With the 2024 Tony nominations just a week away, now is the perfect time to catch up with or watch again some of the previous Tony award-winning performances that were later captured on film.

Tonys were first presented in 1947 for shows that opened on Broadway in the 1946-1947 season. Ingrid Bergman, a Best Actress in a Play winner that year for Joan of Lorraine, became both the first winner to reprise her award-wining role on film and the first to be Oscar nominated for her performance when the play was filmed as Joan of Arc in 1948.

José Ferrer, a Best Actor in a Play winner that year, became the first to not only be nominated for reprising his role on film, but the first to win for his definitive portrayal of Cyrano de Bergerac in the 1950 film version.

Fredric March, a co-winner for Best Actor in a Play that year for Years Ago in which he played the father of the play’s author (Ruth Gordon), saw his role go to Spencer Tracy when the play was filmed as The Actress in 1953. Tracy and March later co-starred in 1960’s Inherit the Wind in roles that had won Tonys for Paul Muni and Ed Begley several years earlier. March was nominated for a Golden Globe, while Tracy received an Oscar nomination.

Henry Fonda, who won a Tony for his return to Broadway in 1948’s Mister Roberts, did not make another film until the play was filmed in 1955, for which it received several Oscar nominations including Best Picture but astonishingly no recognition for Fonda.

Ray Bolger’s Tony award-winning performance in 1949’s Where’s Charley? was filmed in 1952 but is sadly unavailable due to the loss of two of the film’s three technicolor strips turning the film to green.

Juanita Hall was the only one of four acting winners in 1950’s South Pacific to reprise her role in the 1958 film version. Oddly, her Bloody Mary was dubbed in the film version by Muriel Smith who played the role in London.

Shirley Booth’s Tony award-winning portrayal of the slovenly housewife in 1950’s Come Back, Little Sheba made her the first actress to not only be nominated for an Oscar but to win one for her performance in the 1952 film.

This was the second of three Tonys for Booth whose role in 1949’s Goodbye, My Fancy went to Eve Arden on film, and whose role in 1953’s The Time of the Cuckoo went to Katharine Hepburn, who earned her sixth of twelve Oscar nominations for it when filmed as 1955’s Summertime.

Ethel Merman’s Tony-winning portrayal of the hostess with the mostest on the ball in 1951’s Call Me Madam earned her a Golden Globe but Oscar wasn’t interested.

Because of the Tonys’ longstanding rule of only nominating actors who were billed over the title in the lead categories, Yul Brynner’s 1952 Tony for The King and I was won in the featured actor category. He thus became the first winning featured player to be nominated and win in the lead category at the 1956 Oscars.

Rosalind Russell became the first performer to win a Tony for a role she had previously received an Oscar nomination for when she won Best Actress in a Musical in 1953 for Wonderful Town, the musical version of My Sister Eileen.

John Kerr reprised his Tony award-winning role in 1954’s Tea and Sympathy but failed to receive an Oscar nod for the 1956 film version, but Anthony Perkins, who replaced him on Broadway, did receive a nomination that year for Friendly Persuasion.

Nancy Kelly’s bravura Tony-winning performance as the mother of the child murderess in 1955’s The Bad Seed earned her an Oscar nomination when filmed in 1956.

Gwen Verdon received a BAFTA nomination for the 1958 film version of Damn Yankees for which she won a 1956 Tony.

Rex Harrison won a 1964 Oscar for reprising his 1957 Tony award-winning role in My Fair Lady. His 1957 female counterpart, Judy Holliday in Bells Are Ringing, only got as far as a Golden Globe nomination when her musical was filmed in 1960.

Robert Preston’s Tony award-winning Professor Harold Hill in 1958’s The Music Man was a career turner, but Oscar sadly looked the other way when the film version became one of 1962’s biggest hits and an Oscar nominee for Best Picture.

Anne Bancroft’s 1960 Tony award-winning performance in The Miracle Worker turned the long-taken-for-granted film actress into a genuine movie star when she won the Oscar for reprising her role in the 1962 film version.

Paul Scofield became known in the U.S. with his 1962 Tony win for playing Saint Sir Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons, repeating with an Oscar win for the 1966 film which also won for Best Picture.

Robert Morse in 1962’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Zero Mostel in 1963’s A Funny Thing on the Way to the Forum reprised their Tony-award-winning roles in their shows’ film versions, but the films themselves were only moderately successful.

Jack Albertson reprised his Tony award-winning role of the 1940s Bronx father in 1965’s The Subject Was Roses in the 1968 film for which he also won an Oscar. Joel Grey did the same thing with his portrayal of the emcee in 1967’s Cabaret for which he won an Oscar in 1972.

Ellen Burstyn turned her 1975 Tony win for Same Time, Next Year into an Oscar nomination for the 1978 film version.

Pauline Collins turned her 1989 Tony win for Shirley Valentine into an Oscar nomination for that same year’s film version.

As the years have gone on, Tony award-winning plays and musicals have been filmed less frequently. Even when they are, the actors and actresses who originated the roles have seldom been asked to reprise them, making the ones that have been in the past even more precious.

All the films mentioned here except for Where’s Charley? are available on home video.

Happy viewing.