Number 02: Linda Hunt as Billy Kwan in "The Year of Living Dangerously" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

Few performances are such a mystery as that of Linda Hunt in The Year of Living Dangerously. What can be expected from this work? How much did the fact that she played a man influence the Academy members? Did the only reward her for this? Or is there more the character and the actress?

Well, the answer is pretty easy – yes, there is much more. I do not want to give Linda Hunt too much credit for playing a man (after all, if they wanted someone to be a convincing man, then why not cast one?) but I still can’t help but be stunned at her convincing role-play. Every movement, every line delivery, her whole behavior with the rest of the cast is totally and absolutely convincing and overwhelming. But the performance of Linda Hunt goes much further than this – Billy Kwan is one of the most complex characters that ever hit the screen, a photographer who has his own believes and ideals about the world around him, and Linda Hunt caught all these aspects with a performance that matches the complexity of the character at every step.  

So yes, Linda Hunt gives without a doubt, one of the best performances of all time, one that shows you what actors and actresses can do, one that shows you what great acting is all about – a total disappearance of one person into another.

Despite the supporting status, Billy Kwan is the center of The Year of Living Dangerously. He narrates the story, he is the insider with the contacts, but beyond that he also sees himself as a ‘puppet master’, the man who controls the story and the players from behind. He is the one who takes care of Guy (Mel Gibson), a journalist from Australia and shows him his new home, leading him into the slums: there Billy tells him his views, quoting a question once asked by Tolstoy about the poverty in the world ‘What then must we do?’ This is also the question Billy asks: he sees the poverty and believes that everyone should do what he can to help the people around him.

It’s also Billy who helps Guy to get contacts, to get stories and achieve something. But Billy has more plans for Guy: he wants to bring him together with Jill, an English friend who works at the embassy. Billy himself once asked her to marry him but she turned him down. In one amazing scene Billy is outside his house and inside are Guy and Jill – Billy knows that he achieved his goal, they are together now but Linda Hunt perfectly shows the expressions of a person who has achieved what he wanted but isn’t sure if he is happy about it.

Linda Hunt’s really stunning scenes come later when Billy realizes that his believes in the country’s political leader were wrong – he feels betrayed, he questions his whole believes. And he does feel betrayed by Guy, too. In an exceptional scene, they argue and Billy tells him ‘I thought you were a man of light…that’s why I gave you those stories…I made you feel something about what is right…I gave you my trust…I created you.’ It’s a chilling scene and Linda Hunt is beyond incredible. Even more so in the next scene when Billy looks at the pictures he took of the poor people in his country, feeling helpless and asking over and over again ‘What then must we do?’

An all-around stunning achievement.

Number 03: Sandy Dennis as Honey in "Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? is most famous for Elizabeth Taylor’s and Richard Burton’s performances but Sandy Dennis does not need to hide herself between these two giants as she, too, gave a performance that certainly lives up the high reputation of this classic drama. She does not steal the movie but there was also no need for that since all four actors contribute enormously to its success but she played her part probably as good as humanly possible – and with a part like this, this is a splendid achievement.

Sandy Dennis’s Honey is certainly one of the most neurotic creations this category has ever seen – considering that Sandy Dennis was an expert in playing these types of woman, this should not be surprising but thankfully this all worked for Honey. The way Sandy Dennis delivers her lines, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, swallowing words, laughing awkwardly or crying helplessly – it all comes together gloriously.

Sandy Dennis perfectly fit her performance to the style of Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? – it’s a dark drama, a satire, sometimes even a comedy and Sandy Dennis is a strong reason for that: she can break your heart when she finds out that her husband told George something very personal and screams ‘You couldn’t have told him’ but she can also make you laugh hysterically when she shouts ‘Hump the hostess!’, ‘Violence! Violence!’ or tells Martha ‘He’s not a floozy, he can’t be a floozy, you’re a floozy’.

But Sandy Dennis also fills her performance with so many wonderful moments: right at the beginning, when Liz yells ‘God damn you!’ And she’s also magnificent when she is listening to George’s and Nick’s conversation on the stairs. Later, in the scene in the bar, she delivers a real tour de force, dancing like a crazy woman, then suddenly turning angry and yelling at her husband ‘Stop that! You are always at me when I’m having a good time!’ Honey may be the result of Sandy Dennis’s own acting style and personality but when actress and character fit together so perfectly and the actress has the necessary talents to make it all real – then we have a winner!

It’s essentially a very observing performance – Sandy Dennis mostly remains part of the ensemble and only has some few moments to step in the foreground but despite this she completely disappears in the character and gives one of the all-time great performances. 

Number 04: Jane Darwell as Ma Joad in "The Grapes of Wrath" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

Today, Judith Anderson’s performance as the creepy Mrs. Denvers in Rebecca may be the more iconic performance but Jane Darwell’s win for her portrayal of Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath does never receive any complaints because of that – the reason is simple: her performance is just magnificent and her win one of the most deserved ever, even with such strong competition.

Jane Darwell and Henry Fonda are the actors who carry this important story and stand for the different aspects of it. Jane Darwell’s Ma Joad is the center of the family, the one who keeps everyone going (as her husband puts it) and who tries to make the best out of every situation. It’s a very private but also monumental performance in which Jane Darwell crafts a simple character and turns her into a symbol for strength and courage.

From the first time Jane Darwell appears onscreen, she finds the perfect balance between moving reactions and strong dedication. Her delivery of the line ‘Oh thank God, thank God’ when she sees her son for the first time in years, it’s the first of many moving moments that Jane Darwell delivers to perfection. Her famous scene with her earrings (definitely one of the best acted scenes ever), her dignity when she leaves her home and doesn’t want to look back, her determination when Grandma is dying and Ma Joad tells her ‘We have to get across. The family’s got to get across’ – all played to perfection!

And who can forget her monologue when she asks Tom to stay with his family (‘Stay and help, Tommy. Help me…’)? This speech and the look on her face when they are dancing is everything that Tom needs to stay.

And just like Rod Steiger is an important part of Marlo Brando’s famous ‘I could have been a contender’-speech, Jane Darwell is just as essential to the Henry Fonda’s ‘I’ll be there’-speech. It’s incredibly moving when she says goodbye to her son, telling him ‘Tommy, we ain’t the kissing type, but…’ and her final heartbreaking ‘Tommy”.

And even in her final speech, Jane Darwell shines despite the fact that whole scene feels rather out of place. Still, when she finishes ‘We’ll go on forever, Pa, ‘cause…we’re the people’, Jane Darwell again created a moment that is as monumental as it is private.

A really astonishing performance!

Number 05: Lila Kedrova as Madame Hortense in "Zorba, the Greek" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

Like Josephine Hull in Harvey, Lila Kedrova won the Oscar for playing a very eccentric and unusual character – but while Josephine Hull was hilariously funny, Lila Kedrova is immensely heartbreaking as Madame Hortense, the ill-fated owner of a little hotel on a Greek island.

Right from the start, Lila Kedrova uses her unique appearance and voice to craft Madame Hortense as a very strange and unusual woman – she’s very eccentric, she loves to talk about her ‘four admirals’ with whom she affairs in the past (sometimes at the same time) and she comes across as rather laughable because there is something so ridiculous about her. And so it’s  no surprise when Alan Bates’s character secretly starts to laugh about her. But then, in one second, Lila Kedrova turns her whole character around when she catches him and says, with disbelief in her voice, ‘You are laughing…at me’. In this moment Madame Hortense becomes one of the most tragic characters ever – never taken seriously, always too over-the-top but incredibly heartbreaking in her loneliness.

Madame Hortense is a woman who is past her prime and knows it – at a Christmas Party she has fun with Zorba but then slips and falls and says ‘You see…it is too late’, referring to her age. And Lila Kedrova simply says all her line in the most heartbreaking way possible. When Zorba leaves, she begs to him ‘Don’t forget me!’ and when Alan Bates tries to cheer her up, telling her ‘He’ll be back’, she says ‘They all say that…’ with a sad voice, thinking about her four admirals and how they left her.

Lila Kedrova’s most moving scene comes when Zorba writes a letter, telling Alan Bates that he met another woman – Madame Hortense wants to know what stands in the letter and Alan tells her ‘Read it yourself’. Madame Hortense looks as it, but then says ‘I can’t read it…my eyes’. She leaves it open if she really did not understand the content of the letter and decided to live in her world of her own fantasies in which Zorba wants to marry her – but Lila Kedrova really knows how to break your heart in this moment. Later, she even tops all this when Madame Hortense is lying in her bay, praying quietly and hallucinating.

Overall, one of the most haunting and, again, heartbreaking performances ever.

Number 06: Josephine Hull as Veta Louise Simmons in "Harvey" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

In 1950, the Academy forgot its love for dramatic performances and awarded two of my favorite comedy-performances ever: the amazing Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday and the equally fantastic Josephine Hull in Harvey. Both wins are not exactly universally loved but out of all the female performances that received Oscars for comedic performances, they are, for me at least, by far the funniest and most entertaining ones. Josephine Hull has the ability to make me laugh even the thousandth time I see her – and creating such lasting and effective comedy is, again for me at least, a great reason to make it so high n my ranking.

Josephine Hull played the exhausted, eccentric, neurotic and confused sister of Elwood P. Dowd, a charming man who has one little problem – he constantly talks to his friend Harvey, an indivisible large white rabbit. In her part, Josephine Hull, like Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday, walked a very thin line between creating effective comedy or appearing over-the-top and shrill – and both actresses succeeded completely. Josephine Hull’s high-pitched voice, her over-the-top mannerisms, her hilarious facial work – all works amazingly and builds a wonderful contrast to the subtle and restrained work by James Stewart.

Behind all the hilarious work, Josephine Hull also develops a nice and believable relationship with James Stewart and manages to be very touching in her later scenes when she suddenly decides that she would rather have Elwood the way he is than change him.

But still, it’s mostly the comedy that makes me love this performance so much. Basically, Josephine Hull can turn every line into gold – ‘Oh Myrtle, it’s a wonderful feeling to have your relative out of the house before the company comes!’, ‘Oh, we can go in now!’, ‘You said that name! You promised you wouldn’t say that name and you said it!’, ‘Myrtle Mae, see who the stranger is in the bathtub!’ or ‘“That is NOT my mother!’. Or when she is on the phone and then greets her guests with a high-pitched voice is also such a perfect moment but she is especially funny when she hits Mr. Wilson with her hand-bag and yells ‘Don’t you touch me, you white slaver you!’ or when she runs up the stairs, yelling ‘Knock him down, judge! Kick him, kick him!’

It’s easily one of my most favorite comedy performances ever and I am so glad that Academy recognized this incredibly talented woman!

Number 07: Juliette Binoche as Hana in "The English Patient" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

After she won the Golden Globe and the SAG Award, a win as Best Supporting Actress for Lauren Bacall seemed like the surest thing in Oscar history – but the dominance of The English Patient made it possible for Juliette Binoche to get caught up in its awards sweep and take home the Oscar for her role as Hana, a loving and caring nurse who takes care of a burned man in an abandoned monastery in Italy at the end of World War II. But as you can seem from the position in my ranking – I don’t think that her win can only be explained as part of a sweep. It can only be explained by the fact that she delivered one of the greatest performances this category has ever known.

In the first ten minutes of the movie Juliette Binoche has already more Oscar scenes than other people in a whole movie, when she has to suffer the death of her fiancé and her best friend. Juliette Binoche has one of those beautiful faces that is made for close-ups and the actress’s ability to show so much with her eyes is used to great effect.

Despite her supporting status, Juliette Binoche dominates the ‘present parts’ of The English Patient. She tries to forget her personal pain by easing the pain of her patient, taking care of him, always with a smile, always charming despite grieving inside. In a fantastic scene she breaks down in the kitchen, telling that she is ‘in love with ghosts’.

Juliette Binoche’s warm and likeable appearance turns every scene she is in into something special. When she is reading poetry, saying ‘For the heart is an organ of fire…I love that…I believe that’, it’s a simple scene but Juliette Binoche shines. And when Kip, who is looking for mines, joins the ‘gang’ in the monastery, Hana’s life changes and Juliette Binoche has the chance to shine even more. It’s such a realistic scene when she brings Kip some olive oil for his hair and uses the opportunity to check out his body. And the scene in the church is one big declaration of love to Juliette by Anthony Minghella: the look on her face, the score, the whole atmosphere of the scene are breathtaking.

Later, after they spend the night together, Kip has to take care of a bomb. Hana, full of fear, tells him ‘Don’t go, I’m frightened!’ Juliette Binoche beautifully underlines that Hana is not a complex character, but rather like a child, a little lost and scared. She perfectly plays the simplicity of the part while rising to all the challenges this actually provides for her.

One of my favorite performances ever in my favorite movie ever.

Number 08: Kim Hunter as Stella Kowalski in "A Streetcar named Desire" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

Compared to the work by Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter could easily be forgotten in a part that seems much less showy – but if you want to know how much Kim Hunter contributed to A Streetcar named Desire, then simply watch other taped versions and see how actresses like Beverly D’Angelo or Diane Lane don’t even achieve 1% of the greatness that Kim Hunter did.

The greatness of the 1951-version of A Streetcar named Desire comes from the entire cast – all actors play their parts with such dedication that any other attempt can only pale in comparison. And so, just like Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando forever left their marks on these characters, Kim Hunter did the same with Stella. She realized all the part’s potentials and created a very believable character who both fits to the world of Blanche and to that of Stanley is torn between them. In so many great scenes, she shows this confusion, how she is worried about Blanche but it is impossible for her to leave Stanley (personally, it never bothered me that the ending of the movie was changed because I am sure that Stella will be back with Stanley in 5 minutes, no matter what she says).

And, of course, never before has walking down a stair been so sexy. The way she looks at Marlon Brando, with so much lust and passion, getting everything out of that single moment to defy her whole character. But apart from that chilling scene, Kim Hunter has a showy and wonderfully written part which she plays to perfection. Her chemistry with Marlon Brando is simply outstanding, they both have so much fire and lust between them, even during their many fights. She is not afraid to show how much passion and lust is hidden inside Stella – the way she lies in her bed after she returned to him in the night, the way she tells Blanche ‘I was sort of thrilled by it…’ and, of course, right at the beginning when the first thing she tells Blanche about her husband ‘Isn’t he wonderful looking?’ Immediately in these first scenes she shows her feelings for Stanley, telling Blanche ‘I can hardly stand when he’s away for a night…when he’s away for a week, I nearly go wild…When he comes back, I cry in his lap like a baby…’ and later she tells Blanche that Stanley is the only one in his business who will achieve anything – there is an unquestioning faith in him that Kim Hunter shows perfectly.

But Kim Hunter also works wonderfully with Vivien Leigh, believably showing her love for her sister, her worries for her health and her future. It’s a strong and totally believable performance and Kim Hunter is able to capture all the necessary emotions perfectly and she also never slides in the background – she holds her own against Marlon Brando’s and Vivien Leigh’s powerhouse performances and that is no small feat. 

Number 09: Rita Moreno as Anita in 'West Side Story' (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

The role of Anita was the reason that the Oscar was invented. Basically, all that Anita has to do is this: come, steal the movie and leave. And Rita Moreno does this with full force!

I have seen West Side Story on the stage already a few times and yes, there were Anitas who sang better (even though Rita Moreno did not sing ‘A Boy like that’ anyway) and there were Anitas who could dance better; but there was never an Anita who had the same acting talent and energy that Rita Moreno brought to the part. The screen is on fire when Rita Moreno is on the screen and this may easily be the ultimate movie musical performance. Besides dancing up a storm, she runs the whole gamut of emotions, going from happiness to sorrow to anger to hate – and she does all this with magnificent realism while also keeping Anita ‘larger-than-life’ in the universe that West Side Story creates.

Rita Moreno is a supporting actress who both supports and carries the movie. Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood may provide the message and the theme of West Side Story and both actors do satisfying work thanks to the simplicity of their characters and the story but West Side Story comes alive thanks to the supporting players. And among them, nobody is such a force as Rita Moreno and she is the reason why West Side Story is the classic that it is today.

‘America’ alone is enough to award Rita Moreno. She has the wonderful talent of not only dancing and singing but actually acting during this number, emphasizing the playfulness and the sexual tension of the scene.

In the bridal shop she shows all the worries Anita has about Tony and Maria with one look and turns her character from a happy party-girl in a great friend and worried woman. Again, she does all this so easily but it’s still obvious at every moment that she is the dominating force in West Side Story.

And later, she shows some of the strongest dramatic acting this category has ever seen when she first has to endure the loss of her love, then is persuaded to help the man who is responsible for it and then is almost raped in Doc’s store. As mentioned before, Anita is a true showcase and it would be very hard for an actress to ruin this part – but to take it as high as Rita Moreno did it is not really easier.

Number 10: Cloris Leachman as Ruth Popper in "The Last Picture Show" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

It’s not easy to stand out in an ensemble movie but Cloris Leachman left an unforgettable impression with her heartbreaking performance as Ruth Popper, the sad and neglected wife of the local football coach (who prefers to spend his time with his boys from the team) and who starts an affair with the much younger Sonny, the main character of The Last Picture Show.

Cloris Leachman is one of those women who can tell the whole story of their life with her face. When she opens her door and Sonny tells her that he will be driving her and not her husband, she makes it clear that this is no surprise for her, just another humiliation. And when she breaks down at the kitchen table, it’s an incredibly moving moment, especially when she sees that Sonny tries to cheer up – that’s probably the first time in years someone cares about her.

Cloris Leachman also achieves a very believable and captivating relationship with Timothy Bottoms – it never seems awkward to see the two together, they have a sweet chemistry and they simply work.

Cloris Leachman also does a great job when her character blossoms up – she doesn’t overdo it, she’s not an ugly duckling who turns into a beautiful swan, she’s not one of the girls from those Teenie-movies who takes off her glasses and becomes the hottest girl in school. She simply becomes more relaxed, more open, her happiness shows on her face, but that inner beauty is not enough for a young man like Sonny and so it’s no surprise when he leaves her.

With only a handful of scenes Cloris Leachman has shown how her character changed from sad and lonely to loving and sweet and has made the viewer care about her. Even when she walks out of the hospital (after Sonny didn’t want to see her), she beaks your heart despite the fact that you don’t see her because she is shot from a long distance.

And then it all comes to her final scene – one the greatest scenes ever when all her anger, all her frustration and all her unhappiness that has build up inside her for years and years break out and instead of accepting her fate, she shouts what she always wanted to say. It’s a chilling scene that should be studied in acting classes. From her loud moments (‘Three months I’ve been apologizing…’) she goes to heartbreaking quiet moments (‘See? You shouldn’t have come here’) to an incredibly moving finale (‘Never you mind, honey. Never you  mind…’).

An amazing and unforgettable performance.

Number 11: Maggie Smith as Diana Barren in "California Suit" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

Maggie Smith joined an elite circle of performers who received Oscars in the leading and the supporting category. In 1979, she won her second Oscar for her hilarious performance as an Academy-Award nominated actress who battles with her husband before and after the ceremony. Considering that Neil Simon wrote the screenplay, it’s no surprise that all the character’s constantly throw around one wisecrack after another – and while most of the other actors in the cast fail completely to bring their storylines to live, Michael Caine and Maggie Smith take all the dialogue and turn it into gold. Of course, the writing for these two characters is simply much better than for all the others – all their jokes are funny, their insults are clever and all the observations about the Academy Awards make it even better. I think that Academy members probably found it impossible not to vote for a performance that has lines like ‘Oh damnit, my favorite category’ when talking about the Documentary Shorts or ‘“I’ve been trying to get ready for this horse-shit affair for three hours’.

But thankfully Maggie Smith not only threw around wisecracks – she also invested a lot of thoughts and details into her character. Right in her first scene on the plane when she watches herself in her nominated part she makes it clear that Diana is rather satisfied with her work, no matter how much she likes to criticize herself. Diana Barren is a woman who does not doubt her acting ability – it’s the publicity she can’t stand, especially now that her Oscar nomination has suddenly put her into the spotlight. When she tells her husband that ‘It’s no fun anymore’ she makes it clear that she is not only worrying about the Oscars but that her life has come to a point at which she needs a decision about how it will go on – especially because she is also constantly doubting her ability to keep her bisexual husband whom she needs so much. Maggie Smith portrays Diana as a woman who is questioning life and beginning to wonder if this is all it has to offer. The ultimate loss of the Oscar is only the final event in her life that makes her realize that her life is not going in a direction she likes (‘I’m tired of paying for everything and getting nothing in return.’) Maggie Smith is able to catch all these serious aspects of the character and still fills her performance with a lot of many funny moments.

Especially at the beginning, she uses the fear and uncertainty of her character about the whole Academy- thing to play some hilarious scenes – when she wonders ‘It looks like a have a hump on my left shoulder’ or complains about her hair (‘I look like Richard III’) and her awful dress, she is always making it with a line-delivery that never makes us laugh at her. We can understand her and feel for her.

And after the show, her uncertainty quickly turns into anger and frustration and her battle scenes with Michael Caine are priceless – ‘What won the award, you asshole?’, ‘Ten a.m. is the morning. That is redundant. You A.H.’, ‘Oh, Sidney, I saw your privates!’ or ‘I found the people at the Oscars singularly unattractive this year!’

And she is able to turn form funny too touching in one second when she and Sidney are making a reality-check about their relationship. It’s an overall simply wonderful performance and a more than deserved win!