The Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor is an annual award presented since 1955 by the Evening Standard in recognition of achievement in British theatre.

Simon Russell Beale has won the award the most frequently, with four separate wins.

Albert Finney, Ian Holm, Alec McCowen, Laurence Olivier, and Paul Scofield have each won the award thrice, while thirteen other actors have won twice.

Chiwetel Ejiofor was the first black actor to win, and Adrian Lester was the second.

Two instances have occurred where two actors have been awarded as winners from the same play: In 2011, Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller from Frankenstein; and again in 2013, Rory Kinnear and Lester from Othello.