The Best Supporting Actress category was created in 1936, and I’d say it was about time. There were too many supporting performances that were getting Best Actress nominations. Here we get to recognize some of the wonderful performances that, while not the leads, were just as important to the stories being told.
- 1936 – Beulah Bondi – The Gorgeous Hussey
- 1936 – Alice Brady – My Man Godfrey
- 1936 – Bonita Granville – These Three
- 1936 – Maria Ouspenskaya – Dodsworth
- 1936 – Gale Sondergaard – Anthony Adverse (WINNER)
- 1937 – Alice Brady – In Old Chicago
- 1937 – Mae Whitty – Night Must Fall
- 1937 – Anne Shirley – Stella Dallas
- 1937 – Claire Trevor – Dead End
- 1937 – Andrea Leads – Stage Door
- 1938 – Fay Bainter – Jezebel (WINNER)l
- 1938 – Beulah Bondi – Of Human Hearts
- 1938 – Billie Burke – Merrily We Live1938 – Billie Burke
- 1938 – Spring Byington – You Can’t Take it With You
- 1938 – Miliza Korjus – The Great Waltz
- 1939 – Olivia De Havilland – Gone With the Wind
- 1939 – Geraldine Fitzgerald – Wuthering Heights
- 1939 – Hattie McDaniel – Gone With the Wind (WINNER)
- 1939 – Edna May Oliver – Drums Along the Mohawk
- 1939 – Maria Ouspenskaya – Love Affair
- 1940 – Judith Anderson – Rebecca
- 1940 – Jane Darwell, The Grapes of Wrath (WINNER)
- 1940 – Ruth Hussey – The Philadelphia Story
- 1940 – Barbara O’Neil – All This and Heaven Too
- 1940 – Marjorie Rambeau – Primrose Path
- 1941 – Margaret Wycherly – Sergeant York