# Drama League Distinguished Performance Award

The Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance, originally known as the Delia Austrian Medal, is a theater award presented annually since 1935 by The Drama League for the "most distinguished" performance of the theater season. The award is named for theater reviewer Delia Austrian. An artist may only win the award once in their lifetime.

## Winners

| Year | Recipient | Work |
| 1935 | Katherine Cornell | Romeo and Juliet |
| 1936 | Helen Hayes | Victoria Regina |
| 1937 | Maurice Evans | King Richard II |
| 1938 | Cedric Hardwicke | Shadow and Substance |
| 1939 | Raymond Massey | Abe Lincoln in Illinois |
| 1940 | Paul Muni | Key Largo |
| 1941 | Paul Lukas | Watch on the Rhine |
| 1942 | Judith Evelyn | Angel Street |
| 1943 | Alfred Lunt Lynn Fontanne | The Pirate |
| 1944 | Elisabeth Bergner | The Two Mrs. Carrolls |
| 1945 | Mady Christians | I Remember Mama |
| 1946 | Louis Calhern | The Magnificent Yankee |
| 1947 | Ingrid Bergman | Joan of Lorraine |
| 1948 | Judith Anderson | Medea |
| 1949 | Robert Morley | Edward, My Son |
| 1950 | Grace George | The Velvet Glove |
| 1951 | Claude Rains | Darkness at Noon |
| 1952 | Julie Harris | I Am a Camera |
| 1953 | Shirley Booth | The Time of the Cuckoo |
| 1954 | Josephine Hull | The Solid Gold Cadillac |
| 1955 | Viveca Lindfors | Anastasia |
| 1956 | David Wayne | The Ponder Heart |
| 1957 | Eli Wallach | Major Barbara |
| 1958 | Ralph Bellamy | Sunrise at Campobello |
| 1959 | Cyril Ritchard | The Pleasure of His Company |
| 1960 | Jessica Tandy | Five Finger Exercise |
| 1961 | Hume Cronyn | Big Fish, Little Fish |
| 1962 | Paul Scofield | A Man for All Seasons |
| 1963 | Charles Boyer | Lord Pengo |
| 1964 | Alec Guinness | Dylan |
| 1965 | John Gielgud | Tiny Alice |
| 1966 | Richard Kiley | Man of La Mancha |
| 1967 | Rosemary Harris | The Wild Duck |
| 1968 | Zoe Caldwell | The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie |
| 1969 | Alec McCowen | Hadrian the Seventh |
| 1970 | James Stewart | Harvey |
| 1971 | Anthony Quayle | Sleuth |
| 1972 | Eileen Atkins Claire Bloom | Vivat! Vivat Regina! |
| 1973 | Alan Bates | Butley |
| 1974 | Christopher Plummer | The Good Doctor |
| 1975 | John Wood | Sherlock Holmes |
| 1976 | Eva Le Gallienne | The Royal Family |
| 1977 | Tom Courtenay | Otherwise Engaged |
| 1978 | Frank Langella | Dracula |
| 1979 | Frances Sternhagen | On Golden Pond |
| 1980 | Roy Scheider | Betrayal |
| 1981 | Ian McKellen | Amadeus |
| 1982 | Milo O'Shea | Mass Appeal |
| 1983 | Kate Nelligan Edward Herrmann | Plenty |
| 1984 | Jeremy Irons | The Real Thing |
| 1985 | Derek Jacobi | Cyrano de Bergerac and Much Ado About Nothing |
| 1986 | Bernadette Peters | Song and Dance |
| 1987 | James Earl Jones | Fences |
| 1988 | John Lithgow | M. Butterfly |
| 1989 | Pauline Collins | Shirley Valentine |
| 1990 | Robert Morse | Tru |
| 1991 | Stockard Channing | Six Degrees of Separation |
| 1992 | Glenn Close | Death and the Maiden |
| 1993 | Stephen Rea | Someone Who'll Watch Over Me |
| 1994 | Sam Waterston | Abe Lincoln in Illinois |
| 1995 | Cherry Jones | The Heiress |
| 1996 | Uta Hagen | Mrs. Klein |
| 1997 | Charles Durning Bebe Neuwirth | The Gin Game Chicago |
| 1998 | Brian Stokes Mitchell | Ragtime |
| 1999 | Kathleen Chalfant | Wit |
| 2000 | Eileen Heckart | The Waverly Gallery |
| 2001 | Mary-Louise Parker Gary Sinise | Proof One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest |
| 2002 | Liam Neeson | The Crucible |
| 2003 | Harvey Fierstein | Hairspray |
| 2004 | Hugh Jackman | The Boy from Oz |
| 2005 | Norbert Leo Butz | Dirty Rotten Scoundrels |
| 2006 | Christine Ebersole | Grey Gardens |
| 2007 | Liev Schreiber | Talk Radio and Macbeth |
| 2008 | Patti LuPone | Gypsy |
| 2009 | Geoffrey Rush | Exit the King |
| 2010 | Alfred Molina | Red |
| 2011 | Mark Rylance | Jerusalem and La Bête |
| 2012 | Audra McDonald | Porgy and Bess |
| 2013 | Nathan Lane | The Nance |
| 2014 | Neil Patrick Harris | Hedwig and the Angry Inch |
| 2015 | Chita Rivera | The Visit |
| 2016 | Lin-Manuel Miranda | Hamilton |
| 2017 | Ben Platt | Dear Evan Hansen |
| 2018 | Glenda Jackson | Three Tall Women |
| 2019 | Bryan Cranston | Network |
| 2020 | Danny Burstein | Moulin Rouge! |
| 2021 | No award presented | |
| 2022 | Sutton Foster | The Music Man |
| 2023 | Annaleigh Ashford | Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street |
| 2024 | Sarah Paulson | Appropriate |