Won Broadway's 2000 Tony Award as Best Actor (Musical) for a revival of Cole Porter 's "Kiss Me, Kate." He has been Tony-nominated three other times: twice as Best Actor (Musical), in 1998 for portraying Colehouse Walker in "Ragtime" and in 2003 for playing the Cervantes/Don Quixote character in a revival of "Man of La Mancha;" and once as Best Actor (Play), in 2001 for August Wilson 's "King Hedley II."Was nominated for a 1998 Tony for "Best Actor in a Musical" for his portrayal of "Coalhouse Walker" opposite Audra McDonald .Added "Stokes" to his name because there were too many Brian Mitchells running around. Stokes is his mother's maiden name.Began taking piano lessons at age six.He found work in the mid to late 1970s with the Twelfth Night Repertory Company as both an actor and resident composer.Was a regular cast member on the medical drama series "Trapper John, M.D." with Pernell Roberts as a cocky intern. He also composed the musical scores for some of the show's episodes.Mitchell's ethnic background is German, Scottish, African, and Native American.Trained and first acted at the San Diego Junior Theater, making his debut in a production of "Godspell" in 1974 at the Old Globe.Born in Seattle, he grew up the youngest of four children in Navy bases in Guam and the Philippines. His father George, a former Tuskegee airman during WWII, was an electronics engineer; mother Lillian Stokes a policewoman and school administrator.