Black History Month Day 8 ~ Tony Firsts

[whatever2]

Posted: 2/8/11 at 5:31pm

First African-American to Win Best Performance by an Actor in a Musical: Ben Vereen, "Pippin" (1973)

First African-American to Win Best Performance by an Actor in a Play: James Earl Jones, "The Great White Hope" (1960)

First African-American to Win Best Performance by an Actress in a Musical: Juanita Hall, "South Pacific" (1950)

First African-American to Win Best Performance by an Actress in a Play: Phylicia Rashad, "A Raisin in the Sun (2004)

Only two African-Americans have been nominated for Best Director; neither won.

[theatreguy]

Posted: 2/8/11 at 6:15pm

Lloyd Richards won Best Direction of a Play for Fences. He was Canadian, though raised in Michigan.

Also, Juanita Hall won for Featured Actress in a Musical. The first African-American to win in the Leading category was Leslie Uggams for Hallelujah, Baby! in 1968.

[whatever2]

Posted: 2/8/11 at 6:54pm

Juanita: i thought that as i was typing it, but i figured: what are the odds wikipedia would be wrong!?!?!?!

thanks for the correction!

i can't presume to comment on whether a canadian is "close enough" -- even though some of my best friends ... :)

Updated On: 2/8/11 at 06:54 PM

[MissAnneThrop]

Posted: 2/8/11 at 7:53pm

Cleavon Little won for best actor in a musical in 1970 before Ben Vereen.

Diahann Carroll won in 1962.

[whatever2]

Posted: 2/8/11 at 8:50pm

Little: that's two strikes for wikipedia; i wonder what other errors are in their lists:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_Tony_nominees_and_winners

the site actually does list Ms. Carroll for her 1962 win in "No Strings".

I'll correct these errors at the end of the month -- again: thanks!