- Discovered and promoted Bette Davis.
- Was the first British actor to win an Academy Award.
- The first actor to win an Academy Award for playing a real person, as British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in Disraeli (1929).
- Best-known for his Oscar-winning portrayal of British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who was in office on the day he was born, in London on 10th April 1868.
- Once, during a court appearance, Arliss described himself as The world's greatest living actor. "You see, I am on oath", he explained.
- After playing the real-life Mayer and Nathan Rothschild in the drama The House of Rothschild (1934), he played the fictional Francois Rothschild in the comedy Mister Hobo (1935) the following year.
- Mentioned in Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933).
- He was the earliest born actor to receive an Academy Award. He won the Best Actor Oscar for playing the British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in Disraeli (1929).
- The first actor to win an Oscar for a reprise role. Arliss originally played Benjamin Disraeli in the silent Disraeli (1921). He won the Oscar for his reprisal of the role in the talkie remake, Disraeli (1929).
- Often erroneously listed as father of Leslie Arliss. In truth he had no children.
- Holds the distinction of playing both The Duke of Wellington (in The Iron Duke (1934)) and starring in another film alongside another actor playing him (C. Aubrey Smith in The House of Rothschild (1934)), both in the same year.
- His father, William Arliss-Andrews, was a London printer and publisher.
- Wrote several plays.
- The first actor was to be nominated to an Academy Award twice in the same award's season.
- The first actor to have won an academy award to lose the award as a nominee for another film. He won in 1930 and lost in the same year (beating himself).
- The first actor to be nominated twice for a best acting Oscar at the Academy Awards. He won for Disraeli (1929) and was nominated in the same award's season for The Green Goddess (1930).
- In 1919/20 in playing the title role in the film Disraeli he became the first actor to win an Oscar for recreating a role he'd played on stage.
- Arliss was held in such high esteem that he was billed as Mr. George Arliss in several films.
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