Christopher Nolan accepts on behalf of Heath Ledger the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture, for his role in "The Dark Knight" at the 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, CA Sunday, January 11, 2009.

To DiCaprio, Winslet gushed: "I've loved you for 13 years and your performance in this film is nothing short of spectacular." To Mendes, she added: "Thank you for directing this film, babe, and thank you for killing us every single day and really enjoying us actually being in such horrific pain."

Rourke won for a role as a former wrestling star who gets a last chance at glory in the ring, a theme that mirrors the actor's life after he derailed his career with bad-boy behavior.

"It's been a very long road back for me," said Rourke, who poured out his thanks to "The Wrestler" director Darren Aronofsky. "I've said this before, in sports especially, which I can relate to, really, truly great players come around every 30 years, and I really, truly believe Darren is one of those cats".

The three films that led the Globe field with five nominations each - "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Doubt" and "Frost/Nixon" - all struck out and ended up with nothing.

As expected, the late Heath Ledger earned the supporting-actor Globe for his diabolical turn as the Joker in the Batman blockbuster "The Dark Knight." The Globe win boosts Ledger's prospects for the supporting-actor honor at the Oscars, whose nominations come out Jan. 22, the one-year anniversary of the actor's death from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.

Ledger's award was accepted by "The Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan, who said he and his collaborators were buoyed by the enormous acclaim and acceptance the film and Ledger's performance have gained worldwide.

"All of us who worked with Heath on 'The Dark Knight' accept with an awful mixture of sadness but incredible pride," Nolan said. "After Heath passed, you saw a hole ripped in the future of cinema."

Colin Farrell accepts the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, for his role in "In Bruges" at the 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, CA Sunday, January 11, 2009.

Only one actor has ever won a posthumous Oscar, best-actor recipient Peter Finch for 1976's "Network."

Other acting winners were Sally Hawkins as musical or comedy actress for her role as an eternal optimist in "Happy-Go-Lucky"; and Colin Farrell for musical or comedy actor for "In Bruges," in which he plays a hit man laying low in a Belgian tourist town.

Hawkins, a relatively unknown British actress and newcomer to Hollywood's awards scenes, was visibly nervous accepting her prize.