Jamaine Punzalan

US actor Michael B. Jordan accepts the award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for "Sinners" onstage during the 98th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on March 15, 2026. Patrick T. Fallon, AFP

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98th Annual Academy Awards - Show

<div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1773628665203AFP__20260316__A3EK6PF__v1__HighRes__98thAnnualAcademyAwardsShow.jpg" style="width:960px;display:block;height:auto" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">US actor Michael B. Jordan accepts the award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for &quot;Sinners&quot; onstage during the 98th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on March 15, 2026. Patrick T. Fallon, AFP </span></span></span></div><div><br/></div><p>Michael B. Jordan on Sunday won the best actor Oscar for playing twins confronted with pure evil in vampire race fable &quot;Sinners&quot; -- tortured fighters typical of the roles director Ryan Coogler has repeatedly created for him.</p><p>Jordan made good on the momentum he gained by winning the SAG Actor Award two weeks ago to bring home an Academy Award in his first try.</p><p>He bested &quot;Marty Supreme&quot; star Timothee Chalamet, who had been the frontrunner for most of Hollywood&#x27;s awards season, along with Leonardo DiCaprio of &quot;One Battle After Another,&quot; Wagner Moura (&quot;The Secret Agent&quot;) and Ethan Hawke (&quot;Blue Moon&quot;).</p><p>At age 39, Jordan joins a small circle of Black actors who have won the prestigious best actor Oscar, after Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker and Will Smith.</p><p>&quot;I stand here because of the people who came before me,&quot; an emotional Jordan told the audience.</p><p>&quot;Sinners,&quot; a supernatural tale of racial segregation in 1930s Mississippi, was a box office success in large part due to Jordan&#x27;s compelling performances as Smoke and Stack, World War I veterans who return home after working in organized crime in Chicago.</p><p>The brothers want to open an off-the-books juke joint, smack in the middle of the Prohibition era.</p><p>Of course, they want to make some money, but they also want to help the locals drown their sorrows in alcohol and the blues.</p><p>Things quickly go sour when white vampires come calling, looking to quench their thirst for blood and music.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;CHARISMA&#x27;  </strong></div><div><br/></div><p>The twin roles fall right in line with other characters designed for Jordan by Coogler, who has featured the actor in all of his films -- always a complicated, imperfect man.</p><p>The pair started their collaboration with &quot;Fruitvale Station&quot; (2013), in which Jordan played Oscar Grant, a young Black man battling fate until he is shot dead by a police officer.</p><p>They moved on to the titular boxer in &quot;Creed,&quot; tormented by his father&#x27;s legacy, and the villainous Killmonger of &quot;Black Panther,&quot; traumatized by being an orphan in a racist world.</p><p>Coogler says Jordan&#x27;s success in tough roles is a &quot;testament to his charisma.&quot;</p><p>&quot;As soon as you put the camera on him, you just naturally care about the guy, he told The New York Times in April last year, when &quot;Sinners&quot; debuted.</p><p>The filmmaker has turned Jordan into a star over the last decade, even when the actor doubted he could overcome the perennial obstacles for Black performers in Hollywood.</p><p>Coogler &quot;gave me the reassurance and the confidence that I needed,&quot; Jordan told the Times in the same interview.</p><p>&quot;It made me double down and fueled this fire that I had to make it a reality.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;WORKAHOLIC&#x27; </strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Born in California on February 9, 1987 and raised in Newark, New Jersey, Jordan&#x27;s teacher mom pushed him into modeling at age 11.</p><p>After a few commercials, Jordan picked up small television roles before his first real break, appearing in a season of the lauded HBO crime drama &quot;The Wire&quot; at age 15.</p><p>He then did stints on soap opera &quot;All My Children&quot; and the NBC football drama &quot;Friday Night Lights&quot; before moving on to the big screen with a role in 2012&#x27;s &quot;Red Tails,&quot; about the Tuskegee Airmen, a crew of Black pilots during World War II.</p><p>&quot;Fruitvale Station&quot; came out the following year, and his partnership with Coogler was sealed.</p><p>In 2015, the director called him back for &quot;Creed,&quot; a reboot of the &quot;Rocky&quot; franchise with Jordan playing Adonis, the son of Rocky&#x27;s nemesis Apollo Creed and Sylvester Stallone sliding back into his signature role -- this time as Adonis&#x27;s trainer.</p><p>His first taste of the superhero genre came in the unfancied 2015 adaptation of &quot;Fantastic Four&quot; as Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, but &quot;Black Panther&quot; and its sequel solidified his presence in the Marvel cinematic universe.</p><p>Since then, Jordan has carefully managed his image.</p><p>He has made no secret of going to therapy to shed Killmonger&#x27;s demons, but has said little about his private life and described himself to GQ last year as a &quot;workaholic&quot; whose longest relationship lasted a year.</p><p>In recent years, he has moved into co-producing some of the films in which he has appeared, including &quot;Just Mercy&quot; and &quot;Without Remorse.&quot; He even directed the third installment of the &quot;Creed&quot; series himself.</p><p>He is directing and starring in an upcoming adaptation of &quot;The Thomas Crown Affair,&quot; expected in theaters in 2027, in which he will play the role of the gentleman thief previously taken on by Steve McQueen and Pierce Brosnan.</p><p>But Jordan has a new dream.</p><p>&quot;I&#x27;m looking forward to directing something that I&#x27;m not in at all,&quot; he told Vanity Fair earlier this year.</p>

Michael B. Jordan battles his way to Oscar for 'Sinners'

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Michael B. Jordan battles his way to Oscar for 'Sinners'

Romain Fonsegrives,

Agence France-Presse

Published March 16, 2026 10:43 AM PHT

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Michael B. Jordan

Oscars

Sinners

Best Actor

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