Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor in the context of "William Hurt"

Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential actors in the history of cinema, Brando received numerous accolades throughout his career, which spanned six decades, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Cannes Film Festival Award, three British Academy Film Awards, and an Emmy Award. Brando is credited with being one of the first actors to bring the Stanislavski system of acting and method acting to mainstream audiences.

Brando came under the influence of Stella Adler and Stanislavski's system in the 1940s. He began his career on stage, where he was lauded for adeptly interpreting his characters. He made his Broadway debut in the play I Remember Mama (1944) and won Theater World Awards for his roles in the plays Candida and Truckline Cafe, both in 1946. He returned to Broadway as Stanley Kowalski in the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), a role he reprised in the 1951 film adaptation, directed by Elia Kazan.

Terence Henry Stamp (22 July 1938 – 17 August 2025) was an English actor. His filmography included a mix of cult and mainstream performances, particularly sophisticated villain roles. He received various accolades including a Golden Globe Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award and two BAFTA Awards. He was named by Empire as one of the 100 Sexiest Film Stars of All Time in 1995.

Stamp trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London, before acting in the Wolf Mankowitz production of This Year Next Year (1960) at the West End's Vaudeville Theatre. He made his American film debut playing the title role in the film Billy Budd (1962), which earned him a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award. He starred in the psychological horror film The Collector (1965) for which he won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor. He went on to appear in films such as Modesty Blaise (1966), Far from the Madding Crowd (1967), Poor Cow (1967), Teorema (1968), Spirits of the Dead (1968), and The Mind of Mr. Soames (1969).

Ray Milland (born Alfred Reginald Jones; 3 January 1907 – 10 March 1986) was a Welsh-American actor and film director. He is often remembered for his portrayal of an alcoholic writer in Billy Wilder's The Lost Weekend (1945), which won him Best Actor at Cannes, a Golden Globe Award, and ultimately an Academy Award—the first such accolades for any Welsh actor.

Before becoming an actor, Milland served in the Household Cavalry of the British Army, becoming a proficient marksman, horseman and aeroplane pilot. He left the army to pursue a career in acting and appeared as an extra in several British productions before getting his first major role in The Flying Scotsman (1929). This led to a nine-month contract with MGM, and he moved to the United States, where he worked as a stock actor. After his MGM contract ended, Milland was picked up by Paramount, which used him in a range of lesser speaking parts, usually as an English character. He was lent to Universal for the Deanna Durbin musical Three Smart Girls (1936), and its success led to Milland's playing the lead role in The Jungle Princess (also 1936) alongside new starlet Dorothy Lamour. The film was quite successful and raised both to stardom. Milland remained with Paramount for almost 20 years.