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

This is a list of the winners and nominations of Tony Award for the Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play. The award has been presented since 1949.

Awards and nominations

1940s

* 1949: Arthur Kennedy – "Death of a Salesman"

1950s

* 1951: Eli Wallach – "The Rose Tattoo"

* 1952: John Cromwell – "Point of No Return"

* 1953: John Williams – "Dial M for Murder"

* 1954: John Kerr – "Tea and Sympathy"

* 1955: Francis L. Sullivan – "Witness for the Prosecution"

* 1956: Ed Begley – "Inherit the Wind"
** Anthony Franciosa – "A Hatful of Rain"
** Andy Griffith – "No Time for Sergeants"
** Anthony Quayle – "Tamburlaine the Great"
** Fritz Weaver – "The Chalk Garden"

* 1957: Frank Conroy – "The Potting Shed"
** Eddie Mayehoff – "Visit to a Small Planet"
** William Podmore – "Separate Tables"
** Jason Robards, Jr. – "Long Day's Journey into Night"

* 1958: Henry Jones – "Sunrise at Campobello"
** Sig Arno – "Time Remembered"
** Theodore Bikel – "The Rope Dancers"
** Pat Hingle – "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs"
** George Relph – "The Entertainer"

* 1959: Charlie Ruggles – "The Pleasure of His Company"
** Marc Connelly – "Tall Story"
** George Grizzard – "The Disenchanted"
** Walter Matthau – "Once More, With Feeling"
** Robert Morse – "Say, Darling"
** George Scott – "Comes a Day"

1960s

* 1960: Roddy McDowall – "The Fighting Cock"
** Warren Beatty – "A Loss of Roses"
** Harry Guardino – "One More River"
** Rip Torn – "Sweet Bird of Youth"
** Lawrence Winters – "The Long Dream"

* 1961: Martin Gabel – "Big Fish, Little Fish"
** Philip Bosco – "The Rape of the Belt"
** Eduardo Ciannelli – "The Devil's Advocate"
** George Grizzard – "Big Fish, Little Fish"

* 1962: Walter Matthau – "A Shot in the Dark"
** Godfrey M. Cambridge – "Purlie Victorious"
** Joseph Campanella – "A Gift of Time"
** Paul Sparer – "Ross"

* 1963: Alan Arkin – "Enter Laughing"
** Barry Gordon – "A Thousand Clowns"
** Paul Rogers – "Photo Finish"
** Frank Silvera – "The Lady of the Carnellias"

* 1964: Hume Cronyn – "Hamlet"
** Lee Allen – "Marathon '33"
** Michael Dunn – "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe"
** Larry Gates – "A Case of Libel"

* 1965: Jack Albertson – "The Subject Was Roses"
** Murray Hamilton – "Absence of a Cello"
** Martin Sheen – "The Subject Was Roses"
** Clarence Williams III – "Slow Dance on the Killing Ground"

* 1966: Patrick Magee – "Marat/Sade"
** Burt Brinckerhoff – "Cactus Flower"
** A. Larry Haines – "Generation"
** Eamon Kelly – "Philadelphia, Here I Come!"

* 1967: Ian Holm – "The Homecoming"
** Clayton Corzatte – "The School for Scandal"
** Stephen Elliot – "Marat/Sade"
** Sydney Walker – "The Wild Duck"

* 1968: James Patterson – "The Birthday Party"
** Paul Hecht – "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead"
** Brian Murray – "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead"
** John Wood – "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead"

* 1969: Al Pacino – "Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?"
** Richard Castellano – "Lovers and Other Strangers"
** Anthony Roberts – "Play It Again, Sam"
** Louis Zorich – "Hadrian VII"

1970s

* 1970: Ken Howard – "Child's Play"
** Joseph Bova – "The Chinese and Dr. Fish"
** Dennis King – "A Patriot for Me"

* 1971: Paul Sand – "Paul Sill's Story Theatre"
** Ronald Radd – "Abelard and Heloise"
** Donald Pickering – "Conduct Unbecoming"
** Ed Zimmermann – "The Philanthropist"

* 1972: Vincent Gardenia – "The Prisoner of Second Avenue"
** Douglas Rain – "Vivat! Vivat Regina!"
** Lee Richardson – "Vivat! Vivat Regina!"
** Joe Silver – "Lenny"

* 1973: John Lithgow – "The Changing Room"
** Barnard Hughes – "Much Ado About Nothing"
** John McMartin – "Don Juan"
** Hayward Morse – "Butley"

* 1974: Ed Flanders – "A Moon for the Misbegotten"
** Rene Auberjonois – "The Good Doctor"
** Douglas Turner Ward – "The River Niger"
** Dick Anthony Williams – "What the Wine-Sellers Buy"

* 1975: Frank Langella – "Seascape"
** Larry Blyden – "Absurd Person Singular"
** Leonard Frey – "The National Health"
** Philip Locke – "Sherlock Holmes"
** George Rose – "My Fat Friend"
** Dick Anthony Williams – "Black Picture Show"

* 1976: Edward Herrmann – "Mrs. Warren's Profession"
** Barry Bostwick – "They Knew What They Wanted"
** Gabriel Dell – "Lamppost Reunion"
** Daniel Seltzer – "Knock Knock"

* 1977: Jonathan Pryce – "Comedians"
** Bob Dishy – "Sly Fox"
** Joe Fields – "The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel"
** Laurence Luckinbill – "The Shadow Box"

* 1978: Lester Rawlins – "Da"
** Morgan Freeman – "The Mighty Gents"
** Victor Garber – "Deathtrap"
** Cliff Gorman – "Chapter Two"

* 1979: Michael Gough – "Bedroom Farce"
** Bob Balaban – "The Inspector General"
** Joseph Maher – "Spokesong"
** Edward James Olmos – "Zoot Suit"

1980s

* 1980: David Rounds – "Morning's at Seven"
** David Dukes – "Bent"
** George Hearn – "Watch on the Rhine"
** Earle Hyman – "The Lady from Dubuque"
** Joseph Maher – "Night and Day"

* 1981: Brian Backer – "The Floating Light Bulb"
** Tom Aldredge – "The Little Foxes"
** Adam Redfield – "A Life"
** Shepperd Strudwick – "To Grandmother's House We Go"

* 1982: Zakes Mokae – "Master Harold...and the Boys"
** Richard Kavanaugh – "The Hothouse"
** Edward Petherbridge – "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby"
** David Threlfall – "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby"

* 1983: Matthew Broderick – "Brighton Beach Memoirs"
** Zelijko Ivanek – "Brighton Beach Memoirs"
** George N. Martin – "Plenty"
** Stephen Moore – "All's Well That Ends Well"

* 1984: Joe Mantegna – "Glengarry Glen Ross"
** Philip Bosco – "Heartbreak House"
** Robert Prosky – "Glengarry Glen Ross"
** Douglas Seale – "Noises Off"

* 1985: Barry Miller – "Biloxi Blues"
** Charles S. Dutton – "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom"
** William Hurt – "Hurlyburly"
** Edward Petherbridge – "Strange Interlude"

* 1986: John Mahoney – "The House of Blue Leaves"
** Peter Gallagher – "Long Day's Journey Into Night"
** Charles Keating – "Loot"
** Joseph Maher – "Loot"

* 1987: John Randolph – "Broadway Bound"
** Frankie R. Faison – "Fences"
** Jamey Sheridan – "All My Sons"
** Courtney B. Vance – "Fences"

* 1988: B.D. Wong – "M. Butterfly"
** Michael Gough – "Breaking the Code"
** Lou Liberatore – "Burn This"
** Delroy Lindo – "Joe Turner's Come and Gone"

* 1989: Boyd Gaines – "The Heidi Chronicles"
** Peter Frechette – "Eastern Standard"
** Eric Stoltz – "Our Town"
** Gordon Joseph Weiss – "Ghetto"

1990s

* 1990: Charles Durning – "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"
** Rocky Carroll – "The Piano Lesson"
** Terry Kinney – "The Grapes of Wrath"
** Gary Sinise – "The Grapes of Wrath"

* 1991: Kevin Spacey – "Lost in Yonkers"
** Adam Arkin – "I Hate Hamlet"
** Dylan Baker – "La Bête"
** Stephen Lang – "The Speed of Darkness"

* 1992: Larry Fishburne – "Two Trains Running"
** Roscoe Lee Browne – "Two Trains Running"
** Željko Ivanek – "Two Shakespearean Actors"
** Tony Shalhoub – "Conversations with My Father"

* 1993: Stephen Spinella – ""
** Robert Sean Leonard – "Candida"
** Joe Mantello – "Angels in America: Millennium Approaches"
** Zakes Mokae – "The Song of Jacob Zulu"

* 1994: Jeffrey Wright – "Angels in America: Perestroika"
** Larry Bryggman – "Picnic"
** David Marshall Grant – "Angels in America: Perestroika"
** Gregory Itzin – "The Kentucky Cycle"

* 1995: John Glover – "Love! Valour! Compassion!"
** Stephen Bogardus – "Love! Valour! Compassion!"
** Anthony Heald – "Love! Valour! Compassion!"
** Jude Law – "Indiscretions"

* 1996: Ruben Santiago-Hudson – "Seven Guitars"
** James Gammon – "Buried Child"
** Roger Robinson – "Seven Guitars"
** Reg Rogers – "Holiday"

* 1997: Owen Teale – "A Doll's House"
** Terry Beaver – "The Last Night of Ballyhoo"
** Brian Murray – "The Little Foxes"
** William Biff McGuire – "The Young Man From Atlanta"

* 1998: Tom Murphy – "The Beauty Queen of Leenane"
** Brían F. O'Byrne – "The Beauty Queen of Leenane"
** Sam Trammell – "Ah, Wilderness!"
** Max Wright – "Ivanov"

* 1999: Frank Wood – "Side Man"
** Kevin Anderson – "Death of a Salesman"
** Finbar Lynch – "Not About Nightingales"
** Howard Witt – "Death of a Salesman"

2000s

* 2000: Roy Dotrice – "A Moon for the Misbegotten"
** Kevin Chamberlin – "Dirty Blonde"
** Daniel Davis – "Wrong Mountain"
** Derek Smith – "The Green Bird"
** Bob Stillman – "Dirty Blonde"

* 2001: Robert Sean Leonard – "The Invention of Love"
** Charles Brown – "King Hedley II"
** Larry Bryggman – "Proof"
** Michael Hayden – "Judgment at Nuremberg"
** Ben Shenkman – "Proof"

* 2002: Frank Langella – "Fortune's Fool"
** Brian Murray – "The Crucible"
** William Biff McGuire – "Morning's at Seven"
** Sam Robards – "The Man Who Had All the Luck"
** Stephen Tobolowsky – "Morning's at Seven"

* 2003: Denis O'Hare – "Take Me Out"
** Thomas Jefferson Byrd – "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom"
** Philip Seymour Hoffman – "Long Day's Journey into Night"
** Robert Sean Leonard – "Long Day's Journey into Night"
** Daniel Sunjata – "Take Me Out"

* 2004: Brían F. O'Byrne – "Frozen"
** Tom Aldredge – "Twentieth Century"
** Ben Chaplin – "The Retreat from Moscow"
** Aidan Gillen – "The Caretaker"
** Omar Metwally – "Sixteen Wounded"

* 2005: Liev Schreiber – "Glengarry Glen Ross"
** Alan Alda – "Glengarry Glen Ross"
** Gordon Clapp – "Glengarry Glen Ross"
** David Harbour – "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"
** Michael Stuhlbarg – "The Pillowman"

* 2006: Ian McDiarmid – "Faith Healer"
** Samuel Barnett – "The History Boys"
** Domhnall Gleason – "The Lieutenant of Inishmore"
** Mark Ruffalo – "Awake and Sing!"
** Pablo Schreiber – "Awake and Sing!"

* 2007: Billy Crudup – "The Coast of Utopia"
** Anthony Chisholm – "Radio Golf"
** Ethan Hawke – "The Coast of Utopia"
** John Earl Jelks – "Radio Golf"
** Stark Sands – "Journey's End"

* 2008: Jim Norton – "The Seafarer"
** Bobby Cannavale – "Mauritius"
** Raúl Esparza – "The Homecoming"
** Conleth Hill – "The Seafarer"
** David Pittu – "Is He Dead?"