1996 - Nicolas Cage

Richard Dreyfuss and Sean Penn could have won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1996, for their roles in for ‘Mr. Holland’s Opus’ and ‘Dead Man Walking’, but it was Nicolas Cage who took home the golden statuette for his movie 'Leaving Las Vegas'.

Directed by Mike Figgis, the movie follows Cage’s character Ben Sanderson, a Hollywood screenwriter who has lost his job, family and friends and decides to use his severance money to end things in Las Vegas.