From the year 1923 to the year 2023, a total of 36 black actors have been nominated in the Best Actor or Actress category, out of which only 6 took the trophy home.
And what's more, it took more than two decades after Hattie's win for a Black actor of either sex to go one better and win the gong for a leading role. That actor was Sidney Poitier, one of the superstars from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
How many black people have won Best Actress Oscars?
Halle Berry was the first, and so far only, Black Best Actress thanks to “Monster's Ball” (2001). The acting category with the most Black winners is Best Supporting Actress, with 10 including recent champ Da'Vine Joy Randolph for “The Holdovers” (2023).
How many non-white Best Actress winners are there?
There are only two women of color in the 96 years the Oscars have existed who have ever won the award. Would Halle Berry, the only Black Best Actress winner, and Michelle Yeoh, the only Asian Best Actress winner, swap presenting duties year by year?
Black Excellist: 17 Black Oscar Winners (Actors & Actresses)
Has a black woman ever won Best Actress?
On March 24, 2002, Halle Berry becomes the first Black woman to win the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of a struggling widow who falls in love with her husband's death row executioner in Monster's Ball.
All in all, 63 individual Oscars have been given out to African Americans. With some having been awarded to more than one person and others winning on more than one occasion, that works out at 69 different winners.
At just 25 years old, #JenniferHudson made history in 2007 as the youngest Black #Oscar winner of all time — and she still is! Hudson is also one of only 16 actors to win an Oscar for her debut film. Legendary!
Who is the African American actor to win an Oscar?
Sidney Poitier
Poitier plays Homer Smith, a gentle handyman who assists a group of German nuns with building a chapel. Poitier was the first black actor to win an Oscar in this category, and only the second to win in any competitive Oscar race.
1. Denzel Washington. Denzel Washington has been regarded as a paragon of acting excellence throughout his decades-long career. He was born on December 28, 1954, in Mount Vernon, New York.
1. Denzel Washington. Denzel Washington is a highly accomplished black actor known for his outstanding performances in movies. Born on December 28, 1954, in Mount Vernon, New York, he has become one of Hollywood's most respected and successful stars.
To date, only 10 Black actresses have won an Oscar, and Halle Berry remains the only one to have triumphed in the lead category, for her role in 2001's “Monster's Ball.” (The numbers for Black women are even more dire in the nonacting categories.)
On February 29, 1940, Hattie McDaniel became the first Black actor to win an Academy Award when she took best supporting actress for “Gone With the Wind,” which won eight Oscars overall including best picture.
The record for most wins is four, held by Katharine Hepburn. Frances McDormand has won three times, and thirteen other actresses have won the award twice. Meryl Streep has received the most nominations in the category—seventeen—and has won twice.
Da'Vine Joy Randolph won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 2024 Oscars for her role in "The Holdovers." LOS ANGELES -- While tears rolled down Da'Vine Joy Randolph's face, she collected her first Oscar then delivered a powerful speech about her realizing that she's good enough as an actor.
Years After Becoming the First Black Director to Win an Oscar, Roger Ross Williams Says Hollywood's Finally Calling. Even after winning the gold for his doc short 'Music for Prudence' in 2010, the helmer wasn't able to raise money for his first feature, but with 'Cassandro' and 'The 1619 Project,' things have changed.
African Americans have appeared on television as long as the medium has been around. In fact, the first Black person on TV may have been Broadway star Ethel Waters, who hosted a one-off variety show on NBC on June 14, 1939, when television was still being developed.
Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry (May 30, 1902 – November 19, 1985), better known by the stage name Stepin Fetchit, was an American vaudevillian, comedian, and film actor of Jamaican and Bahamian descent, considered to be the first black actor to have a successful film career.
In 1890 George W. Johnson became the first African American to record commercially. A common story is that Johnson, a former slave, was discovered singing on the streets of Washington, D.C., by Berliner recording agent Fred Gaisberg.
