Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film

The Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television is a category of the Golden Globe Award, the annual television award given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

The official title of the award is Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television.

Winners and nominees

1980s

1981: Mickey Rooney – Bill

• Dirk Bogarde – The Patricia Neal Story as Roald Dahl
• Timothy Hutton – A Long Way Home
• Danny Kaye – Skokie
• Peter O'Toole – Masada
• Ray Sharkey – The Ordeal of Bill Carney as Bill Carney
• Peter Strauss – Masada

1982: Anthony Andrews – Brideshead Revisited

• Philip Anglim – The Elephant Man as John Merrick
• Robby Benson – Two of a Kind
• Jeremy Irons – Brideshead Revisited
• Sam Waterston – Oppenheimer

1983: Richard Chamberlain – The Thorn Birds

• Robert Blake – Blood Feud
• Louis Gossett, Jr. – Sadat
• Martin Sheen – Kennedy as John F. Kennedy
• Peter Strauss – Heart of Steel

1984: Ted Danson – Something About Amelia

• James Garner – Heartsounds
• Sam Neill – Reilly: Ace of Spies
• Jason Robards – Sakharov
• Treat Williams – A Streetcar Named Desire as Stanley Kowalski

1985: Dustin Hoffman – Death of a Salesman as Willy Loman

• Richard Chamberlain – Wallenberg: A Hero's Story
• Richard Crenna – The Rape of Richard Beck as Richard Beck
• Kirk Douglas – Amos
• Peter Strauss – Kane & Abel

1986: James Woods – Promise

• James Garner – Promise
• Mark Harmon – The Deliberate Stranger
• Jan Niklas – Peter the Great as Peter the Great
• John Ritter – Unnatural Causes

1987: Randy Quaid – LBJ: The Early Years as Lyndon B. Johnson

• Alan Arkin – Escape from Sobibor
• Mark Harmon – After the Promise
• Jack Lemmon – Long Day's Journey Into Night
• Judd Nelson – Billionaire Boys Club
• James Woods – In Love and War

1988: Michael Caine – Jack the Ripper and
1988: Stacy Keach – Hemingway as Ernest Hemingway

• Richard Chamberlain – The Bourne Identity as Jason Bourne
• Anthony Hopkins – The Tenth Man
• Jack Lemmon – The Murder of Mary Phagan

1989: Robert Duvall – Lonesome Dove

• John Gielgud – War and Remembrance
• Ben Kingsley – Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story as Simon Wiesenthal
• Lane Smith – The Final Days
• James Woods – My Name is Bill W.

1990s

1990: James Garner – Decoration Day

• Steven Bauer – Drug Wars: The Camarena Story
• Michael Caine – Jekyll & Hyde
• Tom Hulce – Murder in Mississippi
• Burt Lancaster – The Phantom of the Opera
• Rick Schroder – The Stranger Within

1991: Beau Bridges – Without Warning: The James Brady Story as James Brady

• Sam Elliott – Conagher
• Peter Falk – Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star
• Sam Neill – One Against the Wind
• Sidney Poitier – Separate but Equal

1992: Robert Duvall – Stalin as Joseph Stalin

• Anthony Andrews – Jewels
• Philip Casnoff – Sinatra as Frank Sinatra
• Jon Voight – The Last of His Tribe
• James Woods – Citizen Cohn as Roy Cohn

1993: James Garner – Barbarians at the Gate

• Peter Falk – Columbo: It's All in the Game
• Jack Lemmon – A Life in the Theatre
• Matthew Modine – And the Band Played On
• Peter Strauss – Men Don't Tell

1994: Raúl Juliá – The Burning Season as Chico Mendes

• Alan Alda – White Mile
• James Garner – Breathing Lessons
• Rutger Hauer – Fatherland
• Samuel L. Jackson – Against the Wall

1995: Gary Sinise – Truman as Harry Truman

• Alec Baldwin – A Streetcar Named Desire as Stanley Kowalski
• Charles S. Dutton – The Piano Lesson
• Laurence Fishburne – The Tuskegee Airmen
• James Woods – Indictment: The McMartin Trial

1996: Alan Rickman – Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny as Grigori Rasputin

• Armand Assante – Gotti as John Gotti
• Beau Bridges – Losing Chase as Richard Phillips
• Stephen Rea – Crime of the Century as Bruno Hauptmann
• James Woods – The Summer of Ben Tyler as Temple Rayburn

1997: Ving Rhames – Don King: Only in America as Don King *

• Armand Assante – The Odyssey as Odysseus
• Jack Lemmon – 12 Angry Men as Juror #8
• Matthew Modine – What the Deaf Man Heard as Sammy Ayers
• Gary Sinise – George Wallace as George C. Wallace

1998: Stanley Tucci – Winchell as Walter Winchell

• Peter Fonda – The Tempest as Gideon Prosper
• Sam Neill – Merlin as Merlin
• Bill Paxton – A Bright Shining Lie as John Paul Vann
• Christopher Reeve – Rear Window as Jason Kemp
• Patrick Stewart – Moby Dick as Captain Ahab

1999: Jack Lemmon – Inherit the Wind as Henry Drummond

• Jack Lemmon – Tuesdays with Morrie as Morris "Morrie" Schwartz
• Liev Schreiber – RKO 281 as Orson Welles
• Sam Shepard – Dash and Lilly as Dashiell Hammett
• Tom Sizemore – Witness Protection as Bobby Batton

2000s

2000: Brian Dennehy – Death of a Salesman as Willy Loman

• Alec Baldwin – Nuremberg as Robert H. Jackson
• Brian Cox – Nuremberg as Hermann Göring
• Andy García – For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story as Arturo Sandoval
• James Woods – Dirty Pictures as Dennis Barrie

2001: James Franco – James Dean as James Dean

• Kenneth Branagh – Conspiracy as Reinhard Heydrich
• Ben Kingsley – Anne Frank: The Whole Story as Otto Frank
• Damian Lewis – Band of Brothers as Richard Winters
• Barry Pepper – 61* as Roger Maris

2002: Albert Finney – The Gathering Storm as Winston Churchill

• Michael Gambon – Path to War as Lyndon B. Johnson
• Michael Keaton – Live from Baghdad as Robert Weiner
• William H. Macy – Door to Door as Bill Porter
• Linus Roache – RFK as Robert F. Kennedy

2003: Al Pacino – Angels in America as Roy Cohn

• Antonio Banderas – And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself as Pancho Villa
• James Brolin – The Reagans as Ronald Reagan
• Troy Garity – Soldier's Girl as Barry Winchell
• Tom Wilkinson – Normal as Roy "Ruth" Applewood

2004: Geoffrey Rush – The Life and Death of Peter Sellers as Peter Sellers

• Mos Def – Something the Lord Made as Vivien Thomas
• Jamie Foxx – Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story as Stanley Tookie Williams
• William H. Macy – The Wool Cap as Gigot
• Patrick Stewart – The Lion in Winter as King Henry II

2005: Jonathan Rhys-Meyers – Elvis as Elvis Presley

• Kenneth Branagh – Warm Springs as Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Ed Harris – Empire Falls as Miles Roby
• Bill Nighy – The Girl in the Café as Lawrence
• Donald Sutherland – Human Trafficking as Bill Meehan

2006: Bill Nighy – Gideon's Daughter as Gideon Warner

• Andre Braugher – Thief as Nick Atwater
• Robert Duvall – Broken Trail as Prentice "Print" Ritter
• Michael Ealy – Sleeper Cell as Darwyn al-Sayeed
• Chiwetel Ejiofor – Tsunami: The Aftermath as Ian Carter
• Ben Kingsley – Mrs. Harris as Herman Tarnower
• Matthew Perry – The Ron Clark Story as Ron Clark

2007: Jim Broadbent – Longford as Lord Longford

• Adam Beach – Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee as Charles Eastman
• Ernest Borgnine – A Grandpa for Christmas as Bert O'Riley
• Jason Isaacs – The State Within as Mark Brydon
• James Nesbitt – Jekyll as Tom Jackman/Mr. Hyde

2008: Paul Giamatti – John Adams as John Adams

• Ralph Fiennes – Bernard and Doris as Bernard Lafferty
• Kevin Spacey – Recount as Ron Klain
• Kiefer Sutherland – 24: Redemption as Jack Bauer
• Tom Wilkinson – Recount as James Baker

2009: Kevin Bacon – Taking Chance as Michael Strobl

• Kenneth Branagh – Wallander: One Step Behind as Kurt Wallander
• Chiwetel Ejiofor – Endgame as Thabo Mbeki
• Brendan Gleeson – Into the Storm as Winston Churchill
• Jeremy Irons – Georgia O'Keeffe as Alfred Stieglitz

2010s

2010: Al Pacino – You Don't Know Jack as Jack Kevorkian

• Idris Elba – Luther as Detective Chief Inspector John Luther
• Ian McShane – The Pillars of the Earth as Waleran Bigod
• Dennis Quaid – The Special Relationship as Bill Clinton
• Édgar Ramírez – Carlos as Carlos the Jackal

2011: Idris Elba – Luther as Detective Chief Inspector John Luther

• Hugh Bonneville – Downton Abbey as Robert, Earl of Grantham
• William Hurt – Too Big to Fail as Henry Paulson
• Bill Nighy – Page Eight as Johnny Worricker
• Dominic West – The Hour as Hector Madden

2012: Kevin Costner – Hatfields & McCoys as Devil Anse Hatfield

• Benedict Cumberbatch – Sherlock as Sherlock Holmes
• Woody Harrelson – Game Change as Steve Schmidt
• Toby Jones – The Girl as Alfred Hitchcock
• Clive Owen – Hemingway & Gellhorn as Ernest Hemingway

2013: Michael Douglas – Behind the Candelabra as Liberace

• Matt Damon – Behind the Candelabra as Scott Thorson
• Chiwetel Ejiofor – Dancing on the Edge as Louis Lester
• Idris Elba – Luther as Detective Chief Inspector John Luther
• Al Pacino – Phil Spector as Phil Spector

2014: Billy Bob Thornton – Fargo as Lorne Malvo

• Martin Freeman – Fargo as Lester Nygaard
• Woody Harrelson – True Detective as Detective Martin Hart
• Matthew McConaughey – True Detective as Detective Rustin Cohle
• Mark Ruffalo – The Normal Heart as Ned Weeks

2015: Oscar Isaac – Show Me a Hero as Nick Wasicsko

• Idris Elba – Luther as Detective Chief Inspector John Luther
• David Oyelowo – Nightingale as Peter Snowden
• Mark Rylance – Wolf Hall as Thomas Cromwell
• Patrick Wilson – Fargo as State Trooper Lou Solverson

*Ving Rhames asked Jack Lemmon, who was also nominated, on the stage and tributed the award to him.

See also

• Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
• Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie