Which 1933 film earned Charles Laughton the Academy Award for Best Actor?

The 1933 film The Private Life of Henry VIII earned Charles Laughton the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Directed and co-produced by Alexander Korda, the British historical drama presents Henry VIII through his marriages and personal life rather than concentrating on the religious and political upheavals of his reign. Laughton’s performance made the king both imposing and comic, helping turn the actor into an international film star.

The film was especially significant at the Oscars: Laughton became the first British actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, and the film was the first foreign production to win an Oscar. It was also the first foreign-language? No—the film is English-language—Best Picture nominee from outside the United States, making its achievement important in early Academy history.

The wrong options can cause confusion because Laughton later played major roles in Mutiny on the Bounty and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Those films belong to his later career; neither earned him this particular Oscar.