José Ferrer won the very first Tony Award for performance for his Broadway turn as Cyrano de Bergerac in 1946, and won the Oscar for the film version 4 years later. He was also nominated for an Emmy for playing Cyrano on television in 1955, but lost that award to Lloyd Nolan playing Captain Queeg in the TV production of The Caine Mutiny Court Martial. He received an earlier Emmy nomination in the Best Actor category in 1951, (losing to Alan Young). That nomination didn't specify any specific performance but his appearances as Cyrano and as Sammy Glick in a dramatization of What Makes Sammy Run on The Philco Television Playhouse were his only TV work that year.

Mildred Dunnock created the role of Linda Loman in Death of a Salesman on the Broadway stage and received an Oscar nomination for the 1951 film version and an Emmy Award for the 1966 television version. The Tony for Outstanding Supporting Performer was won by Shirley Booth in Goodbye My Fancy in the year Dunnock debuted as Linda Loman, and in those early years of the award the nominations were not made public. While it seems unlikely that Dunnock wasn't one of the finalists for the Tony, she was never officially declared a nominee.