1946: Supporting Actress

I've been doing these retrospectives since 2011. In that time, there have been nominees that left me in awe, nominees whose inclusion baffled me, and entire categories where any of the options would be the right choice, so strong a lineup is it. Best Supporting Actress 1946 is the first time I've encountered a category that is the opposite. One can choose the best of this specific set of five, but how on earth did any of these five make it to the top of anyone's ballot? 

What about Virginia Mayo in The Best Years of Our Lives? Margaret Rutherford in Blithe Spirit? Doris Dowling in The Blue Dahlia? Maria Casares in Children of Paradise? Spring Byington in Dragonwyck? Angela Lansbury or Virginia O'Brien in The Harvey Girls? Ruth Nelson in Humoresque? Gloria Grahame in It's a Wonderful Life? Constance Collier in Kitty? Madame Konstantin in Notorious? Glynis Johns in Vacation from Marriage? Hell, keep Gale Sondergaard, but honor her work in The Time of Their Lives instead! How did we wind up with....these?

"These" being:

1936: Supporting Actress

Yesterday, we discussed - briefly - the origins of the supporting categories. Today, we discuss the greatest thing to come out of that process: the Best Supporting Actress category. Blogs have been dedicated to it, hours of online debate have been spent on it, great careers have been honored in it. It is, in my opinion, the best category at the Oscars.

Just as its male counterpart established its habit of honoring industry veterans with long CVs, the first Best Supporting Actress race established its traditional mix of old hands, newcomers, youths, and matriarchs. Broadway vet Beulah Bondi had been in films since reprising her stage role for the 1931 screen adaptation of Street Scene; frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if that performance also added to the formation of this category and her being among its first honorees. Alice Brady started in films in 1915, took a ten-year break to focus on stage work (during which she originated the lead role of Lavinia in Mourning Becomes Electra), and came back to play moms in 1933. Future Nancy Drew star Bonita Granville was a child star, making her debut at age 10 in 1932's Westward Passage. The two first-timers were hardly newbies. Sixty-year-old Maria Ouspenskaya was an experienced stage performer and acting teacher who brought the Stanislavski Method to the United States, while 36-year-old Gale Sondergaard had been on Broadway since 1928. Anthony Adverse was her movie debut, clearly an auspicious one: she became the first Best Supporting Actress winner.

Deservedly so? That's what we're here to discuss: