Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play

won twice for Cyrano de Bergerac (1947) and The Shrike (1952) won twice Years Ago (1947) and in ''Long Day's Journey into Night'' (1957) won for Mister Roberts (1948) won for Come Back, Little Sheba in 1950 won for Sunrise at Campobello (1958) won for The Disenchanted (1959) won for The Best Man (1960) won for Rhinoceros (1961) won for A Man for All Seasons (1963) won for Dylan (1964) won for The Odd Couple (1965) won for ''You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running'' (1968) won for The Great White Hope (1969) and for Fences (1987) won twice, for Butley (1973) and ''Fortune's Fool'' (2002) won for The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel (1977) won for Amadeus (1981) won for Torch Song Trilogy (1983) won for The Real Thing (1984) won for Much Ado About Nothing (1985) won twice for ''I'm Not Rappaport (1986) and Conversations with My Father'' (1992) won Tru (1990) for Hamlet (1995) won for Barrymore (1997) won twice for Death of a Salesman (1999) and ''Long Day's Journey into Night'' (2003) won for I Am My Own Wife in 2004 won for ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' (2005) won for The History Boys in 2006 won twice for his roles in Frost/Nixon (2007) and The Father (2016) won for Boeing-Boeing (2008), and Jerusalem (2011) won for Exit the King in 2009 won for Fences (2010) won for One Man, Two Guvnors (2012) won for ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' (2013) won twice, for All the Way (2014) and Network (2019) won for Present Laughter in 2017 won for Angels in America (2018) won for The Inheritance (2020) won for The Lehman Trilogy (2021) won for Good Night, Oscar (2023) won for An Enemy of the People (2024) won for Oh, Mary! (2025) 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s ==Most wins==

; 2 wins • Alan Bates • Bryan Cranston • Brian Dennehy • José Ferrer • Judd Hirsch • James Earl Jones • Frank Langella • Fredric March • Mark Rylance ==Most nominations==

; 7 nominations • Brian Bedford • Jason Robards ; 6 nominations • Christopher Plummer ; 5 nominations • Frank Langella ; 4 nominations • Philip Bosco • Hume Cronyn • James Earl Jones • John Lithgow • Donald Pleasence • Mark Rylance • George C. Scott ; 3 nominations • Jeff Daniels • Ben Gazzara • Judd Hirsch • Fredric March • Alec McCowen • Brían F. O'Byrne • Ralph Richardson • Liev Schreiber ; 2 nominations • 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 • Corey Hawkins • Philip Seymour Hoffman • Wilfrid Hyde-White • Bill Irwin • Derek Jacobi • Kevin Kline • Nathan Lane • 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 • Mark Strong • Tom Sturridge • Denzel Washington • Nicol Williamson • John Wood ==Character win total==

; 3 wins • George from ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' ; 2 wins • 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 ==Character nomination total==

; 5 nominations • Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman ; 4 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'' ; 3 nominations • 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 ; 2 nominations • Antonio Salieri from Amadeus • Charlie Fox from Speed-the-Plow • Father Brendan Flynn from Doubt: A Parable • 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 • Lincoln from Topdog/Underdog • Mikhail lvovich Astrov from Uncle Vanya • 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==

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 • 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 • 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!. • 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 Frank Langella (age 78). • 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. ==See also==