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Laurence Olivier Award for Actor of the Year in a New Play

annual award for London's West End theatre (1976-1984, 1988)

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 21, 2026
Entity authorityQ6500761 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Laurence Olivier Award for Actor of the Year in a New Play was an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of the "world-class status of London theatre." The awards were established as the Society of West End Theatre Awards in 1976, and renamed in 1984 in honour of English actor and director Laurence Olivier.

This award was presented from 1976 to 1984, then in 1985 the award was combined with the Actor of the Year in a Revival award to create the Best Actor award. The original Actor of the Year in a New Play award returned one last time, for the 1988 ceremony.

Winners and nominees

1970s

1980s

See also

Best Actor

Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play

Lists of acting awards

Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play

References

London Theatre Guide (2008). "The Laurence Olivier Awards: Full List of Winners, 1976-2008" (.PDF). 1976-2008. The Society of London Theatre. p. 20. Retrieved 2008-08-30.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Laurence Olivier Award for Actor of the Year in a New Play” as annual award for London's West End theatre (1976-1984, 1988). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Laurence, Olivier and Award.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1976, 1984, 1985, 1988—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1976. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Laurence, Olivier and Award providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Laurence Olivier Award for Actor of the Year in a New Play”, the useful work is to connect “annual award for London's West End theatre (1976-1984, 1988)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6500761. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1976, 1984, 1985 and 1988.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Laurence Olivier Award for Actor of the Year in a New Play”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Laurence Olivier Award for Actor of the Year in a New Play primary sources, Laurence Olivier Award for Actor of the Year in a New Play archive and Laurence research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Laurence Olivier Award for Actor of the Year in a New Play”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Laurence Olivier Award for Actor of the Year in a New Play” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.