A list of actors, television series, and films that won and were nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.
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1970s
- 1975note : Anthony Quayle for QB VII as Tom Banniester
- Ralph Bellamy for The Missiles of October as Adlai Stevenson II
- Jack Hawkins for QB VII as Justice Gilroy
- Trevor Howard for The Count of Monte Cristo as Abbé Faria
- 1976note : Ed Flanders for A Moon for the Misbegotten as Phil Hogan
- Ray Bolger for The Entertainer as Billy Rice
- Art Carney for Katherine as Thornton Alman
- 1977note : Burgess Meredith for Tail Gunner Joe as Joseph N. Welch
- Martin Balsam for Raid on Entebbe as Daniel Cooper
- Mark Harmon for Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years as Robert Hugo Dunlap
- Yaphet Kotto for Raid on Entebbe as Idi Amin
- Walter McGinn for Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years as Louis Howe
- 1978note : Howard Da Silva for Verna: USO Girl as Eddie
- James Farentino for Jesus of Nazareth as Simon Peter
- Burgess Meredith for The Last Hurrah as Cardinal Burke
- Donald Pleasence for The Defection of Simas Kudirka as Vladimir Popov
- Efrem Zimbalist Jr. for A Family Upside Down as Mike Long
- 1979note : Marlon Brando for Roots: The Next Generations as George Lincoln Rockwell
- Ed Flanders for Backstairs at the White House as Calvin Coolidge
- Al Freeman Jr. for Roots: The Next Generations as Malcolm X
- Robert Vaughn for Backstairs at the White House as Woodrow Wilson
- Paul Winfield for Roots: The Next Generations as Dr. Horace Huguley
1980s
- 1980note : George Grizzard for The Oldest Living Graduate as Floyd Kinkaid
- Ernest Borgnine for All Quiet on the Western Front as Stanislaus "Kat" Katczinsky
- John Cassavetes for Flesh & Blood as Gus Caputo
- Charles Durning for Attica as Russell Oswald
- Harold Gould for The Scarlett O'Hara War as Louis B. Mayer
- 1981note : David Warner for Masada as Pomponius Falco
- Anthony Quayle for Masada as Rubrius Gallus
- Yūki Meguro for Shōgun as Kashigi Omi
- John Rhys-Davies for Shōgun as Vasco Rodrigues
- Andy Griffith for Murder in Texas as Ash Robinson
- 1982note : Laurence Olivier for Brideshead Revisited as Lord Marchmain
- Jack Albertson for My Body, My Child as Poppa MacMahon
- John Gielgud for Brideshead Revisited as Edward Ryder
- Derek Jacobi for Inside the Third Reich as Adolf Hitler
- Leonard Nimoy for A Woman Called Golda as Morris Meyerson
- 1983note : Richard Kiley for The Thorn Birds as Padraic "Paddy" Cleary
- Ralph Bellamy for The Winds of War as President Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Bryan Brown for The Thorn Birds as Luke O'Neill
- Christopher Plummer for The Thorn Birds as Vittorio di Contini-Verchese
- David Threlfall for The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby as Smike
- 1984note : Art Carney for Terrible Joe Moran as Tony
- Keith Carradine for Chiefs as Foxy Funderbunke
- John Gielgud for The Master of Ballantrae as Lord Durrisdeer
- John Lithgow for The Day After as Joe Huxley
- Randy Quaid for A Streetcar Named Desire as Harold "Mitch" Mitchell
- David Ogden Stiers for The First Olympics: Athens 1896 as William Milligan Stone
- 1985note : Karl Malden for Fatal Vision as Freddy Kassab
- Richard Burton for Ellis Island as Senator Phipps Ogden
- John Gielgud for Romance on the Orient Express as Theodore Woodward
- Richard Masur for The Burning Bed as Aryon Greydanus
- Rip Torn for The Atlanta Child Murders as Lewis Slaton
- 1986note : John Malkovich for Death of a Salesman as Biff Loman
- Charles Durning for Death of a Salesman as Charley
- John Glover for An Early Frost as Victor DiMato
- Harold Gould for Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry as Dr. Marvin Elias
- Pat Morita for Amos as Tommy Tanaka
- 1987note : Dabney Coleman for Sworn to Silence as Marty Costigan
- Stephen Collins for The Two Mrs. Grenvilles as Billy Grenville
- John Glover for Nutcracker: Money, Madness, and Murder as Richard Behrens
- Laurence Olivier for Lost Empires as Harry Burrard
- Eli Wallach for Something in Common as Norman Voss
- 1988note : John Shea for Baby M as William "Bill" Stern
- Dabney Coleman for Baby M as Gary Skoloff
- Anthony Quinn for Onassis: The Richest Man in the World as Socrates Onassis
- Ron Silver for Billionaire Boys Club as Ron Levin
- Bruce Weitz for Baby M as Richard "Rick" Whitehead
- 1989note : Derek Jacobi for The Tenth Man as Carosse
- Armand Assante for Jack the Ripper as Richard Mansfield
- James Garner for My Name Is Bill W. as Robert "Dr. Bob" Smith
- Danny Glover for Lonesome Dove as Joshua Deets
- Corin Nemec for I Know My First Name Is Steven as Steven Stayner
1990s
- 1990note : Vincent Gardenia for Age-Old Friends as Michael Aylott
- Ned Beatty for Last Train Home as Cornelius Van Horne
- Brian Dennehy for A Killing in a Small Town as Ed Reivers
- Anthony Hopkins for Great Expectations as Abel Magwitch
- James Earl Jones for By Dawn's Early Light as Alice
- Max von Sydow for Red King, White Knight as Szaz
- 1991note : James Earl Jones for Heat Wave as Junius Jackson
- Rubén Blades for The Josephine Baker Story as Count Giuseppe Pepito Abatino
- David Dukes for The Josephine Baker Story as Jo Bouillon
- Richard Kiley for Separate but Equal as Earl Warren
- Leon Russom for Long Road Home as Titus Wardlow
- 1992note : Hume Cronyn for Broadway Bound as Ben Epstein
- Brian Dennehy for The Burden of Proof as Dixon Hartnell
- Héctor Elizondo for Mrs. Cage as Lieutenant Angel
- Jerry Orbach for Broadway Bound as Jack Jerome
- Ben Vereen for Intruders as Randall
- 1993note : Beau Bridges for The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom as Terry Harper
- Brian Dennehy for Murder in the Heartland as John McArthur
- Jonathan Pryce for Barbarians at the Gate as Henry Kravis
- Peter Riegert for Barbarians at the Gate as Peter Cohen
- Maximilian Schell for Stalin as Vladimir Lenin
- 1994note : Michael Goorjian for David's Mother as David Goodson
- Alan Alda for And the Band Played On as Dr. Robert Gallo
- Matthew Broderick for A Life in the Theatre as John
- Richard Gere for And the Band Played On as the Choreographer
- Ian McKellen for And the Band Played On as Bill Kraus
- 1995note : Donald Sutherland for Citizen X as Colonel Mikhail Fetisov
- Jeffrey DeMunn for Citizen X as Andrei Chikatilo
- Sam Elliott for Buffalo Girls as Wild Bill Hickok
- Ben Kingsley for Joseph as Potiphar
- Edward James Olmos for The Burning Season as Wilson Pinheiro
- 1996note : Tom Hulce for The Heidi Chronicles as Peter Patrone
- Andre Braugher for The Tuskegee Airmen as Colonel Benjamin Davis
- John Goodman for A Streetcar Named Desire as Harold "Mitch" Mitchell
- Ian McKellen for Rasputin as Tsar Nicholas II of Russia
- Treat Williams for The Late Shift as Michael Ovitz
- 1997note : Beau Bridges for The Second Civil War as Governor Jim Farley
- Obba Babatunde for Miss Evers' Boys as Willie Johnson
- Michael Caine for Mandela and de Klerk as F.W. de Klerk
- Ossie Davis for Miss Evers' Boys as Mr. Evers
- Joe Mantegna for The Last Don as Joseph "Pippi" De Lena
- 1998note : George C. Scott for 12 Angry Men as Juror #3
- Hume Cronyn for 12 Angry Men as Juror #9
- Gregory Peck for Moby-Dick as Father Mapple
- Martin Short for Merlin as Frik
- J. T. Walsh for Hope as Ray Percy
- 1999note : Peter O'Toole for Joan of Arc as Pierre Cauchon
- Beau Bridges for Inherit the Wind as E.K. Hornbeck
- Don Cheadle for The Rat Pack as Sammy Davis Jr.
- Peter Fonda for The Passion of Ayn Rand as Frank O'Connor
- Joe Mantegna for The Rat Pack as Dean Martin
2000s
- 2000note : Hank Azaria for Tuesdays with Morrie as Mitch Albom
- Klaus Maria Brandauer for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge as Otto Preminger
- James Cromwell for RKO 281 as William Randolph Hearst
- Danny Glover for Freedom Song as Will Walker
- John Malkovich for RKO 281 as Herman Mankiewicz
- 2001note : Brian Cox for Nuremberg as Hermann Göring
- Alan Alda for Club Land as Willie Walters
- Colin Firth for Conspiracy as SS-Brigadeführer Dr. Wilhelm Stuckart
- Victor Garber for Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows as Sidney Luft
- Ian Holm for The Last of the Blonde Bombshells as Patrick
- Stanley Tucci for Conspiracy as SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann
- 2002note : Michael Moriarty for James Dean as Winton Dean
- Alec Baldwin for Path to War as Robert McNamara
- Jim Broadbent for The Gathering Storm as Desmond Morton
- Don Cheadle for Things Behind the Sun as Chuck
- Jon Voight for Uprising as Jürgen Stroop
- 2003note : Ben Gazzara for Hysterical Blindness as Nick Piccolo
- Alan Arkin for The Pentagon Papers as Harry Rowen
- Chris Cooper for My House in Umbria as Thomas Riversmith
- John Malkovich for Napoléon as Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord
- Peter O'Toole for Hitler: The Rise of Evil as Paul von Hindenburg
- 2004note : Jeffrey Wright for Angels in America as Mr. Lies / Belize / Homeless Man / The Antarctic Eskimo / The Angel Europa
- Justin Kirk for Angels in America as Prior Walter / Man in Park
- William H. Macy for Stealing Sinatra as John Irwin
- Ben Shenkman for Angels in America as Louis Ironson / The Angel Oceania
- Patrick Wilson for Angels in America as Joe Pitt
- 2005note : Paul Newman for Empire Falls as Max Roby
- Brian Dennehy for Our Fathers as Father Dominic Spagnolia
- Philip Seymour Hoffman for Empire Falls as Charlie Mayne
- Christopher Plummer for Our Fathers as Cardinal Bernard Law
- Randy Quaid for Elvis as Colonel Tom Parker
- 2006note : Jeremy Irons for Elizabeth I as Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester
- Robert Carlyle for Human Trafficking as Sergei Karpovich
- Clifton Collins Jr. for Thief as Jack Hill
- Hugh Dancy for Elizabeth I as Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex
- Denis Lawson for Bleak House as John Jarndyce
- 2007note : Thomas Haden Church for Broken Trail as Tom Harte
- Ed Asner for The Christmas Card as Luke Spelman
- Joe Mantegna for The Starter Wife as Lou Manahan
- Aidan Quinn for Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee as Henry Dawes
- August Schellenberg for Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee as Chief Sitting Bull
- 2008note : Tom Wilkinson for John Adams as Benjamin Franklin
- Bob Balaban for Recount as Ben Ginsberg
- Stephen Dillane for John Adams as Thomas Jefferson
- Denis Leary for Recount as Michael Wouley
- David Morse for John Adams as George Washington
- 2009note : Ken Howard for Grey Gardens as Phelan Beale
- Len Cariou for Into the Storm as President Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Tom Courtenay for Little Dorrit as William Dorrit
- Bob Newhart for The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice as Judson
- Andy Serkis for Little Dorrit as Rigaud / Blandois
2010s
- 2010note : David Strathairn for Temple Grandin as Dr. William Carlock
- Michael Gambon for Emma as Mr. Woodhouse
- John Goodman for You Don't Know Jack as Neal Nicol
- Jonathan Pryce for Return to Cranford as Mr. Buxton
- Patrick Stewart for Hamlet as King Claudius / Ghost
- 2011note : Guy Pearce for Mildred Pierce as Monty Beragon
- Paul Giamatti for Too Big to Fail as Ben Bernanke
- Brian F. O'Byrne for Mildred Pierce as Bert Pierce
- Tom Wilkinson for The Kennedys as Joseph Kennedy Sr.
- James Woods for Too Big to Fail as Richard Fuld
- 2012note : Tom Berenger for Hatfields & McCoys as Jim Vance
- Martin Freeman for Sherlock: A Scandal in Belgravia as John Watson
- Ed Harris for Game Change as Senator John McCain
- Denis O'Hare for American Horror Story: Murder House as Larry Harvey
- David Strathairn for Hemingway & Gellhorn as John Dos Passos
- 2013note : James Cromwell for American Horror Story: Asylum as Dr. Arthur Arden
- Scott Bakula for Behind the Candelabra as Bob Black
- John Benjamin Hickey for The Big C as Sean Tolkey
- Peter Mullan for Top of the Lake as Matt Mitcham
- Zachary Quinto for American Horror Story: Asylum as Dr. Oliver Thredson
- 2014note : Martin Freeman for Sherlock: His Last Vow as John Watson
- Matt Bomer for The Normal Heart as Felix Turner
- Colin Hanks for Fargo as Gus Grimly
- Joe Mantello for The Normal Heart as Mickey Marcus
- Alfred Molina for The Normal Heart as Ben Weeks
- Jim Parsons for The Normal Heart as Tommy Boatwright
- 2015note : Bill Murray for Olive Kitteridge as Jack Kennison
- Richard Cabral for American Crime as Hector Tontz
- Damian Lewis for Wolf Hall as King Henry VIII of England
- Denis O'Hare for American Horror Story: Freak Show as Stanley
- Michael K. Williams for Bessie as Jack Gee
- Finn Wittrock for American Horror Story: Freak Show as Dandy Mott
- 2016note : Sterling K. Brown for The People v. O. J. Simpson as Christopher "Chris" Darden
- Hugh Laurie for The Night Manager as Richard Roper
- Jesse Plemons for Fargo as Ed Blumquist
- David Schwimmer for The People v. O.J. Simpson as Robert Kardashian
- John Travolta for The People v. O.J. Simpson as Robert Shapiro
- Bokeem Woodbine for Fargo as Mike Milligan
- 2017note : Alexander Skarsgård for Big Little Lies as Perry Wright
- Bill Camp for The Night Of as Detective Dennis Box
- Alfred Molina for Feud as Robert Aldrich
- David Thewlis for Fargo as V.M. Varga
- Stanley Tucci for Feud as Jack Warner
- Michael K. Williams for The Night Of as Freddy Knight
- 2018note : Jeff Daniels for Godless as Frank Griffin
- Brandon Victor Dixon for Jesus Christ Superstar as Judas Iscariot
- John Leguizamo for Waco as Jacob Vazquez
- Ricky Martin for The Assassination of Gianni Versace as Antonio D'Amico
- Édgar Ramírez for The Assassination of Gianni Versace as Gianni Versace
- Michael Stuhlbarg for The Looming Tower as Richard Clarke
- 2019note : Ben Whishaw for A Very English Scandal as Norman Josiffe / Norman Scott
- Asante Blackk for When They See Us as Kevin Richardson
- Paul Dano for Escape at Dannemora as David Sweat
- John Leguizamo for When They See Us as Raymond Santana
- Stellan Skarsgård for Chernobyl as Boris Shcerbina
- Michael K. Williams for When They See Us as Bobby McCray
2020s
- 2020note : Yahya Abdul-Mateen II for Watchmen as Calvin "Cal" Abar / Jon Osterman / Doctor Manhattan
- Jovan Adepo for Watchmen as young Will Reeves / Hooded Justice
- Tituss Burgess for Kimmy vs. The Reverend as Titus Andromedon
- Louis Gossett Jr. for Watchmen as Will Reeves / Hooded Justice
- Dylan McDermott for Hollywood as Ernest "Ernie" West
- Jim Parsons for Hollywood as Henry Willson
- 2021note : Evan Peters for Mare of Easttown as Detective Colin Zabel
- Thomas Brodie-Sangster for The Queen's Gambit as Benny Watts
- Daveed Diggs for Hamilton as Marquis De Lafayette / Thomas Jefferson
- Paapa Essiedu for I May Destroy You as Kwame
- Jonathan Groff for Hamilton as King George III of England
- Anthony Ramos for Hamilton as John Laurens / Philip Hamilton
- 2022: Murray Bartlett for The White Lotus as Armond
- Jake Lacy for The White Lotus as Shane Patton
- Will Poulter for Dopesick as Billy Cutler
- Seth Rogen for Pam & Tommy as Rand Gauthier
- Peter Sarsgaard for Dopesick as Rick Mountcastle
- Michael Stuhlbarg for Dopesick as Richard Sackler
- Steve Zahn for The White Lotus as Mark Mossbacher
- 2023: Paul Walter Hauser for Black Bird as Lawrence "Larry" Hall
- Murray Bartlett for Welcome to Chippendales as Nick De Noia
- Richard Jenkins for Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story as Lionel Dahmer
- Joseph Lee for Beef as George Nakai
- Ray Liotta for Black Bird as James Keane Sr.
- Young Mazino for Beef as Paul Cho
- Jesse Plemons for love & death as Allan Gore
