The Tony Randall Award
The Voice Foundation established an award in honor of our beloved President Emeritus, Tony Randall.
View our Pintrest Board featuring past award recipients.
2024
Emmy and Tony award-winning singer and actress Leslie Uggams has been a shining light in the world of voice for seven decades. Her performance career began when she was only six years old and portrayed Ethel Waters’ niece on the TV series Beulah, and it has continued to this day. Ms. Uggams’ attended the Juilliard School of music. Her credits and accomplishments are far too numerous to list completely in this brief introduction; and even a selective summary is extraordinary. She has been a star on Broadway, television, film, in concert and in other venues; and she has released 59 beloved recordings.
Ms. Uggams’ accomplishments have received broad and well-deserved recognition. She holds Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees from the University of Michigan and the University of Connecticut. Her awards include Tony, Emmy, Critics Choice, Broadway League Juneteenth Legacy, Oscar Hammerstein, LA drama Critics Circle Award, NAACP Theater Award, IRNE, Broadway World People’s Choice, American Artist; and in 2021 she was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame. Ms. Uggams has been a role model not only from a distance, but also through generous mentorship of students and through master classes.
2023
Screen icon Kathleen Turner has garnered critical acclaim for her performances in movies including Body Heat, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe; Romancing the Stone and Prizzi’s Honor, which earned her a Golden Globe Award for each; Peggy Sue Got Married, which brought Turner both an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe nomination; and War of the Roses brought yet another Golden Globe nomination. Turner’s extensive film credits also include The Man with Two Brains, with Steve Martin; Jewel of the Nile, with Michael Douglas; The Accidental Tourist; V.I. Warshawki; John Waters’ Serial Mom; Naked in New Moon; Moonlight and Valentino; The Real Blonde; and Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides. Ms. Turner has also starred on Broadway in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, for which she received a Tony nomination for Best Actress; Indiscretions; The Graduate; and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, for which she received a second Tony nomination for Best Actress.
Ms. Turner’s television work includes the final season of The Kominsky Method and Dolly Parton’s Anthology series entitled Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings episode “These Old Bones,” for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. She will next be seen in the HBO limited series White House Plumbers starring alongside Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux. Ms. Turner made her debut at The Metropolitan Opera in La Fille du Régiment. She has also starred as Molly Ivins in Red Hot Patriot: The Kick Ass Wit of Molly Ivins at Philadelphia Theater Center, The Geffen in LA and Arena Stage in DC and on Broadway as a nun in High. One of her most challenging roles was Mother Courage in Mother Courage and Her Children at Arena Stage. She has also starred opposite Ian McDiarmid in Bakersfield Mist in the West End.
Ms. Turner has recently expanded her repertoire with the development of her first cabaret performance, Finding My Voice, which debuted in Philadelphia in the Fall of 2017, followed by a run in London at The Other Palace Theatre, a tour in the UK, and an engagement at the legendary Cafe Carlyle in New York City. In addition to her film and stage credits, Turner wrote of her many accomplishments and life experiences in her autobiography titled, Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on my Life, Love, and Leading Roles, which secured a position on the New York Times Best-Seller List and which she has recorded as an audio book. Her most recent work includes the publication of her new book, Kathleen Turner on Acting. Ms. Turner is also a director and activist, particularly for women’s health and finds it rewarding to teach master classes.
2015
The Voice Foundation President, Dr. Stuart Orsher was presented with the second Tony Randall Award
2008
Eli Wallach was honored with the first Tony Randall Award at the Voices of Summer Gala.
In Memory of Tony Randall (1920-2004)
Our beloved friend and President, Tony Randall , achieved his dream with the 1991 launching of his National Actors Theatre. For over a decade, he worked tirelessly to raise the money necessary to develop his idea and now his dream is a reality. But this did not cause Randall to retire from the areas of acting for which he had become known. As a matter of fact, he became Artistic Director of the company and an actor and director as well. Tony Randall was a comedian. That was evident through his television successes-from “Mr. Peepers” to “The Odd Couple”, as well as brilliant movie comedy roles, and the theatre.
However, the Emmy Award-winning actor was more than a funny man. He was one of the more erudite and accomplished conversationalists. He was an authority on opera and a serious student of the theatre and art. Yes, he broke you up with laughter as the fastidious Felix of “The Odd Couple” or in the Doris Day comedies, but there was also something very human and touching about those baffled characters he played. Moreover, when he had the opportunity, as in Broadway’s “M. Butterfly” or such a movie as “No Down Payment,” he created a characterization. Consider, for example, his funny and poignant characterization in “Love, Sidney,” the TV series spin-off of his memorable “Sidney Schorr” performance. In 1998, Tony Randall was inducted into the prestigious Theatre Hall of Fame.
Throughout his career, Tony used his distinctive voice, keen intellect and unfailing humanitarianism to help friends, enhance the quality of acting, and further the cause of voice education and research. His contributions cannot be counted, and they will continue to enhance our field and enrich our lives for generations to come.