Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play

This is a list of the winners and nominations of Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. The award has been presented since 1947, and is for performance in new productions or revivals.

Awards and nominations

1940s

* 1947: Ingrid Bergman – "Joan of Lorraine" and Helen Hayes – "Happy Birthday"

* 1948: Judith Anderson – "Medea" and Jessica Tandy – "A Streetcar Named Desire"

* 1949: Martita Hunt – "The Madwoman of Chaillot"

1950s

* 1950: Shirley Booth – "Come Back, Little Sheba"
* 1951: Uta Hagen – "The Country Girl"
* 1952: Julie Harris – "I Am a Camera"
* 1953: Shirley Booth – "Time of the Cuckoo"
* 1954: Audrey Hepburn – "Ondine"
* 1955: Nancy Kelly – "The Bad Seed"
* 1956: Julie Harris – "The Lark"
** Barbara Bel Geddes – "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"
** Gladys Cooper – "The Chalk Garden"
** Ruth Gordon – "The Matchmaker"
** Siobhán McKenna – "The Chalk Garden"
** Susan Strasberg – "The Diary of Anne Frank"

* 1957: Margaret Leighton – "Separate Tables"
** Florence Eldridge – "Long Day's Journey into Night"
** Rosalind Russell – "Auntie Mame"
** Sybil Thorndike – "The Potting Shed"

* 1958: Helen Hayes in "Time Remembered"
** Wendy Hiller – "A Moon for the Misbegotten"
** Eugenie Leontovich – "The Cave Dwellers"
** Siobhán McKenna – "The Rope Dancers"
** Mary Ure – "Look Back in Anger"
** Jo Van Fleet – "Look Homeward, Angel"

* 1959: Gertrude Berg – "A Majority of One"
** Claudette Colbert – "The Marriage-Go-Round"
** Lynn Fontanne – "The Visit"
** Kim Stanley – "A Touch of the Poet"
** Maureen Stapleton – "The Cold Wind and the Warm"

1960s

* 1960: Anne Bancroft – "The Miracle Worker"
** Margaret Leighton – "Much Ado About Nothing"
** Claudia McNeil – "A Raisin in the Sun"
** Geraldine Page – "Sweet Bird of Youth"
** Maureen Stapleton – "Toys in the Attic"
** Irene Worth – "Toys in the Attic"

* 1961: Joan Plowright. – "A Taste of Honey"
** Tallulah Bankhead – "Midgie Purvis"
** Barbara Baxley – "Period of Adjustment"
** Barbara Bel Geddes – "Mary, Mary"

* 1962: Margaret Leighton – "The Night of the Iguana"
** Gladys Cooper in "A Passage to India"
** Colleen Dewhurst – "Great Day in the Morning"
** Kim Stanley – "A Far Country"

* 1963: Uta Hagen – "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"
** Hermione Baddeley – "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore"
** Margaret Leighton – "Tchin-Tchin"
** Claudia McNeil – "Tiger Tiger Burning Bright"

* 1964: Sandy Dennis – "Any Wednesday"
** Elizabeth Ashley – "Barefoot in the Park"
** Colleen Dewhurst – "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe"
** Julie Harris – "Marathon '33"

* 1965: Irene Worth – "Tiny Alice"
** Marjorie Rhodes – "All in Good Time"
** Beah Richards – "The Amen Corner"
** Diana Sands – "The Owl and the Pussycat"

* 1966: Rosemary Harris – "The Lion in Winter"
** Sheila Hancock – "Entertaining Mr. Sloane"
** Kate Reid – "Slapstick Tragedy"
** Lee Remick – "Wait Until Dark"

* 1967: Beryl Reid – "The Killing of Sister George"
** Eileen Atkins – "The Killing of Sister George"
** Vivien Merchant – "The Homecoming"
** Rosemary Murphy – "A Delicate Balance"

* 1968: Zoe Caldwell – "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie"
** Colleen Dewhurst – "More Stately Mansions"
** Maureen Stapleton – "Plaza Suite"
** Dorothy Tutin – "Portrait of a Queen"

* 1969: Julie Harris – "Forty Carats"
** Estelle Parsons – "Seven Descents of Myrtle"
** Charlotte Rae – "Morning, Noon and Night"
** Brenda Vaccaro – "The Goodbye People"

1970s

* 1970: Tammy Grimes – "Private Lives"
** Geraldine Brooks – "Brightower"
** Helen Hayes – "Harvey"

* 1971: Maureen Stapleton – "The Gingerbread Lady"
** Estelle Parsons – "And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little"
** Diana Rigg – "Abelard and Heloise"
** Marian Seldes – "Father's Day"

* 1972: Sada Thompson – "Twigs"
** Eileen Atkins – "Vivat! Vivat Regina!"
** Colleen Dewhurst – "All Over"
** Rosemary Harris – "Old Times"

* 1973: Julie Harris – "The Last of Mrs. Lincoln"
** Jane Alexander – "6 Rms Riv Vu"
** Colleen Dewhurst – "Mourning Becomes Electra"
** Kathleen Widdoes – "Much Ado About Nothing"

* 1974: Colleen Dewhurst – "A Moon for the Misbegotten"
** Jane Alexander.in "Find Your Way Home"
** Julie Harris – "The Au Pair Man"
** Madeline Kahn – "In the Boom Boom Room"
** Rachel Roberts – "The Visit" and "Chemin de Fer"

* 1975: Ellen Burstyn – "Same Time, Next Year"
** Elizabeth Ashley – "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"
** Diana Rigg – "The Misanthrope"
** Maggie Smith – "Private Lives"
** Liv Ullmann – "A Doll's House"

* 1976: Irene Worth – "Sweet Bird of Youth"
** Tovah Feldshuh – "Yentl"
** Rosemary Harris – "The Royal Family"
** Lynn Redgrave – "Mrs. Warren's Profession"

* 1977: Julie Harris – "The Belle of Amherst"
** Colleen Dewhurst – "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"
** Liv Ullmann – "Anna Christie"
** Irene Worth – "The Cherry Orchard"

* 1978: Jessica Tandy – "The Gin Game"
** Anne Bancroft – "Golda"
** Anita Gillette – "Chapter Two"
** Estelle Parsons – "Miss Margarida's Way"

* 1979: Constance Cummings – "Wings" and Carole Shelley – "The Elephant Man"
** Jane Alexander – "First Monday in October"
** Frances Sternhagen – "On Golden Pond"

1980s

* 1980: Phyllis Frelich – "Children of a Lesser God"
** Blythe Danner – "Betrayal"
** Maggie Smith – "Night and Day"
** Anne Twomey – "Nuts"

* 1981: Jane Lapotaire – "Piaf"
** Glenda Jackson – "Rose"
** Eva Le Gallienne – "To Grandmother's House We Go"
** Elizabeth Taylor – "The Little Foxes"

* 1982: Zoe Caldwell – "Medea"
** Katharine Hepburn – "The West Side Waltz"
** Geraldine Page – "Agnes of God"
** Amanda Plummer – "A Taste of Honey"

* 1983: Jessica Tandy – "Foxfire"
** Kathy Bates – "'Night, Mother"
** Kate Nelligan – "Plenty"
** Anne Pitoniak – "'Night, Mother"

* 1984: Glenn Close – "The Real Thing"
** Rosemary Harris – "Heartbreak House"
** Linda Hunt – "End of the World"
** Kate Nelligan – "A Moon for the Misbegotten"

* 1985: Stockard Channing – "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg"
** Sinead Cusack – "Much Ado About Nothing"
** Rosemary Harris – "Pack of Lies"
** Glenda Jackson – "Strange Interlude"

* 1986: Lily Tomlin – "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe"
** Rosemary Harris – "Hay Fever"
** Mary Beth Hurt – "Benefactors"
** Jessica Tandy – "The Petition"

* 1987: Linda Lavin – "Broadway Bound"
** Lindsay Duncan – "Les Liaisons Dangereuses"
** Geraldine Page – "Blithe Spirit"
** Amanda Plummer – "Pygmalion"

* 1988: Joan Allen – "Burn This"
** Blythe Danner – "A Streetcar Named Desire"
** Glenda Jackson – "Macbeth"
** Frances McDormand – "A Streetcar Named Desire"

* 1989: Pauline Collins – "Shirley Valentine"
** Joan Allen – "The Heidi Chronicles"
** Madeline Kahn – "Born Yesterday"
** Kate Nelligan – "Spoils of War"

1990s

* 1990: Maggie Smith – "Lettice and Lovage"
** Geraldine James – "The Merchant of Venice"
** Mary-Louise Parker – "Prelude to a Kiss"
** Kathleen Turner – "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"

* 1991: Mercedes Ruehl – "Lost in Yonkers"
** Stockard Channing – "Six Degrees of Separation"
** Julie Harris – "Lucifer's Child"
** Cherry Jones – "Our Country's Good"
* 1992: Glenn Close – "Death and the Maiden"
** Jane Alexander – "The Visit"
** Stockard Channing – "Four Baboons Adoring the Sun"
** Judith Ivey – "Park Your Car in Harvard Yard"

* 1993: Madeline Kahn – "The Sisters Rosensweig"
** Jane Alexander – "The Sisters Rosensweig"
** Lynn Redgrave – "Shakespeare For My Father"
** Natasha Richardson – "Anna Christie"

* 1994: Diana Rigg – "Medea"
** Nancy Marchand – "Black Comedy"
** Joan Rivers – "Sally Marr and Her Escorts"
** Anna Deavere Smith – ""

* 1995: Cherry Jones – "The Heiress"
** Mary Alice – "Having Our Say"
** Eileen Atkins – "Indiscretions"
** Helen Mirren – "A Month in the Country"

* 1996: Zoe Caldwell – "Master Class"
** Carol Burnett – "Moon Over Buffalo"
** Rosemary Harris – "A Delicate Balance"
** Elaine Stritch – "A Delicate Balance"

* 1997: Janet McTeer – "A Doll's House"
** Julie Harris – "The Gin Game"
** Shirley Knight – "The Young Man From Atlanta"
** Lia Williams – "Skylight"
* 1998: Marie Mullen – "The Beauty Queen of Leenane"
** Jane Alexander – "Honour"
** Allison Janney – "A View From the Bridge"
** Geraldine McEwan – "The Chairs"

* 1999: Judi Dench – "Amy's View"
** Stockard Channing – "The Lion in Winter"
** Marian Seldes – "Ring Round the Moon"
** Zoe Wanamaker – "Electra"

2000s

* 2000: Jennifer Ehle – "The Real Thing"
** Jayne Atkinson – "The Rainmaker"
** Rosemary Harris – "Waiting in the Wings"
** Cherry Jones – "A Moon for the Misbegotten"
** Claudia Shear – "Dirty Blonde"

* 2001: Mary-Louise Parker – "Proof"
** Juliette Binoche – "Betrayal"
** Linda Lavin – "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife"
** Jean Smart – "The Man Who Came to Dinner"
** Leslie Uggams – "King Hedley II"

* 2002: Lindsay Duncan – "Private Lives"
** Kate Burton – "Hedda Gabler"
** Laura Linney – "The Crucible"
** Helen Mirren – "Dance of Death"
** Mercedes Ruehl – ""

* 2003: Vanessa Redgrave – "Long Day's Journey into Night"
** Jayne Atkinson – "Enchanted April"
** Victoria Hamilton – "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg"
** Clare Higgins – "Vincent in Brixton"
** Fiona Shaw – "Medea"

* 2004: Phylicia Rashad – "A Raisin in the Sun"
** Eileen Atkins – "The Retreat from Moscow"
** Tovah Feldshuh – "Golda's Balcony"
** Anne Heche – "Twentieth Century"
** Swoosie Kurtz – "Frozen"

* 2005: Cherry Jones – "Doubt"
** Laura Linney – "Sight Unseen"
** Mary-Louise Parker – "Reckless"
** Phylicia Rashad – "Gem of the Ocean"
** Kathleen Turner – "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

* 2006: Cynthia Nixon – "Rabbit Hole"
** Kate Burton – "The Constant Wife"
** Judy Kaye – "Souvenir"
** Lisa Kron – "Well"
** Lynn Redgrave – "The Constant Wife"

* 2007: Julie White – "The Little Dog Laughed"
** Eve Best – "A Moon for the Misbegotten"
** Swoosie Kurtz – "Heartbreak House"
** Angela Lansbury – "Deuce"
** Vanessa Redgrave – "The Year of Magical Thinking"

* 2008: Deanna Dunagan – ""
** Eve Best – "The Homecoming"
** Kate Fleetwood – "Macbeth"
** S. Epatha Merkerson – "Come Back, Little Sheba"
** Amy Morton – ""

Multiple winners

5 Wins
*Julie Harris

3 Wins
*Zoe Caldwell
*Jessica Tandy

2 Wins
*Shirley Booth
*Glenn Close
*Uta Hagen
*Helen Hayes
*Cherry Jones
*Margaret Leighton

Multiple Nominees

9 Nominations
*Julie Harris

8 Nominations
*Rosemary Harris

7 Nominations
*Colleen Dewhurst

6 Nominations
*Jane Alexander

4 Nominations
*Eileen Atkins
*Stockard Channing
*Cherry Jones
*Margaret Leighton
*Maureen Stapleton
*Jessica Tandy
*Irene Worth

3 Nominations
*Zoe Caldwell
*Helen Hayes
*Glenda Jackson
*Madeline Kahn
*Kate Nelligan
*Geraldine Page
*Mary-Louise Parker
*Estelle Parsons
*Lynn Redgrave
*Diana Rigg
*Maggie Smith

2 Nominations
*Joan Allen
*Elizabeth Ashley
*Jayne Atkinson
*Anne Bancroft
*Barbara Bel Geddes
*Eve Best
*Shirley Booth
*Kate Burton
*Glenn Close
*Blythe Danner
*Lindsay Duncan
*Tovah Feldshuh
*Uta Hagen
*Swoosie Kurtz
*Linda Lavin
*Laura Linney
*Siobhán McKenna
*Claudia McNeil
*Helen Mirren
*Amanda Plummer
*Phylicia Rashad
*Vanessa Redgrave
*Mercedes Ruehl
*Marian Seldes
*Kim Stanley
*Kathleen Turner
*Liv Ullmann

External links

* [http://www.tonyawards.com/en_US/index.html Tony Awards official site]
* [http://www.playbill.com/news/article/117686.html Article on 2008 Tony Awards nominations]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/pages/theater/theaterspecial/index.html "New York Times" article on the Tony Awards]
* [http://www.broadwayworld.com/tonyawards.cfm broadwayworld Tony Awards database at BroadwayWorld.com]