academic award for best supporting actor

History

Throughout the past 74 years, accounting for ties and repeat winners, AMPAS has presented a total of 74 Best Supporting Actor awards to 67 different actors. Winners of this Academy Award of Merit receive the familiar Oscar statuette, depicting a gold-plated knight holding a crusader's sword and standing on a reel of film. Prior to the 16th Academy Awards ceremony (1943), however, they received a plaque. The first recipient was Walter Brennan, who was honored at the 9th Academy Awards ceremony (1936) for his performance in Come and Get It. The most recent recipient was Christoph Waltz, who was honored at the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony (2010) for his performance in Inglourious Basterds.

Until the 8th Academy Awards ceremony (1935), nominations for the Best Actor award were intended to include all actors, whether the performance was in a leading or supporting role. At the 9th Academy Awards ceremony (1936), however, the Best Supporting Actor category was specifically introduced as a distinct award following complaints that the single Best Actor category necessarily favored leading performers with the most screen time. Nonetheless, Lionel Barrymore had received a Best Actor award (A Free Soul, 1931) and Franchot Tone a Best Actor nomination (Mutiny on the Bounty, 1935) for their performances in clear supporting roles. Currently, Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, and Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role constitute the four Academy Awards of Merit for acting annually presented by AMPAS.
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SuperlativesSuperlative Best Actor Best Supporting Actor Overall
Actor with most awards Spencer Tracy
Fredric March
Gary Cooper
Marlon Brando
Dustin Hoffman
Tom Hanks
Jack Nicholson
Daniel Day-Lewis
Sean Penn 2 Walter Brennan 3 Walter Brennan
Jack Nicholson 3
Actor with most nominations Spencer Tracy
Laurence Olivier 9 Walter Brennan
Claude Rains
Arthur Kennedy
Jack Nicholson 4 Jack Nicholson 12
Actor with most nominations
(without ever winning) Peter O'Toole 8 Claude Rains
Arthur Kennedy 4 Peter O'Toole 8
Film with most nominations Mutiny on the Bounty 3 On the Waterfront
The Godfather
The Godfather Part II 3 On the Waterfront
The Godfather
The Godfather Part II 4
Oldest winner Henry Fonda 76 George Burns 80 George Burns 80
Oldest nominee Richard Farnsworth 79 Hal Holbrook 82 Hal Holbrook 82
Youngest winner Adrien Brody 29 Timothy Hutton 20 Timothy Hutton 20
Youngest nominee Jackie Cooper 9 Justin Henry 8 Justin Henry 8


Walter Brennan, the winner of the inaugural award in 1936, is the only actor to win the award three times (from four nominations). Five actors have won the award twice: Anthony Quinn, Melvyn Douglas, Michael Caine, Peter Ustinov, and Jason Robards. Robards was the only person to win consecutive Best Supporting Actor awards, for All the President's Men (1976) and Julia (1977).

Claude Rains and Arthur Kennedy share the greatest number of unsuccessful nominations, four each. The only other actors with four nominations were Walter Brennan (won three times) and Jack Nicholson (won once). Charles Bickford, Jeff Bridges, Robert Duvall, Ed Harris, and Al Pacino have each had three unsuccessful nominations.

Harold Russell was the first (and only) actor to receive two Academy Awards for the same performance when he won the Best Supporting Actor award and was also presented with an Academy Honorary Award for The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). Thanks to a voting quirk, in 1944 Barry Fitzgerald in Going My Way became the only actor nominated in both the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor categories for the same performance, winning the latter. (Today, Academy bylaws preclude this from happening.)

Robert De Niro's 1974 win as the young Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II is unique as the only Supporting Oscar won for playing a part previously played by a Best Actor winner (Marlon Brando in The Godfather). De Niro and Benicio del Toro (who won for Traffic) are the only winners for foreign-language performances in this category.

Although five actresses have been nominated for non-speaking supporting roles, John Mills was the only male actor to be so nominated. Mills won Best Supporting Actor for his performance as a mute brain-damaged village idiot in Ryan's Daughter (1970). (This excludes actors who were nominated for Best Actor for silent movies in the silent era.)

Heath Ledger is the only person to posthumously win an acting Oscar in a supporting role. He won the Best Supporting Actor award for his portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight, 2008. He is only the second person to posthumously win any acting Oscar (the other was Peter Finch, who won Best Actor for Network, 1976), and the first to win from a posthumous acting nomination (Finch was alive when his nomination was announced).

The earliest nominee in this category who is still alive is Don Murray and Mickey Rooney (1956), and the earliest winner in this category who is still alive is George Chakiris (1961).
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Winners and nominees

Following the Academy's practice, the films below are listed by year of their Los Angeles qualifying run, which is usually (but not always) the film's year of release. For example, the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor of 1999 was announced during the award ceremony held in 2000. Winners are listed first in bold, followed by the other nominees. For a list sorted by actor names, please see List of Best Supporting Actor nominees. For a list sorted by film titles, please see List of Best Supporting Actor nominees (films).
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1930s
1936 Walter Brennan - Come and Get It as Swan Bostrom
Mischa Auer - My Man Godfrey as Carlo
Stuart Erwin - Pigskin Parade as Amos Dodd
Basil Rathbone - Romeo and Juliet as Tybalt - Nephew to Lady Capulet
Akim Tamiroff - The General Died at Dawn as Gen. Yang
1937 Joseph Schildkraut - The Life of Emile Zola as Capt. Alfred Dreyfus
Ralph Bellamy - The Awful Truth as 'Dan' Leeson
Thomas Mitchell - The Hurricane as Dr. Kersaint
H. B. Warner - Lost Horizon as Chang
Roland Young - Topper as Cosmo Topper
1938 Walter Brennan - Kentucky as Peter Goodwin
John Garfield - Four Daughters as Mickey Borden
Gene Lockhart - Algiers as Regis
Robert Morley - Marie Antoinette as King Louis XVI
Basil Rathbone - If I Were King as King Louis XI
1939 Thomas Mitchell - Stagecoach as Doc Boone
Brian Aherne - Juarez as Emperor Maximilian von Habsburg
Harry Carey - Mr. Smith Goes to Washington as President of the Senate
Brian Donlevy - Beau Geste as Sgt. Markoff
Claude Rains - Mr. Smith Goes to Washington as Sen. Joseph Harrison Paine
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1940s
1940 Walter Brennan - The Westerner as Judge Roy Bean
Albert Basserman - Foreign Correspondent as Van Meer
William Gargan - They Knew What They Wanted as Joe
Jack Oakie - The Great Dictator as Benzini Napaloni (Dictator of Bacteria)
James Stephenson - The Letter as Howard Joyce
1941 Donald Crisp - How Green Was My Valley as Mr. Morgan
Walter Brennan - Sergeant York as Pastor Rosier Pile
Charles Coburn - The Devil and Miss Jones as John P. Merrick
James Gleason - Here Comes Mr. Jordan as Max Corkle
Sydney Greenstreet - The Maltese Falcon as Kasper Gutman
1942 Van Heflin - Johnny Eager as Jeff Hartnett
William Bendix - Wake Island as Pvt. Aloysius K. 'Smacksie' Randall
Walter Huston - Yankee Doodle Dandy as Jerry Cohan
Frank Morgan - Tortilla Flat as The Pirate
Henry Travers - Mrs. Miniver as Mr. Ballard

Beginning with the 1943 awards, winners in the supporting acting categories were awarded Oscar statuettes similar to those awarded to winners in all other categories, including the leading acting categories. Prior to this, however, winners in the supporting acting categories were awarded plaques.
1943 Charles Coburn - The More the Merrier as Benjamin Dingle
Charles Bickford - The Song of Bernadette as Father Peyramale
J. Carrol Naish - Sahara as Giuseppe
Claude Rains - Casablanca as Captain Renault
Akim Tamiroff - For Whom the Bell Tolls as Pablo
1944 Barry Fitzgerald - Going My Way as Father Fitzgibbon
Hume Cronyn - The Seventh Cross as Paul Roeder
Claude Rains - Mr. Skeffington as Job Skeffington
Clifton Webb - Laura as Waldo Lydecker
Monty Woolley - Since You Went Away as Colonel William G. Smollett
1945 James Dunn - A Tree Grows In Brooklyn as Johnny Nolan aka The Brooklyn Thrush
Michael Chekhov - Spellbound as Dr. Alexander 'Alex' Brulov
John Dall - The Corn Is Green as Morgan Evans
Robert Mitchum - The Story of G.I. Joe as Lt. / Capt. Bill Walker
J. Carrol Naish - A Medal for Benny as Charley Martin
1946 Harold Russell - The Best Years of Our Lives as Homer Parrish
Charles Coburn - The Green Years as Alexander Gow
William Demarest - The Jolson Story as Steve Martin
Claude Rains - Notorious as Alexander Sebastian
Clifton Webb - The Razor's Edge as Elliott Templeton
1947 Edmund Gwenn - Miracle on 34th Street as Kris Kringle
Charles Bickford - The Farmer's Daughter as Joseph Clancy (major-domo)
Thomas Gomez - Ride the Pink Horse as Pancho
Robert Ryan - Crossfire as Montgomery
Richard Widmark - Kiss of Death as Tommy Udo
1948 Walter Huston - The Treasure of the Sierra Madre as Howard
Charles Bickford - Johnny Belinda as Black McDonald
José Ferrer - Joan of Arc as The Dauphin, Charles VII, later King of France
Oskar Homolka - I Remember Mama as Uncle Chris Halverson
Cecil Kellaway - The Luck of the Irish as Horace (A Leprechaun)
1949 Dean Jagger - Twelve O'Clock High as Major Harvey Stovall
John Ireland - All the King's Men as Jack Burden
Arthur Kennedy - Champion as Connie Kelly
Ralph Richardson - The Heiress as Dr. Austin Sloper
James Whitmore - Battleground as Kinnie
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1950s
1950 George Sanders - All About Eve as Addison De Witt
Jeff Chandler - Broken Arrow as Cochise
Edmund Gwenn - Mister 880 as 'Skipper' Miller
Sam Jaffe - The Asphalt Jungle as Doc Erwin Riedenschneider
Erich von Stroheim - Sunset Boulevard as Max von Meyerling
1951 Karl Malden - A Streetcar Named Desire as Harold 'Mitch' Mitchell
Leo Genn - Quo Vadis as Petronius
Kevin McCarthy - Death of a Salesman as Biff Loman
Peter Ustinov - Quo Vadis as Nero
Gig Young - Come Fill the Cup as Boyd Copeland
1952 Anthony Quinn - Viva Zapata! as Eufemio Zapata
Richard Burton - My Cousin Rachel as Philip Ashley
Arthur Hunnicutt - The Big Sky as Zeb Calloway/Narrator
Victor McLaglen - The Quiet Man as 'Red' Will Danaher
Jack Palance - Sudden Fear as Lester Blaine
1953 Frank Sinatra - From Here to Eternity as Pvt. Angelo Maggio
Eddie Albert - Roman Holiday as Irving Radovich
Brandon de Wilde - Shane as Joey Starrett
Jack Palance - Shane as Jack Wilson
Robert Strauss - Stalag 17 as S/Sgt. Stanislas 'Animal' Kasava
1954 Edmond O'Brien - The Barefoot Contessa as Oscar Muldoon
Lee J. Cobb - On the Waterfront as Johnny Friendly
Karl Malden - On the Waterfront as Father Barry
Rod Steiger - On the Waterfront as Charley 'the Gent' Malloy
Tom Tully - The Caine Mutiny as Commander DeVriess
1955 Jack Lemmon - Mister Roberts as Ens. Frank Thurlowe Pulver
Arthur Kennedy - Trial as Barney Castle
Joe Mantell - Marty as Angie
Sal Mineo - Rebel Without a Cause as John 'Plato' Crawford
Arthur O'Connell - Picnic as Howard Bevans
1956 Anthony Quinn - Lust for Life as Paul Gauguin
Don Murray - Bus Stop as Beauregard 'Bo' Decker
Anthony Perkins - Friendly Persuasion as Josh Birdwell
Mickey Rooney - The Bold and the Brave as Dooley
Robert Stack - Written on the Wind as Kyle Hadley
1957 Red Buttons - Sayonara as Airman Joe Kelly
Vittorio De Sica - A Farewell to Arms as Major Alessandro Rinaldi
Sessue Hayakawa - The Bridge on the River Kwai as Colonel Saito
Arthur Kennedy - Peyton Place as Lucas Cross
Russ Tamblyn - Peyton Place as Norman Page
1958 Burl Ives - The Big Country as Rufus Hannassey
Theodore Bikel - The Defiant Ones as Sheriff Max Muller
Lee J. Cobb - The Brothers Karamazov as Fyodor Karamazov
Arthur Kennedy - Some Came Running as Frank Hirsh
Gig Young - Teacher's Pet as Dr. Hugo Pine
1959 Hugh Griffith - Ben-Hur as Sheik Ilderim
Arthur O'Connell - Anatomy of a Murder as Parnell Emmett McCarthy
George C. Scott - Anatomy of a Murder as Asst. State Atty. Gen. Claude Dancer
Robert Vaughn - The Young Philadelphians as Chester A. 'Chet' Gwynn
Ed Wynn - The Diary of Anne Frank as Albert Dussell
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1960s
1960 Peter Ustinov - Spartacus as Lentulus Batiatus
Peter Falk - Murder, Inc. as Abe 'Kid Twist' Reles
Jack Kruschen - The Apartment as Dr. Dreyfuss
Sal Mineo - Exodus as Dov Landau
Chill Wills - The Alamo as Beekeeper
1961 George Chakiris - West Side Story as Bernardo
Montgomery Clift - Judgment at Nuremberg as Rudolph Petersen
Peter Falk - Pocketful of Miracles as Joy Boy
Jackie Gleason - The Hustler as Minnesota Fats
George C. Scott - The Hustler as Bert Gordon
1962 Ed Begley - Sweet Bird of Youth as Tom 'Boss' Finley
Victor Buono - What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? as Edwin Flagg
Telly Savalas - Birdman of Alcatraz as Feto Gomez
Omar Sharif - Lawrence of Arabia as Sherif Ali ibn el Kharish
Terence Stamp - Billy Budd as Billy Budd
1963 Melvyn Douglas - Hud as Homer Bannon
Nick Adams - Twilight of Honor as Ben Brown
Bobby Darin - Captain Newman, M.D. as Corporal Jim Tompkins
Hugh Griffith - Tom Jones as Squire Western
John Huston - The Cardinal as Cardinal Glennon
1964 Peter Ustinov - Topkapi as Arthur Simon Simpson
John Gielgud - Becket as Louis VII of France
Stanley Holloway - My Fair Lady as Alfred Doolittle
Edmond O'Brien - Seven Days in May as Senator Raymond Clark
Lee Tracy - The Best Man as President Art Hockstader
1965 Martin Balsam - A Thousand Clowns as Arnold Burns
Ian Bannen - The Flight of the Phoenix as 'Ratbags' Crow
Tom Courtenay - Doctor Zhivago as Pasha Antipov
Michael Dunn - Ship of Fools as Carl Glocken
Frank Finlay - Othello as Iago
1966 Walter Matthau - The Fortune Cookie as Willie Gingrich
Mako - The Sand Pebbles as Po-han
James Mason - Georgy Girl as James Leamington
George Segal - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? as Nick
Robert Shaw - A Man for All Seasons as Henry VIII of England
1967 George Kennedy - Cool Hand Luke as Dragline
John Cassavetes - The Dirty Dozen as Victor P. Franko
Gene Hackman - Bonnie and Clyde as Buck Barrow
Cecil Kellaway - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner as Monsignor Mike Ryan
Michael J. Pollard - Bonnie and Clyde as C.W. Moss
1968 Jack Albertson - The Subject Was Roses as John Cleary
Seymour Cassel - Faces as Chet
Daniel Massey - Star! as Noel Coward
Jack Wild - Oliver! as The Artful Dodger
Gene Wilder - The Producers as Leo Bloom
1969 Gig Young - They Shoot Horses, Don't They? as Rocky
Rupert Crosse - The Reivers as Ned
Elliott Gould - Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice as Ted Henderson
Jack Nicholson - Easy Rider as George Hanson
Anthony Quayle - Anne of the Thousand Days as Cardinal Wolsey
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1970s
1970 John Mills - Ryan's Daughter as Michael
Richard S. Castellano - Lovers and Other Strangers as Frank Vecchio
Chief Dan George - Little Big Man as Old Lodge Skins
Gene Hackman - I Never Sang for My Father as Gene Garrison
John Marley - Love Story as Phil Cavalleri
1971 Ben Johnson - The Last Picture Show as Sam the Lion
Jeff Bridges - The Last Picture Show as Duane Jackson
Leonard Frey - Fiddler on the Roof as Motel Kamzoil
Richard Jaeckel - Sometimes a Great Notion as Joe Ben Stamper
Roy Scheider - The French Connection as Detective Buddy 'Cloudy' Russo
1972 Joel Grey - Cabaret as Master of Ceremonies
Eddie Albert - The Heartbreak Kid as Mr. Corcoran
James Caan - The Godfather as Sonny Corleone
Robert Duvall - The Godfather as Tom Hagen
Al Pacino - The Godfather as Michael Corleone
1973 John Houseman - The Paper Chase as Charles W. Kingsfield Jr.
Vincent Gardenia - Bang the Drum Slowly as Dutch Schnell
Jack Gilford - Save the Tiger as Phil Greene
Jason Miller - The Exorcist as Father Damien Karras
Randy Quaid - The Last Detail as Larry Meadows
1974 Robert De Niro - The Godfather Part II as Vito Corleone
Fred Astaire - The Towering Inferno as Harlee Claiborne
Jeff Bridges - Thunderbolt and Lightfoot as Lightfoot
Michael V. Gazzo - The Godfather Part II as Frank Pentangeli
Lee Strasberg - The Godfather Part II as Hyman Roth
1975 George Burns - The Sunshine Boys as Al Lewis
Brad Dourif - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as Billy Bibbit
Burgess Meredith - The Day of the Locust as Harry Greener
Chris Sarandon - Dog Day Afternoon as Leon Shermer
Jack Warden - Shampoo as Lester Carp
1976 Jason Robards - All the President's Men as Ben Bradlee
Ned Beatty - Network as Arthur Jensen
Burgess Meredith - Rocky as Mickey Goldmill
Laurence Olivier - Marathon Man as Dr. Christian Szell
Burt Young - Rocky as Paulie Pennino
1977 Jason Robards - Julia as Dashiell Hammett
Mikhail Baryshnikov - The Turning Point as Yuri Kopeikine
Peter Firth - Equus as Alan Strang
Alec Guinness - Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope as Obi-Wan Kenobi
Maximilian Schell - Julia as Johann
1978 Christopher Walken - The Deer Hunter as Nikonar 'Nick' Chevotarevich
Bruce Dern - Coming Home as Captain Bob Hyde
Richard Farnsworth - Comes a Horseman as Dodger
John Hurt - Midnight Express as Max
Jack Warden - Heaven Can Wait as Max Corkle
1979 Melvyn Douglas - Being There as Benjamin Turnbull Rand
Robert Duvall - Apocalypse Now as Lt. Col Bill Kilgore
Frederic Forrest - The Rose as Huston Dyer
Justin Henry - Kramer vs. Kramer as Billy Kramer
Mickey Rooney - The Black Stallion as Henry Dailey
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1980s
1980 Timothy Hutton - Ordinary People as Conrad Jarrett
Judd Hirsch - Ordinary People as Dr. Tyrone C. Berger
Michael O'Keefe - The Great Santini as Ben Meechum
Joe Pesci - Raging Bull as Joey LaMotta
Jason Robards - Melvin and Howard as Howard Hughes
1981 John Gielgud - Arthur as Hobson
James Coco - Only When I Laugh as Jimmy
Ian Holm - Chariots of Fire as Sam Mussabini
Jack Nicholson - Reds as Eugene O'Neill
Howard Rollins - Ragtime as Coalhouse Walker, Jr.
1982 Louis Gossett, Jr. - An Officer and a Gentleman as Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley
Charles Durning - The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas as Governor
John Lithgow - The World According to Garp as Roberta Muldoon
James Mason - The Verdict as Ed Concannon
Robert Preston - Victor Victoria as Carroll 'Toddy' Todd
1983 Jack Nicholson - Terms of Endearment as Garrett Breedlove
Charles Durning - To Be or Not to Be as Colonel Erhardt
John Lithgow - Terms of Endearment as Sam Burns
Sam Shepard - The Right Stuff as Chuck Yeager
Rip Torn - Cross Creek as Marsh Turner
1984 Haing S. Ngor - The Killing Fields as Dith Pran
Adolph Caesar - A Soldier's Story as Sergeant Waters
John Malkovich - Places in the Heart as Mr. Will
Pat Morita - The Karate Kid as Mr. Kesuke Miyagi
Ralph Richardson - Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes as The Sixth Earl of Greystoke (posthumous nomination)
1985 Don Ameche - Cocoon as Arthur Selwyn
Klaus Maria Brandauer - Out of Africa as Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke
William Hickey - Prizzi's Honor as Don Corrado Prizzi
Robert Loggia - Jagged Edge as Sam Ransom
Eric Roberts - Runaway Train as Buck
1986 Michael Caine - Hannah and Her Sisters as Elliot
Tom Berenger - Platoon as Sgt. Barnes
Willem Dafoe - Platoon as Sgt. Elias
Denholm Elliott - A Room with a View as Mr. Emerson
Dennis Hopper - Hoosiers as Shooter
1987 Sean Connery - The Untouchables as Jim Malone
Albert Brooks - Broadcast News as Aaron Altman
Morgan Freeman - Street Smart as Fast Black
Vincent Gardenia - Moonstruck as Cosmo Castorini
Denzel Washington - Cry Freedom as Steve Biko
1988 Kevin Kline - A Fish Called Wanda as Otto West
Alec Guinness - Little Dorrit as William Dorrit
Martin Landau - Tucker: The Man and His Dream as Abe Karatz
River Phoenix - Running on Empty as Danny Pope
Dean Stockwell - Married to the Mob as Tony 'The Tiger' Russo
1989 Denzel Washington - Glory as Pvt. Silas Trip
Danny Aiello - Do the Right Thing as Sal
Dan Aykroyd - Driving Miss Daisy as Boolie Werthan
Marlon Brando - A Dry White Season as Ian Mackenzie
Martin Landau - Crimes and Misdemeanors as Judah Rosenthal
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1990s
1990 Joe Pesci - Goodfellas as Tommy DeVito
Bruce Davison - Longtime Companion as David
Andy García - The Godfather Part III as Vincent Mancini-Corleone
Graham Greene - Dances with Wolves as Kicking Bird
Al Pacino - Dick Tracy as Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice
1991 Jack Palance - City Slickers as Curly Washburn
Tommy Lee Jones - JFK as Clay Shaw
Harvey Keitel - Bugsy as Mickey Cohen
Ben Kingsley - Bugsy as Meyer Lansky
Michael Lerner - Barton Fink as Jack Lipnick
1992 Gene Hackman - Unforgiven as Little Bill Daggett
Jaye Davidson - The Crying Game as Dil
Jack Nicholson - A Few Good Men as Col. Nathan R. Jessep
Al Pacino - Glengarry Glen Ross as Ricky Roma
David Paymer - Mr. Saturday Night as Stan
1993 Tommy Lee Jones - The Fugitive as Marshall Samuel Gerard
Leonardo DiCaprio - What's Eating Gilbert Grape as Arnie Grape
Ralph Fiennes - Schindler's List as Amon Göth
John Malkovich - In the Line of Fire as Mitch Leary
Pete Postlethwaite - In the Name of the Father as Giuseppe Conlon
1994 Martin Landau - Ed Wood as Béla Lugosi
Samuel L. Jackson - Pulp Fiction as Jules Winnfield
Chazz Palminteri - Bullets Over Broadway as Cheech
Paul Scofield - Quiz Show as Mark Van Doren
Gary Sinise - Forrest Gump as Lieutenant Dan Taylor
1995 Kevin Spacey - The Usual Suspects as Roger 'Verbal' Kint
James Cromwell - Babe as Farmer Arthur Hoggett
Ed Harris - Apollo 13 as Gene Kranz
Brad Pitt - 12 Monkeys as Jeffrey Goines
Tim Roth - Rob Roy as Archibald Cunningham
1996 Cuba Gooding, Jr. - Jerry Maguire as Rod Tidwell
William H. Macy - Fargo as Jerry Lundegaard
Armin Mueller-Stahl - Shine as Peter Helfgott
Edward Norton - Primal Fear as Aaron Stampler
James Woods - Ghosts of Mississippi as Byron De La Beckwith
1997 Robin Williams - Good Will Hunting as Sean Maguire
Robert Forster - Jackie Brown as Max Cherry
Anthony Hopkins - Amistad as John Quincy Adams
Greg Kinnear - As Good as It Gets as Simon Bishop
Burt Reynolds - Boogie Nights as Jack Horner
1998 James Coburn - Affliction as Glen Whitehouse
Robert Duvall - A Civil Action as Jerome Facher
Ed Harris - The Truman Show as Christof
Geoffrey Rush - Shakespeare in Love as Philip Henslowe
Billy Bob Thornton - A Simple Plan as Jacob Mitchell
1999 Michael Caine - The Cider House Rules as Dr. Wilbur Larch
Tom Cruise - Magnolia as Frank 'T.J.' Mackey
Michael Clarke Duncan - The Green Mile as John Coffey
Jude Law - The Talented Mr. Ripley as Dickie Greenleaf
Haley Joel Osment - The Sixth Sense as Cole Sear
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2000s
2000 Benicio del Toro - Traffic as Javier Rodríguez Rodríguez
Jeff Bridges - The Contender as President Jackson Evans
Willem Dafoe - Shadow of the Vampire as Max Schreck
Albert Finney - Erin Brockovich as Edward L. Masry
Joaquin Phoenix - Gladiator as Commodus
2001 Jim Broadbent - Iris as John Bayley
Ethan Hawke - Training Day as Jake Hoyt
Ben Kingsley - Sexy Beast as Don Logan
Ian McKellen - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring as Gandalf
Jon Voight - Ali as Howard Cosell
2002 Chris Cooper - Adaptation. as John Laroche
Ed Harris - The Hours as Richard Brown
Paul Newman - Road to Perdition as John Rooney
John C. Reilly - Chicago as Amos Hart
Christopher Walken - Catch Me If You Can as Frank Abagnale, Sr.
2003 Tim Robbins - Mystic River as Dave Boyle
Alec Baldwin - The Cooler as Shelly Kaplow
Benicio del Toro - 21 Grams as Jack Jordan
Djimon Hounsou - In America as Mateo
Ken Watanabe - The Last Samurai as Katsumoto
2004 Morgan Freeman - Million Dollar Baby as Eddie "Scrap-Iron" Dupris
Alan Alda - The Aviator as Senator Owen Brewster
Thomas Haden Church - Sideways as Jack
Jamie Foxx - Collateral as Max Durocher
Clive Owen - Closer as Larry Gray
2005 George Clooney - Syriana as Bob Barnes
Matt Dillon - Crash as Sergeant John Ryan
Paul Giamatti - Cinderella Man as Joe Gould
Jake Gyllenhaal - Brokeback Mountain as Jack Twist
William Hurt - A History of Violence as Richie Cusack
2006 Alan Arkin - Little Miss Sunshine as Edwin Hoover
Jackie Earle Haley - Little Children as Ronald James McGorvey
Djimon Hounsou - Blood Diamond as Solomon Vandy
Eddie Murphy - Dreamgirls as James "Thunder" Early
Mark Wahlberg - The Departed as Sgt. Sean Dignam
2007 Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men as Anton Chigurh
Casey Affleck - The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford as Robert Ford
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Charlie Wilson's War as Gust Avrakotos
Hal Holbrook - Into the Wild as Ron Franz
Tom Wilkinson - Michael Clayton as Arthur Edens
2008 Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight as The Joker (posthumous win)
Josh Brolin – Milk as Dan White
Robert Downey, Jr. – Tropic Thunder as Kirk Lazarus
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt as Father Brendan Flynn
Michael Shannon – Revolutionary Road as John Givings
2009 Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds as Col. Hans Landa
Matt Damon – Invictus as François Pienaar
Woody Harrelson – The Messenger as Capt. Tony Stone
Christopher Plummer – The Last Station as Leo Tolstoy
Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones as George Harvey
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International presence

As the Academy Awards are based in the United States and are centered on the Hollywood film industry, the majority of Academy Award winners have been Americans. Nonetheless, there is significant international presence at the awards, as evidenced by the following list of winners of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Australia: Heath Ledger
Austria: Joseph Schildkraut, Christoph Waltz
Cambodia: Haing S. Ngor
Mexico: Anthony Quinn
Puerto Rico: Benicio del Toro
Republic of Ireland: Barry Fitzgerald
Spain: Javier Bardem
United Kingdom: Jim Broadbent, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Donald Crisp, John Gielgud, Hugh Griffith, Edmund Gwenn, John Mills, George Sanders, and Peter Ustinov

There have been two years when none of the four top acting awards went to an American:
at the 37th Academy Awards (1964), the winners were Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews, Peter Ustinov, and Lila Kedrova.
at the 80th Academy Awards (2008), the winners were Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Javier Bardem, and Tilda Swinton.