Tony_Award_for_Best_Performance_by_a_Leading_Actor_in_a

Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play

The Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play presented since 1947, is awarded to actors in productions of new or revival plays.

1 Award winners
- 1.1 1940s
- 1.2 1950s
- 1.3 1960s
- 1.4 1970s
- 1.5 1980s
- 1.6 1990s
- 1.7 2000s
2 Award records

Award winners

1940s

1947 - José Ferrer – Cyrano de Bergerac / Fredric March – Years Ago

1948 - Henry Fonda – Mister Roberts / Paul Kelly – Command Decision / Basil Rathbone – The Heiress

1949 - Rex Harrison – Anne of the Thousand Days

1950s

1950 - Sidney Blackmer – Come Back, Little Sheba

1951 - Claude Rains – Darkness at Noon

1952 - José Ferrer – The Shrike

1953 - Tom Ewell – The Seven Year Itch

1954 - David Wayne – The Teahouse of the August Moon

1955 - Alfred Lunt – Quadrille

1956 - Paul Muni – Inherit the Wind

Ben Gazzara – A Hatful of Rain

Boris Karloff – The Lark

Michael Redgrave – Tiger at the Gates

Edward G. Robinson – Middle of the Night

1957 - Fredric March – Long Day's Journey into Night

Maurice Evans – The Apple Cart

Wilfred Hyde-White – The Reluctant Debutante

Eric Portman – Separate Tables

Ralph Richardson – The Waltz of the Toreadors

Cyril Ritchard – Visit to a Small Planet

1958 - Ralph Bellamy – Sunrise at Campobello

Richard Burton – Time Remembered

Hugh Griffith – Look Homeward, Angel

Laurence Olivier – The Entertainer

Anthony Perkins – Look Homeward, Angel

Peter Ustinov – Romanoff and Juliet

Emlyn Williams – A Boy Growing Up

1959 - Jason Robards, Jr. – The Disenchanted

Cedric Hardwicke – A Majority of One

Alfred Lunt – The Visit

Christopher Plummer – J.B.

Cyril Ritchard – The Pleasure of His Company

Robert Stephens – Epitaph for George Dillon

1960s

1960 - Melvyn Douglas – The Best Man

Lee Tracy – The Best Man

Jason Robards, Jr. – Toys in the Attic

Sidney Poitier – A Raisin in the Sun

George C. Scott – The Andersonville Trial

1961 - Zero Mostel – Rhinocéros

Hume Cronyn – Big Fish, Little Fish

Sam Levene – The Devil's Advocate

Anthony Quinn – Becket

1962 - Paul Scofield – A Man for All Seasons

Fredric March – Gideon

John Mills – Ross

Donald Pleasence – The Caretaker

1963 - Arthur Hill – Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Charles Boyer – Lord Pengo

Paul Ford – Never Too Late

Bert Lahr – The Beauty Part

1964 - Alec Guinness – Dylan

Richard Burton – Hamlet

Albert Finney – Luther

Jason Robards, Jr. – After the Fall

1965 - Walter Matthau – The Odd Couple

John Gielgud – Tiny Alice

Donald Pleasence – Poor Bitos

Jason Robards – Hughie

1966 - Hal Holbrook – Mark Twain Tonight

Roland Culver – Ivanov

Donal Donnelly and Patrick Bedford – Philadelphia, Here I Come!

Nicol Williamson – Inadmissible Evidence

1967 - Paul Rogers – The Homecoming

Hume Cronyn – A Delicate Balance

Donald Madden – Black Comedy

Donald Moffat – Right You Are and The Wild Duck

1968 - Martin Balsam – You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running

Albert Finney – A Day in the Death of Joe Egg

Milo O'Shea – Staircase

Alan Webb – I Never Sang for My Father

1969 - James Earl Jones – The Great White Hope

Art Carney – Lovers

Alec McCowen – Hadrian the Seventh

Donald Pleasence – The Man in the Glass Booth

1970s

1970 - Fritz Weaver – Child's Play

James Coco – The Last of the Red Hot Lovers

Frank Grimes – Borstal Boy

Stacy Keach – Indians

1971 - Brian Bedford – The School for Wives

John Gielgud – Home

Alec McCowen – The Philanthropist

Ralph Richardson – Home

1972 - Cliff Gorman – Lenny

Tom Aldredge – Sticks and Bones

Donald Pleasence – Wise Child

Jason Robards – The Country Girl

1973 - Alan Bates – Butley

Jack Albertson – The Sunshine Boys

Wilfrid Hyde-White – The Jockey Club Stakes

Paul Sorvino – That Championship Season

1974 - Michael Moriarty – Find Your Way Home

Zero Mostel – Ulysses in Nighttown

Jason Robards – A Moon for the Misbegotten

George C. Scott – Uncle Vanya

Nicol Williamson – Uncle Vanya

1975 - John Kani – Sizwe Banzi is Dead and

- Winston Ntshona – The Island

Jim Dale – Scapino

Peter Firth – Equus

Henry Fonda – Clarence Darrow

Ben Gazzara – Hughie and Duet

John Wood – Sherlock Holmes

1976 - John Wood – Travesties

Moses Gunn – The Poison Tree

George C. Scott – Death of a Salesman

Donald Sinden – Habeas Corpus

1977 - Al Pacino – The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel

Tom Courtenay – Otherwise Engaged

Ben Gazzara – Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Ralph Richardson – No Man's Land

1978 - Barnard Hughes – Da

Hume Cronyn – The Gin Game

Frank Langella – Dracula

Jason Robards – A Touch of the Poet

1979 - Tom Conti – Whose Life Is It Anyway?

Philip Anglim – The Elephant Man

Jack Lemmon – Tribute

Alec McCowen – St. Mark's Gospel

1980s

1980 - John Rubinstein – Children of a Lesser God

Charles Brown – Home

Gerald Hiken – Strider

Judd Hirsch – Talley's Folly

1981 - Ian McKellen – Amadeus

Tim Curry – Amadeus

Roy Dotrice – A Life

Jack Weston – The Floating Light Bulb

1982 - Roger Rees – The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby

Tom Courtenay – The Dresser

Milo O'Shea – Mass Appeal

Christopher Plummer – Othello

1983 - Harvey Fierstein – Torch Song Trilogy

Jeffrey DeMunn – K2

Edward Herrmann – Plenty

Tony Lo Bianco – A View from the Bridge

1984 - Jeremy Irons – The Real Thing

Calvin Levels – Open Admissions

Rex Harrison – Heartbreak House

Ian McKellen – Ian McKellen Acting Shakespeare

1985 - Derek Jacobi – Much Ado About Nothing

Jim Dale – A Day in the Death of Joe Egg

Jonathan Hogan – As Is

John Lithgow – Requiem for a Heavyweight

1986 - Judd Hirsch – I'm Not Rappaport

Hume Cronyn – The Petition

Ed Harris – Precious Sons

Jack Lemmon – Long Day's Journey into Night

1987 - James Earl Jones – Fences

Philip Bosco – You Never Can Tell

Richard Kiley – All My Sons

Alan Rickman – Les Liaisons Dangereuses

1988 - Ron Silver – Speed-the-Plow

Derek Jacobi – Breaking the Code

John Lithgow – M. Butterfly

Robert Prosky – A Walk in the Woods

1989 - Philip Bosco – Lend Me a Tenor

Mikhail Baryshnikov – Metamorphosis

Victor Garber – Lend Me a Tenor

Bill Irwin – Largely New York

1990s

1990 - Robert Morse – Tru

Charles S. Dutton – The Piano Lesson

Dustin Hoffman – The Merchant of Venice

Tom Hulce – A Few Good Men

1991 - Nigel Hawthorne – Shadowlands

Peter Frechette – Our Country's Good

Tom McGowan – La Bête

Courtney B. Vance – Six Degrees of Separation

1992 - Judd Hirsch – Conversations with My Father

Alan Alda – Jake's Women

Alec Baldwin – A Streetcar Named Desire

Brian Bedford – Two Shakespearean Actors

1993 - Ron Leibman – Angels in America: Millennium Approaches

K. Todd Freeman – The Song of Jacob Zulu

Liam Neeson – Anna Christie

Stephen Rea – Someone Who'll Watch Over Me

1994 - Stephen Spinella – Angels in America: Perestroika

Brian Bedford – Timon of Athens

Christopher Plummer – No Man's Land

Sam Waterston – Abe Lincoln in Illinois

1995 - Ralph Fiennes – Hamlet

Brian Bedford – The Molière Comedies

Roger Rees – Indiscretions

Joe Sears – A Tuna Christmas

1996 - George Grizzard – A Delicate Balance

Philip Bosco – Moon Over Buffalo

George C. Scott – Inherit the Wind

Martin Shaw – An Ideal Husband

1997 - Christopher Plummer – Barrymore

Brian Bedford – London Assurance

Michael Gambon – Skylight

Antony Sher – Stanley

1998 - Anthony LaPaglia – A View from the Bridge

Richard Briers – The Chairs

John Leguizamo – Freak

Alfred Molina – 'Art'

1999 - Brian Dennehy – Death of a Salesman

Brian F. O'Byrne – The Lonesome West

Corin Redgrave – Not About Nightingales

Kevin Spacey – The Iceman Cometh

2000s

2000 - Stephen Dillane – The Real Thing

Gabriel Byrne – A Moon for the Misbegotten

Philip Seymour Hoffman – True West

John C. Reilly – True West

David Suchet – Amadeus

2001 - Richard Easton – The Invention of Love

Seán Campion – Stones in His Pockets

Conleth Hill – Stones in His Pockets

Brian Stokes Mitchell – King Hedley II

Gary Sinise – One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

2002 - Alan Bates – Fortune's Fool

Billy Crudup – The Elephant Man

Liam Neeson – The Crucible

Alan Rickman – Private Lives

Jeffrey Wright – Topdog/Underdog

2003 - Brian Dennehy – Long Day's Journey into Night

Brian Bedford – Tartuffe

Eddie Izzard – A Day in the Death of Joe Egg

Paul Newman – Our Town

Stanley Tucci – Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune

2004 - Jefferson Mays – I Am My Own Wife

Simon Russell Beale – Jumpers

Kevin Kline – Henry IV

Frank Langella – Match

Christopher Plummer – King Lear

2005 - Bill Irwin – Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Philip Bosco – Twelve Angry Men

Billy Crudup – The Pillowman

James Earl Jones – On Golden Pond

Brían F. O'Byrne – Doubt

2006 - Richard Griffiths – The History Boys

Ralph Fiennes – Faith Healer

Željko Ivanek – The Caine Mutiny Court Martial

Oliver Platt – Shining City

David Wilmot – The Lieutenant of Inishmore

2007 - Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon

Boyd Gaines – Journey's End

Brían F. O'Byrne – The Coast of Utopia

Christopher Plummer – Inherit the Wind

Liev Schreiber – Talk Radio

2008 - Mark Rylance – Boeing Boeing

Ben Daniels – Les Liaisons Dangereuses

Laurence Fishburne – Thurgood

Rufus Sewell – Rock 'n' Roll

Patrick Stewart – Macbeth

Award records

v • d • e Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play

1947-1975	José Ferrer (1947) · Henry Fonda (1948) · Rex Harrison (1949) · Sidney Blackmer (1950) · Claude Rains (1951) · José Ferrer (1952) · Tom Ewell (1953) · David Wayne (1954) · Alfred Lunt (1955) · Paul Muni (1956) · Fredric March (1957) · Ralph Bellamy (1958) · Jason Robards, Jr. (1959) · Melvyn Douglas (1960) · Zero Mostel (1961) · Paul Scofield (1962) · Arthur Hill (1963) · Alec Guinness (1964) · Walter Matthau (1965) · Hal Holbrook (1966) · Paul Rogers (1967) · Martin Balsam (1968) · James Earl Jones (1969) · Fritz Weaver (1970) · Brian Bedford (1971) · Cliff Gorman (1972) · Alan Bates (1973) · Michael Moriarty (1974) · John Kani / Winston Ntshona (1975)

1976-2000	John Wood (1976) · Al Pacino (1977) · Barnard Hughes (1978) · Tom Conti (1979) · John Rubinstein (1980) · Ian McKellen (1981) · Roger Rees (1982) · Harvey Fierstein (1983) · Jeremy Irons (1984) · Derek Jacobi (1985) · Judd Hirsch (1986) · James Earl Jones (1987) · Ron Silver (1988) · Philip Bosco (1989) · Robert Morse (1990) · Nigel Hawthorne (1991) · Judd Hirsch (1992) · Ron Leibman (1993) · Stephen Spinella (1994) · Ralph Fiennes (1995) · George Grizzard (1996) · Christopher Plummer (1997) · Anthony LaPaglia (1998) · Brian Dennehy (1999) · Stephen Dillane (2000)

2001-present	Richard Easton (2001) · Alan Bates (2002) · Brian Dennehy (2003) · Jefferson Mays (2004) · Bill Irwin (2005) · Richard Griffiths (2006) · Frank Langella (2007) · Mark Rylance (2008)

Complete list: (1947-1975) · (1976-2000) · (2001-present)

v • d • e Tony Awards

Play	Best Play · Best Direction of a Play · Best Leading Actor in a Play · Best Leading Actress in a Play · Best Featured Actor in a Play · Best Featured Actress in a Play · Best Costume Design of a Play · Best Lighting Design of a Play · Best Revival of a Play · Best Scenic Design of a Play

Musical	Best Musical · Best Direction of a Musical · Best Leading Actor in a Musical · Best Leading Actress in a Musical · Best Featured Actor in a Musical · Best Featured Actress in a Musical · Best Book of a Musical · Best Choreography · Best Costume Design of a Musical · Best Lighting Design of a Musical · Best Orchestrations · Best Original Score · Best Revival of a Musical · Best Scenic Design of a Musical

Special	Regional Theatre Tony Award · Special Tony Award · Best Special Theatrical Event ·

Retired	Best Author · Best Conductor and Musical Director · Best Stage Technician · Best Revival ·

Ceremonies	1947 · 1948 · 1949 · 1950 · 1951 · 1952 · 1953 · 1954 · 1955 · 1956 · 1957 · 1958 · 1959 · 1960 · 1961 · 1962 · 1963 · 1964 · 1965 · 1966 · 1967 · 1968 · 1969 · 1970 · 1971 · 1972 · 1973 · 1974 · 1975 · 1976 · 1977 · 1978 · 1979 · 1980 · 1981 · 1982 · 1983 · 1984 · 1985 · 1986 · 1987 · 1988 · 1989 · 1990 · 1991 · 1992 · 1993 · 1994 · 1995 · 1996 · 1997 · 1998 · 1999 · 2000 · 2001 · 2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006 · 2007 · 2008

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