Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play

Winners and nominees

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

Multiple wins

• Alan Bates
• Bryan Cranston
• Brian Dennehy
• José Ferrer
• Judd Hirsch
• James Earl Jones
• Frank Langella
• Fredric March
• Mark Rylance

  Multiple nominations

• Brian Bedford
• Jason Robards

• Christopher Plummer

• Frank Langella

• Philip Bosco
• Hume Cronyn
• James Earl Jones
• Donald Pleasence
• Mark Rylance
• George C. Scott

• Jeff Daniels
• Ben Gazzara
• Judd Hirsch
• John Lithgow
• Fredric March
• Alec McCowen
• Brían F. O'Byrne
• Ralph Richardson

• Alan Bates
• Richard Burton
• Gabriel Byrne
• Tom Courtenay
• Bryan Cranston
• Billy Crudup
• Jim Dale
• Brian Dennehy
• José Ferrer
• Ralph Fiennes
• Albert Finney
• Henry Fonda
• John Gielgud
• Rex Harrison
• Philip Seymour Hoffman
• Wilfrid Hyde-White
• Bill Irwin
• Derek Jacobi
• Kevin Kline
• Alfred Lunt
• Jack Lemmon
• Jefferson Mays
• Ian McKellen
• Alfred Molina
• Zero Mostel
• Liam Neeson
• Milo O'Shea
• Al Pacino
• Roger Rees
• Alan Rickman
• Cyril Ritchard
• Liev Schreiber
• Denzel Washington
• Nicol Williamson
• John Wood

  Multiple character wins

• George from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

• Henry from The Real Thing
• James Tyrone, Sr. from Long Day's Journey into Night
• Prior Walter from Angels in America
• Troy Maxson from Fences

  Multiple character nominations

• Eddie Carbone from A View from the Bridge
• George from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
• James Tyrone, Sr. from Long Day's Journey into Night

• Bri from A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
• Hamlet from Hamlet
• Henry Drummond from Inherit the Wind
• John Merrick from The Elephant Man
• Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman

• Antonio Salieri from Amadeus
• Charlie Fox from Speed-the-Plow
• Henry from The Real Thing
• Henry Carr from Travesties
• James Tyrone, Jr. from A Moon for the Misbegotten
• Le Vicomte de Valmont from Les Liaisons Dangereuses
• Paul from Six Degrees of Separation
• President Ari Hockstader from The Best Man
• Prior Walter from Angels in America
• Shylock from The Merchant of Venice
• Theodore "Hickey" Hickman from The Iceman Cometh
• Tobias from A Delicate Balance
• Tom Sergeant from Skylight
• Troy Maxson from Fences

  Productions with multiple nominations

• Look Homeward, Angel -- Hugh Griffith and Anthony Perkins
• The Best Man -- Melvyn Douglas and Lee Tracy
• Philadelphia, Here I Come! -- Patrick Bedford and Donal Donnelly
• 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
• 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

  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 ' one year after winning the award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for the same character in '.
• 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 and The Wild Duck--at the 21st Tony Awards.
• The youngest winner in this acting category is Alex Sharp. The oldest is Frank Langella.