Eugene O'Neill Award

[4] Just before Eugene O'Neill died in 1953, he drew up a will in which he gave the then not yet staged play Long Day's Journey Into Night (written in 1941) to Sweden's Royal Dramatic Theatre, along with exclusive first performance rights.

[5][6] Later his widow American stage and film actress Carlotta Monterey (1888– 1970), also gave the Royal Dramatic Theatre the performing rights to A Touch of the Poet (1942), Hughie (1942) and More Stately Mansions (posthumous).

She refused staging fees for his plays in Sweden, provided that 8% of the royalties from the revenues of each performance were given to the Eugene O'Neill Memory Fund, which manages the money for the Eugene O'Neill Award.

In accordance with O'Neill's own wishes, it is given to "highly deserving actors of the Royal Dramatic Theatre".

As an extra honour to Eugene O'Neill, the first award was granted to the two actors who played the leading parts of James and Mary Tyrone in the original staging of Long Day's Journey Into Night at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in February 1956; Lars Hanson (1886–1965) and Inga Tidblad (1901–1975).