The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is an award presented annually by the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., with the stated goal of adva ...

(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, when statuettes were awarded to each category instead. 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 Kieran Kyle Culkin (born September 30, 1982) is an American actor. Known for portraying distasteful yet sympathetic characters across stage and screen, List of awards and nominations received by Kieran Culkin, his accolades include an Academy A ...

for '' A Real Pain'' (2024). 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 Jeffrey Leon Bridges (born December 4, 1949) is an American actor. He is known for his Leading actor, leading man roles in film and television. In a career spanning over seven decades, he has received List of awards and nominations received by ...

, Robert Duvall, Arthur Kennedy,

Jack Nicholson John Joseph Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American retired actor and filmmaker. Nicholson is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of the 20th century, often playing rebels fighting against the social structure. Over his five-de ...

, Al Pacino,

Claude Rains William Claude Rains (10 November 188930 May 1967) was a British and American actor whose career spanned almost seven decades. He was the recipient of numerous accolades, including four Academy Award nominations for Academy Award for Best Supp ...

, and Mark Ruffalo. For his performance in '' The Dark Knight'' (2008),

Heath Ledger Heath Andrew Ledger (4 April 1979 – 22 January 2008) was an Australian actor. After playing roles in several Australian television and film productions during the 1990s, he moved to the United States in 1998 to further develop his film care ...

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).

Nominations process

Nominees are currently determined by

single transferable vote The single transferable vote (STV) or proportional-ranked choice voting (P-RCV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote in the form of a ranked ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vot ...

within the actors branch of AMPAS; winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy.

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 two or more Best Supporting Actor nominations:

Age superlatives

Films with multiple Supporting Actor nominations

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. *'' Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'' (1939) – Harry Carey Sr. and

*'' 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) –

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

*''

Platoon A platoon is a Military organization, military unit typically composed of two to four squads, Section (military unit), sections, or patrols. Platoon organization varies depending on the country and the Military branch, branch, but a platoon can ...

'' (1986) – Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe *'' Bugsy'' (1991) – Harvey Keitel and Ben Kingsley *'' Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri'' (2017) – Woody Harrelson and

Sam Rockwell Sam Rockwell (born November 5, 1968) is an American actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for playing troubled police officer Jason Dixon in ''Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri'' (2017). He was nominated i ...

*'' 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) and '' 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.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

Oscars.org
(official Academy website)
The Academy Awards Database
(official website)
Oscar.com
(official ceremony promotional website) {{DEFAULTSORT:Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor Academy Awards * Film awards for supporting actor