10 Supporting Film Characters Who Completely Stole The Spotlight

Image credits: Rex_Shutterstock, Lucasfilm

A posthumous Oscar for Heath Ledger and memes to this day demonstrate just how impactful the actor’s performance as Batman’s arch-nemesis is. Even Christian Bale has admitted his co-star acted him off the screen.

Mike Myers has (or used to have) a way of adding things to the cultural lexicon and Verne Troyer’s hilarious creation is one of them. Not only that, but it made the actor’s career, including stints on Celebrity Big Brother and even Peter Andre’s reality show.

Melissa McCarthy was doing perfectly well as a supporting actress before this 2011 comedy. Her magnificent turn as a sexually-liberated, golf-hatted friend turned her into a star (and scored her an Oscar nom).

The greatest villain in screen history became the most iconic thing in the ‘Star Wars’ universe the moment he strode through that starship at the beginning of ‘A New Hope’. He’s so fundamental that despite being dead he still kind of shows up in ‘The Force Awakens’.

She’s only in four scenes and on-screen for about six minutes, but Judi Dench’s deadpan portrayal of Liz was so effective that she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar with the second-least amount of screentime in movie history.

He’s the cutest dwarf, right? The last of the septet to be developed by the filmmakers and originally intended to speak rather than be mute, his sweet face has launched a thousand lunchboxes. And for grown-ups, he’s pretty much the only thing we remember about the film.

It’s still kind of teeth-clenching to see all the other characters in the a cappella teen pic call Rebel Wilson Fat Amy, but as a hyper-confident member of the Barden Bellas, she went from funny Aussie to Hollywood star.

When it comes to Alan Rickman, it’s a toss-up whether it’s this role or Hans Gruber in ‘Die Hard’ that deserves to be on this list. But the knowledge that he improvised the cancelling Christmas line – and the rumour Kevin Costner cut his scenes because he was worried about being upstaged – means the Sheriff edges it.

There have been many (untrue) jibes over the years that Marisa Tomei’s Oscar for this performance was a mistake. Those probably come from people who haven’t watched the 1992 comedy in a while. She’s a hilarious force of nature who steals the movie from one of the experts in the same craft, Joe Pesci.

Eugene Levy – comedic genius. Whether it’s the eyebrows, the hesitant delivery or just the genuine, unconditional love he shows for his son, Jim’s dad, whose actual name turns out to be Noah Levenstein, is the heart of the raunchy series.