| Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play | |
|---|---|
 2024 Recipient: Jeremy Strong | |
| Awarded for | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play |
| Location | New York City |
| Presented by | American Theatre Wing The Broadway League |
| Currently held by | Jeremy Strong for An Enemy of the People (2024) |
| Website | TonyAwards.com |
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.
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.
- ^ Kirkley, Donald (April 21, 1968). "Operation Frenzy Before the Tony Awards". The Baltimore Sun. p. T2. Archived from the original on January 11, 2012. Retrieved December 24, 2011. (subscription required)
- ^ Simons, Linda Keir (1994). The Performing Arts: a Guide to the Reference Literature. ABC-CLIO. p. 137. ISBN 978-0-87287-982-9. Archived from the original on 2013-06-22. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
- ^ Gelb, Arthur (April 1, 1956). "Popularizing the Tony Awards". The New York Times. Retrieved January 14, 2011. (subscription required)