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.

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

• Infoplease
• Official site, Drama Desk
• Internet Broadway Database