Best Supporting Actor, 1948

Awards presented March 24, 1949

And the nominees were ... 

• Charles Bickford in Johnny Belinda 
• José Ferrer in Joan of Arc 
• Oscar Homolka in I Remember Mama 
• Walter Huston in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 
• Cecil Kellaway in The Luck of the Irish 

... when they should have been ... 

• Lionel Barrymore in Key Largo 
• Walter Brennan in Red River  
• Walter Huston in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 
• Victor McLaglen in Fort Apache  
• Rudy Vallee in Unfaithfully Yours 

And the Oscar went to ... 

Walter Huston in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. 

Walter Huston in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Walter and John Huston with their Oscars. John won two: for directing
and for the screenplay of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Huston finally won an Oscar on his fourth nomination, though he should have been honored for Dodsworth, which earned him his first nomination. The reason he was a regular nominee but not a winner may have been that he was a determined and successful underplayer, never willing to sacrifice the integrity of the character for a showy moment. But the cantankerous old coot he plays in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre demanded showy moments -- it was the kind of role on which Walter Brennan built a career that won him three Oscars. It also made him the first (and so far the only) person to be directed to an Oscar by his own son. He had also appeared, in a small, unbilled role, in John Huston's first film as director, The Maltese Falcon.)