Aleading actor,leading actress, orleading man or lady or simplylead (/ˈliːd/), plays a main role in a film, television show or play.[1] The wordlead may also refer to the largest role in the piece, andleading actor may refer to a person who typically plays such parts or an actor with a respected body of work. Someactors aretypecast as leads, but most play the lead in some performances andsupporting orcharacter roles in others.
Sometimes there is more than one significant leading role in a dramatic piece, and the actors are said to playco-leads; a largesupporting role may be considered asecondary lead. Award nominations for acting often reflect such ambiguities. Therefore, sometimes two actors in the same performance piece are nominated Oscars forBest Actor orBest Actress—categories traditionally reserved for leads. For example, in 1935Clark Gable,Charles Laughton andFranchot Tone were each nominated for the Best ActorAcademy Award forMutiny 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'sAl Pacino boycotted the45th 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 winnerMarlon Brando and so he should have received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.[2]
Atitle role is often but not necessarily the lead. A lead role must also be differentiated from astarring role, which means that an actor is credited as a part of the main cast but not that they necessarily play the main character.
