'Lincoln': 6 actors who won Oscars for portraying historical figures

'Lincoln' actor Daniel Day-Lewis is already a frontrunner for this year's Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of the sixteenth president. Here are a few other actors who took home a statuette when they portrayed real people.

2. Philip Seymour Hoffman

Attila Dory/Sony Pictures Classics/AP

Hoffman snagged the Oscar, his first, in 2005 after playing writer Truman Capote in "Capote." The film focuses on the author writing his book "In Cold Blood." "Philip Seymour Hoffman does much more than mimic (perfectly) the dainty whine and lizardly savoir faire of the man... His Truman Capote is a fully fleshed-out portrait that lays bare the creepiest recesses of the writer's psyche," Rainer wrote about the film. "I don't think I've ever seen another performance based on a famous artist that was as psychologically acute or troubling."

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