Lois Smith made history as she became the oldest person to win an acting accolade at the award show. The 90-year-old Hollywood actor bagged the award for the best actress in a featured role in a play for her work as Margaret in ‘The Inheritance’ at the 74th annual Tony Awards on Sunday. 

Smith said in her speech, “I love the processes of the live theater,” adding, “I first worked on The Inheritance in a workshop where Matthew López was finishing a play about the AIDS plague, and it was partly based on E.M. Forster’s book Howards End, which had been my favorite novel for as long as I can remember.”

Also Read | Tony Awards 2021: Aaron Tveit wins the best actor for a leading role in a musical

“E.M. Forster gave us, there’s a famous two-word message from Howards End, which is so apt, I think, tonight for all of us who are here celebrating the importance, the functions, of live theater: ‘Only connect,’ ” she continued.

Also Read | Tony Awards 2021: Alex Timbers wins the best direction for a musical

Smith was earlier nominated at the Tonys for Buried Child in 1996 and The Grapes of Wrath in 1990. The actor is popularly known for her performances in movies like Twister, Lady Bird and Minority Report. She has also starred in TV shows like True Blood, The Americans and Ray Donovan.

Also Read | Tony Awards 2021: Andrew Burnap wins best actor in leading role in play for The Inheritance

Interestingly, she is the only female actor in two-part play ‘The Inheritance’. She told Variety in March 2020, “I think to myself, ‘Now what’s going to happen to me?’ This may be the end of me. Suppose somebody asks me to do eight shows a week, what am I going to say? It’s hard to imagine at this point!”

The holder of the oldest-winner record was Cicely Tyson earlier. 

Tyson passed away in January at the age of 96. She had won a Tony for best actress in a play in 2013, at 88, for her role in ‘The Trip to Bountiful’.