Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Year Actor Character Film
2010 Colin Firth King George VI The King 's Speech
2010 Jesse Eisenberg Mark Zuckerberg The Social Network
2010 James Franco Aron Ralston 127 Hours
2010 Ryan Gosling Dean Pereira Blue Valentine
2010 Mark Wahlberg Micky Ward The Fighter
2011 George Clooney Matt King The Descendants
2011 Leonardo DiCaprio J. Edgar Hoover J. Edgar
2011 Michael Fassbender Brandon Sullivan Shame
2011 Ryan Gosling Stephen Meyers The Ides of March
2011 Brad Pitt Billy Beane Moneyball
2012 Daniel Day-Lewis Abraham Lincoln Lincoln
2012 Richard Gere Robert Miller Arbitrage
2012 John Hawkes Mark O'Brien The Sessions
2012 Joaquin Phoenix Freddie Quell The Master
2012 Denzel Washington William Whip Whitaker , Sr Flight
2013 Matthew McConaughey Ron Woodroof Dallas Buyers Club
2013 Chiwetel Ejiofor Solomon Northup 12 Years a Slave
2013 Idris Elba Nelson Mandela Mandela : Long Walk to Freedom
2013 Tom Hanks Captain Richard Phillips Captain Phillips
2013 Robert Redford Our Man All Is Lost
Winners and nominees -- 2010s
The Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama was first awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association as a separate category in 1951. Previously, there was a single award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture but the splitting allowed for recognition of it and the Best Actor - Musical or Comedy. The formal title has varied since its inception. In 2005, it was officially called: Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama. As of 2013[update], the wording is Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama.