This is a list of the winners and nominations of Tony Award for the Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical. The award has been presented since 1947.

Awards and nominations

1940s

• 1947: David Wayne – Finian's Rainbow
• 1948: no award
• 1949: no award

1950s

• 1950: Myron McCormick – South Pacific
• 1951: Russell Nype – Call Me Madam
• 1952: Yul Brynner – The King and I
• 1953: Hiram Sherman – Two's Company
• 1954: Harry Belafonte – John Murray Anderson's Almanac
• 1955: Cyril Ritchard – Peter Pan

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

Trivia

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (March 2008)

Multiple Winners

3 Wins

• Hinton Battle

2 Wins

• David Burns
• Boyd Gaines
• Russell Nype
• Hiram Sherman

Multiple Nominees

3 Nominations

• René Auberjonois
• Hinton Battle
• Gregg Edelman
• Scott Wise

2 Nominations

• Bruce Adler
• Tom Aldredge
• Roger Bart
• Gary Beach
• Joel Blum
• David Burns
• Danny Burstein
• Jack Cassidy
• Michael Cerveris
• Boyd Gaines
• Harry Groener
• Ronald Holgate
• George S. Irving
• Marc Kudisch
• John McMartin
• Russell Nype
• Gilbert Price
• Charles Nelson Reilly
• Michael Rupert
• Hiram Sherman
• Andre De Shields
• Edward Winter
• Samuel E. Wright

• There have been no ties in the history of this category.

• Never in the history of this category has a performer won a Tony Award by portraying a character previously embodied by a former winner. There have been winners emerging from the same musical, however, but never for playing the same role:
  • From A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: David Burns, as Senex, in 1963, and Larry Blyden, as Hysterium, in 1972 (Jack Gilford had been nominated in 1963, also for his portrayal of Hysterium, but he did not win);
  • From Damn, Yankees: Russ Brown, as Van Buren, in 1966, and Jarrod Emick, as Joe Hardy, in 1994;
  • From Cabaret: Joel Grey, as The Master of Ceremonies, in 1967, and Ron Rifkin as Herr Schultz, in 1998 (Werner Klemperer had been nominated in 1988, also for his portrayal of Herr Schultz, but he did not win).

• The role of Herbie, in Gypsy, holds the record for most nominations in this category, with four:
  • 1960 – Jack Klugman
  • 1990 – Jonathan Hadary
  • 2003 – John Dossett
  • 2008 – Boyd Gaines

Of all these performers, only Boyd Gaines won the Tony Award.

• Hinton Battle remains the most successful performer in the history of this category with a perfect score of three wins in three nominations. Scott Wise and René Auberjonois have also attained three nominations each, but have only been victorious once. Gregg Edelman, also with three nominations, has never won and is this category’s greatest “loser”.

• There has never been a consecutive winner in this category. There have been, though, some consecutive nominations. Jack Cassidy was consecutively nominated in 1964 and 1965, while Bruce Adler achieved the same honor in 1991 and 1992. Cassidy won in 1964, for his portrayal of Steve Kodaly, in “She Loves Me”.

• The record for the longest span between wins is held by Hiram Sherman, whose wins for Two’s Company, in 1953, and How Now, Dow Jones, in 1968, are set apart by 15 years.

• The record for the longest span between nominations is held by John McMartin, whose nominations for Sweet Charity, in 1966, and High Society, in 1998, are set apart by 32 years. McMartin has never won a Tony Award in this category.