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Best Supporting Actor BAFTA Award winners

  • Christopher WalkenTo look gaunt for The Deer Hunter, Christopher Walken ate only bananas, water and rice for a month.
  • Jude LawJude Law dropped out of school at 17 to become an actor. It led to an Oscar nomination for The Talented Mr. Ripley.
  • Brad PittBrad Pitt left the University of Missouri two weeks short of completing the coursework for his degree. As graduation approached, he did not feel ready to settle down. He loved films, which he once called "a portal into different worlds for…
  • Samuel L. JacksonSamuel L. Jackson learned to cope with a childhood stutter by pretending to be other people.
  • John GielgudJohn Gielgud was arrested months after being knighted. Backstage in Liverpool, he feared he could not face an audience.
  • Jack NicholsonJack Nicholson improvised one line in the 1980 horror film The Shining, and it was not in the script.
  • Robert DuvallRobert Duvall died at his farm in Middleburg, Virginia, on the 15th of February 2026, at the age of 95. His wife, Luciana Pedraza, announced his death in a public statement. He had worked for seven decades, and on screen he rarely seemed…
  • Jake GyllenhaalJake Gyllenhaal, the American actor born on the 19th of December 1980, came close to playing two of the best-known superheroes in film. In 2003 he auditioned for Batman Begins and nearly won the part, which went to Christian Bale. A year…
  • Javier BardemIn 1989, the Spanish actor Javier Bardem put on a Superman costume for a sketch on the comedy show El Día Por Delante. The job left him wondering whether he wanted to be an actor at all. That doubt makes sense for a man who never planned…
  • Sam RockwellSam Rockwell won an Oscar for playing a racist, bullying police deputy. He delivered burritos by bicycle first.
  • Laurence OlivierLaurence Olivier's 1948 film Hamlet was the first non-American film to win Best Picture.
  • Sean PennIn Kyiv in November 2022, Sean Penn handed an Oscar statuette to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. "This is for you. It's just a symbolic silly thing...When you win, bring it back to Malibu." That was the whole speech. Penn is an…
  • Robert Downey Jr.Robert Downey Jr. was too big an insurance risk to hire until Mel Gibson paid his insurance bond.
  • J. K. SimmonsFor decades, audiences knew J. K. Simmons's face and voice but could not name him. Whiplash in 2014 changed that.
  • Ralph FiennesRalph Fiennes has played a Nazi camp commandant, a dark wizard, a British spymaster and a flirtatious hotel concierge, and audiences have believed every one of them. Born in 1962, the English actor and director carries the full name Ralph…
  • Alan RickmanAlan Rickman almost turned down Die Hard. He took the villain role of Hans Gruber anyway.
  • Benicio del ToroBenicio del Toro gained more than 40 pounds for one film role and lost 35 pounds for another.
  • Heath LedgerHeath Ledger made twenty films in a career that ended while he was still a young man. His last great performance won him an Academy Award that he never had the chance to hold. How did a schoolboy from Australia become an actor whom many…

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