Helen Hayes and Ingrid Bergman both won supporting awards after winning in the lead category although their supporting awards came when they were much older and for character work. Maggie Smith won her supporting award while she was still very much a leading lady in films and is the right precedent for Kate Winslet this year.Sabin wrote:What's throwing me about Kate Winslet's chances for Steve Jobs, another film not well-liked by the industry (hell, The Danish Girl just faded away; Steve Jobs imploded), is that it seems odd for her to win for a leading role and then again for a supporting. I keep thinking of Cate Blanchett winning for The Aviator and then again for Blue Jasmine. Or Jessica Lange. I don't feel like wiki-tunneling to find how many times this precedent has occurred but those are circumstances that have been likelier although I can't imagine voters actively think about this stuff.
Streep and Lange won their supporting awards at the start of their careers followed by Oscars in the lead category when they were well established as leading players. Blanchett was already a leading lady when she won her supporting award followed by her second on the lead category. Winslet and Blanchett are sort of similar cases. Both still young with long careers ahead of them as leads.