40 Years Ago ~ Best Supporting Actresses

The supporting actress field this year for the 80th Annual Academy Awards is full of talent and great performances, much like the Oscars were 40 years ago.  In 1967, films such as Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and the Graduate were making waves throughout the country for their “controversial” material.  Movie goers were trying to forget about their troubles and looming conflict over the Vietnam War with the Musical hit, Thoroughly Modern Millie and the Romantic Comedy Barefoot in the Park.  At the same time they were making heroes out of gangsters in Bonnie and Clyde.

In each of those now classic films, outstanding performances were given by some outstanding supporting actresses.  Carol Channing had already made a name for herself on Broadway by 1967, and had won awards for her roles.  Thoroughly Modern Millie would be one of very few films she would make, and it won her an Academy Award nomination.  However, her song and dance did not gain her the Oscar.

Beah Richards, a prolific actress, poet, and playwright, her first authored play was All’s Well that Ends that delved into the issues of racial segregation. Always ahead of her time, she defined herself as “Black” when the term “Negro” was the preferred ethnic/racial label of Black Americans. Richards would bring her salutary satisfaction with being “Black” and her immense acting talents to the role of the peacemaking mother in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), a role for which she was nominated for an Oscar. Beah went on to star in numerous films and TV roles, and won an Emmy in 2000 just weeks prior to her death, but the Oscar never came home to her.

Katherine Ross was a new name in Hollywood in 1967, but a name that would continue to be heard about for the next 40 years.  As Dustin Hoffman’s girlfriend in The Graduate, who’s mother seduces him, Katherine gave a shockingly real performance, but it was her only nomination, thus far and not a win in 1967.

Mildren Natwick a gifted character player of the American stage and screen. She began appearing in amateur productions in Baltimore directly out of college and made her professional debut on Broadway in 1932. Even as a youngster she was assigned character roles, usually playing women older than herself, and before long she became established as one of the most reliable supporting players of the stage and screen. She appeared in films off and on starting in 1940, at her best with eccentric characterizations. She was nominated in 1967 playing Jane Fonda’s mother in Barefoot in the Park.  She was the seasoned veteran that year that was a favorite to walk away with the gold, however it was not to be.

The winner of the best Supporting Actress Oscar for 1967 was another fairly newcomer to film, Estelle Parsons, A childhood friend of Jack Lemmon and a former TV writer and producer she began appearing on stage in the late 1950s and established herself as a leading character actress. In the 1960’s she took Hollywood by storm by winning her first nominated role as Blanche Barrow,  as Gene Hackman’s Buck Barrow’s wife in Bonnie and Clyde, and then was nominated again the following year for another outstanding performance as a lesbian in Rachel, Rachel.

So many performances worthy, so many gifted actresses that are deserving. 1967 was a year for newcomers, what about 2007?