Best Actor in a Supporting Role

A total of 440 nominees for Best Actor in a Supporting Role have been named since 1937. Ten percent or 44 of the nominees were from an underrepresented racial/ethnic group. There were 56 years when no underrepresented men were nominated for this award. The first nomination for an underrepresented actor in this category was in 1948 (Thomas Gomez). The first win for an underrepresented actor occurred in 1953 (Anthony Quinn). A total of 13 underrepresented actors have won the Oscar® in this category: Anthony Quinn (1953, 1957), Louis Gossett Jr. (1983), Haing S. Ngor (1985), Denzel Washington (1990), Cuba Gooding Jr. (1997), Benicio Del Toro (2001), Morgan Freeman (2005), Javier Bardem (2008), Mahershala Ali (2017, 2019), Daniel Kaluuya (2021), and Ke Huy Quan (2023).

Looking at underrepresented actors, 24 nominees have been Black/African American, with the first nomination for a Black actor in 1970 (Rupert Crosse) and the first of 7 wins for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 1983 (Louis Gossett, Jr.). The first of 9 Hispanic/Latino nominees was announced in 1948 (Thomas Gomez) and the first Hispanic/Latino winner was in 1953 (Anthony Quinn). Nine Asian nominees have been named, beginning in 1958 (Sessue Hayakawa), with two winners (Haing S. Ngor, 1985; Ke Huy Quan, 2023). One Middle Eastern/North African man has been nominated, in 1963 (Omar Sharif), though he did not win. Similarly, the first of three men with Indigenous heritage was nominated in 1971 (Chief Dan George) but none were awarded the Oscar®.