Adrian Brody, who won the Best Actor award in 2003, tried to play it cool.
The best actor award went to Jeff Bridges for country music film Crazy Heart.
Crowe went on to win the best actor Oscar for his role as Maximus.
The performance won the Danish star the best actor prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival.
Oscar favourites Daniel Day Lewis and Jessica Chastain won the best actor and actress prizes respectively.
British actor Jim Broadbent has won the Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival.
Sir Roger Moore has said he believes Daniel Craig is the best actor to have played James Bond.
Later that evening, at the 42nd Academy Awards, John Wayne won the Best Actor Oscar for True Grit.
George Clooney, Tommy Lee Jones and Viggo Mortensen complete the best actor shortlist.
He won the Best Actor award at Cannes this year and he is being hotly tipped for another Oscar nod.
You see that in the big categories, the Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, also in the director's category and screenwriting category.
Alec Baldwin repeated his Emmy success at the Globes, winning the best actor in a TV comedy or musical series award.
Bullock, who presented the Best Actor award dressed in red Vera Wang, injected some much-needed levity into the flagging home stretch of the Oscars.
British-Irish citizen Daniel Day-Lewis - who at the weekend became the first man to win the best actor Oscar three times - was fifth.
He also admitted his regret at missing out on the best actor Oscar in 1999 for Gods and Monsters to Roberto Benigni's performance in Life is Beautiful.
Sir Derek Jacobi makes the best actor shortlist for his part in Don Carlos at the Gielgud Theatre, while Richard Griffiths is up for Heroes at Wyndham's Theatre.
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An unemployed Roma from Bosnia-Hercegovina won the best actor award.
Nick Nolte gathered the best actor prize from the National Society of Film Critics, and both he and Ms Watson have been nominated for the coveted Golden Globe awards.
It stars Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, both of whom are nominated for the best actor in a musical award at the Tonys, which honour the best of the Broadway season.
Before the premiere, Pitt picked up an award that he won in Venice last year - the best actor's prize for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
As "Crazy Heart" star Jeff Bridges accepted the best actor in a movie drama award -- the first Golden Globe of his career -- he joked about his lack of awards.
The best actor race sees Curious Incident's Luke Treadaway up against Rupert Everett's Oscar Wilde in The Judas Kiss, Mark Rylance for Twelfth Night, Macbeth's James McAvoy and Rafe Spall for Constellations.
Aside from Lincoln and Rhys, he will also face competition for the best actor in a drama series award from Kevin Spacey for House of Cards, Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston and Timothy Olyphant for Justified.
The Best Actor category is a race between Bradley Cooper for Silver Linings Playbook, Daniel Day Lewis for Lincoln, Hugh Jackman for Les Miserables, Joaquin Phoenix for The Master, and Denzel Washington for Flight.
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In the best actor race, The Departed will secure Leonardo DiCaprio a spot alongside Peter O'Toole (Venus), Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland), Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness) and Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson).
Italian actors picked up the best actor and actress categories - Luigi Lo Cascio won for Luce dei miei Occhi (Light of My Eyes), about a lonely young man and his obsession with a single mother.
Rupert Everett won the best actor prize for his portrayal of Oscar Wilde in the revival of The Judas Kiss, which has recently transferred to the Duke of York's Theatre following its run at Hampstead Theatre and on tour.
BBC: Sheridan Smith and Rupert Everett shine at theatre awards
That year saw Crash named best picture, Philip Seymour Hoffman as best actor, Reese Witherspoon as best actress, George Clooney the best supporting actor and Rachel Weisz as best supporting actress - as well as Lee's win for Brokeback Mountain.
He won the Laurence Olivier Award for best actor, the Drama Desk Award for outstanding actor in a play, the Outer Critics Circle Award for best featured actor in a play, and a Tony Award for best performance by a leading actor in a play.
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