Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play

The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play was an annual award presented by Drama Desk in recognition of achievements in the theatre across collective Broadway, off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City. The award was one of eight new acting awards first presented in 1975, when Drama Desk retired an earlier award that had made no distinction between work in plays and musicals, nor between actors and actresses, nor between lead performers and featured performers.

Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor
Awarded for	Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play
Location	New York City
Country	United States
Presented by	Drama Desk
First award	1975
Final award	2022
Website	dramadesk.org (defunct)

After the 2022 ceremony, all eight acting categories introduced in 1975 were retired. The award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play, along with Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play, were replaced in 2023 with the gender neutral category of Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play.

Winners and nominees

1970s

Year	Actor	Play	Character
1975
	Frank Langella	Seascape	Leslie
	Louis Beachner	The National Health	Flagg
	Larry Blyden	Absurd Person Singular	Sidney
	David Dukes	Love for Love	Scandal
		Rules of the Game	Guido Venanzi
	Philip Locke	Sherlock Holmes	Professor Moriarty
	Dick Anthony Williams	Black Picture Show	Alexander
1976
	Judd Hirsch	Knock Knock	Various Characters
	Leonard Cimino	A Memory of Two Mondays	Jim
	Edward Herrmann	Mrs. Warren's Profession	Frank Gardner
	Roy Poole	A Memory of Two Mondays	Gus
1977
	Bob Dishy	Sly Fox	Abner Truckle
	Anthony Call	The Trip Back Down	Super Joe Weller
	Héctor Elizondo	Sly Fox	Simon Able
	Michael Lombard	Otherwise Engaged	Artemy Zemlyanik
	Everett McGill	Lu Ann Hampton Laverly Oberlander	Dale Laverty
	Ralph Roberts	The Oldest Living Graduate	Mike Tremaine
1978
	Morgan Freeman	The Mighty Gents	Zeke
	Jeffrey DeMunn	A Prayer for My Daughter	Jack Delasante
	Visili Bogazianos	P.S. Your Cat Is Dead	Vrro
	Jerome Dempsey	Dracula	Abraham Van Helsing
	George Dzundza	A Prayer for My Daughter	Kelly
	Michael Higgins	Molly	Teddy
	Lester Rawlins	Da	Drumm
1979
	George Rose	The Kingfisher	Hawkins
	Michael Gough	Bedroom Farce	Ernest
	I.M. Hobson	The Elephant Man	Various Characters
	Nicholas Woodeson	Man and Superman	Henry Straker

1980s

Year	Actor	Play	Character
1980
	David Rounds	Morning's at Seven	Homer Bolton
	David Dukes	Bent	Horst
	Michael Gross	Bent	Greta
	Doug McClure	The Roast	Charles Browning
	Hansford Rowe	Nuts	Arthur Kirk
	Fritz Weaver	The Price	Walter Franz
1981
	Brian Backer	The Floating Light Bulb	Paul Pollack
	Ralph Clanton	The Winslow Boy	Arthur Winslow
	Roderick Cook	The Man Who Came to Dinner	Beverly Carlton
	Jeff Daniels	Fifth of July	Jed Jenkins
	Nicholas Kepros	Amadeus	Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
	John Shea	American Days	Don Sherman
1982
	Adolph Caesar	A Soldier's Play	Sergeant Waters
	Željko Ivanek	Cloud Nine	Betty / Gerry
	Matthew Broderick	Torch Song Trilogy	David
	Bill Moor	Potsdam Quartet	John Healey
	Mandy Patinkin	Henry IV	Hotspur
	Larry Riley	A Soldier's Play	Private C.J. Memphis
1983
	Alan Feinstein	A View from the Bridge	Marco
	Stephen Joyce	The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial	Captain Blakely
	Nathan Lane	Present Laughter	Roland Maule
	Frank Maraden	The Workroom	First Presser
	Stephen Moore	All's Well that Ends Well	Captain Parolles
	Michael Moriarty	The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial	Lt. Com. Philip Francis Queeg
	Stephen D. Newman	The Misanthrope	Philinte
1984
	John Malkovich	Death of a Salesman	Biff Loman
	David Huddleston	Death of a Salesman	Charley
	Stephen Keep	A Private View	Vanek
	Calvin Levels	Open Admissions	Calvin Jefferson
	Chip Zien	Isn't It Romantic	Marty Sterling
1985
	Charles S. Dutton	Ma Rainey's Black Bottom	Levee
	Barry Miller	Biloxi Blues	Arnold Epstein
	Ken Kliban	As Is	Barney / Brother
	Edward Petherbridge	Strange Interlude	Charles Marsden
	David Proval	Requiem for a Heavyweight	Army Hakes
	Bill Sadler	Biloxi Blues	Sgt. Merwin J. Toomey
1986
	Joseph Maher	Loot	Truscott
	James Gammon	A Lie of the Mind	Baylor
	Donald Moffat	The Iceman Cometh	Larry Slade
	Anthony Rapp	Precious Sons	Freddy
1987
	John Randolph	Broadway Bound	Ben
	Michael Countryman	The Common Pursuit	Martin Musgrove
	Frankie R. Faison	Fences	Gabriel
	Peter Friedman	The Common Pursuit	Humphry Taylor
	Ray Gill	Driving Miss Daisy	Boolie Werthan
	Tony Jay	The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby	Mr. Vincent Crummles / Walter Bray
1988
	BD Wong	M. Butterfly	Song Liling
	Athol Fugard	The Road to Mecca	Rev. Marius Byleveld
	Michael Gough	Breaking the Code	Dillwyn Knox
	Joe Grifasi	The Boys Next Door	Arnold Wiggins
	Ed Hall	Joe Turner's Come and Gone	Bynum Walker
	Lou Liberatore	Burn This	Larry
1989
	Peter Frechette	Eastern Standard	Drew
	Fyvush Finkel	Café Crown	Sam
	Bill Irwin	Waiting for Godot	Lucky
	Edmund Lewis	Without Apologies	Willie Jukes
	Matt McGrath	Dalton's Back	Dalty Possil
	Eric Stoltz	Our Town	George Gibbs
	Gordon Joseph Weiss	Ghetto	The Dummy

1990s

Year	Actor	Play	Character
1990
	Charles Durning	Cat on a Hot Tin Roof	Big Daddy
	Rocky Carroll	The Piano Lesson	Lymon
	Simon Jones	Privates on Parade	Giles Flack
	Francis Guinan	The Grapes of Wrath	Various Characters
	Dustin Hoffman	The Merchant of Venice	Shylock
1991
	Kevin Spacey	Lost in Yonkers	"Uncle" Louie
	Dylan Baker	La Bête	Prince Conty
	Marcus Chong	Stand-Up Tragedy	Lee Cortez
	Leland Gantt	Let Me Live	Dupree
	Josef Sommer	Hamlet	Polonius
1992
	Laurence Fishburne	Two Trains Running	Sterling
	Giancarlo Esposito	Distant Fires	Performer
	Željko Ivanek	Two Shakespearean Actors	John Ryder
	Mark Rosenthal	Marvin's Room	Hank
1993
	Joe Mantello	Angels in America: Millennium Approaches	Louis Ironson
	Stephen Spinella		Prior Walter
	David Marshall Grant	Angels in America: Millennium Approaches	Joe Pitt / Prior 1 / The Eskimo
	Robert Klein	The Sisters Rosensweig	Mervyn Kant
	Eli Wallach	The Price	Gregory Solomon
1994
	Jeffrey Wright	Angels in America: Perestroika	Mr. Lies / Belize
	Marcus D'Amico	An Inspector Calls	Eric Birling
	Gregory Itzin	The Kentucky Cycle	Various Characters
	Ron Leibman	Angels in America: Perestroika	Roy Cohn
	Christopher McCann	The Lights	Erenhart
1995
	Nathan Lane	Love! Valour! Compassion!	Buzz Hauser
	Simon Coates	As You Like It	Celia
	John Glover	Love! Valour! Compassion!	John and James Jeckyll
	Kevin Kilner	The Glass Menagerie	Jim O'Connor
	Anthony LaPaglia	The Rose Tattoo	Alvaro Mangiacavallo
	Alessandro Nivola	A Month in the Country	Beliaev
1996
	Martin Shaw	An Ideal Husband	Lord Arthur Goring
	Heavy D	Riff Raff	Tony
	James Gammon	Buried Child	Dodge
	Alfred Molina	Molly Sweeney	Lord Goring
	Reg Rogers	Holiday	Ned Seton
	Ruben Santiago-Hudson	Seven Guitars	Canewell
1997
	Brian Murray	The Little Foxes	Benjamin
	Kirk Acevedo	Tooth of Crime (Second Dance)	Crow
	Billy Crudup	Three Sisters	Solyony
	David Greenspan	The Boys in the Band	Harold
	Edward Herrmann	Psychopathia Sexualis	Dr. Block
	Christopher Evan Welch	Scapin	Silvestre
1998
	Alfred Molina	'Art'	Yvan
	Adam Alexi-Malle	Goose-Pimples	Muhammad
	Ruaidhri Conroy	The Cripple of Inishmaan	Billy Claven
	Ron Leibman	A Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds	Rabbi Azriel
	Max Wright	Ivanov	Pavel Lebedev
	Harris Yulin	The Diary of Anne Frank	Mr. Van Daan
1999
	Kevin Anderson	Death of a Salesman	Biff
	Peter Bartlett	The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told	Various Characters
	James Black	Not About Nightingales	Butch O'Fallon
	Paul Giamatti	The Iceman Cometh	James Cameron
	Ciarán Hinds	Closer	Larry
	Howard Witt	Death of a Salesman	Charley

2000s

Year	Actor	Play	Character
2000
	Roy Dotrice	A Moon for the Misbegotten	Phil Hogan
	Matthew Arkin	Dinner with Friends	Gabe
	Joel Grey	Give Me Your Answer, Do!	Jack Donovan
	Philip Seymour Hoffman	The Author's Voice	Gene
	Brian Murray	Uncle Vanya	Alexander Vladimirovich Serebryakov
	Harris Yulin	The Price	Walter Franz
2001
	Charles Brown	King Hedley II	Elmore
	Oliver Ford Davies	Richard II	Duke of York
	Aaron Himelstein	The Dead Eye Boy	Soren
	Justin Kirk	Ten Unknowns	Judd Burgess
	Maximilian Schell	Judgment at Nuremberg	Dr. Ernst Janning
	Lewis J. Stadlen	The Man Who Came to Dinner	Banjo
2002
	Frank Langella	Fortune's Fool	Flegont Alexandrovitch Tropatchov
	Will LeBow	Nocturne	Father
	Brian Murray	The Crucible	Deputy Governor Thomas Danforth
	Keith Nobbs	Four	June
	Sam Robards	The Man Who Had All the Luck	Gustav Eberson
	David Warner	Major Barbara	Andrew Undershaft
2003
	Denis O'Hare	Take Me Out	Mason Marzak
	Simon Russell Beale	Twelfth Night	Malvolio
	Walter Bobbie	Polish Joke	Various Characters
	Philip Seymour Hoffman	Long Day's Journey into Night	James "Jamie", Jr.
	T. R. Knight	Scattergood	Brendan Hillard
	Frederick Weller	Take Me Out	Shane Mungitt
2004
	Ned Beatty	Cat on a Hot Tin Roof	Big Daddy
	Michael Berry	Moby Dick	Starbuck
	André De Shields	Prymate	Graham
	Aidan Gillen	The Caretaker	Mick
	John Lithgow	Mrs. Farnsworth	Mr. Farnsworth
	Corey Stoll	Intimate Apparel	Mr. Marks
2005
	Michael Stuhlbarg	The Pillowman	Michal
	Philip Bosco	Twelve Angry Men	Juror 3
	Larry Bryggman	Romance	The Judge
	Jeff Goldblum	The Pillowman	Tupolski
	Josh Hamilton	Hurlyburly	Mickey
	Paul Sparks	Orange Flower Water	Brad
2006
	Samuel Barnett	The History Boys	David Posner
	Devon Abner	The Trip to Bountiful	Ludie Watts
	Dominic Cooper	The History Boys	Dakin
	Jason Butler Harner	The Paris Letter	Young Anton / Burt Sarris
	Stephen Campbell Moore	The History Boys	Irwin
	David Pittu	Celebration and The Room	Mr. Sands / Waiter
2007
	Boyd Gaines	Journey's End	Lieut. Osborne
	Anthony Chisholm	Radio Golf	Elder Joseph Barlow
	Billy Crudup	The Coast of Utopia	Vissarion Belinsky
	John Ortiz	Jack Goes Boating	Clyde
	Andrew Polk	The Accomplices	Samuel Merlin / John Pehle / Emanuel Celler
	Fred Weller	Some Men	Various Characters
2008
	Conleth Hill	The Seafarer	Ivan Curry
	John Cullum	The Conscientious Objector	Lyndon B. Johnson
	Francis Jue	Yellow Face	Various Characters
	Arian Moayed	Masked	Na'im
	Jeff Perry	August: Osage County	Bill Fordham
	Michael T. Weiss	Scarcity	Herb
2009
	Pablo Schreiber	reasons to be pretty	Kent
	Brian d'Arcy James	Port Authority	Dermot
	Jeremy Davidson	Back Back Back	Kent
	Peter Friedman	Body Awareness	Frank
	Ethan Hawke	The Winter's Tale	Autolycus
	Jeremy Shamos	Animals Out of Paper	Andy

2010s

Year	Actor	Play	Character
2010
	Santino Fontana	Brighton Beach Memoirs	Stanley Jerome
	Chris Chalk	Fences	Corey
	Sean Dugan	Next Fall	Brandon
	Adam James	The Pride	The Man / Peter / The Doctor
	Hamish Linklater	Twelfth Night	Sir Andrew Aguecheek
	Nick Westrate	The Boys in the Band	Donald
2011
	Brian Bedford	The Importance of Being Earnest	Lady Bracknell
	Christian Borle	Peter and the Starcatcher	Black Stache
	Boyd Gaines	The Grand Manner	Guthrie McClintic
	Logan Marshall-Green	The Hallway Trilogy	Lloyd Boyd
	Zachary Quinto	Angels in America: Millennium Approaches	Louis Ironson
	Tom Riley	Arcadia	Septimus Hodge
	Yul Vázquez	The Motherf**ker with the Hat	Cousin Julio
2012
	Tom Edden	One Man, Two Guvnors	Alfie
	Bill Camp	Death of a Salesman	Charley
	Jim Dale	The Road to Mecca	Marius Byleveld
	Bill Irwin	King Lear	Lear's Fool
	Jefferson Mays	Blood and Gifts	Simon Craig
	Will Rogers	Unnatural Acts	Joseph Lumbard
	Morgan Spector	Russian Transport	Boris
2013
	Richard Kind	The Big Knife	Marcus Hoff
	Chuck Cooper	The Piano Lesson	Wining Boy
	Peter Friedman	The Great God Pan	Doug
	Aaron Clifton Moten	The Flick	Avery
	Brían F. O'Byrne	If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet	George
	Tony Shalhoub	Golden Boy	Mr. Bonaparte
2014
	Reed Birney	Casa Valentina	Charlotte
	Chuck Cooper	Choir Boy	Headmaster Marrow
	Peter Maloney	Outside Mullingar	Tony Reilly
	Bobby Moreno	Year of the Rooster	Odysseus Rex
	Bill Pullman	The Jacksonian	Fred
	Brian J. Smith	The Glass Menagerie	Jim O'Connor
2015
	K. Todd Freeman	Airline Highway	Sissy Na Na
	F. Murray Abraham	It's Only a Play	Ira Drew
	Reed Birney	You Got Older	Father
	Jonathan Hadary	Rocket to the Moon	Mr. Prince
	Jason Butler Harner	The Village Bike	John
	Jonathan Hogan	Pocatello	Cole
	José Joaquín Pérez	My Mañana Comes	Jorge
2016
	Michael Shannon	Long Day's Journey into Night	James Tyrone Jr.
	Bill Camp	The Crucible	Reverend John Hale
	David Furr	Noises Off	Gary Lejeune
	Matt McGrath	The Legend of Georgia McBride	Tracy Mills
	Richard Thomas	Incident At Vichy	Von Berg
2017
	Danny DeVito	The Price	Gregory Solomon
	Michael Aronov	Oslo	Uri Savir
	Nathan Lane	The Front Page	Walter Burns
	Jeremy Shamos	If I Forget	Michael Fischer
	Justice Smith	Yen	Bobbie
2018
	Nathan Lane	Angels in America	Roy Cohn
	Anthony Boyle	Harry Potter and the Cursed Child	Scorpius Malfoy
	Ben Edelman	Admissions	Charlie Luther Mason
	Brian Tyree Henry	Lobby Hero	William
	David Morse	The Iceman Cometh	Larry Slade
	Gregg Mozgala	Cost of Living	John
2019
	Tom Glynn-Carney	The Ferryman	Shane Corcoran
	Charles Browning	Fairview	Dayton
	Arnie Burton	Lewiston/Clarkston	Connor
	Hampton Fluker	Arthur Miller's All My Sons	George Deever
	Brandon Uranowitz	Burn This	Larry

2020s

Year	Actor	Play	Character
2020
	Paul Hilton	The Inheritance	Morgan / Walter Poole
	Victor Almanzar	Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven	Joey Fresco
	Esteban Andres Cruz		Venus Ramirez
	David Alan Grier	A Soldier's Play	Sergeant Vernon C. Waters
	Chris Perfetti	Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow	Masha
2021	No awards: New York theatres shuttered, March 2020 to September 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City[1]
2022
	Ron Cephas Jones	Clyde's	Montrellous
	Joshua Boone	Skeleton Crew	Dez
	Chuck Cooper	Trouble in Mind	Sheldon Forrester
	Daniel K. Isaac	The Chinese Lady	Atung
	Billy Eugene Jones	On Sugarland	Saul

Multiple Wins

2 wins

• Nathan Lane
• Frank Langella

See also

• Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
• Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play