Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
| Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences |
| First awarded | 1937 (for performances in films released in 1936) |
| Currently held by | Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained (2012) |
| Official website | www.oscars.org |
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the award has commonly been referred to as the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. While actors are nominated for this award by Academy members who are actors and actresses themselves, winners are selected by the Academy membership as a whole.
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History[edit]
Throughout the past 77 years AMPAS has presented a total of 77 Best Supporting Actor awards to 69 different actors. Winners of this Academy Award of Merit receive the familiar Oscar statuette, depicting a gold-plated knight holding a crusader's sword and standing on a reel of film. Prior to the 16th Academy Awards ceremony (1943), however, they received a plaque. The first recipient was Walter Brennan, who was honored at the 9th Academy Awards ceremony (1936) for his performance in Come and Get It. The most recent recipient was Christoph Waltz, who was honored at the 85th Academy Awards ceremony (2013) for his performance in Django Unchained.
Until the 8th Academy Awards ceremony (1935), nominations for the Best Actor award were intended to include all actors, whether the performance was in a leading or supporting role. At the 9th Academy Awards ceremony (1936), however, the Best Supporting Actor category was specifically introduced as a distinct award following complaints that the single Best Actor category necessarily favored leading performers with the most screen time. Nonetheless, Lionel Barrymore had received a Best Actor award (A Free Soul, 1931) and Franchot Tone a Best Actor nomination (Mutiny on the Bounty, 1935) for their performances in supporting roles. Conversely, James Dunn received a Best Supporting Actor award for his clearly leading actor role in "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" (1945). Under the system currently in place, an actor is nominated for a specific performance in a single film, and such nominations are limited to five per year. Currently, Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, and Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role constitute the four Academy Awards of Merit for acting annually presented by AMPAS.
Superlatives[edit]
| Superlative | Best Actor | Best Supporting Actor | Overall | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actor with most awards | Daniel Day-Lewis | 3 | Walter Brennan | 3 | Walter Brennan Jack Nicholson Daniel Day-Lewis |
3 |
| Actor with most nominations | Spencer Tracy Laurence Olivier |
9 | Walter Brennan Claude Rains Arthur Kennedy Jack Nicholson |
4 | Jack Nicholson | 12 |
| Actor with most nominations (without ever winning) |
Peter O'Toole | 8 | Claude Rains Arthur Kennedy |
4 | Peter O'Toole | 8 |
| Film with most nominations | Mutiny on the Bounty | 3 | On the Waterfront The Godfather The Godfather Part II |
3 | On the Waterfront The Godfather The Godfather Part II |
4 |
| Oldest winner | Henry Fonda | 76 | Christopher Plummer | 82 | Christopher Plummer | 82 |
| Oldest nominee | Richard Farnsworth | 79 | Hal Holbrook | 82 | Hal Holbrook | 82 |
| Youngest winner | Adrien Brody | 29 | Timothy Hutton | 20 | Timothy Hutton | 20 |
| Youngest nominee | Jackie Cooper | 9 | Justin Henry | 8 | Justin Henry | 8 |
Walter Brennan, the winner of the inaugural award in 1936, is the only actor to win the award three times (from four nominations). Six actors have won the award twice: Anthony Quinn, Melvyn Douglas, Michael Caine, Peter Ustinov, Jason Robards, and Christoph Waltz. Robards was the only person to win consecutive Best Supporting Actor awards, for All the President's Men (1976) and Julia (1977).
Four African-American actors have won the award: Louis Gossett, Jr., Denzel Washington, Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Morgan Freeman.
Claude Rains and Arthur Kennedy share the greatest number of unsuccessful nominations, four each. The only other actors with four nominations were Walter Brennan (won three times) and Jack Nicholson (won once). Charles Bickford, Jeff Bridges, Robert Duvall, Ed Harris, and Al Pacino have each had three unsuccessful nominations, though Bridges, Duvall and Pacino all have won an Oscar for lead actor.
Harold Russell was the first (and only) actor to receive two Academy Awards for the same performance when he won the Best Supporting Actor award and was also presented with an Academy Honorary Award for The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). Thanks to a voting quirk, in 1944 Barry Fitzgerald in Going My Way became the only actor nominated in both the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor categories for the same performance, winning the latter. (Today, Academy bylaws preclude this from happening.)
The Godfather earned three nominations for Best Supporting Actor at the 45th Academy Awards, from Al Pacino, James Caan, and Robert Duvall, but they all lost to Joel Grey of Cabaret. Pacino himself boycotted the ceremony as he was insulted at being nominated for the Supporting Acting award, even though he had more screen time than costar and Best Leading Actor winner Marlon Brando – who was himself boycotting the awards.[1] The Godfather Part II received three Best Supporting Actor nominations with Robert De Niro winning, while The Godfather Part III's Andy García was nominated.
Robert De Niro's 1974 win as the young Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II is unique as the only Supporting Oscar won for playing a character previously played by a Best Actor winner (Marlon Brando in The Godfather). De Niro and Benicio del Toro (who won for Traffic) are the only winners for foreign-language performances in this category.
Kenneth Branagh (My Week with Marilyn in 2011) is the only actor to be nominated for playing a previous Best Supporting Actor nominee: Laurence Olivier (Marathon Man in 1976.)
Although five actresses have been nominated for non-speaking supporting roles, John Mills was the only male actor to be so nominated until Max von Sydow in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Mills won Best Supporting Actor for his performance as a mute brain-damaged village idiot in Ryan's Daughter (1970). (This excludes actors who were nominated for Best Actor for silent films in the silent era.)
Heath Ledger is the only person to posthumously win an acting Oscar in a supporting role. He won the Best Supporting Actor award for his portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight, 2008.
Winners and nominees[edit]
Following the Academy's practice, the films below are listed by year of their Los Angeles qualifying run, which is usually (but not always) the film's year of release. For example, the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor of 1999 was announced during the award ceremony held in 2000. Winners are listed first in the colored rows, followed by the other nominees. For a list sorted by actor names, please see List of Best Supporting Actor nominees. For a list sorted by film titles, please see List of Best Supporting Actor nominees (films). Winners are listed first in colored row, followed by the other nominees.
1930s[edit]
| Year | Actor | Film | Role(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1936 (9th) |
|||
| Walter Brennan | Come and Get It | Swan Bostrom | |
| Mischa Auer | My Man Godfrey | Carlo | |
| Stuart Erwin | Pigskin Parade | Amos Dodd | |
| Basil Rathbone | Romeo and Juliet | Tybalt – Nephew to Lady Capulet | |
| Akim Tamiroff | The General Died at Dawn | General Yang | |
| 1937 (10th) |
|||
| Joseph Schildkraut | The Life of Emile Zola | Capt. Alfred Dreyfus | |
| Ralph Bellamy | The Awful Truth | Dan Leeson | |
| Thomas Mitchell | The Hurricane | Dr. Kersaint | |
| H. B. Warner | Lost Horizon | Chang | |
| Roland Young | Topper | Cosmo Topper | |
| 1938 (11th) |
|||
| Walter Brennan | Kentucky | Peter Goodwin | |
| John Garfield | Four Daughters | Mickey Borden | |
| Gene Lockhart | Algiers | Regis | |
| Robert Morley | Marie Antoinette | King Louis XVI | |
| Basil Rathbone | If I Were King | King Louis XI | |
| 1939 (12th) |
|||
| Thomas Mitchell | Stagecoach | Dr. Josiah Boone | |
| Brian Aherne | Juarez | Emperor Maximilian von Habsburg | |
| Harry Carey | Mr. Smith Goes to Washington | President of the Senate | |
| Brian Donlevy | Beau Geste | Sgt. Markoff | |
| Claude Rains | Mr. Smith Goes to Washington | Sen. Joseph Harrison Paine |
1940s[edit]
1950s[edit]
1960s[edit]
1970s[edit]
1980s[edit]
1990s[edit]
2000s[edit]
2010s[edit]
| Year | Actor | Film | Role(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 (83rd) |
|||
| Christian Bale | The Fighter | Dicky Eklund | |
| John Hawkes | Winter's Bone | Teardrop Dolly | |
| Jeremy Renner | The Town | James "Jem" Coughlin | |
| Mark Ruffalo | The Kids Are All Right | Paul | |
| Geoffrey Rush | The King's Speech | Lionel Logue | |
| 2011 (84th) |
|||
| Christopher Plummer | Beginners | Hal Fields | |
| Kenneth Branagh | My Week with Marilyn | Laurence Olivier | |
| Jonah Hill | Moneyball | Peter Brand | |
| Nick Nolte | Warrior | Paddy Conlon | |
| Max von Sydow | Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close | The Renter | |
| 2012 (85th) |
|||
| Christoph Waltz | Django Unchained | Dr. King Schultz | |
| Alan Arkin | Argo | Lester Siegel | |
| Robert De Niro | Silver Linings Playbook | Pat Solitano, Sr. | |
| Philip Seymour Hoffman | The Master | Lancaster Dodd | |
| Tommy Lee Jones | Lincoln | Thaddeus Stevens |
Multiple awards for Best Supporting Actor[edit]
- 3 awards
- Walter Brennan
- 2 awards
- Michael Caine
- Melvyn Douglas
- Anthony Quinn
- Jason Robards
- Peter Ustinov
- Christoph Waltz
Multiple nominations for Best Supporting Actor[edit]
- 4 nominations
- Walter Brennan
- Arthur Kennedy
- Jack Nicholson
- Claude Rains
- 3 nominations
- Charles Bickford
- Jeff Bridges
- Charles Coburn
- Robert Duvall
- Gene Hackman
- Ed Harris
- Philip Seymour Hoffman
- Tommy Lee Jones
- Martin Landau
- Al Pacino
- Jack Palance
- Jason Robards
- Peter Ustinov
- Gig Young
- 2 nominations
- Eddie Albert
- Alan Arkin
- Michael Caine
- Lee J. Cobb
- Willem Dafoe
- Benicio del Toro
- Robert De Niro
- Melvyn Douglas
- Charles Durning
- Peter Falk
- Morgan Freeman
- Vincent Gardenia
- John Gielgud
- Hugh Griffith
- Alec Guinness
- Edmund Gwenn
- Djimon Hounsou
- Walter Huston
- Cecil Kellaway
- Ben Kingsley
- John Lithgow
- Karl Malden
- John Malkovich
- James Mason
- Burgess Meredith
- Sal Mineo
- Thomas Mitchell
- Edmond O'Brien
- Arthur O'Connell
- Joe Pesci
- Christopher Plummer
- Anthony Quinn
- Basil Rathbone
- Ralph Richardson
- Mickey Rooney
- Geoffrey Rush
- George C. Scott
- Akim Tamiroff
- Christopher Walken
- Christoph Waltz
- Jack Warden
- Denzel Washington
- Clifton Webb
International presence[edit]
As the Academy Awards are based in the United States and are centered on the Hollywood film industry, the majority of Academy Award winners have been Americans. Nonetheless, there is significant international presence at the awards, as evidenced by the following list of winners for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
- Australia: Heath Ledger
- Austria: Joseph Schildkraut, Christoph Waltz (born in Austria, Austrian citizenship since 2010, German since birth)
- Cambodia: Haing S. Ngor
- Canada: Christopher Plummer
- Germany: Christoph Waltz
- Ireland: Barry Fitzgerald
- Mexico: Anthony Quinn
- Puerto Rico: Benicio del Toro
- Spain: Javier Bardem
- United Kingdom: Christian Bale, Jim Broadbent, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Donald Crisp, John Gielgud, Hugh Griffith, Edmund Gwenn, John Mills, George Sanders, Peter Ustinov
There have been two years in which all four of the top acting Academy Awards were presented to non-Americans.
- At the 37th Academy Awards (1964), the winners were Rex Harrison (British), Julie Andrews (British), Peter Ustinov (British), and Lila Kedrova (Russian).
- At the 80th Academy Awards (2007), the winners were Daniel Day-Lewis (British and Irish), Marion Cotillard (French), Javier Bardem (Spanish), and Tilda Swinton (British).
See also[edit]
- List of Best Supporting Actor winners by age
- List of nominees for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (by actor)
- List of actors who have won an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, a SAG, and a Critic's Choice Award for a single performance
- List of actors nominated for Academy Awards for foreign language performances
- List of actors nominated for two Academy Awards in the same year
- List of actors with two or more Academy Awards in acting categories
- List of superlative Academy Award winners and nominees
- 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
References[edit]
- ^ Grobel; p. xxi
- ^ Beginning with the 1943 awards, winners in the supporting acting categories were awarded Oscar statuettes similar to those awarded to winners in all other categories, including the leading acting categories. Prior to this, however, winners in the supporting acting categories were awarded plaques.
External links[edit]
- Oscars.org (official Academy site)
- Oscar.com (official ceremony promotional site)
- The Academy Awards Database (official site)
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