John Lithgow, 80, has made Tony Awards history, becoming the oldest man ever to win a competitive acting Tony after taking home the award for best actor in a play for Giant.
With the win, Lithgow surpassed the previous record held by Roy Dotrice, who was 77 when he won featured actor in a play in the 2000 production of A Moon for the Misbegotten.
Lithgow’s win for Giant, a drama centered on Roald Dahl’s antisemitism, also set another milestone: it created the longest gap between competitive Tony wins in history, at 53 years. His first Tony came in 1973, when he won featured actor in a play for The Changing Room. That span eclipses Angela Lansbury’s previous record gap of 43 years between wins from 1966 to 2009, with Patti LuPone (42 years) and Frank Langella (41 years) also among those with long award spans.
This marks Lithgow’s third Tony Award overall, arriving in a competitive field that included Nathan Lane, who was nominated for Death of a Salesman and was aiming for a fourth win. Other nominees in the category included Mark Strong (Oedipus), Daniel Radcliffe (Every Brilliant Thing) and Will Harrison (Punch).
The victory also places Lithgow in an exclusive group of performers who have won Tony Awards across multiple acting categories. With wins for featured actor in a play, leading actor in a musical for Sweet Smell of Success (2002), and now leading actor in a play for Giant, he becomes one of only four performers to win in three different acting categories, alongside Kevin Kline and Boyd Gaines, with Audra McDonald the only performer to have won in four.
Accepting the award, Lithgow said, “I’m such a lucky actor. This is my third Tony Award. My first one was 53 years ago at my Broadway debut in the American premiere of an English play, which by an amazing coincidence originated at London’s Royal Court Theatre, just like Giant”.
“Two Tony bookends with 53 years between them. In those years, I have worked with hundreds of just fantastic theatre artists. I’ve had dozens and dozens of ecstatic moments on the stage, but I have to tell you right now, this moment has got to be one of the best,” he added.
