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Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor - Drama Series
This is a list of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series winners.
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Jackie Cooper
Jackie Cooper (September 15, 1922) is an American actor, TV director, TV producer and executive. He was a child actor who managed to transition to an adult career. As of 2009, Cooper's Oscar-nominated performance in Skippy is the earliest nomination...
Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer (28 August 1899 – 26 August 1978) was a French actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving a dramatic education, Boyer started on the stage, but he found his success in European and Hollywood movies...
Award Nominations:
Teresa Wright
Teresa Wright (October 27, 1918 – March 6, 2005) was an American actress.
She was born Muriel Teresa Wright in Harlem, New York City, the daughter of Martha (née Espy) and Arthur Wright, who was an insurance agent. She grew up in Maplewood, New...
Award Nominations:
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch or И́сер Даниело́вич; December 9, 1916) is an American actor and film producer recognized for his prominent cleft chin, his gravelly voice and his recurring roles as the kinds of characters Douglas himself once...
Award Nominations:
Karl Malden
Karl Malden (born Mladen George Sekulovich, Serbian Cyrillic: Младен Ђорђе Секуловић; March 22, 1912 – July 1, 2009) was an American actor. In a career that spanned more than seven decades, he featured in classic Marlon Brando films such as A...
Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine (born January 24, 1917) is an American actor whose career has spanned for over five decades. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for the motion picture Marty. On television, he is known for playing the title character in the 1960s...
Robert Stack
Robert Langford Modini Stack (13 January 1919 – 14 May 2003) was an American actor. He was perhaps best known for his film acting as well as his role in the television series The Untouchables and as host of Unsolved Mysteries. He starred in more...
Hugh O'Brian
Hugh O'Brian (born April 19, 1925) is an American actor best known for his starring role as Wyatt Earp in the ABC television series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955–1961).
O'Brian was born Hugh Charles Krampe in Rochester, New York, the son...
Award Nominations:
David Niven
James David Graham Niven (1 March 1910 – 29 July 1983), known as David Niven, was an English actor and novelist, best known for his roles as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days and Sir Charles Litton, a.k.a. "the Phantom," in The Pink...
Phil Silvers
Phil Silvers (May 11, 1911 – November 1, 1985) was an American entertainer and comedy actor. He is best known for starring in The Phil Silvers Show, a 1950s sitcom set on a U.S. Army post in which he played Sergeant Bilko.
Born Philip Silversmith in...
Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.
Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. (born November 30, 1918) is an American actor known for his starring roles in the television series 77 Sunset Strip and The F.B.I. He is also known as the voice behind the character Alfred Pennyworth in Batman: The Animated...
James Arness
James Arness (born May 26, 1923) is an American actor best known for portraying Marshal Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke for 20 years. Arness has the distinction of having played the role of Marshal Matt Dillon in five separate decades: 1955 to 1975 in the...
Robert Cummings
Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings (June 9, 1910 – December 2, 1990), known professionally as Bob Cummings, , was an American motion picture and television actor.
Cummings performed mainly in comedies, but was effective in his few dramas,...
Craig Stevens
Craig Stevens (July 8, 1918 – May 10, 2000) was an American motion picture and television actor.
Born Gail Shikles, Jr. in Liberty, Missouri, he studied dentistry at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, from which he received a bachelor's degree...
Award Nominations:
Peter Falk
Peter Michael Falk (born September 16, 1927) is an American actor, best known for his role as Lieutenant Columbo in the television series Columbo. He appeared in numerous films and television guest roles, and has been nominated for an Academy Award...
Telly Savalas
Aristotelis “Telly” Savalas (January 21, 1922 – January 22, 1994) was an American film and television actor and singer, whose career spanned four decades. Best known for playing the title role in the 1970s crime drama Kojak, Savalas was nominated...
Vince Edwards
Vince Edwards (July 9, 1928 - March 11, 1996) was an American actor, director, and singer, best known for the role of TV doctor "Ben Casey".
Edwards was born Vincent Edward Zoine III in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Julia and Vincento Zoine (a...
Award Nominations:
George Maharis
George Maharis (born September 1, 1928 in Astoria, New York) is an American actor best known for his role as Buz Murdock in first three seasons of the TV series Route 66. Maharis also recorded numerous pop music albums at the height of his fame, and...
Award Nominations:
Vic Morrow
Victor "Vic" Morrow (February 14, 1929 — July 23, 1982) was an American actor, whose credits include a starring role in the 1960s TV series Combat!, prominent roles in a handful of other television and cinema dramas, and numerous guest roles on...
Award Nominations:
E. G. Marshall
E. G. Marshall (June 18, 1914 – August 24, 1998) was an American actor, best known for his TV roles as the lawyer Lawrence Preston on The Defenders in the 1960s, and as neurosurgeon Dr. David Craig on The Bold Ones: The New Doctors in the 1970s....
Paul Burke
Paul Burke (July 21, 1926 – September 13, 2009) was an American actor best known for his lead roles in two 1960s ABC television series, Naked City and Twelve O'Clock High. He was twice nominated for an Emmy Award for his portrayal of New York Police...
Richard Boone
Richard Allen Boone (June 18, 1917 – January 10, 1981) was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns. He was best known as the star of the TV series Have Gun – Will Travel.
Boone was born in Los Angeles...
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM (pronounced /ˈlɒrəns ɵˈlɪvieɪ/; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century, along with his contemporaries...
Award Nominations:
David Janssen
David Janssen (March 27, 1931 – February 13, 1980) was an American film and television actor who is best known for his starring role as Dr. Richard Kimble in the television series The Fugitive (1963–1967).
Janssen was born David Harold Meyer in...
Robert Culp
Robert Martin Culp (born August 16, 1930) is an American actor and scriptwriter, perhaps best known for his work in television. Culp earned an international reputation for his role as Kelly Robinson on I Spy (1965-1968), the espionage series, where...
David McCallum
David Keith McCallum, Jr. (born 19 September 1933) is a Scottish actor and the son of orchestral leader (principal first violinist) David McCallum, Sr. He is best known for his roles as Illya Kuryakin, a Russian-born secret agent, in the 1960s...
Peter Graves
Peter Graves (born March 18, 1926) is an American film and television actor. He is known for his starring role in the television series Mission: Impossible from 1967 to 1973, and its revival, from 1988 to 1990.
Graves was born Peter Aurness in...
Ross Martin
Ross Martin (March 22, 1920 – July 3, 1981) was an American Emmy-nominated actor known for playing Artemus Gordon in the western TV series The Wild Wild West, starring Robert Conrad, and Andamo on Mr. Lucky, starring John Vivyan.
Martin was born...
Carl Betz
Carl Betz (March 9, 1921 – January 18, 1978) was an American film and television actor best known for the role of Dr. Alex Stone (Donna Reed's TV husband) on ABC's The Donna Reed Show from 1958 to 1966.
A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Betz...
James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones (born January 17, 1931) is an American actor of stage and screen, well known for his deep basso voice. To modern audiences, he is best known for providing the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise, Terrence Mann in Field...
Bill Cosby
William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. (born July 12, 1937) is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action...
Robert Wagner
Robert John Wagner (born February 10, 1930) is an American film and television actor of stage and screen, who starred in movies, soap operas and television.
Wagner starred in three American television series that spanned three decades: as playboy...
Tige Andrews
Tige Andrews (March 19, 1920 – January 27, 2007) was an American character actor. His work includes the role of "Captain Adam Greer" on the television series The Mod Squad.
Andrews was reportedly born as Tiger Andrews in Brooklyn, New York, the son...
Raymond Burr
Raymond William Stacey Burr (May 21, 1917 – September 12, 1993) was a Canadian actor, primarily known for his roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside and his lead role as Steve Martin in Godzilla, King of the Monsters and Godzilla...
Robert Young
Robert George Young (February 22, 1907 – July 21, 1998) was an American actor, best known for his leading roles of Jim Anderson, the father of Father Knows Best (NBC and then CBS) and physician Marcus Welby in Marcus Welby, M.D. (ABC).
Born in...
Keith Michell
Keith Michell (born 1 December 1928) is an Australian actor.
He was born in Adelaide and brought up in Warnertown, near Port Pirie in South Australia's Mid North region. The theatre in Port Pirie is named after him.
Michell taught art until he made...
David Carradine
David Carradine (December 8, 1936— June 3, 2009) was a popular American character actor of stage, director, martial artist, spokesman and singer, who in his four decades of television is best known for his work in the 1970s television series, Kung...
Mike Connors
Mike Connors (born August 15, 1925) is an American actor best known for playing detective Joe Mannix in the long-running CBS television series, Mannix. Before that, he had played a crime-fighting investigator, wielding a .38 handgun hidden in his...
Richard Thomas
Richard Earl Thomas (born June 13, 1951) is an American actor, best known as budding author "John-Boy" in the CBS Television Series The Waltons. Thomas can also be heard providing the voiceover in recent Mercedes-Benz and Aleve commercials.
Thomas...
William Conrad
William Conrad (September 27, 1920 – February 11, 1994) was an American film and television director and an actor and narrator in radio, film, and television known for his baritone voice, as well as his sizable girth.
Conrad was born William Cann in...
Jack Klugman
Jacob Joachim "Jack" Klugman (born April 27, 1922) is an American stage, film and television actor, known for his roles in sitcoms, movies, television and on Broadway. He is best-known for his role as Tony Randall's sloppy roommate, Oscar Madison,...
Barry Newman
Barry Foster Newman is an American actor, the son of an Austrian father and a Swedish mother. Newman was born in Boston, Massachusetts on November 7, 1938 and he attended Boston Latin School and Brandeis University, where he took a degree in...
Robert Blake
Robert Blake (September 18, 1933) is an Italian-American actor who starred in the film In Cold Blood and the U.S. television series Baretta. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted for the 2001 murder of his wife, but on November 18, 2005, Blake was...
Ralph Waite
Ralph Waite (born June 22, 1929) is an American actor. His most famous role may be John Walton Sr. on the 1970s CBS program The Waltons and he is also well known for his portrayal of the slaver first mate Slater in the mini-series Roots. He also...
James Broderick
James Wilke Broderick (March 7, 1927 – November 1, 1982) was an American actor.
He played the father on the television show Family from 1976 to 1980, receiving an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 1978.
His...
Award Nominations:
Carroll O'Connor
John Carroll O'Connor (August 2, 1924 – June 21, 2001), best known as Carroll O'Connor, was an American actor, producer and director whose television career spanned four decades. Known at first for playing the role of Major General Colt in the 1970...
Ron Leibman
Ron Leibman (born October 11, 1937) is an American actor.
Leibman was a member of the Compass Players in the late 1950s. He has appeared in many films such as Where's Poppa?; The Hot Rock; Slaughterhouse-Five; The Super Cops; Up the Academy; Norma...
Larry Hagman
Larry Martin Hagman (born September 21, 1931) is an American film and television actor, producer and director best known for playing J. R. Ewing in the 1980s primetime television soap opera Dallas and Major Anthony Nelson in the 1960s sitcom, I...
Jim Davis
Jim Davis (August 26, 1909 – April 26, 1981) was an American actor, best known for his role as Jock Ewing in the CBS prime-time soap Dallas, a role which he held up until his death in April 1981.
Born as Marlin Davis in Edgerton, Missouri, his first...
Award Nominations:
Pernell Roberts
Pernell Elvin Roberts (born May 18, 1928 in Waycross, Georgia) is an American television actor and singer. He is best known for his roles as Ben Cartwright's eldest son, Adam Cartwright, on the western series Bonanza (a role he played from 1959 to...
Award Nominations:
Ed Asner
Edward Asner (born November 15, 1929) is an American film and television actor and former President of the Screen Actors Guild, primarily known for his role as Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spin-off series, Lou Grant. More recently,...
Louis Gossett, Jr.
Louis Cameron Gossett, Jr. (born May 27, 1936) is an American actor.
Gossett, Jr. was born in Sheepshead Bay, Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York to Hellen Rebecca (née Wray), a nurse, and Louis Gossett, Sr., a porter. His stage debut came at age 16 in...
Sam Waterston
Samuel Atkinson Waterston (born November 15, 1940) is an American actor noted particularly for his portrayal of Jack McCoy on the NBC television series Law & Order. He has also appeared in many feature films.
Waterston, one of four siblings, was...
John Forsythe
John Forsythe (born John Lincoln Freund; January 29, 1918) is an American stage, television and film actor. Forsythe starred in three television series, spanning three decades, as single playboy father Bentley Gregg in the 1950s sitcom Bachelor...
James Garner
James Garner (born April 7, 1928) is an American film and television actor.
He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades. These included his roles as Bret Maverick, in the popular 1950s western-comedy...
Richard Crenna
Richard Donald Crenna (November 30, 1926 – January 17, 2003) was an American film, television and radio actor. He starred in such motion pictures as The Sand Pebbles, Wait Until Dark, Body Heat, Rambo (First Blood – Rambo III), Hot Shots! Part Deux,...
Robert Loggia
Robert Loggia (born January 3, 1930) is an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-nominated American film and television actor and director, who specializes in character parts.
Loggia, an Italian American, was born on Staten Island, the son of Elena...
Daniel J. Travanti
Daniel John Travanti (born March 7, 1940) is an American actor. He is known for his starring role as Frank Furillo in the television drama Hill Street Blues.
Travanti, one of five children, was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to Italian immigrant...
Don Johnson
Don Johnson (born Donnie Wayne Johnson; December 15, 1949) is an American actor known for his work in television and film. Johnson made his screen debut in the 1970 film The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart, but it wouldn't be until 1984 that...
Tom Selleck
Thomas William "Tom" Selleck (born January 29, 1945) is an American actor, screenwriter and film producer, perhaps best known for his starring role on the television show Magnum, P.I., and for his recurring role as Dr. Richard Burke in Friends, he...
