Daniel Day Lewis won the award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in last night’s Oscars awards ceremony, marking the third time he has won that award.

Day-Lewis played Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln”, and won the award during the 85th Academy Awards hosted by Seth MacFarlane.

This win makes 55-year-old Daniel Day-Lewis the first actor to win three Oscars for a leading role. Katharine Hepburn won four for the lead actress category, and Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, Ingrid Bergman and Walter Brennan have won three Oscars apiece in a mix of the lead and supporting categories.

Day-Lewis was the favorite to win the Best Leading Actor award in this year’s ceremony, as the film “Lincoln” was very well received at its initial screening in October 2012. The British actor also won the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards for this role.

Daniel Day Lewis was running against Bradley Cooper for “Silver Linings Playbook”, Hugh Jackman for “Les Miserables,” Joaquin Phoenix for “The Master” and Denzel Washington for “Flight.”

Day-Lewis previously won Best Leading Actor for “My Left Foot” in 1990 and “There Will Be Blood” in 2008. He has now surpassed other men who have won two Best Leading Actor Oscars: Marlon Brando, Gary Cooper, Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Tom Hanks, and Sean Penn.

Perhaps Day-Lewis’s surpassing such well renowned actors is what prompted publications to begin referring to Day-Lewis as the ‘Best Actor Who Has Ever Lived’.

The Oscar analyst for movie industry website ‘The Wrap’ Steve Pond said Hollywood now regards Day-Lewis as, “the greatest actor of the current day. Historians will decide whether he deserves comparison with the people of the past. But there’s no doubt this sealed the deal as our greatest living actor.”

When asked about how it felt to be referred to as the “world’s greatest actor,” Day-Lewis laughed and told The Daily Telegraph, “It’s daft, isn’t it? Sean (Penn) had to go through all this a few years ago. It changes all the time.”

The actor is unsure of what role he may take on next. He said, “I don’t know where I’m going,” but included that he wants to use his off time to “re-engage with life.”

Daniel Day-Lewis has also recently stated, “I can’t think of anyone [I'd like to play] right now because I need to lie down for a couple of years. It’s really hard to imagine doing anything after [Lincoln].”