When it comes to lone acting Oscar nominations (i.e., a film competing for one performance award and nothing else), the category with the fewest examples is Best Supporting Actor. After two consecutive years of there being no new additions to that subgroup, Brian Tyree Henry (“Causeway”) became its 54th member in 2023 after having been largely ignored by other awards bodies over the preceding weeks. He directly followed Tom Hanks (“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” 2020), who is the only other entrant from the last five years.
Within the last decade, this club has only grown by seven, with those who preceded Hanks and Henry being Robert Duvall (“The Judge,” 2015), Sylvester Stallone (“Creed,” 2016), Michael Shannon (“Nocturnal Animals,” 2017), Willem Dafoe (“The Florida Project,” 2018), and Christopher Plummer (“All the Money in the World,” 2018). 2018 marked the fifth instance (after 1943, 1965, 1993, and 2012) of two men accomplishing the feat at once, thus tying the category’s record for most bids of this kind in a single year. Contextually, the corresponding Best Supporting Actress record is three, while that of both lead categories is four.
As it happens, the Best Supporting Actor category is not behind in terms of how many of its lone acting nominations have led to wins, as its total of five matches that of Best Actor. The featured fellows who scored victories for their otherwise overlooked films were Walter Brennan (“Kentucky,” 1939), Van Heflin (“Johnny Eager,” 1943), Peter Ustinov (“Topkapi,” 1965), Jack Palance (“City Slickers,” 1992), and Plummer (“Beginners,” 2012). Brennan and Palance were the only loners in their lineups, whereas Heflin, Ustinov, and Plummer were respectively joined by Frank Morgan (“Tortilla Flat”), Lee Tracy (“The Best Man”), and Nick Nolte (“Warrior”).
Plummer’s two aforementioned outings (his last two of three, following a 2010 supporting bid for “The Last Station”) make him one of only two men to compete for this award as a lone nominee more than once. He was preceded in that regard by Charles Durning, who earned a pair of consecutive notices (both unsuccessful) for “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” (1983) and “To Be or Not to Be” (1984).
In 1977, Laurence Olivier became the first male actor to contend as a loner in both possible categories with his supporting nomination for “Marathon Man,” which followed lead ones for “Richard III” (1957) and “The Entertainer” (1961). His example has since been emulated by Jeff Bridges (supporting: “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot,” 1975; lead: “Starman,” 1985), Edward Norton (“Primal Fear,” 1997; “American History X,” 1999), Richard Farnsworth (“Comes a Horseman,” 1979; “The Straight Story,” 2000), Duvall (“The Judge”; “The Apostle,” 1998), and Dafoe (“The Florida Project”; “At Eternity’s Gate,” 2019).
Based on the racetrack odds shaped by 9,000+ Gold Derby users, most of the strongest 2024 Best Supporting Actor candidates hail from presumed Best Picture nominees, meaning that there’s a slim chance of us seeing a new lone contender in this category. Unless Charles Melton (“May December”) lands in the lineup while his film is blanked elsewhere, a fresh addition would require a miraculous appearance from a dark horse like Glenn Howerton (“BlackBerry,” 10th place) or Paul Mescal (“All of Us Strangers,” 15th).
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