Day-Lewis picks up Best Actor Oscar

Daniel Day-Lewis has won his second best actor Academy Award for his towering performance as a ruthless, malevolent oilman in 'There Will Be Blood'.

Day-Lewis, who is an Irish citizen and received his first Oscar for 'My Left Foot' in 1990, picked up his second Academy Award from Helen Mirren, recipient of last year’s best actress gong.

“That’s the closest I’ll ever come to getting a knighthood, so thank you,” he joked.

Perhaps drawing inspiration from his violent character Daniel Plainview in 'There Will Be Blood', he thanked “the members of the academy for whacking me with the handsomest bludgeon in town.

“I’m looking at this gorgeous thing you’ve given me and I’m thinking back to the first devilish whisper of an idea that came to him and everything since and it seems to me that this sprang like a golden sapling out of the mad, beautiful head of (director and writer) Paul Thomas Anderson,” he said.