American actor
Tom Aldredge |
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| Born | (1928-02-28)February 28, 1928
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| Died | July 22, 2011(2011-07-22) (aged 83)
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| Resting place | Davids Cemetery, Kettering, Ohio |
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| Occupation | Actor |
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| Years active | 1961–2011 |
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Thomas Ernest Aldredge (February 28, 1928 – July 22, 2011) was an American television, film and stage actor.
He won a Daytime Emmy Award for playing the role of Shakespeare in Henry Winkler Meets William Shakespeare (1978). His Broadway stage career spanned five decades, including five Tony Award nominations. He played both the Narrator and the Mysterious Man in the original Broadway cast of Into the Woods. He also appeared on television in programs including Ryan's Hope, Damages, and Boardwalk Empire, with a notable role as Hugh De Angelis, Tony Soprano’s father-in-law, on The Sopranos.
Life and career
Aldredge was born in Dayton, Ohio, the son of Lucienne Juliet (née Marcillat) and William Joseph Aldredge, a colonel in the United States Army Air Corps.[1] He originally planned to become a lawyer and was a Pre-Law student at the University of Dayton in the late 1940s. In 1947 he decided to pursue a career as an actor after attending a performance of the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire.[2]
Aldredge carved out a respected career on the Broadway stage that spanned five decades, garnering five Tony Award nominations. He made his Broadway debut as Danny in the 1959 musical The Nervous Set. In 1972 he won a Drama Desk Award for his portrayal of Ozzie, the father of a blinded Vietnam veteran, in David Rabe's Sticks and Bones. He played Henry VIII's fool, Will Sommers, in Richard Rodgers' penultimate musical Rex in 1976. He originated the role of Norman Thayer Jr. in On Golden Pond in 1978, earning a Drama Desk Award nomination. His best-known role, however, was that of the Narrator/Mysterious Man in Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Into the Woods, a role he originated on Broadway and later repeated in the PBS American Playhouse production and the 1997 tenth anniversary concert. He also created the role of Doctor Tambourri in another Sondheim/Lapine collaboration, Passion.
He was part of the 1997 all-star revival of Inherit the Wind produced by Tony Randall, playing Rev. Brown in an ensemble that also included George C. Scott, Charles Durning, and Anthony Heald.
In 1960 Theodore Flicker founded a professional Off-Broadway coffee house theater, The Premise at 154 Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village. He recruited Tom Aldredge along with Joan Darling, George Segal and Dolores Welber as the initial improvisational cast fielding and reacting to suggestions from their audience.[3]
He had a 50-year-long career working as a character actor on television and film. He won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1978 for his portrayal of William Shakespeare in the episode Henry Winkler Meets William Shakespeare on the program The CBS Festival of Lively Arts for Young People. His best-known television role was that of Tony Soprano's father-in-law, Hugh De Angelis, on the HBO series The Sopranos.
Personal life
He was married to stage and screen costume designer Theoni V. Aldredge from 1953 until her death on January 21, 2011.[2]
Death
Aldredge died July 22, 2011, under hospice in Tampa, Florida from lymphoma. He was 83 years old.[2][4]
Aldredge died during the filming of Boardwalk Empire episode "Two Boats and a Lifeguard", in which his character also died.
