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Tony Awards 2014: Bryan Cranston wins best actor in a play

Bryan Cranston portraying President Lyndon B. Johnson during a performance of "All the Way."
Bryan Cranston portraying President Lyndon B. Johnson during a performance of “All the Way.”
(Evgenia Eliseeva / AP)
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Bryan Cranston won the Tony Award for lead actor in a play on Sunday for his performance as President Lyndon B. Johnson in the historical drama “All the Way” by Robert Schenkkan.

Cranston, former star of TV’s “Breaking Bad” and “Malcolm in the Middle,” made his Broadway debut in “All the Way.” He previously starred in the stage drama when it ran last year at the American Repertory Theatre in Massachusetts.

TONY AWARDS 2014: Complete list of nominees

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The nearly three-hour play dramatizes Johnson’s first year in office as he deals with the aftermath of the John F. Kennedy assassination and the growing civil rights movement.

Cranston is a Los Angeles native who got his early start on the stage in regional theaters around Southern California. In 2006, the actor appeared in a Geffen Playhouse production of Sam Shepard’s “The God of Hell” that was directed by Jason Alexander.

The other nominees in the category were Samuel Barnett for “Twelfth Night,” Chris O’Dowd for “Of Mice and Men,” Mark Rylance for “Richard III” and Tony Shalhoub for “Act One.”

Last year’s winner was Tracy Letts for his performance in the 2013 revival of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

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