The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) honors the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor annually. Since the 9th Academy Awards, it has been given to an actor who has performed outstandingly in a supporting role in a film that came out that year.
79 people have received the Best Supporting Actor award a total of 88 times. Walter Brennan won the first award for his performance in Come and Get It. Robert Downey Jr. is the most recent recipient for his role in Oppenheimer.
Best Supporting Actor Oscar Winners
The following list contains all the actors who won the Best Supporting Actor award in the Oscars:
| Year | Winner | Film | Role |
| 1936 | Walter Brennan | Come and Get It | Swan Bostrom |
| 1937 | Joseph Schildkraut | The Life of Emile Zola | Captain Alfred Dreyfus |
| 1938 | Walter Brennan | Kentucky | Peter Goodwin |
| 1939 | Thomas Mitchell | Stagecoach | Dr. Josiah Boone |
| 1940 | Walter Brennan | The Westerner | Judge Roy Bean |
| 1941 | Donald Crisp | How Green Was My Valley | Mr. Morgan |
| 1942 | Van Heflin | Johnny Eager | Jeff Hartnett |
| 1943 | Charles Coburn | The More the Merrier | Benjamin Dingle |
| 1944 | Barry Fitzgerald | Going My Way | Father Fitzgibbon |
| 1945 | James Dunn | A Tree Grows in Brooklyn | Johnny Nolan |
| 1946 | Harold Russell | The Best Years of Our Lives | Homer Parrish |
| 1947 | Edmund Gwenn | Miracle on 34th Street | Kris Kringle |
| 1948 | Walter Huston | The Treasure of the Sierra Madre | Howard |
| 1949 | Dean Jagger | Twelve O'Clock High | Major Stovall |
| 1950 | George Sanders | All About Eve | Addison De Witt |
| 1951 | Karl Malden | A Streetcar Named Desire | Mitch |
| 1952 | Anthony Quinn | Viva Zapata! | Eufemio Zapata |
| 1953 | Frank Sinatra | From Here to Eternity | Angelo Maggio |
| 1954 | Edmond O'Brien | The Barefoot Contessa | Oscar Muldoon |
| 1955 | Jack Lemmon | Mister Roberts | Ensign Pulver |
| 1956 | Anthony Quinn | Lust for Life | Paul Gauguin |
| 1957 | Red Buttons | Sayonara | Joe Kelly |
| 1958 | Burl Ives | The Big Country | Rufus Hannassey |
| 1959 | Hugh Griffith | Ben-Hur | Sheik Ilderim |
| 1960 | Peter Ustinov | Spartacus | Batiatus |
| 1961 | George Chakiris | West Side Story | Bernardo |
| 1962 | Ed Begley | Sweet Bird of Youth | Tom "Boss" Finley |
| 1963 | Melvyn Douglas | Hud | Homer Bannon |
| 1964 | Peter Ustinov | Topkapi | Arthur Simpson |
| 1965 | Martin Balsam | A Thousand Clowns | Arnold Burns |
| 1966 | Walter Matthau | The Fortune Cookie | Willie Gingrich |
| 1967 | George Kennedy | Cool Hand Luke | Dragline |
| 1968 | Jack Albertson | The Subject Was Roses | John Cleary |
| 1969 | Gig Young | They Shoot Horses, Don't They? | Rocky |
| 1970 | John Mills | Ryan's Daughter | Michael |
| 1971 | Ben Johnson | The Last Picture Show | Sam the Lion |
| 1972 | Joel Grey | Cabaret | The Master of Ceremonies |
| 1973 | John Houseman | The Paper Chase | Professor Kingsfield |
| 1974 | Robert De Niro | The Godfather Part II | Vito Corleone |
| 1975 | George Burns | The Sunshine Boys | Al Lewis |
| 1976 | Jason Robards | All the President's Men | Ben Bradlee |
| 1977 | Jason Robards | Julia | Dashiell Hammett |
| 1978 | Christopher Walken | The Deer Hunter | Nick |
| 1979 | Melvyn Douglas | Being There | Benjamin Rand |
| 1980 | Timothy Hutton | Ordinary People | Conrad Jarrett |
| 1981 | John Gielgud | Arthur | Hobson |
| 1982 | Louis Gossett Jr. | An Officer and a Gentleman | Sgt. Emil Foley |
| 1983 | Jack Nicholson | Terms of Endearment | Garrett Breedlove |
| 1984 | Haing S. Ngor | The Killing Fields | Dith Pran |
| 1985 | Don Ameche | Cocoon | Art Selwyn |
| 1986 | Michael Caine | Hannah and Her Sisters | Elliot |
| 1987 | Sean Connery | The Untouchables | Jim Malone |
| 1988 | Kevin Kline | A Fish Called Wanda | Otto |
| 1989 | Denzel Washington | Glory | Trip |
| 1990 | Joe Pesci | Goodfellas | Tommy DeVito |
| 1991 | Jack Palance | City Slickers | Curly |
| 1992 | Gene Hackman | Unforgiven | Little Bill Daggett |
| 1993 | Tommy Lee Jones | The Fugitive | Samuel Gerard |
| 1994 | Martin Landau | Ed Wood | Bela Lugosi |
| 1995 | Kevin Spacey | The Usual Suspects | Roger "Verbal" Kint |
| 1996 | Cuba Gooding Jr. | Jerry Maguire | Rod Tidwell |
| 1997 | Robin Williams | Good Will Hunting | Sean McGuire |
| 1998 | James Coburn | Affliction | Glen Whitehouse |
| 1999 | Michael Caine | The Cider House Rules | Dr. Wilbur Larch |
| 2000 | Benicio Del Toro | Traffic | Javier Rodriguez |
| 2001 | Jim Broadbent | Iris | John Bayley |
| 2002 | Chris Cooper | Adaptation | John Laroche |
| 2003 | Tim Robbins | Mystic River | Dave Boyle |
| 2004 | Morgan Freeman | Million Dollar Baby | Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris |
| 2005 | George Clooney | Syriana | Bob Barnes |
| 2006 | Alan Arkin | Little Miss Sunshine | Grandpa |
| 2007 | Javier Bardem | No Country for Old Men | Anton Chigurh |
| 2008 | Heath Ledger | The Dark Knight | Joker |
| 2009 | Christoph Waltz | Inglourious Basterds | Col. Hans Landa |
| 2010 | Christian Bale | The Fighter | Dicky Eklund |
| 2011 | Christopher Plummer | Beginners | Hal |
| 2012 | Christoph Waltz | Django Unchained | Dr. King Schultz |
| 2013 | Jared Leto | Dallas Buyers Club | Rayon |
| 2014 | J.K. Simmons | Whiplash | Fletcher |
| 2015 | Mark Rylance | Bridge of Spies | Rudolf Abel |
| 2016 | Mahershala Ali | Moonlight | Juan |
| 2017 | Sam Rockwell | Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri | Dixon |
| 2018 | Mahershala Ali | Green Book | Dr. Donald Shirley |
| 2019 | Brad Pitt | Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood | Cliff Booth |
| 2020 | Daniel Kaluuya | Judas and the Black Messiah | Fred Hampton |
| 2021 | Troy Kotsur | CODA | Frank Rossi |
| 2022 | Ke Huy Quan | Everything Everywhere All at Once | Waymond Wang |
| 2023 | Robert Downey Jr. | Oppenheimer | Lewis Strauss |
| 2024 | Kieran Culkin | A Real Pain | Benjamin "Benji" Kaplan |
Also Read: Best Supporting Actress Oscar Winners
FAQs about Oscars
Walter Brennan currently holds the record for most Oscars for Supporting Actor. The actor has won the award for this category three times.
Timothy Hutton received the Best Supporting Actor in the Oscars at the age of 20, making him the youngest recipient ever for the category.
Justin Henry was the youngest to have an Oscar nomination at the age of 8.
A. Kieran Culkin won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Benjamin "Benji" Kaplan in A Real Pain (2024).
