Editing Leading actor (section)

{{Short description|Type of role of an actor}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}

{{Redirect|Leading role|the dance role|Lead and follow|the constitutional principle|Leading role of the Communist party}}

[[File:Salahzulfikar1.jpg|thumb|[[Salah Zulfikar]] was a leading actor in over 100 major [[Lists of Egyptian films|Egyptian productions]].]]

A '''leading actor''', '''leading actress''', or '''leading man or lady''' or simply '''lead''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|iː|d}}), plays a main role in a film, television show or play.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/lead_10 |title=lead noun (ACTOR) – definition in the British English Dictionary & Thesaurus – Cambridge Dictionaries Online |publisher=Dictionary.cambridge.org |date=2014-04-28 |access-date=2014-05-15}}</ref> The word ''lead'' may also refer to the largest role in the piece, and ''leading actor'' may refer to a person who typically plays such parts or an actor with a respected body of work. Some [[actor]]s are [[typecasting (acting)|typecast]] as leads, but most play the lead in some performances and [[supporting actor|supporting]] or [[character actor|character]] roles in others.

Sometimes there is more than one significant leading role in a dramatic piece, and the actors are said to play ''co-leads''; a large [[supporting actor|supporting role]] may be considered a ''secondary lead''. Award nominations for acting often reflect such ambiguities. Therefore, sometimes two actors in the same performance piece are nominated Oscars for [[Academy Award for Best Actor|Best Actor]] or [[Academy Award for Best Actress|Best Actress]]—categories traditionally reserved for leads. For example, in 1935 [[Clark Gable]], [[Charles Laughton]] and [[Franchot Tone]] were each nominated for the Best Actor [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] for ''[[Mutiny on the Bounty (1935 film)|Mutiny on the Bounty]]''. There can even be controversy over whether a particular performance should be nominated in the Best Actor/Actress or Best Supporting Actor/Best Supporting Actress category; for instance, ''[[The Godfather]]'s'' [[Al Pacino]] boycotted the [[45th Academy Awards]] ceremony since he was insulted at being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor award; he noted that he had more screen time than his co-star and Best Actor winner [[Marlon Brando]] and so he should have received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.<ref name="Grobel; p. xxi">Grobel; p. xxi</ref>

[[File:The Age Spectrum of Academy Award Leading Role.svg|thumb|This chart visualizes the age distribution of [[Academy Award for Best Actor|Best Actor]] and [[Academy Award for Best Actress|Best Actress]] [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] winners from 1928 (1º edition) to 2023 (96º edition).]]

A [[title role]] is often but not necessarily the lead. A lead role must also be differentiated from a [[starring role]], which means that an actor is credited as a part of the main cast but not that they necessarily play the main character.