The Best Supporting Actor Oscar has been bestowed upon many of the greatest performances in movie history, but only a few were indisputable. Though the Academy Awards have been running since 1929, the Best Supporting Actor category wasn’t introduced until the 1937 ceremony. It values performers who steal the show, even though they are playing smaller roles.
Unlike Best Actor and Actress, the Best Supporting Actor award is rarely uncontested. There are often a handful of stellar performances that are worthy of the trophy. This means that the indisputable Best Supporting Actor wins are memorable enough to outshine the leads. Some supporting performances are so good that they’re all the audience remembers.
Like every category at the Academy Awards, Best Supporting Actor has garnered controversy. Determining which roles are leads and which are supporting is a delicate balance that rarely pleases everyone. Because scene-stealing supporting roles are so memorable, it can feel like a slight when they aren’t nominated for Best Actor. Nevertheless, the indisputable wins are just as unforgettable.
Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Landa holds his hands up while sitting at a table in Inglourious Basterds
Quentin Tarantino movies are like factories for amazing supporting actor performances, but Christoph Waltz’s turn as Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds is in a category all its own. The anachronistic war film chronicles the exploits of an all-Jewish strike force who takes revenge against the Nazi occupation in France. In typical Tarantino fashion, the movie revels in exaggerated violence.
Waltz opens the film, and his downright evil performance sets the tone for the story. He’s so vile that the audience immediately roots for his downfall, making the movie’s ending all the more cathartic. There was little competition for Christoph Waltz that year at the Oscars, and his Best Supporting Actor win was the only trophy given to Inglourious Basterds.
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight (2008)
Heath Ledger as Joker in The Dark Knight
Superhero movies are nothing without a good villain, and Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight changed the game. The second of Christopher Nolan’s three Batman movies pits the Caped Crusader against the Clown Prince of Crime in a battle for the soul of Gotham. Getting Batman’s most iconic villain right is no easy feat.
From the first time The Joker saunters onscreen, Ledger is a man possessed. The Joker is frightening, philosophical, and a little bit funny, and he’s the ideal foil for Christian Bale’s Batman. Ledger’s win came after his tragic death, cementing his legacy as one of the greatest stars taken too soon.
Javier Bardem – No Country For Old Men (2007)
Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in the store in No Country for Old Men
The last three years of the Aughts were a golden age for scene-stealing supporting villains, and Javier Bardem’s Anton Chigurh is the highlight of No Country for Old Men. After a hunter discovers a drug deal gone wrong, he is pursued by a vicious assassin. The neo-western thriller was a big departure for the Coen Brothers, and it paid off.
No Country for Old Men was nominated for eight Oscars, winning four.
Understated performances are rare in Hollywood, but Bardem brings Chigurh to life with appropriate coldness. He’s scarier than most bombastic villains, because he feels so hauntingly real. The indisputable win is exactly what the Best Supporting Actor category is all about, and cemented the movie’s place as one of the best of the 21st century thus far.
Joe Pesci – Goodfellas (1990)
Joe Pesci points a pistol at someone offscreen in Goodfellas
Martin Scorsese brought the gangster picture back to the forefront with Goodfellas, and its success is due in part to a brilliant supporting performance. The film chronicles the rise and fall of Henry Hill, a real-life mafioso from the Lucchese crime family. Frequent collaborator, Joe Pesci, plays the part of Tommy DeVito, and he makes the role his.
Fast-talking and quick to anger, DeVito is the perfect part for Pesci’s acting style. His ad-libs make Goodfellas humorous and exciting, and he even gets his own story arc across the two-and-a-half-hour epic. No other performance held a candle to Pesci at the 1990 Academy Awards, and his win was the only truly indisputable victory of the entire 1990s.
Christopher Walken – The Deer Hunter (1978)
Nick plays Russian roulette in The Deer Hunter
The Deer Hunter is a legendary Oscar-winning movie that has faded into the background as time goes by, but Christopher Walken’s performance is unforgettable. Michael Cimino’s anti-war masterpiece follows a group of friends who go to Vietnam and find their lives forever altered. It’s anchored by Robert De Niro, but Walken’s Nick is the real centerpiece of the cast.
The infamous Russian roulette scenes have left generations scarred for life, and Walken’s face sells the horror and trauma that Nick endured. 1978 was a big year for Vietnam War movies, but The Deer Hunter is the obvious favorite. Though there were other strong performances in the Best Supporting Actor category, none have stood the test of time like Walken’s.
Robert De Niro – The Godfather Part II (1974)
Young Vito stands on the street in Hell’s Kitchen in The Godfather Part II
After Marlon Brando won Best Actor for playing Vito Corleone in The Godfather, Robert De Niro snagged Best Supporting Actor for the same role in the sequel. The film mirrors the struggles of Michael Corleone in 1958 with those of his father back in the ’20s. Making a sequel to The Godfather seemed impossible, but Francis Ford Coppola succeeded.
There are many layers to De Niro’s Vito, and he’s a richer character than in the first film. Arguably, De Niro is the co-lead, but his Best Supporting Actor win is no less deserved. The only competition De Niro faced on his path to an indisputable Oscar win was from two of his fellow cast members who were also nominated.
Joel Grey – Cabaret (1972)
Sally and the Emcee hold coins while performing onstage in Cabaret
Cabaret is one of the greatest musical movies ever, and it was rewarded handsomely at the Oscars. In early ’30s Berlin, the Kit Kat Club becomes a gathering place for various personalities as the Nazis seize power. Joel Grey plays the role of the Emcee, a somewhat ethereal character who is essentially the narrator and host of the film.
Grey revived his role from the Broadway production, and his charming performance has all the exaggerated grandeur of a stage show. While co-star Liza Minnelli snagged Best Actress, Grey’s Best Supporting Actor win is a recognition of his multi-faceted and memorable turn. It’s indisputable because Grey’s performance has forever shaped future interpretations of Cabaret.
Ben Johnson – The Last Picture Show (1971)
Ben Johnson speaks while two kids ignore him in The Last Picture Show
Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show is an all-time classic of 1970s cinema, and it features a quintessential Best Supporting Actor victory. The black-and-white gem follows teenage friends as they navigate their futures in a dying Texas town in the 1950s. The anti-nostalgia movie won both Best Supporting categories, but lost all its other nominations.
Ben Johnson appears in the film as Sam the Lion, a local businessman who is the moral compass for the teens. Johnson’s reflective performance perfectly captured the message of the film, and Johnson’s own career eerily mirrored the life of his character. Though the performance as a whole is brilliant, his monologue is certainly what secured his Academy Award win.
Karl Malden – A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Karl Malden poses in shadow in a promo image for A Streetcar Named Desire
Adaptations of Tennessee Williams plays get no better than A Streetcar Named Desire, and there’s a reason that the film has stood the test of time. Southern belle, Blanche DuBois, moves in with her sister, and her arrival causes lots of strife in the household. A masterclass in performance, the film nearly won all four acting categories at the Oscars.
Karl Malden’s Mitch is a soft-spoken gentleman who falls in love with Blanche. His performance is unique because it’s subtle and contrasts with the bombastic acting of his co-stars. Malden deserved the award for all the heavy lifting he does in the movie, and his supporting role is the only nominee from the 24th ceremony that is still remembered today.
Walter Huston – The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (1948)
The three men talk in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is one of Humphrey Bogart’s best movies, but he was overlooked at the Oscars. It concerns a trio of prospectors who discover a gold deposit and soon find themselves in a lot of trouble. Director John Huston cast his own dad to play the role of Howard, and the elder Huston struck gold.
With all the charm of Old Hollywood, Walter Huston’s Howard is a grizzled prospector with experience etched on his face. He brings a bit of fun to the classic adventure story, and it wouldn’t have been the same without him. Huston’s win was the first indisputable Best Supporting Actor, and the Oscar category really found its footing in 1949.
8/10
Location
Los Angeles, CA
Dates
March 15, 2026
Website
https://www.oscars.org/