Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor — Top 20 Winners

Academy Award for best supporting actor at the Oscars

19. Martin Landau — Ed Wood

In Tim Burton’s 1994 biopic Ed Wood, Martin Landau took on the role of Bela Lugosi. Filling the shoes of a real-life screen icon like Bela Lugosi, best known of course for playing Dracula, can be a tall order. Martin Landau is perfectly suited to the task and turns in a performance that is both hilarious and, at times, touching. Plus, his Hungarian accent is a lot of fun.

Here's his introduction in the script that we imported using StudioBinder's screenwriting software. Follow the image link to read the entire scene.

Gene Hackman won his first Oscar for his lead performance as the hard-nosed detective Popeye Doyle in William Friedkin’s The French Connection. 21 years later, Gene Hackman would go on to win his second Oscar in 1992, this time for Best Supporting Actor, for portraying another intense lawman in Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven.

See where The French Connection ranks on our list of the best action films ever made and see where Unforgiven ranks amongst Clint Eastwood’s best films.

Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor

17. Kevin Kline — A Fish Called Wanda

It is quite a rarity for a purely comedic performance to be recognized at the Academy Awards and even more rare for one to actually win in any of the acting categories, but that is exactly what happened with Kevin Kline’s hilarious performance in 1988’s A Fish Called Wanda.

It goes to show just how funny he is in that film. Otto is quite possibly the only Oscar-winning character to swallow a live fish during an interrogation. 

A Fish Called Wanda landed on our list of the best comedies ever made for scenes like this one.

Academy Award winners Best Supporting Actor

16. Sean Connery — The Untouchables

Though still best known for his portrayal of the iconic James Bond character, Sean Connery has shown great depth in range across the performances throughout his career.

Whether working with directors like Alfred Hitchcock or Sidney Lumet, or, in the case of The Untouchables (1987), with Brian De Palma.

Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor

14. Robert De Niro — The Godfather
Part II

Releasing in 1974, two years after the first Godfather film, Robert De Niro had big shoes to fill when stepping in to play the younger version of Don Vito Corleone. Which, if you didn't know, was played by Marlon Brando in what is in the running for the title of ‘most iconic performance of all time.’

Luckily, De Niro was more than capable of making the part his own and took home the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his efforts while Brando had previously taken home the Best Lead Actor Oscar for the role.

Brando winning the Best Lead Actor Oscar is a bit odd considering his performance would also be considered a supporting role by most metrics. Just like De Niro’s performance, while Al Pacino, who was the film’s true lead, was placed into the Best Supporting Actor category instead.

Pacino and Brando would both end up boycotting the Academy Awards ceremony that year for different reasons.

In a film with Nicolas Cage pulling double duty as both a fictionalized version of the screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman, and his completely fictionalized brother Donald; as well as having the incomparable Tilda Swinton and Meryl Streep in supporting roles, it’s a wonder that Chris Cooper was the performer who managed to outshine his co-stars and take home the golden statuette.

It was a much deserved win as Chris Cooper disappeared fully into the character of John Laroche within this 2002 meta-narrative. Find out where Adaptation ranks on our list of the best Charlie Kaufman movies.

Benicio Del Toro has provided a high-volume of bold and intense performances throughout his career but it was his supporting role in Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic (2000) that nabbed him his only Oscar win to date. In such a star-studded cast, Benicio Del Toro stands out in a way that seems effortless. The win did wonders for Del Toro’s career, helping him to land bigger and better roles in years to follow.

In one of his more understated and reserved performances, Robin Williams finally took home an Oscar after being nominated four times. Robin Williams is the heart of the film and the true reason to watch 1997’s Good Will Hunting. He brings along the improvisation he was known for but roots everything from a place of character.

In one of the most recent films to make our list, and in his second Quentin Tarantino collaboration (third if you count the Tarantino penned True Romance), Brad Pitt took home his second Oscar after sharing a Best Picture win for producing 12 Years a Slave.

As Cliff Booth in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, Brad Pitt plays the epitome of a cool, likable protagonist. He is someone you just want to be around and hang out with, just like his movie-star employer does.

Sam Rockwell’s first — and so far only — Oscar win came for this 2017 film with his first nomination but after a long series of snubs. Having appeared in nearly 100 films by the time Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri came out, Sam Rockwell had already made a name for himself as both a compelling character actor and leading man.

Mahershala Ali gave a revelatory performance in Barry Jenkins’ 2016 drama Moonlight. His character may be confined to just the first of the film’s three distinctly divided acts but he leaves a lasting impression.

You truly feel his absence once he has left the film, which says a great deal about both the viewer’s watching experience and the experience of our main character who misses him all the same.

Heath Ledger’s unfortunate passing happened before the 2009 Academy Award ceremony. His Best Supporting Actor Oscar was awarded posthumously and was accepted by his family members.

His performance as The Joker is legendary and well deserving of the honor. He truly made the iconic character his own and is easily one of the best actors to play The Joker.

George Kennedy had a difficult task to pull off as the character of Dragline in Cool Hand Luke (1967). He begins in the role of an antagonist that audiences hate and manages to successfully pull off a shift to become the protagonist’s greatest ally and someone audiences can like and root for.

It’s the kind of complex character arc you typically only find in lead characters but George Kennedy makes it look easy in his supporting role.

Christoph Waltz is simply mesmerizing as Col. Hans Landa, the “Jew Hunter.” It’s an incredibly challenging role: multilingual, threatening, viscous, and intimidating, while also restrained, calculating, and, in a way, charismatic yet cowardly. It was a role that Tarantino despaired casting as finding the perfect actor seemed remarkably daunting. Luckily, he did end up finding the perfect actor for the part.

See where Inglourious Basterds (2009) ranks on our rundown of Quentin Tarantino’s entire filmography.

2014’s Whiplash is a great film in all regards but the film wouldn’t have a leg to stand on with a lesser performance as the intense music teacher, Fletcher. J.K. Simmons MAKES this movie. It is a career best performance from an actor who always delivers quality work, no matter how small the role.

The entire film could crumble without Simmons serving as the magnetic lynchpin to hold it all together.

Javier Bardem is downright chilling as the villainous Anton Chigurh in the Coen Brothers’ 2017 film No Country for Old Men. His ominous presence, imposing appearance, and ruthless violence make him one of cinema’s absolute best realistic villains. 

If the villain in Cormac McCarthy’s source novel was already frightening enough, putting a face to the force of evil makes him all the more terrifying.

The often imitated Christopher Walken rarely gets the credit he deserves as a dramatic actor these days. His 1978 performance in The Deer Hunter is astonishing. Managing to come out favorably in a cast filled with the likes of Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, and John Cazale who all give excellent performances, is quite the impressive accomplishment in and of itself.

Has there ever been a more volatile character put to screen than Joe Pesci’s Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas (1990)? Joe Pesci is the ONLY actor who could have played this part to perfection the way he did.

Pesci’s performance in Goodfellas shines as an all-time best supporting role and fits nicely alongside the three other Pesci & Scorsese collaborations in Raging Bull, Casino, and The Irishman, all of which generated excellent performances. Find out where Goodfellas ranks on our list of the best gangster films ever made.