NEW YORK (AP) — As an actor, Bob received a Tony Award nomination for his first run of “A Chorus Line,” played Tony Soprano’s family doctor, and helped found and lead the influential Off-Broadway troupe MCC Theatre. LuPone has been dead for nearly 40 years. he was 76 years old.
LuPone, the brother of Broadway icon Patti LuPone, died Saturday after a three-year battle with pancreatic cancer, according to Matt Ross Public Relations.
“The MCC theater community is our beloved and unique inspirational partner and colleague who has lived fearlessly, with great curiosity, humor, an endless passion for connection and a lot of heart. , and mourn the loss of our dear friend Bob Lupon. We will miss him deeply and always,” the company said in a statement.
LuPone’s first professional job was with the ensemble in the 1966 Westbury Music Fair production of The Pajama Game starring Liza Minnelli. He made his Broadway debut in Noel Coward’s ‘Sweet Potatoes’ in 1968, before appearing in ‘Minnie’s Boys’, ‘The Rothschilds’ and ‘The Magic Show’.
LuPone was originally cast as Al in “A Chorus Line,” but persuaded creator and director Michael Bennett to play Zack after the original actor left. LuPone was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor.
Betty Buckley tweeted: “My heartfelt condolences to the LuPone family.
Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1946, LuPon graduated from the Juilliard School in 1968 with a BA in Dance.
He was teaching an acting class at New York University when one of his students was Bernie Telsey. Together they helped form The Manhattan Class Company (now he is known as MCC Theater) in 1986.
LuPone, Telsey and third co-artistic director Will Cantler shape MCC into a theatrical powerhouse with ‘Frozen’, ‘Reasons to be Pretty’, ‘Hand to God’, ‘School Girls’ and more produced a production for Broadway. Or African Mean Girls Play,” “Snow Geese,” “The Other Place,” and the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Wit.”
In addition to serving as co-artistic director of MCC, LuPone also worked as an actor, appearing on Broadway in “A View from the Bridge,” “True West,” and “A Thousand Clowns.” He appeared at his Chicago premiere of Sam Shepard’s “The Tooth of Crime,” and on television he appeared in “Sex and the City,” “Guiding Light,” and “All My Children,” and daytime he won an Emmy Award. Nominated.
He played Dr. Bruce Cusamano on “The Sopranos” and was teased by neighborhood gangster Tony Soprano and nicknamed “The Coos.” In one of his memorable episodes, Tony brought Couse a sealed box and asked him to hold it for a while without telling his nervous neighbor that the package was full of sand. joke with
He also served as Director of the Master’s Theater Program at The New School for Drama from 2005 to 2011 and was Chairman of the Board of Directors of ART/New York.
LuPone is survived by his wife, Virginia. his son, Orlando; Sister, Patty. and his brother, William.
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