The 2021 Tony Awards celebrating the best achievement in theater took place in September 2021 and marked the 74th edition of the annual awards show. Trophies are awarded for Best Musical and Best Play as well as for technical components such as Best Original Score, Best Costume Design (in a Play and Musical), Best Lighting Design (in a Play and Musical), and Best Sound Design (of a Play and Musical).
Awards are also given to stage performers in eight different categories, including Best Performance by a Leading Actor (in a Play and Musical) and Best Performance by a Featured Actress (in a Play and Musical). Below is a look at some of the actors who have received the most Tony Award nominations.
Julie Harris
No other actor or actress has received as many Tony Award nominations (10) as Julie Harris and Chita Rivera. Harris, who also won three Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, and was nominated for an Oscar, had a relatively inauspicious Broadway debut in the flop It’s a Gift (1945).
She received rave reviews, however, for her performance in The Member of the Wedding (1951) and I Am a Camera (1952). Harris won her first Tony Award for the latter, although she wasn’t officially a nominee as nominations had yet to be announced prior to the ceremony.
Harris primarily worked in film over the course of the next two decades. She earned a Best Actress in a Leading Role nomination at the 1953 Academy Awards for The Member of the Wedding and later starred alongside James Dean in his film debut in East of Eden (1955). She was also nominated for seven Emmy Awards from 1956 to 1977.
Back on the stage, Harris found success recreating roles she had popularized behind the camera. She won Best Leading Actress in a Play for The Lark (1956), Forty Carats (1969), The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (1973), and The Belle of Amherst (1977). She also received nominations for Marathon ’33 (1964), The Au Pair Man (1974), Lucifer’s Child (1991), and The Gin Game (1997).
In addition, Harris received a nomination for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for Skyscraper (1966) and was given the Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 2002. She passed away in 2013 at 87 years old.
Chita Rivera
Like Harris, Rivera was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 2018. A two-time Tony Award winner in the Best Leading Actress in a Musical category, Rivera won for The Rink (1984) and Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993).
She earned her first nomination for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for Chicago (1976) as Velma Kelly, a “merry murderess” in the Cook County Jail who gained notoriety for shooting her husband and sister after finding them in bed together. Her rendition of “All That Jazz” in Chicago is considered a defining moment in Broadway’s history.
Rivera later earned Best Leading Actress in a Musical nominations for Bring Back Birdie (1981), Merlin (1983), Jerry’s Girls (1986), Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life (2006), and The Visit (2015). She was also nominated for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Bye Bye Birdie (1961) and Nine (2003).
Jason Robards
Jason Robards leads all men with eight Best Leading and Featured Actor nominations. He was first nominated for Best Featured Actor in a Play for Long Day’s Journey into Night (1957) and, two years later, was nominated and won Best Leading Actor in a Play for The Disenchanted (1959).
Robards also earned Best Leading Actor nominations for Toys in the Attic (1960), After the Fall (1964), Hughie (1965), The Country Girl (1972), A Moon for the Misbegotten (1974), and A Touch of the Poet (1978).
Also a successful film star, Robards won Best Actor in a Supporting Role Oscars for All the President’s Men (1976) and Julia (1977). He also won the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Special Emmy Award for Inherit the Wind (1988).
Angela Lansbury
A seven-time Tony Award nominee, Angela Lansbury was born in England but emigrated to the United States as a teenager and studied acting at the Feagin School of Drama and Radio in New York City. She was a three-time Oscar nominee for Best Supporting Actress before earning her first Tony Award nomination in 1966.
Lansbury was nominated and won for Mame (1966) that year. She won the award again for Dear World (1969), Gypsy (1975), and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979).
Lansbury was nominated for Best Actress in a Play for Deuce (2007). She was nominated and won Best Featured Actress in a Play for Blithe Spirit (2009) and was nominated for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for A Little Night Music (2010). Lansbury was 94 years old when she last performed on Broadway as Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.