Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture was first awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in 1944 for a performance in a motion picture released in the previous year.

The formal title has varied since its inception and as of 2005 is officially called: "Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture".

Past winners

• 1944 – Akim Tamiroff, For Whom the Bell Tolls
• 1945 – Barry Fitzgerald, Going My Way
• 1946 – J. Carrol Naish, A Medal for Benny
• 1947 – Clifton Webb, The Razor's Edge
• 1948 – Edmund Gwenn, Miracle On 34th Street
• 1949 – Walter Huston, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
• 1950 – James Whitmore, Battleground
• 1951 – Edmund Gwenn, Mister 880
• 1952 – Peter Ustinov, Quo Vadis?
• 1953 – Millard Mitchell, My Six Convicts
• 1954 – Frank Sinatra, From Here To Eternity
• 1955 – Edmond O'Brien, The Barefoot Contessa
• 1956 – Arthur Kennedy, Trial
• 1957 – Earl Holliman, The Rainmaker
• 1958 – Red Buttons, Sayonara
• 1959 – Burl Ives, The Big Country
• 1960 – Stephen Boyd, Ben-Hur
• 1961 – Sal Mineo, Exodus
• 1962 – George Chakiris, West Side Story
• 1963 – Omar Sharif, Lawrence Of Arabia
• 1964 – John Huston, The Cardinal
• 1965 – Edmond O'Brien, Seven Days in May
• 1966 – Oskar Werner, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
• 1967 – Richard Attenborough, The Sand Pebbles
• 1968 – Richard Attenborough, Doctor Dolittle
• 1969 – Daniel Massey, Star!
• 1970 – Gig Young, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
• 1971 – John Mills, Ryan's Daughter
• 1972 – Ben Johnson, The Last Picture Show
• 1973 – Joel Grey, Cabaret
• 1974 – John Houseman, The Paper Chase
• 1975 – Fred Astaire, The Towering Inferno
• 1976 – Richard Benjamin, The Sunshine Boys
• 1977 – Laurence Olivier, Marathon Man
• 1978 – Peter Firth, Equus
• 1979 – John Hurt, Midnight Express
• 1980 – Melvyn Douglas, Being There (Tie) Robert Duvall, Apocalypse Now
• 1981 - Timothy Hutton, Ordinary People
• 1982 - John Gielgud, Arthur
• 1983 - Louis Gossett, Jr., An Officer and A Gentleman
• 1984 - Jack Nicholson, Terms of Endearment
• 1985 - Haing S. Ngor, The Killing Fields
• 1986 - Klaus Maria Brandauer, Out of Africa
• 1987 - Tom Berenger, Platoon
• 1988 - Sean Connery, The Untouchables
• 1989 - Martin Landau, Tucker: The Man and His Dream
• 1990 - Denzel Washington, Glory
• 1991 - Bruce Davison, Longtime Companion
• 1992 - Jack Palance, City Slickers
• 1993 - Gene Hackman, Unforgiven
• 1994 - Tommy Lee Jones, The Fugitive
• 1995 - Martin Landau, Ed Wood
• 1996 - Brad Pitt, 12 Monkeys
• 1997 - Edward Norton, Primal Fear
• 1998 - Burt Reynolds, Boogie Nights
• 1999 - Ed Harris, The Truman Show
• 2000 - Tom Cruise, Magnolia
• 2001 - Benicio Del Toro, Traffic
• 2002 - Jim Broadbent, Iris
• 2003 - Chris Cooper, Adaptation
• 2004 - Tim Robbins, Mystic River
• 2005 - Clive Owen, Closer