Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play
American theatre award for Broadway actors
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
AwardedforBest Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play
LocationNew York City
PresentedbyAmerican Theatre Wing The Broadway League
Currently held byJohn Lithgow for Giant (2026)
| Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play | |
|---|---|
2026 Recipient: John Lithgow | |
| Awarded for | Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play |
| Location | New York City |
| Presented by | American Theatre Wing The Broadway League |
| Currently held by | John Lithgow for Giant (2026) |
| Website | TonyAwards.com |
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. Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman is the character to be nominated the most times, with five total nominations.
Winners and nominees
indicates the winner
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1940s
| Year | Actor | Project | Role(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1947 (1st) |
José Ferrer | Cyrano de Bergerac | Cyrano De Bergerac | |
| Fredric March | Years Ago | Clinton Jones | ||
| 1948 (2nd) |
Henry Fonda | Mister Roberts | Lt. Roberts | |
| Paul Kelly | Command Decision | Brigadier General K.C. Dennis | ||
| Basil Rathbone | The Heiress | Dr. Austin Sloper | ||
| 1949 (3rd) | ||||
| Rex Harrison | Anne of the Thousand Days | Henry VIII |
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
Most wins
Most nominations
Character win total
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Character nomination total
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Productions with multiple nominations
boldface=winner
- Look Homeward, Angel – Alizwa Mleni and Anthony Perkins
- The Best Man – Melvyn Douglas and Lee Tracy
- Philadelphia, Here I Come! – Patrick Bedford and Donal Donnelly (jointly)
- Home – John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson
- Uncle Vanya – George C. Scott and Nicol Williamson
- Sizwe Banzi is Dead and The Island – John Kani and Winston Ntshona (jointly)
- Amadeus – Ian McKellen and Tim Curry
- Lend Me a Tenor – Philip Bosco and Victor Garber
- True West – Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly
- Stones In His Pockets – Sean Campion and Conleth Hill
- God of Carnage – Jeff Daniels and James Gandolfini
- Sea Wall/A Life – Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Sturridge
- The Lehman Trilogy – Simon Russell Beale, Adam Godley and Adrian Lester
- Topdog/Underdog – Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Corey Hawkins
Multiple awards and nominations
- Actors who have been nominated multiple times in any acting categories
Trivia
- The lead role of George in Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? has earned the Tony Award for three different actors who have performed the character:
- 1963 – Arthur Hill
- 2005 – Bill Irwin
- 2013 – Tracy Letts
- Other male roles have produced multiple Tony Award winners: Henry in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing
- 1984 – Jeremy Irons
- 2000 – Stephen Dillane
- James Tyrone Sr., in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night
- 1957 – Fredric March
- 2003 – Brian Dennehy
- Troy Maxson in August Wilson's Fences
- 1987 – James Earl Jones
- 2010 – Denzel Washington
- Prior Walter in Tony Kushner's Angels in America
- 1994 – Stephen Spinella
- 2018 – Andrew Garfield
- Spinella won this category in 1994 for playing Prior Walter in Angels in America: Perestroika one year after winning the award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for the same character in Angels in America: Millennium Approaches.
- In 2025, Cole Escola became the first non-binary actor to win the award, for their performance of Mary Todd Lincoln in Oh, Mary!.[74]
- Actors have won Tony Awards for both Best Actor in a Play and Best Actor in a Musical for playing Cyrano de Bergerac: Jose Ferrer in Cyrano de Bergerac and Christopher Plummer in Cyrano.
- Donald Moffat was nominated for his performances in two different productions, Right You Are (If You Think You Are) and The Wild Duck, at the 21st Tony Awards.
- The youngest winner in this acting category is Alex Sharp (age 26). The oldest is John Lithgow (age 80).
- Actors have won Tony Awards for both Best Actor in a Play and Best Actress in a Play for playing Mary Todd Lincoln: Cole Escola in Oh, Mary! and Julie Harris in The Last of Mrs. Lincoln.
