Winners and nominees

2000s

• 2000: James Woods - Dirty Pictures
  • Andy Garcia - For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story
  • Louis Gossett Jr. - The Color of Love: Jacey's Story
  • Bob Hoskins - Noriega: God's Favorite
  • Matthew Modine - Flowers for Algernon

• 2001: Richard Dreyfuss - The Day Reagan Was Shot
  • William Hurt - Varian's War
  • Ben Kingsley - Anne Frank
  • Damian Lewis - Band of Brothers
  • Jeffrey Wright - Boycott

• 2002: William H. Macy - Door to Door
  • Ted Danson - Living With The Dead
  • Albert Finney - The Gathering Storm
  • Harry J. Lennix - Keep The Faith, Baby
  • Patrick Stewart - King Of Texas

• 2003: James Woods - Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story
  • Robert Carlyle - Hitler: The Rise of Evil
  • Troy Garity - Soldier's Girl
  • Lee Pace - Soldier's Girl
  • Al Pacino - Angels in America
  • Tom Wilkinson - Normal

• 2004: Jamie Foxx - Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story
  • Keith Carradine - Deadwood
  • Mos Def - Something the Lord Made
  • Alan Rickman - Something the Lord Made
  • Geoffrey Rush - The Life and Death of Peter Sellers

• 2005: Randy Quaid - Elvis
  • Brian Dennehy - Our Fathers
  • Tim Blake Nelson - Warm Springs
  • Paul Newman - Empire Falls
  • William Shatner - Boston Legal
  • Ruben Santiago-Hudson - Their Eyes Were Watching God

• 2006: Bill Nighy - Gideon's Daughter
  • Andre Braugher - Thief
  • Charles Dance - Bleak House
  • Hugh Dancy - Elizabeth I
  • Ben Kingsley - Mrs. Harris

• 2007: David Oyelowo - Five Days
  • Jim Broadbent - Longford
  • Robert Lindsay - The Trial of Tony Blair
  • Aidan Quinn - Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
  • Tom Selleck - Jesse Stone: Sea Change
  • Toby Stephens - Jane Eyre