Actor: Denzel Washington

Denzel Washington built a persona on integrity, which is a rare thing to be able to project, and his best performances either rest on it or destroy it.

Glory won him Best Supporting Actor and contains a single shot of him weeping while being flogged that carries the film. Malcolm X is the biographical achievement, playing a man across three complete transformations.

Training Day is where he spends the persona, playing a corrupt narcotics detective, and it won him Best Actor. The performance works because the audience keeps waiting for the decency to reappear.

He has worked repeatedly with Tony Scott and Spike Lee, directed several films himself, and has become one of the few genuine box office draws whose name alone still opens a picture.