He has twice won the Tony Award for Best Featured (Supporting) Actor in a Play, in 1975 and 2002, and twice been nominated for Best Leading Actor in a Play, in 1978 and 2004.

Early in his career he was best known for his success in the title role of Dracula in the Broadway production designed by Edward Gorey, and a film version derived from that production. His flowing silk clothes and youthful appearance were a key point in the transformation of the vampire from the original novel's coarse and bestial monster as portrayed by Nosferatu to the sleek sexy vampires of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. He was persuaded to participate in a film of the Dracula story. Upon his last day of shooting, Langella reports that he hung the cloak on costume rack firmly knowing he could never pick it up again for fear of being typecast.

For decades afterward, he largely stayed away from film in order to pursue serious theatre; however, later years have seen more film and television work having found a niche; he made a memorable three-episode appearance on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as the devious Jaro Essa, and also appeared in a 2003 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and as a villainous pirate in the summer release 'Cutthroat Island'. He more recently appeared in Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005) as network honcho William S. Paley. He will next appear in Superman Returns (2006).

He is a brother of the Alpha Chi Rho fraternity and bears a striking resemblance to Warren G. Harding.