The 51-year-old, a nominee in 2009 and 2012, bested a field that included two past Oscar winners — Nicole Kidman (“Lion”) and Octavia Spencer (“Hidden Figures”) — as well as Michelle Williams (“Manchester by the Sea”) and Naomie Harris (“Moonlight”).

“O captain! My captain! Denzel Washington, thank you for putting two entities in the driving seat — August and God. And they served you well,” she said, appropriating a verse from US writer Walt Whitman.

In “Fences,” Davis plays the wife of a bitter, frustrated garbage collector in Pittsburgh in the 1950s, who has to come to terms with the missed opportunities of his past. 

The Oscar is the crowning achievement for a dominant awards season for Davis, who also took home the Golden Globe, a Bafta, the Screen Actors Guild prize and a number of other honors for her work. DM