The Genie Award for Best Performance by a Foreign Actor was awarded by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television from 1980 to 1983, for the best performance by non-Canadian actor in a Canadian film.Maria Topalovich, And the Genie Goes To...: Celebrating 50 Years of the Canadian Film Awards. Stoddart Publishing, 2000. .
The award and its Foreign Actress companion were frequently criticized both by actors and film critics — Canadian actor Christopher Plummer criticized the distinction in his Best Actor acceptance speech at the first Genies ceremony, and Jay Scott called them "loathsome", dubbing them "the Colonial Category", in a 1982 article in The Globe and Mail.Jay Scott, "Canadian films do Jekyll and Hyde act". The Globe and Mail, February 27, 1982.
The awards were discontinued after the 4th Genie Awards."Genie rules changed to include Americans". Toronto Star, October 9, 1985. Initially, non-Canadian actors were simply barred from being nominated in acting categories at all, but beginning with the 7th Genie Awards non-Canadian actors instead became eligible for the Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role and/or the Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role.
Winners and nominees Year Nominee Film 1980 1st Genie Awards George C. Scott The Changeling Michael Douglas Running Bill Murray Meatballs Will Sampson Fish Hawk Rod Steiger Jack London's Klondike Fever 1981 2nd Genie Awards Jack Lemmon Tribute Bruce Dern Middle Age Crazy Burt Lancaster Atlantic City, U.S.A. Brett Marx The Lucky Star Rod Steiger The Lucky Star 1982 3rd Genie Awards Alan Arkin Improper Channels Guy Boyd Ticket to Heaven Robert Carradine Heartaches Rémi Laurent The Plouffe Family (Les Plouffe) John Savage The Amateur Tom Skerritt Silence of the North 1983 4th Genie Awards Richard Farnsworth The Grey Fox Grand Bush Hard Feelings Bruce Dern Harry Tracy, Desperado Jeff Goldblum Threshold Ron Perlman Quest for Fire Jean Yanne A Day in a Taxi (Une journée en taxi)
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