Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor

Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given in honor of an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a supporting role while working within the film industry. The award is traditionally presented by the previous year's Best Supporting Actress winner.
At the 9th Academy Awards ceremony held in 1937, Walter Brennan was the first winner of this award for his role as Swan Bostrom in Come and Get It. Initially, winners in both supporting acting categories were awarded plaques instead of statuettes. Beginning with the 16th ceremony held in 1944, however, winners received full-sized statuettes. Currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the actors branch of AMPAS; winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy.
Since its inception, the award has been given to 78 actors. Brennan has received the most awards in this category with three awards. Brennan, Jeff Bridges, Robert Duvall, Arthur Kennedy, Jack Nicholson, Claude Rains, and Al Pacino were each nominated four times, more than any other actors. Timothy Hutton is the category's youngest winner, at age 20; while Justin Henry remains the youngest acting nominee across all four categories, at age 8. In contrast, Christopher Plummer remains the oldest acting nominee at age 88, as well as the oldest winner in this category at 82. Heath Ledger is the first Australian to win, the first to win playing a comic book character, and the only actor to win this award posthumously. (And the second posthumous acting winner overall, after fellow Australian Peter Finch won in 1977 for Best Actor for Network.) Rupert Crosse was the first black nominee in this category, while Louis Gossett Jr. was the first black winner. José Ferrer was the first Hispanic actor nominated for Supporting Actor, and Anthony Quinn was the first winner. Sessue Hayakawa was the first Asian nominee, and Haing S. Ngor was the first Asian winner. As of the 2023 ceremony, Ke Huy Quan is the most recent winner in this category for his performance as Waymond Wang in Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Winners and nominees
In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of film release in Los Angeles County; the ceremonies are always held the following year. For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months, from August 1 to July 31. For the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1, 1932, to December 31, 1933. Since the 7th ceremony held in 1935, the period of eligibility became the full previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31.
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
Multiple wins and nominations
The following individuals received two or more Best Supporting Actor awards:
The following individuals received three or more Best Supporting Actor nominations:
Age superlatives
Films with multiple Supporting Actor nominations
Winners are in bold.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) -- Harry Carey and Claude Rains
Quo Vadis (1951) -- Leo Genn and Peter Ustinov
Shane (1953) -- Brandon deWilde and Jack Palance
On the Waterfront (1954) -- Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden, and Rod Steiger
Peyton Place (1957) -- Arthur Kennedy and Russ Tamblyn
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)-- Arthur O'Connell and George C. Scott
The Hustler (1961) -- Jackie Gleason and George C. Scott
Bonnie and Clyde (1967) -- Gene Hackman and Michael J. Pollard
The Last Picture Show (1971) -- Jeff Bridges and Ben Johnson
The Godfather (1972) -- James Caan, Robert Duvall, and Al Pacino
The Godfather Part II (1974) -- Robert De Niro, Michael V. Gazzo, and Lee Strasberg
Rocky (1976) -- Burgess Meredith and Burt Young
Julia (1977) -- Jason Robards and Maximilian Schell
Ordinary People (1980) -- Judd Hirsch and Timothy Hutton
Terms of Endearment (1983) -- John Lithgow and Jack Nicholson
Platoon (1986) -- Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe
Bugsy (1991) -- Harvey Keitel and Ben Kingsley
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) -- Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell
The Irishman (2019) -- Al Pacino and Joe Pesci
Judas and the Black Messiah (2020) -- Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield
The Power of the Dog (2021) -- Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee
The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) -- Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan
Multiple character nominations
Max "Pop" Corkle from Here Comes Mr. Jordan (James Gleason, 1941) & Heaven Can Wait (Jack Warden, 1978)
Thus far, this is the only instance of the same character producing two nominated performances within this particular same category.
See also
All Academy Award acting nominees
List of awards for supporting actor
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
Oscars.org (official Academy website)
The Academy Awards Database (official website)
Oscar.com (official ceremony promotional website)
Academy Awards
Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winners
Film awards for supporting actor