|
Best Supporting Actress:
The Best Supporting Actress award should actually be
titled "the best performance by an actress in a supporting role." (See
the complete list of all Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress winners
here).
In 1936, the acting awards were expanded to start recognizing
supporting roles. Best Supporting Actress Oscars are traditionally given
to actors who stand out in small roles.
First-time nominees often win in this category.
These are only two actresses with two Best Supporting
Actress awards - both were two-for-three in this category:
|
Top Best Supporting Actress
Oscar Winners |
Best Supporting Actress Oscar Wins
|
Shelley Winters
4 career nominations
(3 B.S.A. noms),
2 wins |
The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)
A Patch of Blue (1965) |
Dianne Wiest
3 career nominations
(all B.S.A. noms),
2 wins |
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
Note: Dianne Wiest is also the only winner as Best Supporting Actress to have
received more than one Oscar for work in a single director's films (Woody
Allen directed both of her award-winning films). |
Actresses Winning at Least One Statuette in Both
the Lead and Supporting Categories:
Five actresses have won acting awards in both the lead (BA)
and supporting (BSA) categories:
- Ingrid Bergman (BA in 1944, BA in 1956, BSA in 1974) - the only star to receive a Best Supporting Actress Oscar after winning two Best Actress Academy Awards
- Helen Hayes (BA in 1931/32, BSA in 1970)* - her only two career
nominations (Kevin Spacey has also won lead and supporting actor awards
for his only career nominations - so far)
- Jessica Lange (BSA in 1982, BA in 1994)
- Maggie Smith (BA in 1969, BSA in 1978)
- Meryl Streep (BSA in 1979, BA in 1982)
There are many actresses who have won only one
Best Supporting Actress award.
Film Debut Nominees/Winners:
In the first year of the Best Supporting Actress
category, Gale Sondergaard won the Oscar for her debut performance.
Various other actresses (a sampling) have won the Best Supporting Actress
Oscar or been nominated for their debut film (or during the first year
of their career in a substantial film role):
- Gale Sondergaard in Anthony Adverse (1936)
- Katina Paxinou in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
- Angela Lansbury in Gaslight
(1944) (nomination)
- Mercedes McCambridge in All
the King's Men (1949)
- Colette Marchand in Moulin
Rouge (1952) (nomination)
- Eva Marie Saint in
On the Waterfront (1954)
- Jo Van Fleet in East of Eden
(1955)
- Diane Varsi in Peyton Place
(1957) (nomination)
- Miyoshi Umeki in Sayonara
(1957)
- Maureen Stapleton in Lonelyhearts (1958) (nomination)
(she finally won for Reds (1981))
- Mary Badham in
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) (nomination)
- Vivien Merchant in Alfie (1966) (nomination)
- Jocelyne LaGarde in Hawaii (1966) (nomination)
- Sondra Locke in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968)
(nomination)
- Goldie Hawn in Cactus Flower (1969)
- Catherine Burns in Last
Summer (1969) (nomination)
- Tatum O'Neal in Paper Moon (1973)
- Leslie Browne in The Turning Point (1977)
(nomination)
- Cathy Moriarty in
Raging Bull (1980) (nomination)
- Oprah Winfrey in The Color Purple (1985) (nomination)
- Anna Paquin in The Piano (1993)
- Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls (2o06)
The Most Best Supporting Actress Nominations:
Actresses with the most Best Supporting Actress
nominations include:
- Thelma Ritter (6) - with no wins (four were consecutive
in a streak from 1950-1953), in a 12-year span
- Ethel Barrymore (4)
- Lee Grant (4)
- Agnes Moorehead (4)
- Geraldine Page (4)
- Maureen Stapleton (4)
- Maggie Smith (4)
- Meryl Streep (3)
- Cate Blanchett (3)
- Glenn Close (3)
- Gladys Cooper (3)
- Celeste Holm (3)
- Diane Ladd (3)
- Angela Lansbury (3)
- Anne Revere (3)
- Claire Trevor (3)
- Dianne Wiest (3)
- Shelley Winters (3)
One actress, Ingrid Bergman, has won three actress awards
(both Lead and Supporting Actress awards). She is the only performer to receive a Best Supporting Actress Oscar after winning two Best Actress Oscars:
- as Best Actress for Gaslight
(1944) and Anastasia (1956)
- as Best Supporting Actress for Murder on the Orient
Express (1974)
The other most nominated actresses (including both
Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress roles) are:
- Meryl Streep (14)
- Katharine Hepburn (12)
- Bette Davis (10, but sometimes credited as 11 due
to the write-in campaign for Of Human Bondage
(1934))
- Geraldine Page (8)
- Greer Garson (7)
- Ingrid Bergman (7)
Multiple Nominations - Double Nominees:
Often, actresses have been nominated for
Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for different films
in the same year. In 1938, Fay Bainter received the first
simultaneous nominations of any performer in lead and supporting categories
(wins are marked with *). A total of eleven performers - eight actresses
and three other actors (Barry Fitzgerald in 1944, Al Pacino in 1992,
and Jamie Foxx in 2004) have duplicated that feat. (See the Best
Supporting Actor page for further information on male double nominees.):
- Fay Bainter (Best Actress for White Banners (1938)
and Best Supporting Actress for Jezebel (1938)*)
- Teresa Wright (Best Actress for The Pride of the
Yankees (1942) and Best Supporting Actress for Mrs. Miniver
(1942)*)
- Jessica Lange (Best Actress for Frances (1982)
and Best Supporting Actress for Tootsie (1982)*)
- Sigourney Weaver (Best Actress for Gorillas in
the Mist (1987) and Best Supporting Actress for Working Girl
(1987))
- Holly Hunter (Best Actress for The Piano (1993)*
and Best Supporting Actress for The Firm (1993))
- Emma Thompson (Best Actress for The Remains of
the Day (1993) and Best Supporting Actress for In the Name
of the Father (1993))
- Julianne Moore (Best Actress for Far From Heaven
(2002) and Best Supporting Actress for The Hours (2002))
- Cate Blanchett (Best Actress for Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) and Best Supporting Actress for I'm Not There (2007))
No one has ever won two performing awards in the same
year. Double nominees usually win in one category. Three of the eight
actresses won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, and only one of the
eight won the Best Actress Oscar, while Sigourney Weaver, Emma Thompson,
Julianne Moore and Cate Blanchett lost both bids.
Back-to-Back Winners:
Five actors/actresses have won back-to-back (consecutive
year) Oscars:
- Luise Rainer for The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
and The Good Earth (1937)
- Spencer Tracy for Captain
Courageous (1937) and Boys Town (1938)
- Katharine Hepburn for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
(1967) and The Lion in Winter (1968)
- Jason Robards for All the President's Men (1976)
and Julia (1977)
- Tom Hanks for Philadelphia (1993) and Forrest
Gump (1994)
Jason Robards is the only star to win back-to-back Best Supporting Actor Oscars. No Best Supporting Actress has won two Academy Awards in a row.
Actors/Actresses With the Most Consecutive Acting
Nominations (in both Leading and Supporting categories)
(wins marked with *):
| Five Nominations in Consecutive
Years: |
Films |
| Bette Davis (1938-1942) |
Jezebel (1938)*,
Dark Victory (1939), The
Letter (1940), The Little Foxes (1941), Now,
Voyager (1942) |
| Greer Garson (1941-1945) |
Blossoms in the Dust (1941),
Mrs. Miniver (1942)*, Madame Curie (1943), Mrs.
Parkington (1944), The Valley of Decision (1945) |
| Four Nominations in Consecutive
Years: |
|
| Jennifer Jones (1943-1946) |
The Song of Bernadette (1943)*,
Since You Went Away (1944), Love
Letters (1945), Duel in the Sun (1946) |
| Thelma Ritter (1950-1953) - all for Best Supporting Actress |
All About Eve (1950),
The Mating Season (1951), With a Song in My Heart (1952),
Pickup on South Street (1953) |
| Marlon Brando (1951-1954) |
A Streetcar Named Desire
(1951), Viva Zapata! (1952), Julius Caesar (1953),
On the Waterfront (1954)* |
| Elizabeth Taylor (1957-1960) |
Raintree County (1957), Cat
on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Suddenly,
Last Summer (1959), Butterfield 8 (1960)* |
| Al Pacino (1972-1975) |
The Godfather (1972),
Serpico (1973),
The Godfather, Part II (1974),
Dog Day Afternoon (1975) |
| Three Nominations in Consecutive
Years: |
|
| Spencer Tracy (1936-1938) |
San Francisco (1936), Captains
Courageous (1937)*, Boys Town (1938)* |
| Gary Cooper (1941-1943) |
Sergeant York (1941)*, The
Pride of the Yankees (1942), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) |
| Ingrid Bergman (1943-1945) |
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943),
Gaslight (1944)*, The Bells of
St. Mary's (1945) |
| Gregory Peck (1945-1947) |
The Keys of the Kingdom (1945),
The Yearling (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947) |
| Deborah Kerr (1956-1958) |
The King and
I (1956), Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957), Separate
Tables (1958) |
| Richard Burton (1964-1966) |
Becket (1964), The Spy Who
Came In From the Cold (1965),
Who's Afraid of Virginia
Woolf? (1966) |
| Jack Nicholson (1973-1975) |
The Last Detail (1973),
Chinatown (1974),
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's
Nest (1975)* |
| Jane Fonda (1977-1979) |
Julia (1977), Coming Home
(1978)*, The China Syndrome (1979) |
| Meryl Streep (1981-1983) |
The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981),
Sophie's Choice (1982)*, Silkwood (1983) |
| Glenn Close (1982-1984) |
The World According to Garp (1982),
The Big Chill (1983), The Natural (1984) |
| William Hurt (1985-1987) |
Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)*,
Children of a Lesser God (1986), Broadcast News (1987) |
| Russell Crowe (1999-2001) |
The Insider (1999), Gladiator
(2000)*, A Beautiful Mind (2001) |
| Renee Zellweger (2001-2003) |
Bridget Jones's Diary (2001),
Chicago (2002), Cold Mountain (2003)* |
African-American Notables:
There have only been twelve nominations
for black performers for Best Supporting Actress, divided amongst twelve
different performers. All nominees were nominated only once:
|
#
|
Best Supporting Actress Nominee
|
Film
|
|
1
|
Hattie McDaniel |
Gone With The Wind (1939) (win) |
|
2
|
Ethel Waters |
Pinky (1949) |
|
3
|
Juanita Moore |
Imitation of Life (1959) |
|
4
|
Bea Richards |
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) |
|
5
|
Alfre Woodard |
Cross Creek (1983) |
|
6
|
Margaret Avery |
The Color Purple (1985) |
|
7
|
Oprah Winfrey |
The Color Purple (1985) |
|
8
|
Whoopi Goldberg |
Ghost (1990) (win) |
|
9
|
Marianne Jean-Baptiste |
Secrets & Lies (1996) |
|
10
|
Queen Latifah |
Chicago (2002) |
|
11
|
Sophie Okonedo |
Hotel Rwanda (2004) |
|
12
|
Jennifer Hudson |
Dreamgirls (2006) (win) |
Only seven black performers have
won the Oscar in the supporting category (four Best Supporting Actor,
three Best Supporting Actress). Only three black actresses have
won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar:
- Hattie McDaniel for
Gone With The Wind (1939) - the first
- Whoopi Goldberg for Ghost (1990) - 51 years later!
- Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls (2006)
Only twelve awards have been won by African-Americans
in both lead and supporting categories (four Best Actor, one Best
Actress, four Best Supporting Actor, and three Best Supporting Actress).
Five of the 20 acting nominations in 2004 and 2006 were
African-American nominees. This bested the record of three nominated
blacks that occurred in three different years (2001, 1985, and 1972):
|
2006
|
2004
|
Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
Djimon Honsou, Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
|
Jamie Foxx, Ray
Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda
Morgan Freeman, Million Dollar Baby
Jamie Foxx, Collateral
Sophie Okonedo, Hotel Rwanda |
- 2001: Halle Berry for Monster's Ball, Denzel
Washington for Training Day, and Will Smith for Ali
- 1985: Whoopi Goldberg, Margaret Avery and Oprah
Winfrey for The Color Purple
- 1972: Diana Ross for Lady Sings the Blues,
and Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield for Sounder
In three instances, African-Americans have won
two of the four acting prizes:
- 2006: Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland,
Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls
- 2004: Morgan Freeman for Million Dollar Baby,
Jamie Foxx for Ray
- 2001: Halle Berry for Monster's Ball, Denzel
Washington for Training Day
The only Caucasians who portrayed black characters and were nominated (but didn't win) for Academy Awards:
- Jeanne Crain, Best Actress for Pinky (1949)
- Flora Robson, Best Supporting Actress for Saratoga Trunk (1946)
- Susan Kohner, Best Supporting Actress for Imitation of Life (1959)
Latino, Asian and Other Ethnic-Minority
(Non-English) Performers:
There have been very few ethnic/minority
(or non-English) performance wins for Best Supporting Actress. They include:
- Angelina Jolie - with part Haudenosaunee (some sources
say Iroquian Indian) heritage, won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar
for her role in Girl, Interrupted (1999)
- Queens NY-born American actress Mercedes Ruehl (of
Cuban and Irish extraction) won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar
for her role in The Fisher King (1991)
- Puerto Rican Rita Moreno won the Best Supporting
Actress award for her performance in
West Side Story (1961) - she was the
first (and only) Hispanic/Latino actress to win an acting Academy
Award Oscar
- twenty-two year old Japanese-born Miyoshi Umeki won
the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in Sayonara (1957)
- she was the first Asian actress to be nominated for (and
win) an Oscar award
Notable ethnic/minority performance nominations
for Best Supporting Actress include:
- Mexican-born Adriana Barraza was nominated as Best
Supporting Actress for her role as careless Mexican housekeeper Amelie
in Babel (2006)
- Japanese actress Rinko Kikuchi was nominated as Best
Supporting Actress for her role as isolated, depressed and troubled
deaf-mute Tokyo teen-aged (speaking with sign-language) girl Chieko in Babel (2006)
- Iranian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo was nominated
as Best Supporting Actress for her performance in House of Sand
and Fog (2003) - she was the first Iranian-Middle Eastern
actress to be nominated for an Oscar
- Half-Chinese Jennifer Tilly was nominated as Best
Supporting Actress for her role in Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
- Brooklyn-born Puerto Rican Rosie Perez was nominated
as Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Fearless (1993)
- Half-Chinese Meg Tilly was nominated as Best Supporting
Actress for her role in Agnes of God (1985)
- French actress Valentina Cortese was nominated as Best Supporting Actress for her role in Day for Night (1974)
- Susan Kohner (daughter of Mexican actress Lupita
Tovar) was nominated as Best Supporting Actress for her role as a
light-skinned black girl in Imitation of Life (1959)
- Mexican-born Katy Jurado was nominated as Best Supporting
Actress for her role in Broken Lance (1954)
Shortest:
The shortest performance to win an Oscar
was in the Best Supporting Actress category: Beatrice Straight won the
Best Supporting Actress Oscar for less than eight minutes of screen
time in Network (1976), with only 8 speaking
parts (of approx. 260 words). (Runner up: Judi Dench for about
ten minutes of screen time as Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in
Love (1998), with 14 speaking parts (of approx. 446 words).)
16 year old Patty Duke won Best Supporting
Actress for portraying Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker (1962),
a role that required her to speak only one word in the last scene -
"water." She was also the first minor to win a competitive
Oscar.
Related Oscar Winners and Nominees:
The first - and only - brother and sister
to win acting Oscars were: Lionel Barrymore, who won the Best
Actor award for A Free Soul (1930/31), and Ethel Barrymore, who
won the Best Supporting Actress award for None But the Lonely Heart
(1944). Famous brother John Barrymore was never nominated, nor has
descendant Drew Barrymore (yet). Other brother-sister acting nominees
include Eric and Julia Roberts, and Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine.
The only brothers nominated for acting
Oscars were: River Phoenix as Best Supporting Actor for Running on
Empty (1988) and Joaquin Phoenix as Best Supporting Actor for Gladiator
(2000).
The only mother-daughter duo to have won
performance Oscars are:
- Judy Garland (a special juvenile award winner) for
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
- Liza Minnelli (as Best Actress) for Cabaret (1972)
Vincente Minnelli (Garland's husband and
Minnelli's father) also won a Best Director Oscar for Gigi (1958).
Diane Ladd and Laura Dern are the first
and only mother-daughter acting pair nominated for the same film
in Oscar history: both received nominations for Rambling Rose (1991).
Add to that the fact that father Bruce Dern was Oscar nominated (Best
Supporting Actor for Coming Home (1978)) - that makes them the
only mother-father-daughter acting group with Oscar nominations.
Two pairs of sisters have competed against
each other (when nominated simultaneously) for the same Best Actress
award:
- Joan Fontaine in Suspicion (1941) defeated
sister Olivia de Havilland in Hold Back the Dawn (1941)
- Vanessa Redgrave for Morgan (1966) vs. Lynn
Redgrave in Georgy Girl (1966) - both lost to Elizabeth Taylor
The only other sisters to have received acting Oscar
nominations (supporting in this case) are Meg Tilly for Agnes of
God (1985) and Jennifer Tilly for Bullets Over Broadway (1994).
Father-son acting nominees include:
- Kirk Douglas (for Champion (1949), The
Bad and the Beautiful (1952), and Lust for Life (1956)),
and Michael Douglas (for Wall Street (1987))
- Raymond Massey (for Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940))
and Daniel Massey for Star! (1980))
Michael, Vanessa, and Lynn Redgrave are the only father-daughter-daughter
group among acting nominees. Michael's single nomination was for Mourning
Becomes Electra (1947).
Nominated father-daughter acting combos also include:
Ryan O'Neal (Best Actor for Love Story (1970))
and Tatum O'Neal (Best Supporting Actress for Paper Moon (1973)).
Winning father-daughter acting combos include:
- Jon Voight (Best Actor for Coming Home (1978))
and Angelina Jolie (Best Supporting Actress for Girl, Interrupted
(1999))
- Henry Fonda (Best Actor for On Golden Pond (1981)
and Jane Fonda (Best Actress for Klute (1971) and Coming
Home (1978))
The only father-son-daughter Oscar nominees are
Henry, Peter (nominated as Best Actor for Ulee's Gold (1997)),
and Jane Fonda. Henry and Jane are also the only father-daughter duo
nominated for the same film: On Golden Pond (1981).
Three Generations:
1948's Oscar-winning director John Huston
directed both his father (Walter Huston) to a Best Supporting Actor
Oscar and his daughter (Anjelica) to a Best Supporting Actress Oscar
in respectively,
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) and Prizzi's Honor
(1985) 37 years later. [Huston won two Oscars for writing and directing
the 1948 film.] This remarkable feat made the Hustons the first
family with three generations of Oscar winners - Huston became the only
director to have directed both his father and daughter to Oscar victories.
Since Huston also received an acting nomination (supporting) for The
Cardinal (1963), the Hustons are the only grandfather-father-daughter
acting nominees in Oscar history.
A win for Sofia Coppola for Best Original
Screenplay for Lost in Translation (2003) made her part of the
second family of three-generation Oscar winners (her father is
a five-time winner and her grandfather, Carmine Coppola, won for musical
score on The Godfather Part II (1974)).
Cast Nominations:
Thirteen films have received nominations
in all four acting categories:
Only one film has had three nominees for Best Supporting
Actress:
- Tom Jones (1963) - Diane Cilento, Edith Evans,
and Joyce Redman (all lost to Margaret Rutherford for The V.I.P.'s
(1963))
Other Notables:
Hilary Swank's Best Actress Oscar for Boys
Don't Cry (1999) made her the second actress to win an acting Academy
Award for playing a member of the opposite sex. Previously, Linda Hunt
won Best Supporting Actress for Year of Living Dangerously (1983)
for playing a man.
For four years in a row (1978-1981), the
Best Supporting Actress winner's initials were M.S.: Maggie Smith, Meryl
Streep, Mary Steenbergen, Maureen Stapleton.
Cate Blanchett's Best Supporting Actress
Oscar win for The Aviator (2004) in her role as Katharine Hepburn marked the first time
a performer won an Oscar for playing an Oscar-winning actress.
Ruth Gordon, a Broadway playwright (Years Ago, Over Twenty-One), stage actress (Tony Award-nominated in 1956 for The Matchmaker), Oscar-nominated screenwriter (A Double Life (1947), Adam's Rib (1949) and Pat and Mike (1952), co-scripted with husband Garson Kanin), book author (Myself Among Others, An Open Book, and My Side), Golden Globe Award winner (Best Supporting Actress for Inside Daisy Clover (1965) for which she also had an Oscar nomination), and Emmy Award winner (for a 1978 episode of Taxi) won Best Supporting Actress (and a Golden Globe) for her performance in Rosemary's
Baby (1968). She was also nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance as Maude in Harold and Maude (1971).
Youngest and Oldest Best Supporting
Actresses:
Note: The calculated time is from date
of birth to the date of either (1) the nominations announcement, or
(2) the date of the awards ceremony. It is quite common that the winner
in the Best Supporting Actress category is either an older and established
performer, or very young and inexperienced.
|
Youngest Best Supporting Actress
Nominee
|
Youngest Best Supporting Actress
Winner
|
Oldest Best Supporting Actress
Nominee
|
Oldest Best Supporting Actress
Winner
|
| |
|
|
|
10 years (and 106 days)
Tatum O'Neal
for Paper Moon (1973) |
10 years (and 148 days)
Tatum O'Neal
for Paper Moon (1973) |
87 years (and 221 days)
Gloria Stuart
for Titanic (1997) |
77 years (and 93 days)
Peggy Ashcroft
for A Passage to India (1984) |
Runner-Ups:
10 years (and 141 days)
Mary Badham for
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
10 years (and 192 days)
Quinn
Cummings for The Goodbye Girl (1977)
10 years (and 284 days)
Abigail Breslin for
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
|
Runner-Ups:
11 years (and 240 days)
Anna Paquin for The Piano (1993)
16 years (and 115 days)
Patty Duke for The
Miracle Worker (1962)
|
Runner-Ups:
83 years (and 2 months, 26 days)
Ruby Dee for American Gangster (2007)
82 years (and 257 days)
Jessica Tandy for Fried Green Tomatoes
(1991)
82 years (and 37 days)
Eva Le Gallienne for
Resurrection (1980)
|
Runner-Ups:
72 years (and 166 days)
Ruth Gordon for Rosemary's
Baby (1968)
71 years (and 338 days)
Margaret Rutherford for
The V.I.P.s (1963) |
|
Six years (and 310 days) Shirley Temple was the
youngest performer to win an Academy Award when she won an unofficial
honorary 'juvenile' Academy Award statuette in 1934, presented
on February 27, 1935.
85 years (and 207 days) Myrna Loy was the oldest
female performer to receive an honorary statuette in 1990, presented
on March 25, 1991.
83 years (and 182 days) Groucho Marx was the
oldest male performer to receive an honorary statuette in 1973,
presented on April 2, 1974. |
|
