Tony Lo Bianco

Tony Lo Bianco
Lo Bianco (left) with Don Meredith in Police Story, 1975.
Born (1936-10-19) October 19, 1936
Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.
Nationality American
Years active 1951-present
Spouse(s) Alyse Best Muldoon (2015-present)
Elizabeth Fitzpatrick (2002-2008) (divorced)
Dora Landey (1964-1999) (divorced) (3 children)

Tony Lo Bianco (born October 19, 1936) is an American actor of film, stage, and television, best known for his roles in crime films like The French Connection and The Seven-Ups. He has had numerous guest and starring roles in television dramas. A lifelong member of The Actors Studio and the co-founder of the Triangle Theatre, he is an Obie Award recipient and a Tony Award nominee.

Life and career

Lo Bianco was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of a housewife mother and a taxi driver father.[1][2] He is known for his tough guy roles in the cult films The Honeymoon Killers, God Told Me To, and The French Connection. Lo Bianco was a Golden Gloves boxer and also founded the Triangle Theatre in 1963, serving as its artistic director for six years and collaborating with lighting designer Jules Fisher, playwright Jason Miller and actor Roy Scheider.[3] Lo Bianco won an off-Broadway Obie award for Yanks-3, Detroit-0, Top of the Seventh. Most notably, Lo Bianco was nominated for a Tony for his portrayal of Eddie Carbone in Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge.[4] He also won the 1983 Outer Critics Circle Award for this performance.[5]

Lo Bianco first portrayed the larger-than-life 1934–1945 mayor of New York City Fiorello H. La Guardia in the one-man show Hizzoner!, written in 1984 by Paul Shyre. The play closed in 1989 after 12 Broadway performances.[6]

Lo Bianco continued his work on the life of LaGuardia in a revised[6] revival of the play in 2008, titled LaGuardia.[7] His third incantation of the mayor's life that had a limited run off Broadway in October 2012, titled The Little Flower.[8] Lo Bianco has been constantly rewriting the play, which he purchased from Shyre's estate, and he views it as "a vehicle to express my concerns for the public and the political mess that we're in, which we continue to be in I think, and try to relate answers to failure." He performed it in Moscow shortly before the fall of the Soviet Union, and in 2015 was scheduled to perform it in Italy.[6]

Lo Bianco was a regular in Joseph Wambaugh's TV series Police Story in the mid '70s, opposite actors Don Meredith and Chuck Connors.

A New York Times profile in 2015 reported that Lo Bianco was at work on a one-man show playing himself and a film script about his early life.[6]

Personal life

Lo Bianco, an Italian American,[9] was the National Spokesperson for the Order Sons of Italy in America.[10] His humanitarian efforts have earned multiple awards, including Man of the Year for Outstanding Contributions to the Italian-American Community from the Police Society of New Jersey; a Man of the Year Award from the State of New Jersey Senate; a Lifetime Entertainment Award from the Columbus Day Parade Committee; the 1997 Golden Lion Award; Humanitarian Award of the Boys' Town of Italy.[11]

Lo Bianco tends to be politically conservative, though he distrusts political labeling as "too simplistic" and "an escape from responsibility".[6] In October 2014, he opposed the Metropolitan Opera's decision to stage the controversial play The Death of Klinghoffer, which he described as "outrageous" because it "tries to justify the killing of a helpless man in a wheelchair because he happens to be Jewish".[12]

Lo Bianco was married from 1964 until 1984 to Dora Landey. They had three daughters. He was married to Elizabeth Fitzpatrick from 2002 until 2008. He married his current wife, Alyse Best Muldoon, in June 2015.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

  1. ↑ Search Results
  2. ↑ http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/BWW-Interview-Tony-Lo-Bianco-Creating-Magic-with-THE-LITTLE-FLOWER-20130313?PageSpeed=noscript
  3. ↑ http://tonylobianco.com/biography
  4. ↑ http://ibdb.com/person.php?id=23993
  5. ↑ https://pro.imdb.com/name/nm0516215/bio
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Harney, John (5 May 2015). "An Actor Takes His Portrayal of La Guardia Far Beyond Broadway". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
  7. ↑ http://iaonevoice.blogspot.com/2008/11/tony-lo-bianco-is-laguardia.html
  8. ↑ http://tonylobianco.com/the-little-flower
  9. ↑ The Engagement Ring Archived 2007-05-19 at the Wayback Machine.
  10. ↑ Prisoners Among Us - Italian-American Identity & World War II
  11. ↑ Program, White Barn Theatre production of THE CONFESSION OF MANY STRANGERS, 1997
  12. ↑ Brown, Lauretta (29 October 2014). "Veteran Actor Tony Lo Bianco Condemns 'The Death of Klinghoffer'". CNS.com. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
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