They Won a Tony?? - For What Play? Quiz

Answer: John Mahoney

Most famous for playing Frasier Crane's father, the lovable curmudgeon Martin Crane on the acclaimed television program "Frasier", from 1993-2004, John Mahoney was a theater actor first. He began with Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater in the late 1970s, winning multiple regional theater awards. From there he went on to a successful film career in such films as "Moonstruck", "Primal Fear", and "The American President".

In 1986 his performance as an aspiring songwriter at the center of a chaotic family in a revival of "The House of Blue Leaves" won the Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Play.

Answer: Lily Tomlin

Having established herself as a television star for "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" and a film star for "Nashville" (1974) and "The Late Show" (1977), Lily Tomlin took Broadway by storm in 1985 for her second one-woman show, "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe", for which she won the Tony for Best Actress in a Play in 1986.

Her first one-woman show, "Appearing Nitely", had won a special Tony in 1977. Tomlin has also won six Emmys, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2014.

Answer: Ian McKellen

Long before his film performances in the "Lord of the Rings" and "X-Men" film franchises, Sir Ian McKellen was a stage actor of towering accomplishment, winning many awards, including six Olivier Awards, for performances in everything from Shakespeare to "Waiting for Godot". Beginning in 1980, he played Salieri in the first Broadway production of "Amadeus", for which he won the Tony for the Best Actor in a Play in 1981.

Answer: Maggie Smith

There may be few more honored actresses in the world than Dame Maggie Smith. A fixture as Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter film franchise and as Violet, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, in the television series, "Downton Abbey", for which she won three Emmy Awards, she is also the winner of two Oscars and five film BAFTAs. Still, she began on stage at the age of seventeen in "Twelfth Night", establishing a career there that encompassed roles as diverse as Hedda Gabler and most of the major female roles in the Shakespearean canon.

In 1990 Smith won the Tony for Best Performance by an Actress in a Play for "Lettice and Lovage", which transferred to Broadway after a successful London run, and which had been written especially for Smith by Peter Shaffer.

Answer: James Earl Jones

The recipient of an honorary Academy Award in 2011, and perhaps most famous as the voice of Darth Vader in the "Star Wars" films, James Earl Jones has been a stage actor continuously since 1955, making his Broadway debut in 1957. In the fall of 1968 Jones played the title role in the Broadway debut of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Great White Hope," by Howard Sackler.

While a work of fiction, the play was based on the true story of the first African-American heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson and his marriage to a white woman. Jones won the Tony for the Best Actor in a Play in 1969 for his performance.

He later went on to win a second Best Actor Tony for his 1987 performance in another Pulitzer Prize play for originating on Broadway the role of Troy Maxson in August Wilson's "Fences", which was revived on film nearly thirty years later by Denzel Washington.

Answer: Scarlett Johansson

Although overwhelmingly a movie star - in the grand Hollywood tradition - known for her performances in dramatic, comedy, and action films, Scarlett Johansson won the 2010 Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her Broadway debut, as Catherine in a revival of Arthur Miller's "A View from the Bridge".

Her win was not without controversy, as commentators complained that her performance was rewarded not so much for its brilliance as for her established film fame.

Answer: Eddie Redmayne

The 2010s were an embarrassment of acting awards riches for English actor Eddie Redmayne. He had already won several awards for his stage acting in England when in 2010 he won the Olivier Award (London's equivalent of the Tony) for his supporting performance as the assistant to the artist Mark Rothko in the play "Red".

When "Red" transferred to Broadway later that year, Redmayne repeated his performance and his triumph, winning the Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Play. Film stardom followed in such films as "My Week with Marilyn", "Les Miserables", and "The Theory of Everything", for which his performance as physicist Stephen Hawking won the Academy Award for the Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in 2014.

Answer: James Corden

Fans of his popular late-night talk show and Carpool Karaoke might be surprised to learn that James Corden is an award-winning actor and singer for projects as diverse as the television comedy "Gavin & Stacey", the sports show "A League of Their Own", and various award shows.

In the spring of 2011 Corden established the role of Francis Henshall in the play "One Man, Two Guvnors", adapted from a play from the Commedia dell'arte. The production was a farce of hidden identities, concealed motives, physical comedy, and musical numbers.

It toured world-wide to great critical acclaim, premiering in London in 2011 and on Broadway in 2012. Corden opened both the London and Broadway productions, and won the Tony Award for the Best Actor in a Play for his performance.

Answer: Viola Davis

Viola Davis has earned justifiable acclaim as a film and television actress, winning both Emmy Awards for her leading performance in TV's "How to Get Away with Murder" and an Oscar for her supporting performance in "Fences". But she established herself early on as a stage performer, winning a Tony award as Best Featured Actress in a Play in 2001 for her performance as Tonya, a woman seeking to terminate her pregnancy, in August Wilson's "King Hedley II".

She later won a second Featured-Actress Tony in 2010 for playing Rose Maxson in a revival of Wilson's "Fences", the role for which she later won the Oscar.

Answer: Kevin Spacey

Justly famous as a film star for his Oscar-winning performances in "The Usual Suspects" (1995) and "American Beauty" (1999), Kevin Spacey was acting on the stage as far back as high school, making his debut on the New York stage in 1981. In 1991, his performance as the fugitive mob bagman Uncle Louie in Broadway icon Neil Simon's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Lost in Yonkers" won him the Tony for the Best Featured Actor in a Play.