British Academy Television Award for Best Actor

This is a list of the British Academy Television Awards for Best Actor. The Best Actor award was initially given as an "individual honour", without credit to a particular performance, until 1962, when Rupert Davies won for his performance in Maigret. Since 1970, nominees have been announced in addition to the winner. The Actor category was split into Leading Actor and Supporting Actor starting in 2010.

Michael Gambon holds the record of most wins in this category with four, including three consecutive wins, followed by Robbie Coltrane with three, all of them also being consecutive. Benedict Cumberbatch has received the most nominations for this award, with six.

Multiple wins
The following people have been awarded the British Academy Television Award for Actor multiple times:

4 wins
 * Michael Gambon

3 wins
 * Robbie Coltrane

2 wins
 * Alan Badel
 * Peter Barkworth
 * Sean Bean
 * Alec Guinness
 * Mark Rylance
 * John Thaw
 * Ben Whishaw

Multiple nominations
The following people have been nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Actor multiple times:

6 nominations
 * Benedict Cumberbatch

5 nominations
 * Robbie Coltrane

4 nominations
 * Alan Bates
 * Kenneth Branagh
 * Albert Finney
 * Michael Gambon
 * Derek Jacobi
 * Ian Richardson
 * Timothy Spall
 * John Thaw
 * Ben Whishaw

3 nominations
 * Sean Bean
 * Jim Broadbent
 * Michael Bryant
 * Stephen Graham
 * Alec Guinness
 * Leo McKern
 * Pete Postlethwaite
 * Michael Sheen
 * Dominic West

2 nominations
 * Alan Badel
 * Peter Barkworth
 * Tom Bell
 * Colin Blakely
 * James Bolam
 * Robert Carlyle
 * George Cole
 * Brian Cox
 * Christopher Eccleston
 * Denholm Elliott
 * Paapa Essiedu
 * Frank Finlay
 * Colin Firth
 * John Gielgud
 * Robert Hardy
 * Bernard Hill
 * Ian Holm
 * Anthony Hopkins
 * John Hurt
 * Toby Jones
 * Robert Lindsay
 * Ray McAnally
 * James Nesbitt
 * Laurence Olivier
 * Tim Pigott-Smith
 * Mark Rylance
 * John Simm
 * Ken Stott
 * David Suchet
 * Timothy West
 * Tom Wilkinson