Memorable Supporting Performances: Film, TV, Streaming, Stage

[Cachoo]

I guess movie awards season has the juices flowing. What supporting actor/actress performances (or maybe even animal) have you loved?

Dakota Fanning stressed me out in The War of The Worlds and she was a little girl at the time. I bought into her performance completely.

Robert Shaw as Quint in Jaws. He was delightfully over the top.

Brad Pitt in Thelma and Louise: We had no idea who he was at time when the movie premiered. We left the theater saying WHO WAS THAT?

What performer has wowed you in this category?

 

[gk_891]

So many!

Lena Nyman - Autumn Sonata
Mieko Harada - Ran
Peter Firth - Equus
Mo'Nique - Precious
Timothy Hutton - Ordinary People (although I personally thought he was the main character strangely enough)
Marilia Pera - Pixote

 

[Japanfan]

Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now - though I loved him in every film he did. Even The Last Movie, which apparently only I and the jury at the Venice Film Festival (gave him best picture IIRC) liked.

He was heavy into drugs/alcohol while making the film, SFAIK. There was a funny bit about him not being able to remember any of his lines in the documentary Heart of Darkness.

 

[Cachoo]

I remember when folks were going gaga over Christoph Waltz in " Inglorious Bastards" so much that I became skeptical about his performance. And then I saw it. He has to be one of the finest actors working today.

 

[caseyedwards]

Movies
1939- Hattie McDaniel, Gone with the wind
1943-Claude Rains, Casablanca
1955-Rosalind Russell, picnic
1966-Sandy Dennis, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf
1974-John Huston, Chinatown
1979-Meryl Streep, Kramer Vs Kramer
1983-Linda Hunt, The Year of living dangerously
1988-Joan Cusack, Working Girl
1995-Paul Sorvino, Nixon
1998-Kimberly Elise, Beloved
2002-Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago
2011-Nick Nolte, Warrior
2017-Allison Janney, I Tanya

TV
Eriq La Salle- ER
Aaron Paul- Breaking Bad
Camryn Manheim- The Practice

 

[clairecloutier]

Since I have Little Women on my mind right now, I have to mention Trini Alvarado, who played Meg in the 1994 version of Little Women. I loved her in that role.

 

[taf2002]

Celeste Holm in High Society. I've always loved her in every movie role. Honorable mention to her cameo in Three Men & a Little Baby.

 

[VALuvsMKwan]

Mary Astor - Hush, Hush...Sweet Charlotte
Debbi Morgan - Eve's Bayou
George Sanders - All About Eve
Burl Ives - The Big Country
The aforementioned (whether politically correct or not) Hattie McDaniel - Gone with the Wind

 

[ЭPiKUilyam]

Don't judge me, but I thought Whoopi Goldberg MADE "Ghost" to what it became. imo

The whole Timothy Hutton in "Ordinary People" being a SUPPORTING role?!?!?! lol. That was like if Vivien Leigh was up for BSAs for GWTW!!! Bizarre. I noticed that Tom Hanks is up for BSAr for that Mr. Rogers flick. Huh? I didn't see it, but who was the star of that movie if not Tom Hanks???

 

[Cachoo]

Movies
1939- Hattie McDaniel, Gone with the wind
1943-Claude Rains, Casablanca
1955-Rosalind Russell, picnic
1966-Sandy Dennis, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf
1974-John Huston, Chinatown
1979-Meryl Streep, Kramer Vs Kramer
1983-Linda Hunt, The Year of living dangerously
1988-Joan Cusack, Working Girl
1995-Paul Sorvino, Nixon
1998-Kimberly Elise, Beloved
2002-Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago
2011-Nick Nolte, Warrior
2017-Allison Janney, I Tanya

TV
Eriq La Salle- ER
Aaron Paul- Breaking Bad
Camryn Manheim- The Practice

My Joan Cusack moment was her "Is everyone gay!!??" scene during "In and Out." I laughed so hard at her bride in a bar trying to seduce Tom Selleck.

 

[caseyedwards]

Don't judge me, but I thought Whoopi Goldberg MADE "Ghost" to what it became. imo

The whole Timothy Hutton in "Ordinary People" being a SUPPORTING role?!?!?! lol. That was like if Vivien Leigh was up for BSAs for GWTW!!! Bizarre. I noticed that Tom Hanks is up for BSAr for that Mr. Rogers flick. Huh? I didn't see it, but who was the star of that movie if not Tom Hanks???

technically lead role belongs to matthew rhys

My Joan Cusack moment was her "Is everyone gay!!??" scene during "In and Out." I laughed so hard at her bride in a bar trying to seduce Tom Selleck.

That’s great too!! Cusack needs more work than Shameless

 

[Icedancer]

Hattie McDaniel AND Olivia De Havilland for GWTW - both were fabulous!
Pamela Franklin and Celia Johnson in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
John Cazale in Godfather I and II (but especially II)

 

[Japanfan]

The whole Timothy Hutton in "Ordinary People" being a SUPPORTING role?!?!?! lol.

I never thought it was a supporting role. IIRC Hutton won an Oscar for his role? In which case it must have been supporting?

 

[Cachoo]

For something recent Kaitlyn Dever blew me away in "Unbelievable." And to think it was a true story.

 

[canbelto]

In Knives Out I thought Christopher Plummer was absolutely delicious.

 

[Peaches LaTour]

Ward Bond in "The Searchers". My favorite movie of all time. Based on a true story.

 

[Cachoo]

Ward Bond in "The Searchers". My favorite movie of all time. Based on a true story.

My father was a John Wayne fan but what I thought was cool was this group of regulars that seemed to be with Wayne in so many films including Ward Bond.

 

[Peaches LaTour]

My father was a John Wayne fan but what I thought was cool was this group of regulars that seemed to be with Wayne in so many films including Ward Bond.

Exactly! The John Ford Mob. Some were merely friends but, as was the case in The Searchers, many were relatives of either Ford or Wayne.

 

[aliceanne]

My Joan Cusack moment was her "Is everyone gay!!??" scene during "In and Out." I laughed so hard at her bride in a bar trying to seduce Tom Selleck.

Joan Cusack as the goldigging Nanny in “Addams Family Values”. It’s pretty hard not to be upstaged by the Addams, but she managed it.

 

[screech]

My Joan Cusack moment was her "Is everyone gay!!??" scene during "In and Out." I laughed so hard at her bride in a bar trying to seduce Tom Selleck.

Oh my god that movie is absolute perfection. She was brilliant in that movie.

I have to go with Madeleine Kahn in Blazing Saddles, Jean Hagen in Singin' in the Rain, Tom Hiddleston in all the Thor movies, and Hugh Grant in Paddington 2.

 

[manhn]

If Rupert Everett in My Best Friend’s Weeding didn’t invent the Gay Best Friend, he certainly perfected and popularized the role.

Ralph Fiennes in Schindler’s List was the epitome of evil.

Marisa Tomei’s ticking biological clock scene in My Cousin Vinny is one for the ages.

Any of the mothers in The Joy Luck Club, but especially Tsai Chin, break my heart.

 

[canbelto]

I really loved the comic relief Kristofer Hivju brought to Tormund in GoT. I won't even go into the awful ending of Game of Thrones but up till the very last Tormund was great for a laugh.

 

[clairecloutier]

Any of the mothers in The Joy Luck Club, but especially Tsai Chin, break my heart.

I so agree with this! That movie had an amazing cast of actors!

 

[VGThuy]

Two from two different Mike Leigh films:

Eddie Marsan from Happy-Go-Lucky and Lesley Manville in Another Year.

 

[Icedancer]

Jerry Lacy in "Play It Again Sam"

 

[VALuvsMKwan]

Jerry Lacy in "Play It Again Sam"

Reverend Trask from the original "Dark Shadows" TV show (and, IIRC, married to Julia Duffy aka Stephanie from "Newhart").