Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play

The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play was first awarded at the 1974–1975 Drama Desk Awards and has been awarded every year since. Before the 21st Drama Desk Awards, acting awards were given without making distinctions between roles in straight dramas as opposed to musicals, nor were there separate categories for actors and actresses.

Contents

1 Award winners and nominations
- 1.1 1970s
- 1.2 1980s
- 1.3 1990s
- 1.4 2000s
- 1.5 2010s
2 References

Award winners and nominations

1970s

1975: Anthony Hopkins – Equus
- Roy Dotrice – Brief Lives
- Peter Firth – Equus
- Charles Grodin – Same Time, Next Year
- John Kani – Sizwe Banzi Is Dead / The Island
- Alec McCowen – The Misanthrope
- Richard Monette – Hosanna
- Tony Musante – P.S. Your Cat Is Dead
- Winston Ntshona – The Island
- Donald Sinden – London Assurance
1976: John Wood – Travesties
- Peter Evans – Streamers
- Ben Gazzara – Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
- Richard Kiley – The Heiress
- Frank Quinn – Lampost Reunion
- Louis Zorich – They Knew What They Wanted
1977: Al Pacino – The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel
- Martin Balsam – Cold Storage
- Richard Chamberlain – The Night of the Iguana
- Tom Courtney – Otherwise Engaged

1977: (continued)
- Robert Duvall – American Buffalo
- Fred Gwynne – A Texas Trilogy
- John Heard – G.R. Point
- Jonathan Pryce – The Comedians
1978: Barnard Hughes – Da
- Hume Cronyn – The Gin Game
- Judd Hirsch – Chapter Two
- James Earl Jones – Paul Robeson
- Frank Langella – Dracula
- Brian Murray – Da
1979: Philip Anglim – The Elephant Man
- Tom Aldredge – On Golden Pond
- Richard Chamberlain – Fathers and Sons
- Tom Conti – Whose Life Is It Anyway?
- Donal Donnelly – Faith Healer
- Judd Hirsch – Talley's Folly
- Jack Lemmon – Tribute

1980s

1980: John Rubinstein – Children of a Lesser God
- F. Murray Abraham – Teibele and Her Demon
- Philip Bosco – Major Barbara
- Charles Brown – Home
- Gerald Hiken – Strider
- Judd Hirsch – Talley's Folly
1981: Ian McKellen – Amadeus
- Tim Curry – Amadeus
- John Heard – A Chekhov Sketchbook
- Derek Jacobi – The Suicide
- Milo O'Shea – Mass Appeal
- Remak Ramsay – The Winslow Boy
1982: Christopher Plummer – Othello
- Bob Gunton – How I Got That Story
- Zakes Mokae – Master Harold
- Paul Rogers – The Dresser
- Robert Stattel – King Lear
1983: Harvey Fierstein – Torch Song Trilogy
- Matthew Broderick – Torch Song Trilogy
- Jeff Daniels – Johnny Got His Gun
- John Malkovich – True West
- Remak Ramsay – Quartermaine's Terms
- John Rubinstein – The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
- James Russo – Extremities
1984: Dustin Hoffman – Death of a Salesman
- Rex Harrison – Heartbreak House
- Jeremy Irons – The Real Thing
- David McCallum – The Philanthropist
- Donald Moffat – Play Memory
- Al Pacino – American Buffalo

1985: John Lithgow – Requiem for a Heavyweight
- Jim Dale – A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
- Anthony Heald – Digby
- Anthony Heald – The Foreigner
- Jonathan Hogan – As Is
- Derek Jacobi – Cyrano de Bergerac
- Derek Jacobi – Much Ado About Nothing
- Patrick McGoohan – Pack of Lies
- Jonathan Pryce – Accidental Death of an Anarchist
1986: Ed Harris – Precious Sons
- Jeff Daniels – Lemon Sky
- Kevin Kline – Hamlet
- Jack Lemmon – Long Day's Journey Into Night
- John Mahoney – House of Blue Leaves
- Roshan Seth – Map of the World
1987: James Earl Jones – Fences
- Don Bloomfield – Lily Dale
- Morgan Freeman – Driving Miss Daisy
- Victor Garber – You Never Can Tell
- Ian McKellen – Wild Honey
- Alan Rickman – Les Liaisons dangereuses
1988: Ron Silver – Speed-the-Plow
- Derek Jacobi – Breaking the Code
- Delroy Lindo – Joe Turner's Come and Gone
- John Lithgow – M. Butterfly
- John Malkovich – Burn This
- Joe Mantegna – Speed-the-Plow
1989: Philip Bosco – Lend Me a Tenor
- Mikhail Baryshnikov – Metamorphosis
- Niall Buggy – Aristocrats
- Peter Friedman – The Heidi Chronicles
- John Kavanagh – Juno and the Paycock
- Stephen McHattie – Ghetto
- Paul Provenza – Only Kidding

1990s

1990: Nathan Lane – The Lisbon Traviata
- Alec Baldwin – Prelude to a Kiss
- Charles S. Dutton – The Piano Lesson
- Gary Sinise – The Grapes of Wrath
- Colin Stinton – Some Americans Abroad
1991: Ron Rifkin – The Substance of Fire
- Kevin Kline – Hamlet
- Tom McGowan – La Bête
- Sab Shimono – The Wash
1992: Brian Bedford – Two Shakespearean Actors
- F. Murray Abraham – A Life in the Theatre
- Dennis Boutsikaris – Sight Unseen
- James McDaniel – Before It Hits Home
- Brian Murray – A Small Family Business
1993: Ron Leibman – Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes
- John Cameron Mitchell – The Destiny of Me
- Denis O'Hare – Hauptmann
- Everett Quinton – Brother Truckers
- Ron Rifkin – Three Hotels
1994: Brian Bedford – Timon of Athens
- Stacy Keach – The Kentucky Circle
- Christopher Plummer – No Man's Land
- Stephen Spinella – Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes
- Sam Waterston – Abe Lincoln in Illinois
1995: Ralph Fiennes – Hamlet
- Tom Aldredge – Incommunicado
- Philip Bosco – The Heiress
- Philip Goodwin – Henry VI
- Rob Leibman – The Merchant of Venice
- Roger Rees – Indiscretions

1996: Frank Langella – The Father
- Gerry Bamman – Nixon's Nixon
- George Grizzard – A Delicate Balance
- Mark Nelson – Picasso at the Lapin Agile
- Rocco Sisto – Quills
- Patrick Stewart – The Tempest
1997: David Morse – How I Learned to Drive and Christopher Plummer – Barrymore
- Michael Gambon – Skylight
- Frank Langella – Present Laughter
- Donal McLann – The Steward of Christendom
- Daniel Massey – Taking Sides
1998: Anthony LaPaglia – A View from the Bridge
- Jason Bowcutt – Never the Sinner
- Richard Briers – The Chairs
- Brian Cox – St. Nicholas
- John Slattery – Three Days of Rain
- Eli Wallach – Visiting Mr. Green
1999: Brian Dennehy – Death of a Salesman
- Scott Glenn – Killer Joe
- Finbar Lynch – Not About Nightingales
- Corin Redgrave – Not About Nightingales
- Patrick Stewart – The Ride Down Mt. Morgan
- Toby Stephens – Ring Round the Moon

2000s

2000: Stephen Dillane – The Real Thing
- Gabriel Byrne – A Moon for the Misbegotten
- Kevin Chamberlin – Dirty Blonde
- Philip Seymour Hoffman – True West
- Derek Jacobi – Uncle Vanya
- Paul Sparks – Coyote on a Fence
2001: Richard Easton – The Invention of Love
- Alan Bates – The Unexpected Man
- Ralph Fiennes – Richard II
- Brian Stokes Mitchell – King Hedley II
- John Ortiz – Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train
- Liev Schreiber – Betrayal
2002: Alan Bates – Fortune's Fool
- Liam Neeson – The Crucible
- Bill Pullman – The Goat: or, Who Is Sylvia?
- Alan Rickman – Private Lives
- Dallas Roberts – Nocturne
- Jeffrey Wright – Topdog/Underdog
2003: Eddie Izzard – A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
- Simon Russell Beale – Uncle Vanya
- Norbert Leo Butz – Buicks
- Jim Dale – Comedians
- Brian Dennehy – Long Day's Journey into Night
- Daniel Sunjata – Take Me Out
2004: Kevin Kline – Henry IV
- John Michael Higgins – Big Bill
- Frank Langella – Match
- Brían F. O'Byrne – Frozen
- Christopher Plummer – King Lear
- Paul Sparks – Blackbird

2005: Brían F. O'Byrne – Doubt: A Parable
- John Cullum – Sin (A Cardinal Deposed)
- Jeremy Piven – Fat Pig
- John Turturro – Souls of Naples
- Adam Arkin – Brooklyn Boy
- Bill Irwin – Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
2006: Richard Griffiths – The History Boys
- Vince Gatton – Candy & Dorothy
- John Glover – The Paris Letter
- Nathan Lane – Dedication or The Stuff of Dreams
- Brían F. O'Byrne – Shining City
- Željko Ivanek – The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
2007: Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon
- Philip Seymour Hoffman – Jack Goes Boating
- Paul Sparks – Essential Self-Defense
- Kevin Spacey – A Moon for the Misbegotten
- Christopher Plummer – Inherit the Wind
- Liev Schreiber – Talk Radio
- Brían F. O'Byrne – The Coast of Utopia: Voyage
2008: Mark Rylance – Boeing-Boeing
- Bill Champion – Intimate Exchanges
- Kevin Kline – Cyrano de Bergerac
- Bill Pullman – Peter and Jerry
- Tobias Segal – From Up Here
- Rufus Sewell – Rock ’n’ Roll
2009: Geoffrey Rush – Exit the King
- Simon Russell Beale – The Winter's Tale
- Reed Birney – Blasted
- Raúl Esparza – Speed-the-Plow
- Bill Irwin – Waiting for Godot
- Daniel Radcliffe – Equus
- Thomas Sadoski – reasons to be pretty

2010s

2010: Liev Schreiber – A View from the Bridge
- Bill Heck – The Orphans' Home Cycle
- Jude Law – Hamlet
- Alfred Molina – Red
- Eddie Redmayne – Red
- John Douglas Thompson – The Emperor Jones
- Christopher Walken – A Behanding in Spokane

2011: Bobby Cannavale – The Motherfucker With the Hat
- Charles Busch – The Divine Sister
- Al Pacino – The Merchant of Venice
- Geoffrey Rush – The Diary of a Madman
- Mark Rylance – Jerusalem
- Michael Shannon – Mistakes Were Made
- Paul Sparks – Dusk Rings a Bell

References

Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play

1975–2000	Anthony Hopkins (1975) · John Wood (1976) · Al Pacino (1977) · Barnard Hughes (1978) · Philip Anglim (1979) · John Rubinstein (1980) · Ian McKellen (1981) · Christopher Plummer (1982) · Harvey Fierstein (1983) · Dustin Hoffman (1984) · John Lithgow (1985) · Ed Harris (1986) · James Earl Jones (1987) · Ron Silver (1988) · Philip Bosco (1989) · Nathan Lane (1990) · Ron Rifkin (1991) · Brian Bedford (1992) · Ron Leibman (1993) · Brian Bedford (1994) · Ralph Fiennes (1995) · Frank Langella (1996) · David Morse / Christopher Plummer (1997) · Anthony LaPaglia (1998) · Brian Dennehy (1999) · Stephen Dillane (2000)

2001–present	Richard Easton (2001) · Alan Bates (2002) · Eddie Izzard (2003) · Kevin Kline (2004) · Brían F. O'Byrne (2005) · Richard Griffiths (2006) · Frank Langella (2007) · Mark Rylance (2008) · Geoffrey Rush (2009) · Liev Schreiber (2010) · Bobby Cannavale (2011)

Complete list · (1975–2000) · (2001–2025)

Drama Desk Awards

Play	Play · Revival of a Play · Actor in a Play · Actress in a Play · Featured Actor in a Play · Featured Actress in a Play · Director of a Play · Music in a Play

Musical	Musical · Revival of a Musical · Actor in a Musical · Actress in a Musical · Featured Actor in a Musical · Featured Actress in a Musical · Director of a Musical · Music · Lyrics · Book · Orchestrations

Production	Director · Choreography · Set Design · Costume Design · Lighting Design · Sound Design · Revival · Revue · One-Person Show · Special Award · Unique Theatrical Experience