Academy Awards

Best Supporting Actress


Facts & Trivia
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Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress Sections

Best Actress - Facts & Trivia | Best Supporting Actress - Facts & Trivia | Winners Chart

The Best Supporting Actress Academy Awards
Facts and Trivia

The Best Supporting Actress award should actually be titled "the best performance by an actress in a supporting role."

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.

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. First-time nominees often win in this category.

The Top Best Supporting Actress Winners:

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 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
(3 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).

The Most Best Supporting Actress Nominations (and Wins):

One actress has received six Best Supporting Actress nominations (without winning), while seven other actresses have received four Best Supporting Actress nominations (four of them won subsequent awards).

The actress with the most Best Supporting Actress nominations (with no wins) is Thelma Ritter, followed by Amy Adams.

Actresses with the most Best Supporting Actress nominations (in parentheses) include:

  • Thelma Ritter (6) - no wins; nominated for All About Eve (1950), The Mating Season (1951), With a Song in My Heart (1952), Pickup on South Street (1953), Pillow Talk (1959) and Birdman of Alcatraz (1962); nominations were in a 12-year span from 1950-1962 (four nominations were consecutive in a streak from 1950-1953)

  • Amy Adams (5) - no wins; nominated for Junebug (2005), Doubt (2008), The Fighter (2010), The Master (2012) and Vice (2018)

  • Ethel Barrymore (4) - with one win (None But the Lonely Heart (1944)); also nominated for The Spiral Staircase (1946), The Paradine Case (1947), Pinky (1949)
  • Lee Grant (4) - with one win (Shampoo (1975)); also nominated for Detective Story (1951), The Landlord (1970), Voyage of the Damned (1976)
  • Maggie Smith (4) - with one win (California Suite (1978)); also nominated for Othello (1965), A Room With a View (1985), Gosford Park (2001)
  • Maureen Stapleton (4) - with one win (Reds (1981)); also nominated for Lonelyhearts (1958), Airport (1970), Interiors (1978)
  • Meryl Streep (4) - with one win (Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)); also nominated for The Deer Hunter (1978), Adaptation (2002), and Into the Woods (2014)

  • Agnes Moorehead (4) - no wins; nominated for The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Mrs. Parkington (1944), Johnny Belinda (1948), Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
  • Geraldine Page (4) - no wins; nominated for Hondo (1953), You're a Big Boy Now (1966), Pete 'n' Tillie (1972), The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984)
  • Glenn Close (4) - no wins; nominated for The World According to Garp (1982), The Big Chill (1983), The Natural (1984); these three nominations were in consecutive years (1982-1984), and then Hillbilly Elegy (2020)

  • Shelley Winters (3) - with two wins (The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), A Patch of Blue (1965)); also nominated for The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
  • Dianne Wiest (3) - with two wins (Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Bullets Over Broadway (1994)); also nominated for Parenthood (1989)

  • Anne Revere (3) - with one win (National Velvet (1945)); also nominated for The Song of Bernadette (1943), Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
  • Celeste Holm (3) - with one win (Gentleman's Agreement (1947)); also nominated for Come to the Stable (1949), All About Eve (1950)
  • Claire Trevor (3) - with one win (Key Largo (1948)); also nominated for Dead End (1937), The High and the Mighty (1954)
  • Marisa Tomei (3) - with one win (My Cousin Vinny (1992)); also nominated for In the Bedroom (2001), The Wrestler (2008)
  • Judi Dench (3) - with one win (Shakespeare in Love (1998)); also nominated for Chocolat (2000) and Belfast (2021)
  • Cate Blanchett (3) - with one win (The Aviator (2004)); also nominated for Notes on a Scandal (2006), I'm Not There (2007)
  • Octavia Spencer (3) - with one win (The Help (2011)); also nominated for Hidden Figures (2016) and The Shape of Water (2017)

  • Gladys Cooper (3) - no wins; nominated for Now, Voyager (1942), The Song of Bernadette (1943), My Fair Lady (1964)
  • Angela Lansbury (3) - no wins; nominated for Gaslight (1944), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
  • Diane Ladd (3) - no wins; nominated for Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Wild at Heart (1990), Rambling Rose (1991)
  • Frances McDormand (3) - no wins; nominated for Mississippi Burning (1988), Almost Famous (2000), North Country (2005)
  • Kathy Bates (3) - no wins; nominated for Primary Colors (1998), About Schmidt (2002), Richard Jewell (2019)

  • Teresa Wright (2) - with one win (Mrs. Miniver (1942)); also nominated for The Little Foxes (1941) - these two were consecutive nominations

Post-Humous Best Supporting Actress Oscar Nominees/Winners:

There have been no post-humous nominees for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar Academy Award.

Film Debut Nominees/Winners for Best Supporting Actress Oscars:

Only nine actresses have won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for their debut performance (in a feature film) in a substantial film role, while many others (a sampling) received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for a substantial role in a film debut (or during the first year of their career):

  • (1) Gale Sondergaard in Anthony Adverse (1936) (win) - she won the first year of the Best Supporting Actress category was honored
  • Miliza Korjus in The Great Waltz (1938) (nomination)
  • Teresa Wright in The Little Foxes (1941) (nomination)
  • Patricia Collinge in The Little Foxes (1941) (nomination)
  • (2) Katina Paxinou in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) (win)
  • Angela Lansbury in Gaslight (1944) (nomination)
  • (3) Mercedes McCambridge in All the King's Men (1949) (win)
  • Lee Grant in Detective Story (1951) (nomination)
  • Colette Marchand in Moulin Rouge (1952) (nomination)
  • (4) Eva Marie Saint in On the Waterfront (1954) (win)
  • (5) Jo Van Fleet in East of Eden (1955) (win)
  • Diane Varsi in Peyton Place (1957) (nomination)
  • Miyoshi Umeki in Sayonara (1957) (win)
  • 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) (win)
  • Catherine Burns in Last Summer (1969) (nomination)
  • (6) Tatum O'Neal in Paper Moon (1973) (win)
  • Leslie Browne in The Turning Point (1977) (nomination)
  • Cathy Moriarty in Raging Bull (1980) (nomination)
  • Oprah Winfrey in The Color Purple (1985) (nomination)
  • (7) Anna Paquin in The Piano (1993) (win)
  • (8) Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls (2006) (win)
  • Mo'Nique in Precious (2009) (win)
  • (9) Lupita Nyong'o in 12 Years a Slave (2013) (win)

Actresses Winning at Least One Statuette in Both the Lead and Supporting Categories:

There are many actresses who have won only one Best Supporting Actress award. Seven actresses have won acting awards in both the lead (BA) and supporting (BSA) categories:

  • Helen Hayes, Best Actress (The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931/32)), Best Supporting Actress (Airport (1970)) - her only two career nominations
  • Ingrid Bergman, Best Actress (Gaslight (1944) and Anastasia (1956)), Best Supporting Actress (Murder on the Orient Express (1974)) - the only star to receive a Best Supporting Actress Oscar after winning two Best Actress Academy Awards
  • Maggie Smith, Best Actress (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)), Best Supporting Actress (California Suite (1978))
  • Meryl Streep, Best Supporting Actress (Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)), Best Actress (Sophie's Choice (1982))
  • Jessica Lange, Best Supporting Actress (Tootsie (1982)), Best Actress (Blue Sky (1994))
  • Cate Blanchett, Best Supporting Actress (The Aviator (2004)), Best Actress (Blue Jasmine (2013))
  • Renee Zellweger, Best Supporting Actress (Cold Mountain (2003)), Best Actress (Judy (2019))

Back-to-Back Winners:

No Best Supporting Actress has won two Academy Awards in a row. Jason Robards is the only star to win back-to-back Best Supporting Actor Oscars.

Multiple Nominations for a Single Performer:

No single performer has ever won two performing awards in the same year. There have been a total of twelve performers who are double nominees - that means that they have received two acting nominations in the same year. Three were actors and nine were actresses (wins are marked with *). (See the Best Supporting Actor page for further information on male double nominees.) Of the 12 performers (actors and actresses) who've been recognized with nods for two performances in the same year, seven of them ended up winning one of the trophies.

Double nominees usually win in one category. 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 *). Three of the eight actresses won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, and only one (Holly Hunter) of the eight won the Best Actress Oscar, while Sigourney Weaver, Emma Thompson, Julianne Moore, Cate Blanchett and Scarlet Johansson lost both bids.

  • 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))
  • Scarlett Johansson (Best Actress for Marriage Story (2019) and Best Supporting Actress for Jojo Rabbit (2019))

Consecutive Double-Nominations for Best Supporting Actress:

  • (4 year consecutive streak): Celeste Holm and Anne Revere double-nominated for Gentleman's Agreement (1947), Barbara Bel Geddes and Ellen Corby for I Remember Mama (1948), Celeste Holm and Elsa Lanchester in Come to the Stable (1949), and Celeste Holm and Thelma Ritter for All About Eve (1950).
  • (4 year consecutive streak): Amy Adams and Viola Davis for Doubt (2008), Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick for Up in the Air (2009), Melissa Leo and Amy Adams for The Fighter (2010), and Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain for The Help (2011).

African-American (or Black) Notables:

There have only been twenty-seven nominations for black performers for Best Supporting Actress (with only nine winners), divided amongst twenty-four different performers. A few nominees were nominated in the category more than once (Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer):

#
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)
13
Ruby Dee American Gangster (2007)
14
Viola Davis Doubt (2008)
15
Taraji P. Henson The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
16
Mo'Nique Precious (2009) (win)
17
Octavia Spencer The Help (2011) (win)
18
Lupita Nyong'o 12 Years a Slave (2013) (win)
19 Viola Davis Fences (2016) (win)
20 Naomie Harris Moonlight (2016)
21 Octavia Spencer Hidden Figures (2016)
22 Octavia Spencer The Shape of Water (2017)
23 Mary J. Blige Mudbound (2017)
24
Regina King If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) (win)
25 Ariana De Bose West Side Story (2021) (win)
26 Aunjanue Ellis King Richard (2021)
27 Angela Bassett Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

Only sixteen black performers have won the Oscar in the supporting category (seven Best Supporting Actor, nine Best Supporting Actress). Only eight African-American (or 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)
  • Mo'Nique for Precious (2009)
  • Octavia Spencer for The Help (2011)
  • Lupita Nyong'o for 12 Years a Slave (2013)
  • Viola Davis for Fences (2016)
  • Regina King for If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
  • Ariana De Bose for West Side Story (2021)

Only twenty-two awards have been won by African-Americans (or blacks) in both lead and supporting categories (five Best Actor, one Best Actress, seven Best Supporting Actor, and nine Best Supporting Actress).

The Most Nominations for a Black Actress:

2016 was the first year that a single acting category (Best Supporting Actress) featured three black nominees:

  • Viola Davis for Fences (2016) (win), Naomie Harris for Moonlight (2016), and Octavia Spencer for Hidden Figures (2016).
  • Viola Davis' third career nomination (and first win) - Best Supporting Actress for Fences (2016) was a record for a black actress. She became the first black actress to earn three Oscar nominations. She was previously nominated for her performances in Doubt (2008) (supporting) and The Help (2011) (lead). She also became the first black actress to win an Emmy, a Tony and an Oscar. [In 2020, Viola Davis received a Best Actress nomination for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020) and became the first and most-nominated black actress in Oscars history with four nominations (two in lead, and two in supporting).]
  • Octavia Spencer duplicated Davis' feat of having three Oscar nominations when she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for The Shape of Water (2017). Spencer was previously nominated twice for Best Supporting Actress: Hidden Figures (2016) and The Help (2011) (win).

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:

  • Yuh-Jung Youn for her role as elderly Soon-ja (Monica's mother) in Minari (2020)
    [
    Note: Yuh-Jung Youn was the first Korean nominee (and winner) in an Oscar acting category (lead or supporting). She also became the third East Asian Best Supporting Actress nominee, following Miyoshi Umeki (a win for Sayonara (1957)) and Rinko Kikuchi (a nomination for Babel (2006)).
  • Lupita Nyong'o for her role as Patsey, in 12 Years a Slave (2013)
    [Note: Nyong'o is of Kenyan descent, but was born in Mexico City and identifies herself as Kenyan Mexican]
  • Spanish-born actress Penelope Cruz won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as temptress ex-wife Maria Elena in Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) - with her win, Cruz became the first Spanish-born actress to win an Oscar; in the role, she spoke both English and Spanish
  • Australian Cate Blanchett won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator (2004)
  • Catherine Zeta-Jones (Welsh) won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in Chicago (2002)
  • 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)
  • Brenda Fricker (Irish) won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in My Left Foot (1989)
  • Puerto Rican Rita Moreno won the Best Supporting Actress award for her performance in West Side Story (1961) - she was the first Hispanic/Latino actress to win an acting Academy Award Oscar
  • 22 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:

  • 32 year-old Chinese-American Stephanie Hsu for her role as Joy Wang/Jobu Tupaki, in Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
  • 43 year-old Vietnam-born American actress Hong Chau for her role as Liz, in The Whale (2022)
  • Ariana Debose for her role as star-crossed lover Anita, in Spielberg's remake West Side Story (2021)
    [Note: Rita Moreno won the Oscar for the same role in the original 1961 film, and also starred in a different role in the remake. In terms of Oscar history, Debose and Moreno became the first actors of color and the first women to be nominated for the same character in different films.]
  • South Korean actress Youn Yuh-jung for her role in Minari (2020) (a mostly non-English speaking performance)
    [Note: Yuh-jung became the first Korean nominee in an Oscar acting category (lead or supporting). She also became the third East Asian Best Supporting Actress nominee and second Best Supporting Actress winner, following Miyoshi Umeki (a win for Sayonara (1957)) and Rinko Kikuchi (a nomination for Babel (2006)).]
  • Bulgarian (Slavik-born) actress Maria Bakalova for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020)
  • British-Nigerian actress Cynthia Erivo for Harriet (2019), a biopic of slave-turned abolitionist Harriet Tubman
  • Mexican actress Marina de Tavira (with her first nomination) for her role as Sra. Sofia, an upper-middle class Mexico City wife in a strained marriage with her husband Antonio, in Roma (2018, Mex./US)
    [Note: With nominations for both Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira, it marked the first time two Latina actresses were nominated in the same year. Also, de Tavira was only the second Best Supporting Actress nominated for a Foreign Language performance]
  • Swedish actress Alicia Vikander, nominated for her role as sympathetic wife Gerda Wegener in The Danish Girl (2015) - she was the first Nordic actress nominated at the Oscars since Lena Olin in 1989
  • Australian actress Jacki Weaver, again nominated for her role as concerned mother Dolores in Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
  • Argentine-French actress Bérénice Bejo nominated as Best Supporting Actress as silent film fan and rising female star Peppy Miller in The Artist (2011)
  • Australian actress Jacki Weaver nominated as Best Supporting Actress for her role as terrifying Melbourne crime family matriarch Janine "Smurf" Cody, in writer/director David Michôd's noirish crime film Animal Kingdom (2010)
  • Spanish-born actress Penelope Cruz was also nominated as Best Supporting Actress for her role as Carla, the passionate mistress of a married film director, in Rob Marshall's big budget musical flop Nine (2009)
  • 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)
  • Swedish-born Lena Olin was nominated as Best Supporting Actress for her role in Enemies: A Love Story (1989)
  • Argentinian actress Norma Aleandro was nominated as Best Supporting Actress for her role in Gaby: A True Story (1987) - it was the first South American actress nomination ever
  • Half-Chinese Meg Tilly was nominated as Best Supporting Actress for her role in Agnes of God (1985)
  • Italian actress Valentina Cortese was nominated as Best Supporting Actress for her role in Day for Night (1973, Fr./It.), the winner of Best Foreign Language film; Cortese was the first Supporting Actress nominated for a Foreign Language performance
  • Mexican-American 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)

Best Supporting Actress Oscar Winners/Nominees: Prostitute Roles

A large number of actresses have won the supporting actress Oscar for portraying hookers (girls of the night, party girls, whores, call girls, madams, etc.) or loose women (mistresses, promiscuous ladies, etc.), for example:

  • Anne Baxter won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as tragic, alcoholic Sophie Nelson - a thrown-away woman who turned to prostitution after the car-crash death of her husband and child in The Razor's Edge (1946)
  • Claire Trevor won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as a faded, torch-singing floozy turned into a gangster's (Edward G. Robinson) pathetic alcoholic mistress Gaye Dawn in Key Largo (1948)
  • Donna Reed won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her against-type role as dark-haired, sailor port 'club' hostess ("prostitute" - a working girl/nightclub singer) (Alma) Lorene at the New Congress Club in Honolulu servicing soldiers in From Here to Eternity (1953)
  • Jo Van Fleet won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as a wizened brothel madam and love-starved James Dean's estranged and mysterious mother Kate in East of Eden (1955)
  • Dorothy Malone won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as alcoholic Robert Stack's wild, sexually provocative, nymphomaniacal, trampy and spoiled rich sister Marylee Hadley in Written on the Wind (1956)
  • Shirley Jones won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her against-type role as blonde Lulu Bains - Gantry's (Burt Lancaster) former dishevelled girlfriend/turned hustling, blackmailing prostitute who sought revenge in Elmer Gantry (1960)
  • Mira Sorvino won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as bubble-headed, naive prostitute/porno star Linda Ash ('Judy Cum'), the birth mother of divorced sportswriter Woody Allen's adopted son in Mighty Aphrodite (1995)
  • Kim Basinger won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as glamorous, sultry movie-star look-a-like (a la Veronica Lake) - high-priced prostitute Lynn Bracken in L.A. Confidential (1997)
  • (Jodie Foster was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as 12 year-old runaway and prostitute Iris Steensman in Taxi Driver (1976))

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).)

The shortest performance to be nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar:

  • Hermione Baddeley was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Room At the Top (1959), with approximately only 2 minutes and 20 seconds of screen time

Non-Speaking Role Nominees/Winners:

  • 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.
  • Samantha Morton was nominated as Best Supporting Actress for her role as the shy, waifish, mute laundress Hattie in Sweet and Lowdown (1999)
  • 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)
  • Argentine-French actress Bérénice Bejo was nominated for her non-speaking role in the modern-day silent film The Artist (2011)

Multiple Nominations (and Wins) for the Same Character:

It has only happened once - two actresses were Oscar winners for playing the same character in two different films:

  • Ariana DeBose won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as star-crossed lover Anita, in Spielberg's remake West Side Story (2021); Rita Moreno won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the same role in the original 1961 film, and also starred in a different role in the 2021 remake.
    [Note: Debose and Moreno became the first actors of color and the first women to be nominated (and win) for the same character in different films. They were the 3rd pair of performers thus honored, following Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro as Vito Corleone (in The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974)) and Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker (in The Dark Knight (2008) and Joker (2019).]

Related Oscar Winners and Nominees: Father-Son, Father-Daughter, Mother-Daughter

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))

The only father-son/daughter Oscar nominees are Henry Fonda, Peter Fonda (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).

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))

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)).

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).

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)
    (Note: Vincente Minnelli (Garland's husband and Minnelli's father) also won a Best Director Oscar for Gigi (1958))

The first and only mother-daughter acting pair nominated for the same film in Oscar history:

  • Diane Ladd and Laura Dern both received nominations for Rambling Rose (1991).
    (Note: 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)

Films with Three Best Supporting Actress Nominees:

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:

Opposite Gender Role Nominees (With Two Winners)

  • (Note: Katharine Hepburn was not nominated for her cross-dressing role in Sylvia Scarlett (1935))
  • Dustin Hoffman was nominated as Best Actor for Tootsie (1982), for his role as unemployed actor Michael Dorsey/Dorothy Michaels
  • Julie Andrews was nominated as Best Actress for Victor/Victoria (1982), for her role as a British singer/transvestite ("a woman impersonating a man impersonating a woman") - the title role
  • Linda Hunt won Best Supporting Actress for director Peter Weir's The Year of Living Dangerously (1983) for playing a man (Chinese-Australian photographer Billy Kwan) - she was the first (and only) person to win an Oscar for playing a gender-switched character role - a character of the opposite sex
  • (Note: Barbra Streisand was not nominated for her role as Yentl/Anshel in Yentl (1983))
  • Gwyneth Paltrow's Best Actress Oscar for Shakespeare in Love (1998) was for playing cross-dressing Viola De Lesseps/Thomas Kent
  • Hilary Swank's Best Actress Oscar for Boys Don't Cry (1999) was for playing a member of the opposite sex, although she was a pre-operative transsexual, biologically female
  • Janet McTeer was nominated as Best Supporting Actress for Albert Nobbs (2011), as Hubert Page, a cross-dressing woman passing as a man - and married to another woman
  • Glenn Close was a Best Actress nominee for Albert Nobbs (2011) as the title character Albert Nobbs, a hotel waiter trapped after masquerading as a man in late 19th century and early 20th century Ireland
  • Jared Leto's Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Dallas Buyers Club (2013) was as transformed transgender (or transvestite) prostitute Rayon, infected with HIV and dying of AIDS

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: Nominees and Winners
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.
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)
Youngest Best Supporting Actress Nominee Runner-Ups:
Youngest Best Supporting Actress Winner Runner-Ups:
Oldest Best Supporting Actress Nominee Runner-Ups:
Oldest Best Supporting Actress Winner 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)

11 years (and 181 days)
Patty McCormack for The Bad Seed (1956)

11 years (and 200 days)
Anna Paquin for The Piano (1993)

13 years (and 285 days)
Saoirse Ronan for Atonement (2007)

14 years (and 5 days)
Bonita Granville for These Three (1936)

14 years (and 45 days)
Hailee Steinfeld for True Grit (2010)

14 years (and 83 days)
Jodie Foster for Taxi Driver (1976)

11 years (and 240 days)
Anna Paquin for The Piano (1993)

16 years (and 115 days)
Patty Duke for The Miracle Worker (1962)

23 years (and 310 days)
Anne Baxter for The Razor's Edge (1946)

24 years (and 128 days)
Teresa Wright for Mrs. Miniver (1942)

24 years (and 137 days)
Goldie Hawn for Cactus Flower (1969)

24 years (and 296 days)
Angelina Jolie for Girl, Interrupted (1999)

25 years (and 166 days)
Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls (2006)

27 years (and 17 days)
Shirley Jones for Elmer Gantry (1960)


27 years (and 111 days)
Gloria Grahame for The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

27 years (and 148 days)
Alicia Vikander for The Danish Girl (2015)

87 years (and 2 months)
Judi Dench for Belfast (2021)

84 years (and 71 days)
June Squibb for Nebraska (2013)

83 years (and 87 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)

79 years (and 26 days)
Ann Sothern for The Whales of August (1987)

77 years (and 234 days)
May Whitty for Mrs. Miniver (1942)

77 years (and 46 days)
Peggy Ashcroft for A Passage to India (1984)

77 years (and 15 days)
Edith Evans for The Chalk Garden (1964)

76 years (and 67 days)
Gladys Cooper for My Fair Lady (1964)

76 years (and 16 days)
Edith Evans for Tom Jones (1963)

74 years (and 85 days)
Josephine Hull for Harvey (1950)


73 years (and 310 days) Yuh-Jung Youn for Minari (2020)

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)

70 years (and 187 days)
Helen Hayes for Airport (1970)

65 years (and 212 days)
Ethel Barrymore for None But the Lonely Heart (1944)

64 years (and 102 days)
Judi Dench for Shakespeare for Love (1998)

62 years (and 238 days)
Beatrice Straight for Network (1976)

61 years (and 135 days)
Jane Darwell for The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

59 years (and 222 days)
Ingrid Bergman for Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

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.

94 years (and 341 days) Eli Wallach was the oldest male performer to receive an honorary statuette, presented on November 13, 2010.

94 years (and 83 days) Maureen O'Hara was the oldest female performer to receive an honorary statuette, presented on November 8, 2014.


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