Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor

Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor
The 2025 Recipient: John Lithgow
Awarded for	Best Actor in a Play
Location	England
Presented by	Society of London Theatre
First award	1985
Currently held by	John Lithgow for Giant (2025)
Website	officiallondontheatre.com/olivier-awards/

The Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Play is an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in commercial London theatre. The awards were established as the Society of West End Theatre Awards in 1976, and renamed in 1984 in honour of English actor and director Laurence Olivier.

This award was introduced in 1985, as Actor of the Year, then retitled to its current name for the 1993 ceremony. Prior to this award, from 1976 to 1984 (and again in 1988), there was a pair of awards given each year for this general category, one for Actor of the Year in a New Play and the other for Actor of the Year in a Revival.

Winners and nominees

Sir Michael Gambon received 11 nominations in this category winning for A View from the Bridge (1988)

Sir Derek Jacobi won twice for Cyrano de Bergerac (1983), and Twelfth Night (2009)

Sir Ian McKellen won this award four times in 1977, 1979, 1984, and 1991

Mark Rylance won this award twice for Much Ado About Nothing (1994), and Jerusalem (2010)

Ian Holm won this award for King Lear (1998)

Kevin Spacey won for his role in the play The Iceman Cometh (1999)

Roger Allam won twice for Privates on Parade (2002) and Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2 (2011)

Simon Russell Beale won this award for Uncle Vanya (2003)

Richard Griffiths won for his role in The History Boys (2005)

Brian Dennehy won for Death of a Salesman (2006)

Chiwetel Ejiofor won for Othello (2008)

Benedict Cumberbatch won for Frankenstein (2012)

Jonny Lee Miller won with Cumberbatch for Frankenstein (2012)

Rory Kinnear won for Othello (2014)

Mark Strong won for A View from the Bridge (2015)

Bryan Cranston won for Network (2018)

Kyle Soller won for The Inheritance (2019)

Andrew Scott won for Present Laughter (2020)

Paul Mescal won for A Streetcar Named Desire (2023)

Mark Gatiss won for The Motive and the Cue (2024)

John Lithgow won for Giant (2025)

1980s

Year	Actor	Play	Character
1985
	Antony Sher	Richard III and Torch Song Trilogy	Richard III of England / Arnold Beckoff
	Alun Armstrong	The Crucible and The Winter's Tale	John Proctor / Leontes
	Kenneth Branagh	Henry V	Henry V of England
	Anthony Hopkins	Pravda	Lambert Le Roux
1986
	Albert Finney	Orphans	Harold
	Derek Jacobi	Breaking the Code	Alan Turing
	Ian McKellen	The Cherry Orchard	Lopakhin
	Martin Sheen	The Normal Heart	Ned Weeks
1987
	Michael Gambon	A View from the Bridge	Eddie Carbone
	Tokusaburo Arashi	Medea	Medea
	Hugh Quarshie	The Two Noble Kinsmen , The Great White Hope and The Rover	Arcite / Jack Jefferson / Belville
	Nicholas Woodeson	Sarcophagus and Flight	Bessmertny / Mike Levine
1989/90
	Oliver Ford Davies	Racing Demon	The Rev. Lionel Espy
	Nigel Hawthorne	Shadowlands	Lewis
	Ian McKellen	Othello and Bent	Iago / Max
	Michael Pennington	The Wars of the Roses	Various Characters

1990s

Year	Actor	Play	Character
1991
	Ian McKellen	Richard III	Richard III of England
	Richard Harris	Henry IV	Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor
	John Malkovich	Burn This	Pale
	Warren Mitchell	The Homecoming	Max
1992
	Nigel Hawthorne	The Madness of George III	George III
	Marcus D'Amico	Angels in America	Louis Ironson
	Robert Lindsay	Becket	Henry II of England
	Ian McKellen	Uncle Vanya	Uncle Vanya
1993
	Robert Stephens	Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2	Falstaff
	Kenneth Cranham	An Inspector Calls	Inspector Goole
	Paul Eddington	No Man's Land	Spooner
	Paul Scofield	Heartbreak House	Captain Shotover
1994
	Mark Rylance	Much Ado About Nothing	Benedick
	Henry Goodman	Hysteria	Sigmund Freud
	Patrick Stewart	A Christmas Carol	Various Characters
	David Suchet	Oleanna	John
1995
	David Bamber	My Night with Reg	Guy
	James Bolam	Glengarry Glen Ross	Shelly Levene
	Adrian Lester	As You Like It	Rosalind
	Bob Peck	Rutherford and Son	John Rutherford
1996
	Alex Jennings	Peer Gynt	Peer Gynt
	Michael Gambon	Skylight	Tom Sergeant
	Daniel Massey	Taking Sides	Wilhelm Furtwängler
	Donal McCann	The Steward of Christendom	Thomas Dunne
1997
	Antony Sher	Stanley	Stanley Spencer
	Paul Scofield	John Gabriel Borkman	John Gabriel Borkman
	Ken Stott	Art	Yvan
	David Suchet	Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?	George
1998
	Ian Holm	King Lear	King Lear
	Simon Russell Beale	Othello	Iago
	Michael Gambon	Tom & Clem	Tom Driberg
	Rupert Graves	Hurlyburly	Eddie
	John Wood	The Invention of Love	A. E. Housman
1999
	Kevin Spacey	The Iceman Cometh	Theodore "Hickey" Hickman
	Michael Gambon	The Unexpected Man	Parsky
	Iain Glen	The Blue Room	Various Characters
	Jim Norton	The Weir	Jack
	David Suchet	Amadeus	Salieri

2000s

Year	Actor	Play	Character
2000
	Henry Goodman	The Merchant of Venice	Shylock
	Roger Allam	Summerfolk	Bassov
	Stephen Dillane	The Real Thing	Henry
	Michael Sheen	Look Back in Anger	Jimmy Porter
	Antony Sher	The Winter's Tale	Leontes
2001
	Conleth Hill	Stones in His Pockets	Charlie Conlon
	Simon Russell Beale	Hamlet	Prince Hamlet
	Sean Campion	Stones in His Pockets	Jake Quinn
	Michael Gambon	The Caretaker	Davies
	Bill Nighy	Blue/Orange	Professor Smith
2002
	Roger Allam	Privates on Parade	Terri Dennis
	Simon Russell Beale	Humble Boy	Felix Humble
	Sean Foley	The Play What I Wrote	Sean
	Hamish McColl	The Play What I Wrote	Hamish
	Alan Rickman	Private Lives	Elyot
2003
	Simon Russell Beale	Uncle Vanya	Uncle Vanya
	Michael Gambon	A Number	Salter
	Mark Rylance	Twelfth Night	Olivia
	David Tennant	Lobby Hero	Jeff
2004
	Matthew Kelly	Of Mice and Men	Lennie Small
	Roger Allam	Democracy	Willy Brandt
	Kenneth Branagh	Edmond	Edmond Burke
	Greg Hicks	Coriolanus	Coriolanus
	Michael Sheen	Caligula	Caligula
2005
	Richard Griffiths	The History Boys	Douglas Hector
	Michael Gambon	Endgame	Hamm
	Jonathan Pryce	The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?	Martin
	Ben Whishaw	Hamlet	Prince Hamlet
2006
	Brian Dennehy	Death of a Salesman	Willy Loman
	Richard Griffiths	Heroes	Henri
	Derek Jacobi	Don Carlos	Philip II of Spain
	Con O'Neill	Telstar	Joe Meek
	David Threlfall	Someone Who'll Watch Over Me	Michael
2007
	Rufus Sewell	Rock 'n' Roll	Jan
	Iain Glen	The Crucible	John Proctor
	David Haig	Donkeys' Years	Christopher Headingley
	Frank Langella	Frost/Nixon	Richard Nixon
	Michael Sheen	Frost/Nixon	David Frost
2008
	Chiwetel Ejiofor	Othello	Othello
	Ian McKellen	King Lear	King Lear
	Mark Rylance	Boeing Boeing	Robert
	John Simm	Elling	Elling
	Patrick Stewart	Macbeth	Macbeth
2009
	Derek Jacobi	Twelfth Night	Malvolio
	David Bradley	No Man's Land	Spooner
	Michael Gambon	No Man's Land	Hirst
	Adam Godley	Rain Man	Raymond Babitt

2010s

Year	Actor	Play	Character
2010
	Mark Rylance	Jerusalem	Johnny
	James Earl Jones	Cat on a Hot Tin Roof	Big Daddy
	Jude Law	Hamlet	Prince Hamlet
	James McAvoy	Three Days of Rain	Walker / Ned
	Ken Stott	A View from the Bridge	Eddie Carbone
	Samuel West	ENRON	Jeffrey Skilling
2011
	Roger Allam	Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2	Falstaff
	Derek Jacobi	King Lear	King Lear
	Rory Kinnear	Hamlet	Prince Hamlet
	Mark Rylance	La Bête	Valere
	David Suchet	All My Sons	Joe Keller
2012
	Benedict Cumberbatch & Jonny Lee Miller	Frankenstein	Victor Frankenstein / The Creature
	James Corden	One Man, Two Guvnors	Francis Henshall
	David Haig	The Madness of George III	George III
	Douglas Hodge	Inadmissible Evidence	William Maitland
	Jude Law	Anna Christie	Mat Burke
2013
	Luke Treadaway	The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time	Christopher Boone
	Rupert Everett	The Judas Kiss	Oscar Wilde
	James McAvoy	Macbeth	Macbeth
	Mark Rylance	Twelfth Night	Olivia
	Rafe Spall	Constellations	Roland
2014
	Rory Kinnear	Othello	Iago
	Henry Goodman	The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui	Arturo Ui
	Tom Hiddleston	Coriolanus	Coriolanus
	Jude Law	Henry V	Henry V of England
2015
	Mark Strong	A View from the Bridge	Eddie Carbone
	Richard Armitage	The Crucible	John Procter
	James McAvoy	The Ruling Class	Jack Gurney
	Tim Pigott-Smith	King Charles III	King Charles lll
2016
	Kenneth Cranham	The Father	Andre
	Kenneth Branagh	The Winter's Tale	Leontes
	Benedict Cumberbatch	Hamlet	Prince Hamlet
	Adrian Lester	Red Velvet	Ira Aldridge
	Mark Rylance	Farinelli and the King	King Philippe V of Spain
2017
	Jamie Parker	Harry Potter and the Cursed Child	Harry Potter
	Ed Harris	Buried Child	Dodge
	Tom Hollander	Travesties	Henry Carr
	Ian McKellen	No Man's Land	Spooner
2018
	Bryan Cranston	Network	Howard Beale
	Paddy Considine	The Ferryman	Quinn Carney
	Andrew Garfield	Angels in America	Prior Walter
	Andrew Scott	Hamlet	Prince Hamlet
2019
	Kyle Soller	The Inheritance	Eric Glass
	Simon Russell Beale Adam Godley Ben Miles	The Lehman Trilogy	Henry Lehman Emanuel Lehman Mayer Lehman
	Arinzé Kene	Misty	Arinzé
	Ian McKellen	King Lear	King Lear
	David Suchet	The Price	Gregory Solomon

2020s

Year	Actor	Play	Character
2020
	Andrew Scott	Present Laughter	Garry Essendine
	Toby Jones	Uncle Vanya	Uncle Vanya
	James McAvoy	Cyrano de Bergerac	Cyrano de Bergerac
	Wendell Pierce	Death of a Salesman	Willy Loman
2021	Not presented due to extended closing of theatre productions during COVID-19 pandemic [A]
2022 [A]
	Hiran Abeysekera	Life of Pi	Pi Patel
	Ben Daniels	The Normal Heart	Ned Weeks
	Omari Douglas	Constellations	Manuel
	Charles Edwards	Best of Enemies	Gore Vidal
2023
	Paul Mescal	A Streetcar Named Desire	Stanley Kowalski
	Tom Hollander	Patriots	Berezovsky
	Rafe Spall	To Kill a Mockingbird	Atticus Finch
	David Tennant	Good	John Halder
	Giles Terera	Blues for an Alabama Sky	Guy Jacobs
2024
	Mark Gatiss	The Motive and the Cue	Sir John Gielgud
	Joseph Fiennes	Dear England	Gareth Southgate
	James Norton	A Little Life	Jude St Francis
	Andrew Scott	Vanya	All characters
	David Tennant	Macbeth	Macbeth
2025
	John Lithgow	Giant	Roald Dahl
	Adrien Brody	The Fear of 13	Nick Yarris
	Billy Crudup	Harry Clarke	Harry Clarke
	Paapa Essiedu	Death of England: Delroy	Delroy
	Mark Strong	Oedipus	Oedipus

1. Due to late March 2020 ^[1] to late July 2021 ^[2] closing of London theatre productions during the COVID-19 pandemic in England, the 2022 awards recognise productions that launched anytime from February 2020 to February 2022 ^[3]

Multiple awards and nominations for Best Actor

Note: The below awards and nominations include individuals awarded and nominated under the now-defunct categories Actor of the Year in a New Play and Actor of the Year in a Revival as well as the current combined Best Actor category.

Awards

Four awards

• Ian McKellen

Two awards

• Roger Allam
• Brian Cox
• Alan Howard
• Derek Jacobi
• Mark Rylance
• Antony Sher

Nominations

Eleven nominations

• Michael Gambon

Ten nominations

• Ian McKellen

Seven nominations

• Derek Jacobi
• Mark Rylance
• David Suchet

Five nominations

• Simon Russell Beale

Four nominations

• Roger Allam
• James McAvoy
• Antony Sher

Three nominations

• Kenneth Branagh
• Brian Cox
• Henry Goodman
• David Haig
• Alan Howard
• Jude Law
• Alec McCowen
• Warren Mitchell
• Bob Peck
• Jonathan Pryce
• Paul Scofield
• Andrew Scott
• Michael Sheen
• Patrick Stewart
• David Tennant

Two nominations

• Alun Armstrong
• Michael Bryant
• Tom Conti
• Kenneth Cranham
• Benedict Cumberbatch
• Rupert Everett
• Albert Finney
• Iain Glen
• Richard Griffiths
• Alec Guinness
• Nigel Hawthorne
• Tom Hollander
• Emrys James
• Rory Kinnear
• Adrian Lester
• Daniel Massey
• Peter McEnery
• Michael Pennington
• Donald Sinden
• Rafe Spall
• Ken Stott
• John Wood

Multiple awards and nominations for a character

Awards

Two awards

• Falstaff from Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2
• Richard III of England from Richard III
• Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman
• Eddie Carbone from A View from the Bridge

Nominations

Six nominations

• Prince Hamlet from Hamlet

Four nominations

• King Lear from King Lear
• Uncle Vanya from Uncle Vanya

Three nominations

• Coriolanus from Coriolanus
• Eddie Carbone from A View from the Bridge
• Falstaff from Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2
• Henry V of England from Henry V
• Iago from Othello
• Leontes from The Winter's Tale
• Shylock from The Merchant of Venice
• Spooner from No Man's Land
• Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman

Two nominations

• Captain Shotover from Heartbreak House
• Davies from The Caretaker
• George III from The Madness of George III
• John Procter from The Crucible
• Macbeth from Macbeth
• Max from The Homecoming
• Ned Weeks from The Normal Heart
• Olivia from Twelfth Night
• Richard III of England from Richard III

See also

• Laurence Olivier Award for Actor of the Year in a New Play (1976–1984, 1988)
• Laurence Olivier Award for Actor of the Year in a Revival (1976–1984, 1988)
• Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actor
• Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor
• Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play

References

1. Johnson, The Rt Hon Boris, MP (2020-03-23). Prime Minister's statement on coronavirus (COVID-19): 23 March 2020 [transcript] (Speech). Prime Minister's Televised Speech to the United Kingdom. www.gov.uk. London, UK. Archived from the original on 2020-06-09. Retrieved 2022-04-25. From this evening I must give the British people a very simple instruction — you must stay at home.
2. McPhee, Ryan (2021-06-14). "U.K. Postpones Reopening Roadmap; West End Theatres Will No Longer Reopen in Full in June". Playbill . Archived from the original on 2021-06-14. Retrieved 2022-04-25. Step 4 of the roadmap will allow productions to play without capacity restrictions. June 21 was the goal; now, the government is eyeing July 19.
3. Thomas, Sophie (2022-03-08). "Everything you need to know about the Olivier Awards". londontheatre.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2022-04-11. Retrieved 2022-04-25. Any new production that opened between 19 Feb. 2020 to 22 Feb. 2022 are eligible for categories in the 2022 Olivier Awards. With two years worth of shows set for honours in one year's ceremony, the 2022 Olivier Awards will prove tougher competition than before.

• London Theatre Guide (2008). "The Laurence Olivier Awards: Full List of Winners, 1976-2008" (PDF). 1976-2008. The Society of London Theatre. p. 20. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-01-11. Retrieved 2008-08-30.

External links

• Official website