Best Actresses in a Supporting Role 1919-32, 1994-
by maguire2 | created - 16 Dec 2010 | updated - 29 Nov 2015 | Public
1. Patricia Arquette
Actress | Boyhood
With her expressive blue eyes, soft, Southern-tinged voice and an acting range that can carry her from hysterically funny to terrifying in seconds, Patricia Arquette is one of the most underrated and talented actresses of her generation. Though she has been working for years, she's always stayed ...
2. Marta Nieradkiewicz
Actress | Plynace wiezowce
Marta Nieradkiewicz was born on June 21, 1983 in Lódz, Lódzkie, Poland. She is an actress and assistant director, known for Floating Skyscrapers (2013), Wild Roses (2017) and Lek (2023).
3. Isabelle Huppert
Actress | Elle
Isabelle Huppert was born March 16, 1953, in Paris, France, but spent her childhood in Ville d'Avray. Encouraged by her mother Annick Huppert (who was a teacher of English), she followed the Conservatory of Versailles and won an acting prize for her work in Alfred de Musset's "Un caprice". She then...
2012 Amour
4. Sareh Bayat
Actress | Jodaeiye Nader az Simin
Sareh Bayat was born and raised in Tehran, Iran. She majored in Theater at university and received a Diploma of Honor for Best Actress from Tehran's Police Theatre Festival in 2006. She furthered her acting training at Karnameh Institute of Arts and Culture's School of Cinematic Arts where she ...
2011 Jodaeiye Nader az Simin
5. Rinko Kikuchi
Actress | Babel
Rinko was born Kikuchi Yuriko in Hadano just south of Tokyo. The town is known mainly for its green tea and public baths. She is the youngest of three siblings. After being scouted on the street, she began modeling in her hometown and subsequently began acting under her birth name before switching ...
2010 Noruwei no mori
6. Marion Cotillard
Actress | La Môme
Academy Award-winning actress Marion Cotillard was born on September 30, 1975 in Paris. Cotillard is the daughter of Jean-Claude Cotillard, an actor, playwright and director, and Niseema Theillaud, an actress and drama teacher. Her father's family is from Brittany.
Raised in Orléans, France, she ...
2009 Nine
7. Rosemarie DeWitt
Actress | Rachel Getting Married
Rosemarie Braddock DeWitt, who is also known as Rosemarie DeWitt, is one of the most popular American actresses. She was born on October 26, 1971 in Flushing, Queens that lies in New York, USA. Her parents are Rosemarie Baddock and Kenny DeWitt. She has been featured in various roles in a number of...
2008 Rachel Getting Married
8. Hanna Schygulla
Actress | Die Ehe der Maria Braun
Lead icon of the influential New German Cinema of the 70's & 80's, Schygulla's natural blonde beauty and amazing versatility keep her among the world's top actresses. She won best actress at Cannes in 1983 for The Story of Piera (1983) (aka "The Story of Piera"), an Italian/German co-production. The...
2007 Auf der anderen Seite
9. Cate Blanchett
Actress | Carol
Cate Blanchett was born on May 14, 1969 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, to June (Gamble), an Australian teacher and property developer, and Robert DeWitt Blanchett, Jr., an American advertising executive, originally from Texas. She has an older brother and a younger sister. When she was ten ...
2006 Notes on a Scandal
10. Scarlett Johansson
Actress | Lost in Translation
Scarlett Ingrid Johansson was born on November 22, 1984 in Manhattan, New York City, New York. Her mother, Melanie Sloan is from a Jewish family from the Bronx and her father, Karsten Johansson is a Danish-born architect from Copenhagen. She has a sister, Vanessa Johansson, who is also an actress, ...
2005 Match Point
11. Natalie Portman
Actress | Black Swan
Natalie Portman is the first person born in the 1980s to have won the Academy Award for Best Actress (for Black Swan (2010)).
Natalie was born Natalie Hershlag on June 9, 1981, in Jerusalem, Israel. She is the only child of Avner Hershlag, an Israeli-born doctor, and Shelley Stevens, an ...
2004 Closer
12. Shohreh Aghdashloo
Actress | House of Sand and Fog
Shohreh Aghdashloo was born Shohreh Vaziri-Tabar on May 11, 1952 in Tehran, Iran. In the 1970s at age 20, she achieved nationwide stardom in her homeland of Iran, starring in some prominent pictures such as The Report (1977) directed by the renowned Abbas Kiarostami, which won critics awards at the...
2003 House of Sand and Fog
13. Julianne Moore
Actress | Far from Heaven
Julianne Moore was born Julie Anne Smith in Fort Bragg, North Carolina on December 3, 1960, the daughter of Anne (Love), a social worker, and Peter Moore Smith, a paratrooper, colonel, and later military judge. Her mother moved to the U.S. in 1951, from Greenock, Scotland. Her father, from ...
2002 The Hours
14. Helen Mirren
Actress | The Queen
Dame Helen Mirren was born in Queen Charlotte's Hospital in West London. Her mother, Kathleen Alexandrina Eva Matilda (Rogers), was from a working-class English family, and her father, Vasiliy Petrovich Mironov, was a Russian-born civil servant, from Kuryanovo, whose own father was a diplomat. ...
2001 Gosford Park
15. Maja Ostaszewska
Actress | Jack Strong
Maja Ostaszewska is a renowned Polish actress, known for her versatile roles in both cinema and theatre. She is a graduate of the National Academy of Theatre Arts in Krakow and has been associated with various theatres including the National Theatre. Her portrayal of characters in Jack Strong (2014)...
2000 Prymas
16. Julianne Moore
Actress | Far from Heaven
Julianne Moore was born Julie Anne Smith in Fort Bragg, North Carolina on December 3, 1960, the daughter of Anne (Love), a social worker, and Peter Moore Smith, a paratrooper, colonel, and later military judge. Her mother moved to the U.S. in 1951, from Greenock, Scotland. Her father, from ...
1999 Magnolia
17. Birthe Neumann
Actress | Festen
Birthe Neumann was born on April 30, 1947 in Copenhagen, Denmark. She is an actress, known for The Celebration (1998), Solkongen (2005) and Move Me (2003). She has been married to Paul Hüttel since December 31, 1974.
1998 Festen
18. Yekaterina Rednikova
Actress | Vor
In 1998, Yekaterina Rednikova received a Nika award (the "Russian Oscar") for her performance in, "The Thief" by Pavel Chukrai. This was her first lead role. Yekaterina traveled with "The Thief" to Los Angeles, where it was nominated for "Best Foreign Language Picture" by the Academy. This role, ...
1997 Vor
19. Juliette Binoche
Actress | The English Patient
Juliette Binoche was born in Paris, France, to Monique Yvette Stalens, a director, teacher, and actress, and Jean-Marie Binoche, a sculptor, director, and actor. Her mother was born in Czestochowa, Poland, of French, Walloon Belgian, and Polish descent, while her father is French. Juliette was only...
1996 English Patient
20. Margarita Sanz
Actress | El Callejón de los Milagros
Margarita Sanz was born on February 20, 1954 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. She is an actress, known for Midaq Alley (1995), Frida (2002) and The Blue Room (2002).
1995 El callejón de los milagros
21. Virna Lisi
Actress | La reine Margot
Stunning Italian actress Virna Lisi, a brief but lovely Hollywood import in the 1960's, was merely one of a plethora of European movie beauties who proved over the course of their long careers, that they were capable of more than just visual performances.
Born Virna Lisa Pieralisi on November 8, ...
1994 La reine Margot
22. María Casares
Actress | Les enfants du paradis
María Casares was born on November 21, 1922 in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. She was an actress, known for Children of Paradise (1945), Orpheus (1950) and The Ladies of the Bois de Boulogne (1945). She was married to André Schlesser. She died on November 22, 1996 in Alloue, Charente, France.
1946 Les enfants du paradis
23. Jean Harlow
Actress | China Seas
Harlean Carpenter, who later became Jean Harlow, was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on March 3, 1911. She was the daughter of a successful dentist and his wife. In 1927, at the age of 16, she ran away from home to marry a young businessman named Charles McGrew, who was 23. The couple pulled up ...
24. Dorothea Wieck
Actress | Mädchen in Uniform
After spending most of her childhood in Sweden, Dorothea was schooled in Dresden and at the age of 12, was taught dance by Maria Moissi in Berlin. She made her stage debut in Vienna , where she appeared in plays by Carl Zuckmayer and Ferenc Molnár. The Swiss-born made her debut in the silent cinema...
25. Marie Dressler
Actress | Dinner at Eight
Once you saw her, you would not forget her. Despite her age and weight, she became one of the top box office draws of the sound era. She was 14 when she joined a theater group and she went on to work on stage and in light opera. By 1892, she was on Broadway and she later became a star comedienne on...
26. Valeska Gert
Actress | Die 3 Groschen-Oper
Valeska Gert was born on January 11, 1892 in Berlin, Germany. She was an actress, known for The Threepenny Opera (1931), Ein Sommernachtstraum (1925) and Coup de Grâce (1976). She was married to Robin Hay Anderson and Helmuth von Krause. She died on March 15, 1978 in Kampen, Sylt, ...
27. Hertha von Walther
Actress | M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder
The actress Hertha von Walther was born as Hertha Stern und Walther von Monbary in Hildesheim. At the age of 17 she ran away from the boarding school and went to an acting school in Leipzig. There she made first experiences as an extra at the theater and at the opera. She went to Max Reinhardt in ...
28. Brigitte Helm
Actress | Metropolis
Born in Berlin, Germany. After her role in Metropolis (1927) she made a string of movies in which she almost always had the starring role, easily making the transition to sound films. Her last film was An Ideal Spouse (1935) which was released in 1935. She died on June 11th 1996 of heart failure in...
29. Camilla Horn
Actress | Schloß Königswald
The daughter of a railroad official, Camilla Horn was educated in Germany and Switzerland. She initially trained as a dressmaker and received her first job experience in a fashion salon in Erfurt. This was merely a stepping stone for a performing career which began with dance lessons in Berlin and ...
30. Asta Nielsen
Actress | Hamlet
Danish leading woman of German films who became one of the greatest stars of the silent era. A native of the Copenhagen suburb of Vesterbro, Nielsen was the daughter of a coppersmith and a washerwoman, both of whom died before Nielsen was fifteen. Her stage debut came as a child in the chorus of ...
31. Gerda Lundequist
Actress | Gösta Berlings saga
Legendary Swedish dramatic stage actress and tragedienne: The brilliant Gerda Lundequist is considered as one of Scandinavian theatre's most important modern female pioneers of the early 1900s stage.
With new modern portrayals of the Ibsen, Strindberg and the classic Shakespeare leading women, her ...
32. Marie Epstein
Writer | La maternelle
Marie Epstein was born on August 14, 1899 in Warsaw, Poland, Russian Empire [now Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland]. She was an assistant director and writer, known for La maternelle (1933), Itto (1934) and La mort du cygne (1937). She died on April 24, 1995 in Paris, France.
33. Margarete Kupfer
Actress | Nathan der Weise
Margarete Kupfer was born on April 10, 1881 in Freystadt in Schlesien, Lower Silesia, Germany [now Kozuchów, Lubuskie, Poland]. She was an actress, known for Nathan der Weise (1922), Woman in the Moon (1929) and Sumurun (1920). She died on May 11, 1953 in East Berlin, East Germany.
1922 Nathan the Wise
34. Tenna Kraft
Actress | Blade af Satans bog
Tenna Kraft was born on May 16, 1885 in Denmark. She was an actress, known for Leaves From Satan's Book (1920) and Leonora Christina (1933). She died on March 16, 1954 in Denmark.
1921 Leaves from Satan's Book
35. Aud Egede-Nissen
Actress | Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler
Aud Egede-Nissen was born on May 30, 1893 in Bergen, Norway. She was an actress and producer, known for Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922), Das Phantom der Oper (1916) and Deception (1920). She was married to Paul Richter and Georg Alexander. She died on November 6, 1974 in Oslo, Norway.
1920 Sumurun
36. Olga Raphael-Linden
Actress | Præsidenten
Olga Raphael-Linden was born on June 21, 1887 in Dalarö, Stockholms län, Sweden. She was an actress, known for The President (1919). She was married to Gösta Hallencreutz and Gustaf Linden. She died on November 1, 1967.
1919 Præsidenten
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