Match the Best Supporting Actress - 1950s Quiz

Answer: Josephine Hull

With her only Academy Award nomination, Josephine Hull won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as the exasperated Veta Louise Simmons in "Harvey". In the film, Simmons tried to get her eccentric brother, Elwood P. Dowd (Jimmy Stewart), committed to an institution for his belief that his best friend was an invisible six-foot tall rabbit named Harvey.

The other nominees in the category were Hope Emerson ("Caged"), Celeste Holm ("All About Eve"), Nancy Olson ("Sunset Boulevard"), and Thelma Ritter ("All About Eve").

Answer: Kim Hunter

Another one-time Academy Award nominee, Kim Hunter won the Best Supporting Actress award for her role as abused wife Stella Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire", a role that she had originated on Broadway. Based on the play by Tennessee Williams, the film followed Stella and her brutish husband Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando), whose lives became uprooted when Stella's mentally frail sister (Vivien Leigh) came to live with them.

The other contenders for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar were Joan Blondell ("The Blue Veil"), Mildred Dunnock ("Death of a Salesman"), Lee Grant ("Detective Story"), and Thelma Ritter ("The Mating Season").

Answer: Gloria Grahame

At the 25th Academy Award ceremony, Gloria Grahame won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as shallow Rosemary Bartlow in "The Bad and the Beautiful". She had previously been nominated in the same category in 1948 for "Crossfire". In "The Bad and the Beautiful", Bartlow was the pushy wife of a mild-mannered college professor (Dick Powell) who was recruited by a cutthroat film producer (Kirk Douglas) to write a screenplay of his (Bartow's) novel. Grahame's screen time of around nine and a half minutes was the shortest performance to win an Academy Award at that time - a record that would stand until 1977.

The other nominees for Best Supporting Actress were Jean Hagen ("Singin' in the Rain"), Colette Marchand ("Moulin Rouge"), Terry Moore ("Come Back, Little Sheba"), and Thelma Ritter ("With a Song in My Heart").

Answer: Donna Reed

With her only Academy Award nomination, Donna Reed won the Best Supporting Actress award for her role as street-wise Alma Burke/Lorene in "From Here to Eternity". In the WWII film, Alma used the name Lorene while she worked at a club on Oahu in the days prior to the Pearl Harbor attack.

A relationship and proposal from a soldier (Montgomery Clift) didn't change her plans on earning enough money to become respectable. The other contenders for the Oscar were Grace Kelly ("Mogambo"), Geraldine Page ("Hondo"), Marjorie Rambeau ("Torch Song"), and Thelma Ritter ("Pickup on South Street").

Answer: Eva Marie Saint

Eva Marie Saint picked up the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in her feature film debut for her role as distraught sister Edie Doyle in "On the Waterfront". In the film, after Edie's brother (Ben Wagner) was murdered on the orders of a union boss (Lee J. Cobb), Edie galvanized the local priest (Karl Malden) into action against the union. Meanwhile Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando), who unknowingly led Edie's brother to his death, fell for her and had to choose between remaining a bum or standing up against the union.

The other nominees in the category were Nina Foch ("Executive Suite"), Katy Jurado ("Broken Lance"), Jan Sterling ("The High and the Mighty"), and Claire Trevor ("The High and the Mighty").

Answer: Jo Van Fleet

Another winner with her film debut, Jo Van Fleet won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as hardened madam Cathy Ames/Kate Trask in "East of Eden". In the film, Ames was the estranged wife of a Bible-thumping farmer (Raymond Massey) who had told his sons that their mother had died.

In reality, she had left him and started a brothel, which her son Cal (James Dean) later discovered. The other nominees for the award were Betsy Blair ("Marty"), Peggy Lee ("Pete Kelly's Blues"), Marisa Pavan ("The Rose Tattoo"), and Natalie Wood ("Rebel Without a Cause").

Answer: Dorothy Malone

With her only Academy Award nomination, Dorothy Malone won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as self-destructive Marylee Hadley in "Written on the Wind". Loosely based on a real life scandal involving actress/singer Libby Holman and tobacco heir Zachary Smith Reynolds, the film followed spoiled oil heirs Marylee and Kyle (Robert Stack).

When Kyle's marriage began to break down, he blamed his friend and the object of Marylee's infatuation (Rock Hudson) with disastrous consequences. The other contenders for the award were Mildred Dunnock ("Baby Doll"), Eileen Heckart ("The Bad Seed"), Mercedes McCambridge ("Giant"), and Patty McCormack ("The Bad Seed").

Answer: Miyoshi Umeki

Another one-time Academy Award nominee, Miyoshi Umeki won the Best Supporting Actress award at the 30th Academy Awards ceremony for her role as Katsumi Kelly in "Sayonara". The Japanese native Umeki was the first Asian to win an acting Oscar. In "Sayonara", Katsumi was the bride of a U.S. airman Joe Kelly (Red Buttons) who was stationed in Japan during the Korean War. Since the inter-racial marriage was not accepted by the military, Kelly was ordered back to the U.S. without his pregnant wife despite the efforts of his boss (Marlon Brando).

The other nominees in the category were Carolyn Jones ("The Bachelor Party"), Elsa Lanchester ("Witness for the Prosecution"), Hope Lange ("Peyton Place"), and Diane Varsi ("Peyton Place").

Answer: Wendy Hiller

Dame Wendy Hiller won her only Academy Award for her role as stoic hotel manager Pat Cooper in "Separate Tables". She had previously been nominated in the Best Actress category in 1939 for "Pygmalion". In "Separate Tables", Miss Cooper was the manager of a residential hotel that was experiencing some turmoil amongst the guests, particularly when the ex-wife (Rita Hayworth) of her long-time fiance (Burt Lancaster) showed up.

In The other contenders in the category were Peggy Cass ("Auntie Mame"), Martha Hyer ("Some Came Running"), Maureen Stapleton ("Lonelyhearts"), and Cara Williams ("The Defiant Ones").

Answer: Shelley Winters

At the 1960 Academy Award ceremony, Shelley Winters won her first Oscar for her portrayal of Petronella van Daan in "The Diary of Anne Frank". She had previously been nominated in the Best Actress category in 1952 for "A Place in the Sun". "The Diary of Anne Frank" was based on the diary of a young Holocaust victim written while she, her family, and other Dutch Jews were in hiding in Amsterdam during WWII. Petronella van Daan was Anne's name for Auguste van Pels, the wife of a co-worker of Anne's father Otto, who joined the Franks in their hiding place.

The film covered the period until their capture in 1944 and Otto Frank's return to Amsterdam in 1945 as the sole survivor of the group. Shelley Winters later donated her Oscar to the Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam.

The other nominees were Hermione Baddeley ("Room at the Top"), Susan Kohner ("Imitation of Life"), Juanita Moore ("Imitation of Life"), and Thelma Ritter ("Pillow Talk").