Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in the context of "Rex Harrison"

Sir Ian Murray McKellen (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. He has played roles on the screen and stage in genres ranging from Shakespearean dramas and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. He is regarded as a British cultural icon and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1991. He has received numerous accolades, including a Tony Award, six Olivier Awards, and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards and five Emmy Awards.

McKellen made his stage debut in 1961 at the Belgrade Theatre as a member of its repertory company, and in 1965 made his first West End appearance. In 1969, he was invited to join the Prospect Theatre Company to play the lead parts in Shakespeare's Richard II and Marlowe's Edward II. In the 1970s McKellen became a stalwart of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre of Great Britain. He has earned five Olivier Awards for his roles in Pillars of the Community (1977), The Alchemist (1978), Bent (1979), Wild Honey (1984), and Richard III (1995). McKellen made his Broadway debut in The Promise (1965). He went on to receive the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role as Antonio Salieri in Amadeus (1980). He was further nominated for Ian McKellen: Acting Shakespeare (1984). He returned to Broadway in Wild Honey (1986), Dance of Death (1990), No Man's Land (2013), and Waiting for Godot (2013), the latter two being a joint production with Patrick Stewart.

Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (21 February 1946 – 14 January 2016) was an English actor. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he is renowned for his stage and screen roles and known for distinctive, deep, languid voice. He has received various accolades, including a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for two Tony Awards and a Laurence Olivier Award.

A member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Rickman began his career in theatre, performing in classical and modern plays. He was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Lead Actor in a Play for his portrayal of the Vicomte de Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and made his film debut as the German criminal mastermind Hans Gruber in Die Hard (1988). He won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his role as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991). He earned critical acclaim for Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991), An Awfully Big Adventure, Sense and Sensibility (both 1995), and Michael Collins (1996). He went on to play Severus Snape in all eight films of the Harry Potter series, beginning with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) and concluding with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011). His other notable film roles include those in Quigley Down Under (1990), Dogma, Galaxy Quest (both 1999), Love Actually (2003), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Alice in Wonderland (2010), its 2016 sequel, and Eye in the Sky (2015). He directed the films The Winter Guest (1997) and A Little Chaos (2014).

Frank Alexander Langella Jr. (/lænˈdʒɛlə/; born January 1, 1938) is an American actor. He eschewed the career of a traditional film star by making the stage the focal point of his career, appearing frequently on Broadway. He has received numerous accolades, including four Tony Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Golden Globes.

Langella made his Broadway debut in the 1966 play Yerma. He since established himself as Broadway star winning four Tony Awards, his first two for Best Featured Actor in a Play playing intellectual lizard in Edward Albee's Seascape (1975), and a wealthy and cruel landowner in Ivan Turgenev's Fortune's Fool (2002) and Best Actor in a Play for his roles as Richard Nixon in Peter Morgan's Frost/Nixon (2007), an elderly man suffering from Alzheimers in Florian Zeller's The Father (2016). He was also Tony-nominated for Dracula (1978), Match (2004), and Man and Boy (2012).

Harold Rowe Holbrook Jr. (February 17, 1925 – January 23, 2021) was an American actor. He first received critical acclaim in 1954 for a one-man stage show, titled Mark Twain Tonight!, that he developed while studying at Denison University. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1966 for his portrayal of Twain. He continued to perform his signature role for more than 60 years, retiring the show in 2017 due to his failing health. Throughout his career, he also won five Primetime Emmy Awards for his work on television and was nominated for an Academy Award for his work in film.

Holbrook made his film debut in Sidney Lumet's The Group (1966). He later gained international fame for his performance as Deep Throat in the 1976 film All the President's Men. He played Abraham Lincoln in the 1974 miniseries Lincoln and 1985 miniseries North and South. He also appeared in films such as Magnum Force (1973), Julia, Capricorn One (both 1977), The Fog (1980), Creepshow (1982), Wall Street (1987), The Firm (1993), Hercules (1997) and Men of Honor (2000).