Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play Honor presented at the Tony Awards
The Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play is an honor presented at the Tony Awards , a ceremony established in 1947 as the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, to actors for quality leading roles in a Broadway play. The awards are named after Antoinette Perry , an American actress who died in 1946.
Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the Tony Award Productions, a joint venture of The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing , to "honor the best performances and stage productions of the previous year."[ 1]
The award was originally called the Tony Award for Actors—Play . It was first presented to José Ferrer and Fredric March at the 1st Tony Awards for their portrayals of Cyrano De Bergerac and Clinton Jones in Cyrano de Bergerac and Years Ago , respectively. Before 1956, nominees' names were not made public;[ 2] the change was made by the awards committee to "have a greater impact on theatregoers".[ 3]
Nine actors hold the record for having the most wins in this category, with a total of two. Brian Bedford and Jason Robards are tied with the most nominations, with a total of seven. George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is the character to take the award the most times, winning three times.
Winners and nominees
indicates the winner
José Ferrer won twice for Cyrano de Bergerac (1947) and The Shrike (1952)
Fredric March won twice Years Ago (1947) and in Long Day's Journey into Night (1957)
Henry Fonda won for Mister Roberts (1948)
Sidney Blackmer won for Come Back, Little Sheba in 1950
Paul Muni won for Inherit the Wind (1956)
Ralph Bellamy won for Sunrise at Campobello (1958)
Jason Robards won for The Disenchanted (1959)
Melvyn Douglas won for The Best Man (1960)
Zero Mostel won for Rhinoceros (1961)
Paul Scofield won for A Man for All Seasons (1963)
Alec Guinness won for Dylan (1964)
Walter Matthau won for The Odd Couple (1965)
Martin Balsam won for You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running (1968)
James Earl Jones won for The Great White Hope (1969) and for Fences (1987)
Alan Bates won twice, for Butley (1973) and Fortune's Fool (2002)
Al Pacino won for The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel (1977)
Ian McKellen won for Amadeus (1981)
Harvey Fierstein won for Torch Song Trilogy (1983)
Jeremy Irons won for The Real Thing (1984)
Derek Jacobi won for Much Ado About Nothing (1985)
Judd Hirsch won twice for I'm Not Rappaport (1986) and Conversations with My Father (1992)
Robert Morse won Tru (1990)
Ralph Fiennes for Hamlet (1995)
Christopher Plummer won for Barrymore (1997)
Brian Dennehy won twice for Death of a Salesman (1999) and Long Days Journey into Night (2003)
Jefferson Mays won for I Am My Own Wife in 2004
Bill Irwin won for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (2005)
Richard Griffiths won for The History Boys in 2006
Frank Langella won twice for his roles in Frost/Nixon (2007) and The Father (2016)
Mark Rylance won for Boeing-Boeing (2008), and Jerusalem (2011)
Geoffrey Rush won for Exit the King in 2009
Denzel Washington won for Fences (2010)
James Corden won for One Man, Two Guvnors (2012)
Tracy Letts won for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (2013)
Bryan Cranston has won the award twice, for All the Way (2014) and Network (2019)
Kevin Kline won for Present Laughter in 2017
Andrew Garfield won for Angels in America in 2018
Simon Russell Beale won for The Lehman Trilogy (2021)
Sean Hayes won for Good Night, Oscar (2023)
Jeremy Strong won for An Enemy of the People (2024)
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
Statistics
Most wins
2 wins
Most nominations
7 nominations
6 nominations
5 nominations
4 nominations
3 nominations
2 nominations
Character win total
3 wins
2 wins
Character nomination total
4 nominations
3 nominations
2 nominations
Productions with multiple nominations
boldface =winner
Multiple awards and nominations
Actors who have been nominated multiple times in any acting categories
Trivia
See also
References
^ Kirkley, Donald (April 21, 1968). "Operation Frenzy Before the Tony Awards" . The Baltimore Sun . p. T2. Archived from the original on January 11, 2012. Retrieved December 24, 2011 . (subscription required)
^ Simons, Linda Keir (1994). The Performing Arts: a Guide to the Reference Literature . ABC-CLIO . p. 137. ISBN 978-0-87287-982-9 . Archived from the original on 2013-06-22. Retrieved 2012-01-14 .
^ Gelb, Arthur (April 1, 1956). "Popularizing the Tony Awards" . The New York Times . Retrieved January 14, 2011 . (subscription required)
^ "1956 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1957 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1958 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1959 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1960 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1961 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1962 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1963 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1964 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1965 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1966 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1967 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1968 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1969 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1970 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1971 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1972 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1973 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1974 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1975 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1976 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1977 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1978 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1979 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1980 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1981 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1982 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1983 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1984 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1985 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1986 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1987 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1988 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1989 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1990 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1991 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1992 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1993 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1994 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1995 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1996 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1997 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1998 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "1999 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "2000 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "2001 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "2002 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "2003 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "2004 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "2005 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "2006 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "2007 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "2008 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "2009 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 11, 2023 .
^ "2010 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 10, 2023 .
^ "2011 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 10, 2023 .
^ "2012 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 10, 2023 .
^ "2013 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 10, 2023 .
^ "2014 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 10, 2023 .
^ "Tony Nominations 2015: Full List" . Variety . April 28, 2015. Retrieved August 10, 2023 .
^ "2016 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 10, 2023 .
^ "2017 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 10, 2023 .
^ "2018 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 10, 2023 .
^ "2019 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 10, 2023 .
^ "2020 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 10, 2023 .
^ "2022 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . Retrieved August 10, 2023 .
^ "2023 Tony Awards Nominees" . American Theatre Wing . May 2, 2023. Retrieved August 10, 2023 .
^ " 'Hell's Kitchen' and 'Stereophonic' lead Tony Awards with 13 nominations each" . NPR . Retrieved April 30, 2024 .
External links
1947–1975 1976–2000 2001–present
Play Musical Special (non-competitive) Retired Ceremonies By country * Divided into separate awards for plays and musicals