Best Actress in a Supporting Role 1968: Ranking

5. Kay Medford in Funny Girl

Kay Medford delivers an entirely decent performance but her role is too limited for her to leave a big impact. She does what the role requires, but past a nice final scene there is nothing memorable in her performance.

Best scene: Rose expresses her concern to Fanny.

4. Ruth Gordon in Rosemary's Baby

I don't love this performance as many people do as I feel the role is rather limited but within those confines Gordon thrives. She does a great job at progressively revealing Minnie's darker edge behind her warm, friendly façade and adds a touch of both humor and dread to this terrifying masterpiece.

Best scene: The ending.

3. Estelle Parsons in Rachel, Rachel

I wish Estelle Parsons was in this movie more as I really loved every moment she was on-screen. Parsons delivers a heartwarming performance as she makes Calla a loyal, patient friend but she's also very moving in her portrayal of her inner longing and plight. 

Best scene: Calla attempts to reconciliate with Rachel.

2. Sondra Locke in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Sondra Locke delivers a beautiful performance conveying all the complexities of her character: she does a terrific job at portraying Mick's coming of age while sharing a tender chemistry with Alan Arkin and giving a huge emotional power to her scenes involving her home problems. It's a fantastic performance that carries the movie and gives it depth.

Best scene: Mick finds out about the consequences of her father's accident.

1. Lynn Carlin in Faces

Lynn Carlin delivers a phenomenal performance and she excels in both the louder and subtler moments: in the early scenes she is just incredible at portraying Maria's rocky, unpredictable relationship with her husband and in the rest of the film she shows her character coping with her imminent divorce with brilliant subtlety, leading up wonderfully to her final scenes that are nothing short of devastating.

Best scene: Her final confrontation with her husband.

Honorable Omissions: Shelley Winters delivers a wonderfully entertaining performance in The Scalphunters, portraying to perfection her character's brassy qualities: it's an entirely comedic performance, and a great one, but this does not stop her from grounding her character and giving us a full understanding of her past actions and her dreams for her future. It's a truly terrific turn from a brilliant actress. Delphine Seyrig is terrific in her role as the seductive Fabienne in Stolen Kisses: it's a performance of great presence and allure but what makes it work is her final monologue that is funny, tender and sad all at once. Shirley Knight does not have many scenes in Petulia but she makes the most out of all of them: her first in particular is amazing and Knight does a brilliant job at portraying a woman still shattered by the end of her marriage, and then as the movie progresses she effectively shows how her character copes with it and eventually moves on. Virginia Maskell is terrific in the otherwise mediocre Interlude, bringing a beautiful amount of elegance, grace and dignity to her role and then subtly killing it in each of her emotional scenes towards the end. Kate Harrington is very good in Rachel, Rachel as the overbearing but deep down needy and desperate mother, particularly nailing her final scene; Gena Rowlands brings both allure and poignant sadness to her role in Faces, and in the same movie Dorothy Gulliver is heartbreaking in her portrayal of intense desperation and unsatisfaction. Cicely Tyson also delivers a very fine, moving performance in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and her scenes with Percy Rodriguez carry a lot of emotional weight. Shani Wallis delivers a deeply touching performance as Nancy in Oliver!: she does a terrific job at portraying her character's struggle between her toxic love for Sikes and her long-buried conscience and she delivers in all of her musical numbers, particularly the heartbreaking "As Long as He Needs Me". Billie Whitelaw excels in the partly dated yet effective thriller Twisted Nerve, convincingly portraying her character's kind, warm manner as well as her growing loneliness and eventual desperation as the movie progresses. 

The next year: For the next month I'll review the four acting categories of this year's Oscar, probably starting with Best Supporting Actor. Stay tuned :)

My Best Supporting Actress Ballot:

1. Lynn Carlin, Faces
2. Shelley Winters, The Scalphunters - 5/5
3. Shirley Knight, Petulia - 4.5/5
4. Delphine Seyrig, Stolen Kisses - 4.5/5
5. Virginia Maskell, Interlude - 4.5/5
6. Shani Wallis, Oliver! - 4.5/5
7. Billie Whitelaw, Twisted Nerve - 4/5
8. Estelle Parsons, Rachel, Rachel
9. Ruth Gordon, Rosemary's Baby
10. Kate Harrington, Rachel, Rachel - 4/5