Ranking the Best Supporting Actors
I ranked the Best Supporting Actresses earlier in the day, so the same things apply.
- The rankings are irrelevant. They’re just personal preference. The goal here is to help you discover more movies.
- The Supporting categories are tough because they’re mainly about rewarding veterans or up-and-coming actors and actresses. (This one more so is about memorable characters and veterans.) A lot of people win for their body of work than their performances, so it makes it tougher to rank.
- Don’t get hung up on the numbers, focus on the fact that it’s about getting people to see more movies. (And if you want to criticize, I require that you’ve seen at least 50 of the performances, otherwise you’ll be completely ignored.)
This category, just to clarify, before I start ranking, is mostly about memorable characters. So I based my rankings primarily on that — on those characters that you just seem to remember after the films are over. You’ll notice that the top ten are very memorably characters. And that, to me, is the epitome of what a Best Supporting Actor winner is.
Also, keep in mind, there are only 75 of these. The category only started in 1936.
Here’s how I rank the Best Supporting Actors:
TIER 1: The Best of the Best:
1. Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
2. Robert De Niro, The Godfather Part II
3. Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
4. Joe Pesci, Goodfellas
5. Edmund Gwenn, Miracle on 34th Street
6. Martin Landau, Ed Wood
7. Kevin Spacey, The Usual Suspects
8. Sean Connery, The Untouchables
9. Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
10. John Gielgud, Arthur
TIER 2: Really Solid Performances:
11. Christopher Walken, The Deer Hunter
12. Walter Huston, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
13. George Chakiris, West Side Story
14. Cuba Gooding Jr., Jerry Maguire
15. George Burns, The Sunshine Boys
16. George Kennedy, Cool Hand Luke
17. Walter Matthau, The Fortune Cookie
18. Charles Coburn, The More the Merrier
19. Christian Bale, The Fighter
20. George Sanders, All About Eve
21. James Dunn, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
22. Thomas Mitchell, Stagecoach
23. Kevin Kline, A Fish Called Wanda
24. Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
25. Barry Fitzgerald, Going My Way
26. Jason Robards, All the President’s Men
27. Burl Ives, The Big Country
28. Chris Cooper, Adaptation.
29. Jack Lemmon, Mister Roberts
30. Frank Sinatra, From Here to Eternity
TIER 3: More Solid Performances/Sentimental Favorites:
31. Timothy Hutton, Ordinary People
32. Gene Hackman, Unforgiven
33. Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
34. Robin Williams, Good Will Hunting
35. Karl Malden, A Streetcar Named Desire
36. Peter Ustinov, Spartacus
37. Tommy Lee Jones, The Fugitive
38. Walter Brennan, The Westerner
39. Jack Palance, City Slickers
40. Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
41. Don Ameche, Cocoon
42. Jim Broadbent, Iris
TIER 4: Solid Performances All Around (But Not My Favorites):
43. Peter Ustinov, Topkapi
44. Jack Albertson, The Subject Was Roses
45. Donald Crisp, How Green Was My Valley
46. Melvyn Douglas, Hud
47. Gig Young, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
48. Denzel Washington, Glory
49. Haing S. Ngor, The Killing Fields
50. Benicio del Toro, Traffic
51. Joel Grey, Cabaret
52. Jack Nicholson, Terms of Endearment
53. George Clooney, Syriana
TIER 5: Performances That are Good/Enjoyable, But….Mehh:
54. Hugh Griffith, Ben-Hur
55. Lou Gossett Jr., An Officer and a Gentleman
56. Anthony Quinn, Viva Zapata
57. Ed Begley, Sweet Bird of Youth
58. Melvyn Douglas, Being There
59. Edmund O’Brien, The Barefoot Contessa
60. Michael Caine, Hannah and Her Sisters
61. John Houseman, The Paper Chase
62. Morgan Freeman, Million Dollar Baby
63. Walter Brennan, Kentucky
64. Tim Robbins, Mystic River
65. Jason Robards, Julia
66. James Coburn, Affliction
67. Christopher Plummer, Beginners
68. Martin Balsam, A Thousand Clowns
TIER 6: The Worst of the Worst:
69. Ben Johnson, The Last Picture Show
70. Walter Brennan, Come and Get It
71. Michael Caine, The Cider House Rules
72. Anthony Quinn, Lust for Life
73. Red Buttons, Sayonara
74. Harold Russell, The Best Years of Our Lives
75. Van Heflin, Johnny Eager
76. Joseph Schildkraut, The Life of Emile Zola
77. Dean Jagger, Twelve O’Clock High
78. John Mills, Ryan’s Daughter
Also check out:
Ranking the Best Supporting Actresses
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June 1, 2012 at 2:06 am
Christian Bale’s performance in my opinion should be in the top 3. Other than that great list
February 13, 2013 at 12:56 pm
Good on you for putting Martin Landau in your Top 10. He makes my Top 10 as well. Although I am little surprised that Sean Connery ranks so high up and that Gene Hackman ranks relatively low. I’d put the latter in my Top 10 but the former would still easily make my Top 20, maybe Top 15.
September 27, 2013 at 5:52 pm
I really appreciate the effort in doing this and the dialogue about film it inspires. Like the Oscar itself, this list makes me think about what constitutes a great performance and so by staking out a position, it can instantly become a point of comparison and a way to organize thought. i would lve to see this updated to include J.K. Simmons, Mark Rylance and Mahershala Ali.
Finally, just a note on your bottom tier (and an example of how great these performances are) i thought Ben Johnson was magnificent in The Last Picture Show both by conjuring a bygone era of film acting and by the sad wounded work in this movie, Harold Russell’s performance in Best Years is a classic and moving piece of work and Van Heflin’s strange and tortured work in Johnny Eager still haunts me
March 29, 2017 at 6:21 am