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Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor | |
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Awarded for | Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role |
Country | United States |
Presented by | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) |
First awarded | 1937 |
Most recent winner | Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer (2024) |
Most awards | Walter Brennan (3) |
Most nominations | Walter Brennan, Jeff Bridges, Robert Duvall, Arthur Kennedy, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Claude Rains, and Mark Ruffalo (4) |
Website | oscars |
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. 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]
The Best Supporting Actor award has been presented a total of 88 times, to 79 actors. The first winner was Walter Brennan for his role in Come and Get It. The most recent winner is Robert Downey Jr. for Oppenheimer.[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.
Nominations process
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]
In the first three years of the awards, actors and actresses were nominated as the best individuals in their categories, along with all qualifying cumulative work.[5] The current system, in which an actor is nominated for a specific performance in a single film, was introduced for the 4th Academy Awards, in the lead acting categories.[5] Simultaneously, along with the introduction of the supporting acting categories, all four acting categories were limited to a maximum five nominations per year.[5]
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.[6] For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months, from August 1 to July 31.[7] For the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1, 1932, to December 31, 1933.[7] Since the 7th ceremony held in 1935, the period of eligibility became the full previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31.[7]
‡ | Indicates the winner |
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† | Indicates a posthumous winner |
† | Indicates a posthumous nominee |
§ | Indicates actor who refused the nomination |
1930s
Year | Actor | Role(s) | Film | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1936 (9th) |
Walter Brennan ‡ | Swan Bostrom | Come and Get It | [8] |
Mischa Auer | Carlo | My Man Godfrey | ||
Stuart Erwin | Amos Dodd | Pigskin Parade | ||
Basil Rathbone | Tybalt | Romeo and Juliet | ||
Akim Tamiroff | General Yang | The General Died at Dawn | ||
1937 (10th) |
Joseph Schildkraut ‡ | Captain Alfred Dreyfus | The Life of Emile Zola | [9] |
Ralph Bellamy | Dan Leeson | The Awful Truth | ||
Thomas Mitchell | Dr. Kersaint | The Hurricane | ||
H. B. Warner | Chang | Lost Horizon | ||
Roland Young | Cosmo Topper | Topper | ||
1938 (11th) |
Walter Brennan ‡ | Peter Goodwin | Kentucky | [10] |
John Garfield | Mickey Borden | Four Daughters | ||
Gene Lockhart | Regis | Algiers | ||
Robert Morley | King Louis XVI | Marie Antoinette | ||
Basil Rathbone | King Louis XI | If I Were King | ||
1939 (12th) |
Thomas Mitchell ‡ | Dr. Josiah Boone | Stagecoach | [11] |
Brian Aherne | Emperor Maximilian von Habsburg | Juarez | ||
Harry Carey Sr. | President of the Senate | Mr. Smith Goes to Washington | ||
Brian Donlevy | Sgt. Markoff | Beau Geste | ||
Claude Rains | Sen. Joseph Harrison Paine | Mr. Smith Goes to Washington |