Meet the 2017 Academy Awards Nominees: Best Actor in a Leading Role

Sensitive. Powerful. Heartbreaking. Touching. All of this year's Best Actor in a Leading Role nominees create performances that made us smile in one moment and broke our hearts in the next. Before the Academy Award winner is announced tonight, get to know these unbelievable gentleman!

Best Actor in a Leading Role

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Meet Casey Affleck

Manchester by the Sea

Hometown: Falmouth, Massachusetts

Training: Studied politics for 1 year at George Washington University and transferred to Columbia University for 2 years, but never finished.

Big Break: After decades of smaller, mostly cameo roles, his major breakthrough came in 2007 with "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (1st Oscar nomination) and "Gone Baby Gone" (directed by his brother Ben).

Fun Fact: He was a construction worker and a busboy in between acting jobs in his 20s.

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Meet Andrew Garfield

Hacksaw Ridge

Hometown: Epsom, Surrey

Training: Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London

Big Break: Although he started his career in television and the London theatre, his film breakthrough role came in "The Social Network" (2010).

Fun Fact: As a kid, he was a gymnast.

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