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Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor

Award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
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The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It has been awarded since the 9th Academy Awards to an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a supporting role in a film released that year. The award is traditionally presented by the previous year's Best Supporting Actress winner. However, in recent years, it has shifted towards being presented by previous years’ Best Supporting Actor winners instead. In lieu of the traditional Oscar statuette, supporting acting recipients were given plaques up until the 16th Academy Awards,[1] when statuettes were awarded to each category instead.[2]

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The Best Supporting Actor award has been presented a total of 89 times, to 80 actors. The first winner was Walter Brennan for his role in Come and Get It (1936). The most recent winner is Kieran Culkin for A Real Pain (2024).[3] The record for most wins is three, held by Brennan–who won every other year within a succession of the first five years. Seven other actors have won twice. Brennan is also tied for receiving the most nominations in the category (with four altogether) along with Jeff Bridges, Robert Duvall, Arthur Kennedy, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Claude Rains, and Mark Ruffalo. For his performance in The Dark Knight (2008), Heath Ledger became the first actor to win posthumously in this category—and second overall. Christopher Plummer is the oldest actor to receive a nomination in any category at age 88, for All the Money in the World (2017).

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Nominations process

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Nominees are currently 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.[4]

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Walter Brennan was the inaugural winner, thrice over, for: Come and Get It (1936), Kentucky (1938), and The Westerner (1940).
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Thomas Mitchell won for Stagecoach (1939); first male to achieve the "Triple Crown of Acting".
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Van Heflin won for Johnny Eager (1942).
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Barry Fitzgerald won for Going My Way (1944); only actor nommed in both lead + supporting for the same performance.
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Anthony Quinn won twice, for Viva Zapata! (1952) and Lust for Life (1956); first Latino to win in this category.
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Jack Lemmon won for Mister Roberts (1955).
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Red Buttons won for Sayonara (1957).
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Burl Ives won for The Big Country (1958).
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Hugh Griffith won for Ben-Hur (1959).
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Peter Ustinov won twice, for Spartacus (1960) and Topkapi (1964).
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Melvyn Douglas won twice, for Hud (1963) and Being There (1979).
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John Mills won for Ryan's Daughter (1970); first winner using BSL.
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Ben Johnson won for The Last Picture Show (1971); this category's shortest winning performance, at 9m54s.
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Joel Grey won for Cabaret (1972).
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Robert De Niro won for The Godfather Part II (1974); first non-English dialogue role (Italian) in this category to win.
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Jason Robards Jr. won twice consecutively—for All the President's Men (1976) and Julia (1977).
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John Gielgud won for Arthur (1981); first out LGBTQ+ winner in this category.
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Don Ameche won for Cocoon (1985).
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Denzel Washington won for Glory (1989).
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Joe Pesci won for GoodFellas (1990).
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Jack Palance won for City Slickers (1991).
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Gene Hackman won for Unforgiven (1992).
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Martin Landau won for Ed Wood (1994).
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James Coburn won for Affliction (1998).
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Jim Broadbent won for Iris (2001).
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Chris Cooper won for Adaptation. (2002).
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Tim Robbins won for Mystic River (2003).
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George Clooney won for Syriana (2005).
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Christoph Waltz won twice, for Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Django Unchained (2012).
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Christian Bale won for The Fighter (2010).
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J. K. Simmons won for Whiplash (2014).
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Mahershala Ali won twice, for Moonlight (2016) and Green Book (2018).
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Troy Kotsur won for CODA (2021); first deaf male win.
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Winners and nominees

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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.[5] For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months, from August 1 to July 31.[6] For the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1, 1932, to December 31, 1933.[6] Since the 7th ceremony held in 1935, the period of eligibility became the full previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31.[6]

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1930s

1940s

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1950s

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1960s

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1970s

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1980s

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1990s

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2000s

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2010s

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2020s

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Multiple wins and nominations

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The following individuals received two or more Best Supporting Actor awards:

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The following individuals received two or more Best Supporting Actor nominations:

Age superlatives

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Films with multiple Supporting Actor nominations

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There have been 22 instances in which films have produced more than one nominee within this category. All resulted in two nominations, with the exceptions of On the Waterfront (1954), The Godfather (1972), and The Godfather Part II (1974), which each obtained three.

Winners are in bold.

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Multiple character nominations

Thus far, this is the only instance of the same character producing two nominated performances within this particular same category.

See also

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Notes

  1. Due to category confusion, Barry Fitzgerald received nominations in both lead actor and supporting for this same role, winning the latter award. To prevent this from occurring in the future, the Academy revised its rules so that if ever a single actor/actress was submitted in both categories for the same performance, they would only get nominated for whichever one had the higher overall percentage within that respective category.[15]
  2. George C. Scott refused his nomination.[34]
  3. An anomaly occurred when both LaKeith Stanfield and Daniel Kaluuya received nominations in the supporting category, despite the former being campaigned for the lead race. This occurrence is likely a direct effect of the AMPAS rule enacted after Fitzgerald's nominations at the 17th ceremony. Stanfield and Kaluuya received votes in both categories, but each of them had more nominations in supporting, thus each making the top five nominees in this category.[94]
  4. Judas and the Black Messiah was not released in theaters until 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting theatrical releases. However, Academy guidelines were adjusted for 2020, thus allowing this and several other films to be submitted for the 2020 calendar year of nominees/winners.[101]
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References

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