Page
19. Clark Gable - A Free Soul
20. Norma Shearer - A Free Soul

1. Marlene Dietrich - The Blue Angel
2. Greta Garbo - Anna Christie
3. Norma Shearer - The Divorcee
4. Emil Jannings - The Blue Angel
5. Fredric March - The Royal Family of Broadway
6. Marie Dressler - Min and Bill
7. Marlene Dietrich - Morocco
8. Greta Garbo - Romance
9. Lew Ayers - All Quiet on the Western Front
10. Wallace Beery - The Big House
11. Ruth Chatterton - Sarah and Son
12. Ann Harding - Holiday
13. Nancy Carroll - The Devil's Holiday
14. Norma Shearer - Their Own Desire
15. Louis Wolheim - All Quiet on the Western Front
16. Marie Dressler - Anna Christie
17. Lon Chaney - The Unholy Three
18. Jean Harlow - Hell's Angels
19. George Aliss - The Green Godness
20. Lawrence Tibbett - The Rogue Song

1. Ronald Colman - Bulldog Drummond
2. George Arliss - Disraeli
3. Gloria Swanson - The Trespasser
4. Louise Brooks - Diary of a Lost Girl
5. Ronald Colman - Condemned
6. Louise Brooks - Pandora's Box
7. Paul Muni - The Valiant
8. Ruth Chatterton - Madame X
9. Mary Pickford - Coquette
10. Maurice Chevalier - The Love Parade
11. Jeanette MacDonald - The Love Parade
12. Erich von Stroheim - The Great Gabbo
13. Jeanne Eagels - The Letter
14. Oliver Hardy - Big Business
15. Stan Laurel - Big Business
16. George Bancroft - Thunderbolt
17. Chester Morris - Alibi
18. Louis Wolheim - Condemned
19. Anny Ondra - Blackmail
20. Walter Huston - The Virginian

1. Renee Jeanne Falconetti - The Passion of Joan of Arc
2. Lillian Gish - The Wind
3. Emil Jannings - The Last Command
4. Charlie Chaplin - The Circus
5. Gloria Swanson - Sadie Thompson
6. Conrad Veidt - The Man Who Laughs
7. Buster Keaton - Steamboat Bill Jr.
8. Erich von Stroheim - The Wedding March
9. Warner Baxter - In Old Arizona
10. Buster Keaton - The Cameraman
11. William Powell - The Last Command
12. Lionel Barrymore - Sadie Thompson
13. Janet Gaynor - Street Angel
14. George Bancroft - The Docks of New York
15. James Murray - The Crowd
16. Harold Lloyd - Speedy
17. Richard Barthelmess - The Noose
18. Louis Wolheim - The Racket
19. Lon Chaney - Laugh, Clown, Laugh
20. Betty Compson - The Barker