Surprisingly, Yul Brynner's King of Siam was considered a supporting role when he first played the part in the Rogers and Hammerstein musical in 1951. When he did the movie in 1956, he was upgraded.

Antony Franciosa enjoyed a similar promotion for his performance in A Hatful of Rain, receiving a 1956 Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play and an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in the film version the following year. He lost both awards, the Tony to Ed Begley in Inherit the Wind and the Oscar to Alec Guinness in The Bridge on the River Kwai.

Jane Alexander won the 1969 Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Play for The Great White Hope in 1969 but was nominated for Best Actress in the 1970 film version, losing to Glenda Jackson in Women in Love.

On two occasions, roles have been downgraded in their journey from stage to screen although they were performed by different actors. Basil Rathbone shared the 1948 Best Actor in a Play Tony (with Henry Fonda in Mister Roberts and Paul Kelly in Command Decision) for his role as Dr. Austin Sloper in The Heiress but Ralph Richardson was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in the 1949 film. Stanley Holloway was nominated in the supporting category for both the Tony and Oscar for his turn as Alfred Doolittle in My Fair Lady, but when George Rose played it in the 1976 Broadway revival, he was given the Tony for Best Leading Actor in a Musical.

Brynner appeared in three Oscar-winning films in 1956: The King and I (which won Best Art Direction - Color, Best Costume Design - Color, Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture and Best Sound Recording in addition to his Best Actor prize), The Ten Commandments (which won Best Special Effects) and Anastasia (which won Best Actress for Ingrid Bergman). The King and I and The Ten Commandments were both nominated for Best Picture, losing to Around the World in 80 Days. He didn't appear in another Best Picture nominee for the rest of his career.