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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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
  • Sinéad Cusack – Much Ado About Nothing
  • Ramona Young - Mama, I Want to Sing!
  • 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

• 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 – Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992

• 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

• 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 – The Goat: or, Who Is Sylvia?

• 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 – August: Osage County
  • Eve Best – The Homecoming
  • Kate Fleetwood – Macbeth
  • S. Epatha Merkerson – Come Back, Little Sheba
  • Amy Morton – August: Osage County

• 2009: Marcia Gay Harden – God of Carnage
  • Hope Davis – God of Carnage
  • Jane Fonda – 33 Variations
  • Janet McTeer – Mary Stuart
  • Harriet Walter – Mary Stuart

5 Wins

• Julie Harris

3 Wins

• Zoe Caldwell
• Jessica Tandy

2 Wins

• Shirley Booth
• Glenn Close
• Uta Hagen
• Helen Hayes
• Cherry Jones
• Margaret Leighton

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
• Janet McTeer
• Helen Mirren
• Amanda Plummer
• Phylicia Rashad
• Ramona Cole
• Vanessa Redgrave
• Mercedes Ruehl
• Marian Seldes
• Kim Stanley
• Kathleen Turner
• Liv Ullmann