BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR?
Some of the biggest clunkers ever at the Oscar awards have happened in the Best Supporting Actor category. Here are a few of the worst:
1965: Martin Balsam wins for his 5-minute shtick in A Thousand Clowns. Nothing against Mr. Balsam, who has done much better (and longer!) work. But this year the academy ignored Tom Courtenay’s terrific performance as the unremitting Strelnikov in the classic Dr. Zhivago. Courtenay’s intensity as he hunts down the hero perfectly mirrors that of the fervent revolutionaries newly running Russia. 
1954: Edmond O’Brien wins for The Barefoot Contessa, a studio potboiler that has been deservedly forgotten by most everyone.  And the Academy ignores not one but three better performances, all in the iconic On The Waterfront. Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden and Rod Steiger all are miles ahead of the winner, as is their movie. 
1962: Ed Begley wins for Tennessee Williams’ Sweet Bird of Youth. It is a good performance. But check out a performance for the ages by young Terrence Stamp as the angelic, and doomed, Billy Budd. And Peter Ustinov as the conflicted captain, and Robert Ryan as the villainous sergeant-at-arms are very good, but Stamp carries the movie and never came close to this performance again. 
1966: Walter Matthau wins as a crooked lawyer paired with Jack Lemon in The Fortune Cookie. This may have been one of those “it’s his turn” things, but my vote would certainly go to Robert Shaw’s soaring performance as Thomas Beckett in the enduring A Man For All Seasons. His speech about the rule of law versus the rule of man resonates through the ages and is still one of the best in films.
1946: Harold Russell in his one and only performance in a movie, wins as the disabled veteran of World War II in The Best Years of Our Lives. Well, he is pretty good, but frankly I think he won because he really did lose both hands in the war. My vote would be for the old pro Claude Rains in Hitchcock’s Notorious. Rains always matched the role they put him in, and here he does a bang-up job as a sleazy Nazi. 
1961: George Chakiris wins for West Side Story. Not bad. But this year’s stunner was Jackie Gleason, up til then only known as a comedian, as Minnesota Fats in The Hustler. 
And finally, a nod toward getting one right: Last year Mark Rylance won this statue for his marvelous low-key performance in Bridge Of Spies. As Rudolf Abel, a Soviet spy who is exchanged for American Francis Gary Powers, Rylance is just perfect. Everyone predicted a win by Sylvester Stallone for Creed. He was good, but I think the Academy nailed this one.  (Trivia Note: This same guy, Mark Rylance, plays the giant in the current release BFG !)
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. All are suitable for 10 and up, keeping in mind the boredom factor.