by Baby Clyde
Walter Brennan in "The Westerner". The last of his three wins was the most deserving.
After spending most of my life cataloguing all these Oscar winning performances, I feel uniquely qualified to bore you all with my rankings. We’ll cover my favourite winners before handing out some booby prizes to the all-time worst recipients in each acting category.
Let’s start with the category that nobody cares about, Best Supporting Actor...
Special Mentions that don’t quite make Top 10
- Walter Brennan: The Westerner (1940)
- Jack Albertson: The Subject Was Roses (1968)
- John Gielgud: Arthur (1981)
- James Coburn: Affliction (1998)
TEN BEST WINNERS - BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
#10 Edmund Gwen: Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
I defy anyone to watch this then not believe in Santa.
#9 Peter Ustinov: Topkapi (1964)
Category fraud obviously but Ustinov has never known a scene he couldn’t steal and here he steals every one, along with the jewel encrusted dagger.
#8 Walter Matthau: The Fortune Cookie (1966)
More category fraud but Walter was the best thing about any Billy Wilder film of the entire 60’s.
#7 Jack Nicholson: Terms Of Endearment (1983)
By the end of his career Jack was just coasting on being ‘Jack’ (Yes, I’m talking about Oscar #3) but when the script called for it that schtick was phenomenal.
#6 Gig Young: They Shoot Horses Don’t They? (1969)
Journeyman actor who’d been working in Hollywood for three decades and garnered two baffling earlier nods (I rank him 4th each time) finally finds a role that reveals his full talent and we wonder what we’d been missing all those years.
#5 Walter Huston: The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948)
Bogie was robbed of a nom in Best Actor but there was no denying Anjelica’s grandad on his 4th nomination. He probably should have won in 1936 as well.
#4 Joe Pesci: Goodfellas (1990)
I haven't seen this for 30 years but Pesci is unforgettable. Should do a rewatch really fucking soon.
#3 Joel Grey: Cabaret (1972)
When you take a role and make it so completely your own that 50 years later any other interpretation is still just a pale imitation.
#2 James Dunn: A Tree Grows In Brooklyn (1945)
Award winning drunks are always loud and obnoxious but Dunn’s amiable father trying (And failing) to overcome his alcoholism for the sake of his adoring daughter is more heartbreaking than any showier turn.
#1 George Sanders: All About Eve (1950)
Never has a role so perfectly suited an actor. And he gives one of my favourite line readings in movie history. “Miss Casswell is an actress, a graduate of the Copacabana School of Dramatic Art.” #Genius
Now let’s take a look at some clunkers.
Truth is the worst winners in the category don’t usually give bad performances asuch, they just don’t do anything that deserved awards attention. The overall theme is ‘They won for THAT????’. Here’s a group of middle-aged white men being rewarded for doing the absolute least……
TEN WORST WINNERS - BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
#10 Brad Pitt: Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)
Even if we ignore the obvious problem with category placement the Oscar is meant to be an award for acting not eternal hotness. Pitt is absolutely fine, basically playing himself, but nothing about it is remotely award worthy. They should have got it over and done with 30 years before and given him the win for Thelma and Louise.
#9 Don Ameche: Cocoon (1985)
The ultimate career award. Being an agreeable second rank leading man 45 years previously does not warrant an actual Oscar, especially when the performance in question is so pedestrian. No idea why he was singled out amongst the illustrious cast of veterans. And he certainly didn’t deserve that legendary presenter.
#8 Martin Balsam: A Thousand Clowns (1965)
This was the final Best Supporting Actor winner I saw in my trek to watch all nominees. I waited 35 years to find out what the fuss was about. I’m still waiting.
#7 Dean Jagger: Twelve O’Clock High (1949)
If you were to watch this film and have to guess which one of the entirely interchangeable supporting players was the award winner, I defy anyone to choose Dean Jagger. He essentially wins an Oscar for moving around a Toby Jug. Baffling.
#6 Sean Connery: The Untouchables (1987)
For that accent???
#5 George Chakiris: West Side Story (1961)
Great dancing, beautiful dancing.
#4 Jack Lemmon: Mister Roberts (1965)
At his best Jack Lemmon is fantastic (Some Like It Hot/The China Syndrome). At his worst he’s absolutely insufferable. This is his worst. He also beat out Sal Mineo for Rebel Without A Cause which is, of course, unforgiveable.
#3 Tim Robbins: Mystic River (2003)
In a shortlist otherwise full of forgettable performances this one stands out as actually bad. I can’t remember the exact quote, but Humphrey Bogart once said of Betty Hutton that she wasn’t a very accomplished actress because you could see the cogs working*, which is exactly how I felt about Tim Robbins’ terrible performance in Mystic River. Which is weird because he’s otherwise a reliably competent actor. Here he plays sad by moping around shoulders hunched and turning down the corners of his mouth. There’s a dramatic breakdown scene that feels unbearably forced. I always thought this was a bad performance in an otherwise great film. Rewatched it yesterday to confirm my opinion, only to discover I was totally wrong. It’s a bad performance in a pretty bad film, which somehow makes things a bit better.
#2 Michael Caine: The Cider House Rules (1999)
In perhaps the greatest line-up this category has ever seen (And Tom Cruise), Caine wins an entirely unnecessary second Oscar with a shonky accent more distracting that Connery’s. To make matters worse the following year the Academy saw fit to snub his far more talented contemporary Albert Finney FOR THE FIFTH TIME.
#1 John Mills: Ryan’s Daughter (1970)
YIKES!!!!
NEXT: Best Supporting Actress. I have thoughts.
*Whilst I’m sure I read it somewhere many years ago the only evidence I can find on the internet of this quote existing is by myself on Goldderby a decade ago. I don’t consider myself to be a reliable source.