Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
The 2026 recipient: Sean Penn
Presented by	Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)
Country	United States
First awarded	March 4, 1937; 89 years ago (1937-03-04) (for films released in 1936)
Currently held by	Sean Penn, One Battle After Another (2025)

The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is a special prize given each year. It celebrates an actor who gives an amazing performance. This performance must be in a supporting role in a movie. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) gives out this award.

This award started at the 9th Academy Awards. That was for movies released in 1936. At first, winners received plaques. But since the 16th Academy Awards, they get the famous Oscar statuette. The award is usually given by the previous year's Best Supporting Actress winner. Recently, past Best Supporting Actor winners have also presented it.

So far, 80 actors have won this award 89 times. The very first winner was Walter Brennan. He won for his role in Come and Get It (1936). The most recent winner is Sean Penn. He won for One Battle After Another (2025).

Walter Brennan holds the record for most wins. He won three times! Seven other actors have won twice. Brennan also shares the record for most nominations. He was nominated four times. Other actors with four nominations include Jeff Bridges and Jack Nicholson. Heath Ledger won this award after he passed away. This was for his role in The Dark Knight (2008). Christopher Plummer was the oldest actor ever nominated. He was 88 years old for All the Money in the World (2017).

How Actors Get Nominated

Actors who are nominated for this award are chosen by other actors. These actors are part of the AMPAS group. They use a special voting system. Then, all eligible members of the Academy vote. They pick the winner from the nominees.

Winners and Nominees

The years listed below follow the Academy's rules. They usually match the year the film was released. The award ceremonies always happen the following year.

1930s Winners and Nominees

Year	Actor	Role(s)	Film
1936 (9th)	Walter Brennan	Swan Bostrom	Come and Get It
	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
	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
	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
	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

Notable Winners from 1940s to 2010s

Many talented actors have won the Best Supporting Actor award over the years. Here are some of the notable winners from each decade:

• 1940s: Walter Brennan (1940), Donald Crisp (1941), Van Heflin (1942), Charles Coburn (1943), Barry Fitzgerald (1944), James Dunn (1945), Harold Russell (1946), Edmund Gwenn (1947), Walter Huston (1948), Dean Jagger (1949).
• 1950s: George Sanders (1950), Karl Malden (1951), Anthony Quinn (1952), Frank Sinatra (1953), Edmond O'Brien (1954), Jack Lemmon (1955), Anthony Quinn (1956), Red Buttons (1957), Burl Ives (1958), Hugh Griffith (1959).
• 1960s: Peter Ustinov (1960), George Chakiris (1961), Ed Begley Sr. (1962), Melvyn Douglas (1963), Peter Ustinov (1964), Martin Balsam (1965), Walter Matthau (1966), George Kennedy (1967), Jack Albertson (1968), Gig Young (1969).
• 1970s: John Mills (1970), Ben Johnson (1971), Joel Grey (1972), John Houseman (1973), Robert De Niro (1974), George Burns (1975), Jason Robards Jr. (1976), Jason Robards Jr. (1977), Christopher Walken (1978), Melvyn Douglas (1979).
• 1980s: Timothy Hutton (1980), John Gielgud (1981), Louis Gossett Jr. (1982), Jack Nicholson (1983), Haing S. Ngor (1984), Don Ameche (1985), Michael Caine (1986), Sean Connery (1987), Kevin Kline (1988), Denzel Washington (1989).
• 1990s: Joe Pesci (1990), Jack Palance (1991), Gene Hackman (1992), Tommy Lee Jones (1993), Martin Landau (1994), Kevin Spacey (1995), Cuba Gooding Jr. (1996), Robin Williams (1997), James Coburn (1998), Michael Caine (1999).
• 2000s: Benicio del Toro (2000), Jim Broadbent (2001), Chris Cooper (2002), Tim Robbins (2003), Morgan Freeman (2004), George Clooney (2005), Alan Arkin (2006), Javier Bardem (2007), Heath Ledger (2008), Christoph Waltz (2009).
• 2010s: Christian Bale (2010), Christopher Plummer (2011), Christoph Waltz (2012), Jared Leto (2013), J. K. Simmons (2014), Mark Rylance (2015), Mahershala Ali (2016), Sam Rockwell (2017), Mahershala Ali (2018), Brad Pitt (2019).

2020s Winners and Nominees

Year	Actor	Role(s)	Film
2020/21 (93rd)	Daniel Kaluuya	Fred Hampton	Judas and the Black Messiah
	Sacha Baron Cohen	Abbie Hoffman	The Trial of the Chicago 7
	Leslie Odom Jr.	Sam Cooke	One Night in Miami...
	Paul Raci	Joe	Sound of Metal
	LaKeith Stanfield	William O'Neal	Judas and the Black Messiah
2021 (94th)	Troy Kotsur	Frank Rossi	CODA
	Ciarán Hinds	Pop	Belfast
	Jesse Plemons	George Burbank	The Power of the Dog
	J. K. Simmons	William Frawley	Being the Ricardos
	Kodi Smit-McPhee	Peter Gordon	The Power of the Dog
2022 (95th)	Ke Huy Quan	Waymond Wang	Everything Everywhere All at Once
	Brendan Gleeson	Colm Doherty	The Banshees of Inisherin
	Brian Tyree Henry	James Aucoin	Causeway
	Judd Hirsch	Boris Podgorny	The Fabelmans
	Barry Keoghan	Dominic Kearney	The Banshees of Inisherin
2023 (96th)	Robert Downey Jr.	Lewis Strauss	Oppenheimer
	Sterling K. Brown	Clifford "Cliff" Ellison	American Fiction
	Robert De Niro	William King Hale	Killers of the Flower Moon
	Ryan Gosling	Ken	Barbie
	Mark Ruffalo	Duncan Wedderburn	Poor Things
2024 (97th)	Kieran Culkin	Benjamin "Benji" Kaplan	A Real Pain
	Yura Borisov	Igor	Anora
	Edward Norton	Pete Seeger	A Complete Unknown
	Guy Pearce	Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr.	The Brutalist
	Jeremy Strong	Roy Cohn	The Apprentice
2025 (98th)	Sean Penn	Col. Steven J. Lockjaw	One Battle After Another
	Benicio del Toro	Sensei Sergio St. Carlos	One Battle After Another
	Jacob Elordi	The Creature	Frankenstein
	Delroy Lindo	Delta Slim	Sinners
	Stellan Skarsgård	Gustav Borg	Sentimental Value

Actors with Multiple Wins and Nominations

Some actors have won the Best Supporting Actor award more than once:

Many actors have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor multiple times:

Age Records

Here are some interesting age records for this award:

Movies with Multiple Supporting Actor Nominations

There have been 23 times when a single movie had more than one actor nominated in this category. Most of these movies had two nominees. However, On the Waterfront (1954), The Godfather (1972), and The Godfather Part II (1974) each had three nominees!

Winners are shown in bold.

• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) – Harry Carey Sr. and Claude Rains
• 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) – Jeff Bridges 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 Jack Nicholson
• Platoon (1986) – Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe
• Bugsy (1991) – Harvey Keitel and Ben Kingsley
• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) – Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell
• 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
• One Battle After Another (2025) – Benicio Del Toro and Sean Penn

Same Character, Different Nominations

Only one character has led to two different actors being nominated for this award:

• Max "Pop" Corkle from Here Comes Mr. Jordan (James Gleason, 1941) and Heaven Can Wait (Jack Warden, 1978)

See also

In Spanish: Anexo:Óscar al mejor actor de reparto para niños

• BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
• Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress

Images for kids

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  Walter Brennan was the inaugural winner, thrice over, for: Come and Get It (1936), Kentucky (1938), and The Westerner (1940).

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  Joseph Schildkraut won for The Life of Émile Zola (1937).

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  Thomas Mitchell won for Stagecoach (1939); first male to achieve the "Triple Crown of Acting".

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  Donald Crisp won for How Green Was My Valley (1941).

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  Van Heflin won for Johnny Eager (1942).

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  Charles Coburn won for The More the Merrier (1943).

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  Barry Fitzgerald won for Going My Way (1944); only actor nommed in both lead + supporting for the same performance.

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  James Dunn won for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945).

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  Harold Russell won for The Best Years of Our Lives (1946); with an Honorary bonus, became only person to earn two Oscars for the same role.

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  Edmund Gwenn won for Miracle on 34th Street (1947).

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  Walter Huston won for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948).

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  Dean Jagger won for Twelve O'Clock High (1949).

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  George Sanders won for All About Eve (1950).

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  Karl Malden won for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951).

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  Anthony Quinn won twice, for Viva Zapata! (1952) and Lust for Life (1956); first Latino to win in this category.

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  Frank Sinatra won for From Here to Eternity (1953).

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  Edmond O'Brien won for The Barefoot Contessa (1954).

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  Jack Lemmon won for Mister Roberts (1955).

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  Red Buttons won for Sayonara (1957).

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  Burl Ives won for The Big Country (1958).

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  Hugh Griffith won for Ben-Hur (1959).

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  Peter Ustinov won twice, for Spartacus (1960) and Topkapi (1964).

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  George Chakiris won for West Side Story (1961).

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  Ed Begley Sr. won for Sweet Bird of Youth (1962).

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  Melvyn Douglas won twice, for Hud (1963) and Being There (1979).

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  Martin Balsam won for A Thousand Clowns (1965).

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  Walter Matthau won for The Fortune Cookie (1966).

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  George Kennedy won for Cool Hand Luke (1967).

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  Jack Albertson won for The Subject Was Roses (1968).

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  Gig Young won for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969).

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  John Mills won for Ryan's Daughter (1970); first winner using BSL.

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  Ben Johnson won for The Last Picture Show (1971); this category's shortest winning performance, at 9m54s.

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  Joel Grey won for Cabaret (1972).

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  John Houseman won for The Paper Chase (1973).

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  Robert De Niro won for The Godfather Part II (1974); first non-English dialogue role (Italian) in this category to win.

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  George Burns won for The Sunshine Boys (1975).

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  Jason Robards Jr. won twice consecutively—for All the President's Men (1976) and Julia (1977).

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  Christopher Walken won for The Deer Hunter (1978).

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  Timothy Hutton won for Ordinary People (1980); this category's youngest winner, at age 20.

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  John Gielgud won for Arthur (1981).

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  Louis Gossett Jr. won for An Officer and a Gentleman (1982); first black winner for this category.

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  Jack Nicholson won for Terms of Endearment (1983).

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  Haing S. Ngor won for The Killing Fields (1984); first Asian to win in the category.

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  Don Ameche won for Cocoon (1985).

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  Michael Caine won twice, for Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and The Cider House Rules (1999).

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  Sean Connery won for The Untouchables (1987).

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  Kevin Kline won for A Fish Called Wanda (1988).

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  Denzel Washington won for Glory (1989).

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  Joe Pesci won for GoodFellas (1990).

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  Jack Palance won for City Slickers (1991).

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  Gene Hackman won for Unforgiven (1992).

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  Tommy Lee Jones won for The Fugitive (1993).

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  Martin Landau won for Ed Wood (1994).

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  Kevin Spacey won for The Usual Suspects (1995).

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  Cuba Gooding Jr. won for Jerry Maguire (1996).

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  Robin Williams won for Good Will Hunting (1997).

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  James Coburn won for Affliction (1998).

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  Benicio del Toro won for Traffic (2000); first Spanish-language performance to win.

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  Jim Broadbent won for Iris (2001).

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  Chris Cooper won for Adaptation. (2002).

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  Tim Robbins won for Mystic River (2003).

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  Morgan Freeman won for Million Dollar Baby (2004).

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  George Clooney won for Syriana (2005).

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  Alan Arkin won for Little Miss Sunshine (2006).

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  Javier Bardem won for No Country for Old Men (2007).

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  Heath Ledger won for The Dark Knight (2008); category's first posthumous win, and the first ever for a comic book role.

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  Christoph Waltz won twice, for Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Django Unchained (2012).

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  Christian Bale won for The Fighter (2010).

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  Christopher Plummer won for Beginners (2011); this category's oldest winner, at age 82.

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  Jared Leto won for Dallas Buyers Club (2013).

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  J. K. Simmons won for Whiplash (2014).

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  Mark Rylance won for Bridge of Spies (2015).

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  Mahershala Ali won twice, for Moonlight (2016) and Green Book (2018).

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  Sam Rockwell won for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017).

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  Brad Pitt won for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).

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  Daniel Kaluuya won for Judas and the Black Messiah (2021).

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  Troy Kotsur won for CODA (2021); first deaf male win.

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  Ke Huy Quan won for Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022).

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  Robert Downey Jr. won for Oppenheimer (2023).

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  Kieran Culkin won for A Real Pain (2024).