The Nightbird Awards for Best Supporting Actress

Thelma Ritter, the Queen of the Character Actresses. She receives eight Nightbird nominations, winning once for Pickup on South Street (pictured).

Throughout the coming months, I will post the Nightbird Award winners for the major categories (Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress). These winners are not final and do not include my nominees for the simple fact that I still have many films (some of them rather difficult to get hold of) to watch before I can extensively finalize each category. The full list of nominees/winners will be revealed at a later date. I have included comments on some of these wins, most of them concerned with trivia.

• 1911-1927: Zasu Pitts (Greed)

*Note: This first “year” actually spans sixteen years — from the year that the oldest existing feature-length film was released, to the year before the 1st Annual Academy Awards. Any films released between 1911 and 1927 are grouped here.

• 1928: Brigitte Helm (Metropolis)

*Note: This may not be of much significance, but this win makes Brigitte Helm the only actress to win an acting award for a science fiction film. This also makes her the first person to win for a debut performance. Also of significance, this win means that each of the first two films to win Best Supporting Actress also won Best Picture, something which will only happen thirteen more times (four of those instances were also back-to-back, 1939-40 and 1966-67).

• 1929: Marie Dressler (The Patsy)

*Note: The Patsy was actually released in 1928, but, because of the, shall we say, screwed up terms of eligibility during these first few years, I have decided to place it among 1929’s crop.

• 1930: Marie Dressler (Anna Christie)

*Note: This win makes Marie Dressler the second person to win two Nightbird Awards (after Lillian Gish), as well as the first to win consecutively (the others are Olivia de Havilland and Katharine Hepburn), and one of only four to win Supporting Actress more than once (the others are Shelley Winters, Dianne Wiest, and Meryl Streep).

• 1931: Joan Blondell (Night Nurse)
• 1932: Miriam Hopkins (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)
• 1933: Elsa Lanchester (The Private Life of Henry VIII)
• 1934: Alice Brady (The Gay Divorcee)

*Note: The first acting win for a musical, and the first film to win in both Supporting categories.

• 1935: Una O’Connor (The Informer)
• 1936: Gale Sondergaard (Anthony Adverse)

*Note: This is the first year where the Academy Awards included a category specifically for supporting performances. Previously, all actors were grouped into the Best Actor or Actress categories.

• 1937: Dame May Whitty (Night Must Fall)
• 1938: Fay Bainter (Jezebel)

*Note: Fay Bainter is the first actress (and second person overall, after Charles Laughton in 1935) to receive nominations in both acting categories in the same year.

• 1939: Hattie McDaniel (Gone with the Wind)

*Note: Hattie McDaniel is the first African-American to win a Nightbird Award.

• 1940: Judith Anderson (Rebecca)
• 1941: Mary Astor (The Maltese Falcon)

*Note: This is the first performance to win the Nightbird for Supporting Actress (post-1936) without also receiving an Oscar nomination. Astor did, however, win this same category at the Oscars this year, but instead for The Great Lie. Her performance in that film is my #3, after Astor’s work in Falcon and Teresa Wright in The Little Foxes.

• 1942: Agnes Moorehead (The Magnificent Ambersons)
• 1943: Katina Paxinou (For Whom the Bell Tolls)
• 1944: Ethel Barrymore (None But the Lonely Heart)

*Note: None But the Lonely Heart is the first film to win Supporting Actress without receiving any other nominations. This only occurs five other times (1963, 1972, 1983, 2003, 2008).

• 1945: Anne Revere (National Velvet)
• 1946: Anne Baxter (The Razor’s Edge)
• 1947: Celeste Holm (Gentleman’s Agreement)
• 1948: Claire Trevor (Key Largo)
• 1949: Mercedes McCambridge (All the King’s Men)
• 1950: Josephine Hull (Harvey)
• 1951: Kim Hunter (A Streetcar Named Desire)
• 1952: Gloria Grahame (The Bad and the Beautiful)
• 1953: Thelma Ritter (Pickup on South Street)

*Note: This is Thelma Ritter’s only win from eight nominations. She and Geraldine Page are the only two actresses to receive as many nominations without multiple wins.

• 1954: Eva Marie Saint (On the Waterfront)
• 1955: Jo Van Fleet (East of Eden)
• 1956: Dorothy Malone (Written on the Wind)
• 1957: Marlene Dietrich (Witness for the Prosecution)

*Note: This is the second performance to win the Nightbird for Supporting Actress while failing to receive an Oscar nomination. Unfortunately, unlike Mary Astor, Dietrich was not nominated for a different film instead. The lack of a nomination for her was most likely due to category confusion (many consider her character to be a Lead), and the difficulties that are inherent in promoting a performance such as this.

• 1958: Wendy Hiller (Separate Tables)
• 1959: Shelley Winters (The Diary of Anne Frank)
• 1960: Shirley Jones (Elmer Gantry)
• 1961: Rita Moreno (West Side Story)
• 1962: Angela Lansbury (The Manchurian Candidate)

*Note: Was Patty Duke bad in The Miracle Worker? Not by a long shot. But is there anyone who believes that she deserved to win over Angela Lansbury, who delivered one of the greatest performances of all-time as one of the screen’s great villains?

• 1963: Margaret Rutherford (The VIPs)
• 1964: Lila Kedrova (Zorba the Greek)
• 1965: Shelley Winters (A Patch of Blue)

*Note: Shelley Winters becomes the second to Supporting Actress more than once.

• 1966: Sandy Dennis (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)
• 1967: Estelle Parsons (Bonnie and Clyde)
• 1968: Ruth Gordon (Rosemary’s Baby)
• 1969: Goldie Hawn (Cactus Flower)
• 1970: Helen Hayes (Airport)

*Note: Helen Hayes is the first actress to win in Supporting after previously winning for Lead. This also makes her one of only two actresses (the other being Vivien Leigh) to go 2/2 at the Nightbirds.

• 1971: Cloris Leachman (The Last Picture Show)
• 1972: Eileen Heckart (Butterflies Are Free)
• 1973: Valentina Cortese (Day for Night)

*Note: Cortese was not nominated for the Oscar 1973, as she was not eligible until the following year. She was nominated in 1974, losing to Ingrid Bergman. Because Day for Night was released nearly everywhere in 1973, I have placed it in that year so as not to have to choose between two incredible performances.

• 1974: Ingird Bergman (Murder on the Orient Express)

*Note: This makes Ingrid Bergman the third actress to win more than three awards (after Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn). Unlike them, her fourth win came in the Supporting category, which makes her (along with Helen Hayes, Maggie Smith, and Meryl Streep) one of the few actresses to win in both categories.

• 1975: Lee Grant (Shampoo)
• 1976: Beatrice Straight (Network)

*Note: At five minutes and forty seconds, this is the shortest performance to win the Nightbird in any category.

• 1977: Vanessa Redgrave (Julia)
• 1978: Maggie Smith (California Suite)

*Note: Maggie Smith becomes the third actress to win in both acting categories.

• 1979: Meryl Streep (Kramer vs. Kramer)
• 1980: Mary Steenburgen (Melvin and Howard)
• 1981: Maureen Stapleton (Reds)
• 1982: Jessica Lange (Tootsie)

*Note: This is the third time that an actress was nominated in both categories in the same year. Like Fay Bainter before her, Lange takes Supporting.

• 1983: Linda Hunt (The Year of Living Dangerously)

*Note: Linda Hunt is the only person to win for a performance as a character of the opposite gender.

• 1984: Peggy Ashcroft (A Passage to India)

*Note: As of 2012, Peggy Ashcroft (77) is the last to win this category while in her seventies. She is also the oldest winner in the category.

• 1985: Angelica Huston (Prizzi’s Honor)
• 1986: Dianne Wiest (Hannah and Her Sisters)

*Note: In 1986, Maggie Smith (for Room with a View) and Dianne Wiest give what I consider to be the two finest performances by actresses in supporting roles for the entire decade. That they should have to compete against each other is a shame, so let’s just consider this a virtual tie.

• 1987: Olympia Dukakis (Moonstruck)
• 1988: Michelle Pfeiffer (Dangerous Liaisons)
• 1989: Brenda Fricker (My Left Foot)
• 1990: Whoopi Goldberg (Ghost)
• 1991: Mercedes Ruehl (The Fisher King)
• 1992: Miranda Richardson (The Crying Game)

*Note: Like Mary Astor in 1941, Miranda Richardson was nominated for the Oscar, just not for the same performance that wins her the Nightbird. Her performance in Damage is my #5.

• 1993: Winona Ryder (The Age of Innocence)
• 1994: Dianne Wiest (Bullets Over Broadway)

*Note: Dianne Wiest becomes the third to win Supporting Actress twice.

• 1995: Joan Allen (Nixon)
• 1996: Juliette Binoche (The English Patient)
• 1997: Julianne Moore (Boogie Nights)
• 1998: Judi Dench (Shakespeare in Love)
• 1999: Catherine Keener (Being John Malkovich)
• 2000: Marcia Gay Harden (Pollock)
• 2001: Helen Mirren (Gosford Park)
• 2002: Meryl Streep (Adaptation)

*Note: Meryl Streep becomes the fourth person to win Supporting Actress twice. This also makes her the only two-time Supporting Actress winner to have also won for Lead (as well as the only person, male or female, to win multiple times in each category). This, along with her Best Actress nomination for The Hours, also puts her in the select group of double nominees. Like all of the women before her (save Sigourney Weaver, Emma Thompson, and Holly Hunter), she wins Supporting and loses Lead.

• 2003: Patricia Clarkson (Pieces of April)

*Note: Patricia Clarkson received an Oscar nomination for Pieces of April and won several critics awards for both her performance in that film and The Station Agent. Because I have not yet seen The Station Agent, I cannot definitely say whether she wins for that or for April. Either way, she earns this.

• 2004: Cate Blanchett (The Aviator)

*Note: Cate Blanchett is the only performer to win the Nightbird for playing a Nightbird winner, in this case Katharine Hepburn.

• 2005: Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener)
• 2006: Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls)
• 2007: Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton)
• 2008: Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)
• 2009: Mo’Nique (Precious)
• 2010: Melissa Leo (The Fighter)
• 2011: Octavia Spencer (The Help)
• 2012: Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables)

Interestingly, the Supporting Actress category is the most likely of the acting categories to have someone win on their only nomination. 28 of them (33%) achieved a home run on their sole time at bat.

In terms of the ages of the winners, this category is more evenly spread out than any other. They range between 20 and 77 years of age. Thirteen actresses won while in their twenties, twenty-seven in their thirties, twenty-three in their forties, eleven won in their fifth decade, six in their sixth, and another six in their seventh, for an average age of 42.

This has always been my favorite category, partly because the Academy so rarely gets it wrong. Out of 77 winners, I disagree with thirteen of those (fourteen if you count Mary Astor winning for the wrong film in 1941). Unfortunately, while wrong decisions in other categories are rarely truly bad choices, I consider three of the Academy’s winners to be completely ridiculous (Miyoshi Umeki, Marisa Tomei, and Renee Zellweger). This is made even worse by the fact that two of those actresses (Tomei and Zellweger) are brilliant and definitely deserving of Oscars. They just won for their weakest performances.

My first nine winners were, of course, exempt from Oscar consideration because, well, there wasn’t a category for them. Most of them are great character actors who never received much love from the Academy (only Marie Dressler and Alice Brady won Oscars, both of them winning from two nominations).