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' is awarded to the actor who was voted as the best actor in a play, whether a new production or a revival. This Tony Award has been announced since 1947.

Contents
1948-1959
1960-1969
1970-1979
1980-1989
1990-1999
2000-2009
Winners with Multiple Tony Awards for Leading Actor in a Play

1948-1959

★ 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)

★ 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 (A 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)

1960-1969

★ 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 Culber (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 (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 McGowen (Hadrian VII)
:::Donald Pleasence (The Man in the Glass Booth)

1970-1979

★ 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 McGowen (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 and Winston Ntshona (''Sizwe Banzi is Dead'' and ''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)

1980-1989

★ 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 (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)

1990-1999

★ 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 ()
:::K. Todd Freeman (The Song of Jacob Zulu)
:::Liam Neeson (Anna Christie)
:::Stephen Rea (Someone Who'll Watch Over Me)

★ 1994 - Stephen Spinella ()
:::Brian Bedford (Timon of Athens)
:::Christopher Plummer (No Man's Land)
:::Sam Waterston (Abe Lincoln in Illinois)

★ 1995 - Ralph Fiennes (Hamlet)
:::Brian Bedford (The Moliere 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)

2000-2009

★ 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 Claire 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, Edward Albee's 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

Winners with Multiple Tony Awards for Leading Actor in a Play

★ Alan Bates (2)

★ Brian Dennehy (2)

★ José Ferrer (2)

★ Judd Hirsch (2)

★ James Earl Jones (2)

★ Fredric March (2)