Match the Best Supporting Actress - 1960s Quiz

Answer: Shirley Jones

With her first Academy Award nomination, Shirley Jones picked up the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as vindictive prostitute Lulu Baines in "Elmer Gantry". In the film, Baines was the former girlfriend of con-artist preacher Elmer Gantry (Burt Lancaster) who had turned to life on the streets after being abandoned by Gantry and her minister father. Gantry tried to rescue her, only to have her attempt to frame him for sexual indiscretions.

The other nominees for Best Supporting Actress were Glynis Johns ("The Sundowners"), Shirley Knight ("The Dark at the Top of the Stairs"), Janet Leigh ("Psycho"), and Mary Ure ("Sons and Lovers").

Answer: Rita Moreno

Another winner on her first nomination, Rita Moreno won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as the feisty Anita in "West Side Story". In the musical, which was inspired by "Romeo and Juliet", Anita was the girlfriend of Bernardo (George Chakiris), the leader of the Sharks gang and brother of Maria (Natalie Wood). Maria was in love with a former leader of a rival gang (Richard Beymer), leading to tragic consequences.

The other contenders for the Oscar were Fay Bainter ("The Children's Hour"), Judy Garland ("Judgment at Nuremberg"), Lotte Lenya ("The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone"), and Una Merkel ("Summer and Smoke").

Answer: Patty Duke

With her only Academy Award nomination, Patty Duke won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker", a role she had originated on Broadway. At 16 years of age, Duke was the youngest winner of an acting Oscar to that date, but her age nearly cost her the film role as she needed to portray a seven-year-old girl. Luckily for her, the director of film had also been the director of the play, and he insisted on casting Anne Bancroft and Duke in the film. "The Miracle Worker" told the story of an undisciplined blind and deaf girl (Duke) who engaged in a battle of wills with her no-nonsense tutor (Bancroft).

The other nominees in the Best Supporting Actress category were Shirley Knight ("Sweet Bird of Youth"), Angela Lansbury ("The Manchurian Candidate"), Thelma Rittter ("Birdman of Alcatraz"), and ten-year-old Mary Badham ("To Kill a Mockingbird").

This was Thelma Ritter's final Oscar nomination - six nominations, no win - all in the Supporting Actress category.

Answer: Margaret Rutherford

With her sole Academy Award nomination, Margaret Rutherford won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as the ditzy Duchess of Brighton in "The V.I.P.s". The star-studded film featured Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Maggie Smith, and Orson Welles among others as passengers stuck at Heathrow due to fog.

The duchess was on her way to Florida for a job that would earn money to save her estate home, but fortune intervened. Rutherford was, at that time, the oldest winner of a Best Supporting Actress Oscar at the age of 71.

The other nominees in the category were Diane Cilento ("Tom Jones"), Edith Evans ("Tom Jones"), Joyce Redman ("Tom Jones"), and Lilia Skala ("Lilies of the Field"). "Tom Jones" was the first film to have three Best Supporting Actress nominations.

It was also the first time that all nominees in the category were born outside of the U.S.

Answer: Lila Kedrova

Another winner with her sole Academy Award nomination, Lila Kedrova won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as old French courtesan Madame Hortense in "Zorba the Greek". The film followed a British writer (Alan Bates) and his free-spirited guide on Crete, Zorba (Anthony Quinn). Hortense was the innkeeper with whom Zorba had a dalliance, which she took more seriously than he did. Kedrova repeated her role in a 1983 revival of the Broadway musical "Zorba" and picked up the Tony award. The other candidates for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar were Gladys Cooper ("My Fair Lady"), Edith Evans ("The Chalk Garden"), Grayson Hall ("The Night of the Iguana"), and Agnes Moorehead ("Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte").

Answer: Shelley Winters

Shelley Winters became the first actress to win two Best Supporting Actress Oscars when she won her second Oscar for her role as abusive mother Rose-Ann D'Arcey in "A Patch of Blue". She had previously won the award for "The Diary of Anne Frank" in 1960 and was nominated in the Best Actress category for "A Place in the Sun" in 1952.

In "A Patch of Blue", D'Arcey was the prostitute mother of Selina (Elizabeth Hartman), a blind and uneducated teen whose life changed when she met a soft-spoken office worker (Sidney Poitier) in a park.

The interracial kiss in the film was deleted when the film was shown in the Bible Belt. The other nominees in the category were Ruth Gordon ("Inside Daisy Clover"), Joyce Redman ("Othello"), Maggie Smith ("Othello"), and Peggy Wood ("The Sound of Music").

Answer: Sandy Dennis

With her sole Academy Award nomination, Sandy Dennis won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as the child-like Honey in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" In the film, a young couple (George Segal and Dennis) spend a drunken and abusive evening as guests of a battling middle-aged couple (Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor).

The film, which garnered 13 Academy Award nominations, was only the second film to receive nominations in every category for which it was eligible (The 1931 film "Cimarron" was the first).

The other nominees for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar were Wendy Hiller ("A Man for All Seasons"), Jocelyne LaGarde ("Hawaii"), Vivien Merchant ("Alfie"), and Geraldine Page ("You're a Big Boy Now").

Answer: Estelle Parsons

At the fortieth Academy Award ceremony, Estelle Parsons picked up the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of the annoying Blanche Barrow in "Bonnie and Clyde". It was her first Academy Award nomination. In the film, Blanche was the sister-in-law of outlaw Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty), and she was an unwilling accomplice when her husband (Gene Hackman), Clyde's brother, decided to join Bonnie (Faye Dunaway) and Clyde's crime spree.

The real Blanche Barrow was still alive and provided assistance with the making of the film, but ultimately did not approve of how she was portrayed in the film.

The other nominees in the category were Carol Channing ("Thoroughly Modern Millie"), Mildred Natwick ("Barefoot in the Park"), Beah Richards ("Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"), and Katharine Ross ("The Graduate").

Answer: Ruth Gordon

With her fifth and final Academy Award nomination, Ruth Gordon won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as evil Minnie Castevet in "Rosemary's Baby". She had previously been nominated as a screenwriter with her husband Garson Kanin for "A Double Life" in 1948, "Adam's Rib" in 1950, and "Pat and Mike" in 1953, and she was nominated as an actress in the Best Supporting Actress category for "Inside Daisy Clover" in 1966.

In "Rosemary's Baby", a young couple (John Cassavetes and Mia Farrow) move into an apartment building run by Satanists, and when the wife became pregnant, she began to suspect that her husband was one of them. Minnie Castavet was her seemingly sweet, elderly neighbor who nursed her through her pregnancy.

The other Best Supporting Actress candidates were Lynn Carlin ("Faces"), Sondra Locke ("The Heart is a Lonely Hunter"), Kay Medford ("Funny Girl"), and Estelle Parsons ("Rachel, Rachel").

Answer: Goldie Hawn

At the 1970 Academy Award ceremony, Goldie Hawn won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as free spirit Toni Simmons in "Cactus Flower". It was her first Academy Award nomination. After his young girlfriend (Simmons) attempted suicide, a dentist (Walter Matthau) decided to marry her, but he had told her he had a family so he had his lovelorn secretary (Ingrid Bergman) pretend to be his wife. Complications arose when Simmons insisted he find a match for his soon-to-be ex-wife.

The other nominees for the award were Catherine Burns ("Last Summer"), Dyan Cannon ("Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice"), Sylvia Miles ("Midnight Cowboy"), and Susannah York ("They Shoot Horses, Don't They?").